The Preamble

For the background to this series of posts: herehere and here. And the summary:

  1. Small investors have some investing options.
  2. You can invest occasionally in lump sums (the once-off investors) or monthly through debit orders (the monthly investors).
  3. As for things to invest in, I’m a general fan of low-cost equity-index-tracker ETFs (as is Warren Buffett). But there are other possibilities as well.
  4. This series of posts is there to see which would work out well.
  5. Then there are some indicators at the end. Because why not.

A look at the week everyone had:

Once-Off Investors

In pictures:

Week 33 Once-Off Graph

Gold? Goodness gracious. Consistently beaten by a fixed deposit rate for 33 weeks. Shameful.

On the upside – the market correction is still re-correcting itself.

In numbers:

Week 33 Once Off Table

Monthly Investors

In pictures:

Week 33 Monthly Graph

In numbers:

Week 33 Monthly Table

The Indicators

Week 33 The Indicators

Two things:

  • Unemployment dropped slightly.
  • The balance of trade position improved.

That, in itself, is not the most useful of information. Mainly because falling unemployment can be either:

  • People getting more jobs (hurrah), or
  • People deciding to no longer look for jobs, and therefore, falling out of the statistic (less hurrah)

And balance of trade positions are prone to fluctuation.

In probably more important news, the exchange rate is weakening again:

Week 33 ZAR USD exchange rate

There is talk of that being caused by the surprise stimulus announcement from the Bank of Japan – which, ironically enough, can also be used to justify a strengthening of the Rand on the back of the market going a bit more Risk On. What that’s really saying: the market for exchange rates is a curious and fickle thing. In South Africa, it’s driven by foreign speculation and local imports/exports. But the market is so small that there’s no telling which flows might affect it more strongly and/or when.

The Stock Market continues to recover:

Week 33 ALSI

And despite the weakening of the Rand, that recovery is still taking place in real terms:

Week 33 ALSI USD

All in all, I’m feeling a bit vindicated.

The 10 year government bond has remained quite flat:

Week 33 10 year govt bond

Gold and Platinum are dipping back (especially Gold – geezlike):

Week 33 USD Gold Platinum

…but in ZAR terms, it looks less bad on the Platinum front (which is some good news for the Platinum producers):

Week 33 ZAR Gold Platinum

The Oil Price is busily reaching four year lows:

Week 33 USD Crude

…also in ZAR terms:

Week 33 ZAR Crude

Until next week!

Rolling Alpha posts opinions on finance, economics, and the corporate life in general. Follow me on Twitter @RollingAlpha, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/rollingalpha.