PDSNET ARTICLES - AUGUST 2018

The Bull Trend Resumes

A week ago on the 22nd of August, we suggested in an article that the S&P would break up to a new record high above 2872. It has done that emphatically – rising to another record and breaking above the 2900 level last night to close at 2914. We also suggested in that same article that this would cause our blue chip shares to follow suit

Mental Posture

What separates an effective private investor from one who loses money continuously? The difference is what we call “mental posture”. To be a successful private investor you need to have a good mental posture. But what is mental posture? It is your emotional response to the share market in general – and to your shares in particular. What are you feeling? Because how you are feeling will

The Rand Tanks

The rand has collapsed from R13.38 to the US dollar to levels as low as R15.26 – in less than two days. It has subsequently stabilised at around R14.50. South Africans will naturally think that this has been caused by something that the government has done or that President Ramaphosa has said, but in this case they would be mostly wrong. The current weakness in the rand has been caused by a sudden sharp move from risk-on

Woolies Risk and Gearing

Every investment has risk, because without risk there cannot be an inflation-beating return after tax or any real growth. From a fundamental perspective, risk is usually measured in terms of a company’s gearing – how much debt has it got relative to equity? Or in simpler language - how much money have the shareholders got in the business when compared with what outsiders like banks and creditors have in it. A highly indebted

ArcelorMittal - Buying Opportunity?

The steel industry in South Africa is a very important industry because its production supports so many downstream industries and businesses. For this reason, the government has been sympathetic to ArcelorMittal’s call for tariffs on certain steel products which have been systematically dumped on the South African economy by the Chinese. China is the largest steel manufacturer in the world and has traditionally consumed