On Tuesday the Top40 was trading at the high for 2017 (and again on Wednesday) and when I tweeted the fact the replies were mostly about how the market is wrong. Look at unemployment, Guptas, recession, down grades etc. they all shouted. None of the is wrong, but is it relevant?
Firstly we've had a three year +/-30% correction in time. But as importantly the market is not the local economy with listed companies earning a lot beyond our boarders and mostly the better stocks in the index as loser are tossed out. Lastly and perhaps most importantly the market looks head 12-18 months. With rates coming down, Zuma out in the new year and his preferred choice struggling 2018 looks way better for South Africa than many a recent year.
So if we're looking to the seed half of 2018 then the future s brighter, and sure this may be relative, but brighter surely means higher for the market?
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Last week I spoke about the price war in ETFs. But do fees still matter?
For the passive market fees are surely at point where they almost don't matter. Sure they can go lower but we're talking most local ETFs now nicely below a 0.5% TER ratio while the offshore are slightly above 0.5%. Don't get me wrong, every 0.1% makes a difference, but on R100k that's R100. Not nothing but not the difference between retiring or not.
I still look at VOO with a TER of 0.04%, but we're never going to get that low (they're a mutual company and owned by the fund holders and have massive scale we'll never see in South Africa).
Admin fees, once a silent killer have also disappeared at some brokers where a simple ETF or tax-free account has zero admin fees.
Transaction fees are still a bug bear at some places with minimums that mean you need to trade some R18k-R30k per hit to get the effective rate.
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With the new issue of ETFs from Satrix and Sygnia taking over the DB x-trackers (to be branded Itrax) we're seeing some price wars forming. Very good news for consumers, but some buts.
My strategy will be where I buy an ETF that now has a cheaper alternative I will start buying the cheaper immediately. Switching will take longer.
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We've seen two small stock listing recently that were trying to attach themselves onto the hype of a hot sector. Gold Brands in the quick service restaurant (QSR) space and Pembury in education. Both have failed and both teach us an important lesson in the new stars that are worth investing in.
It is about quality, it always is. Sure a raging bull market will lift all stocks as we saw way back in 2005-8 listing boom. But in a more subdued market, a more skeptical market, quality matters. Cash matters, brands matter, management matters. It all really matters. It is not enough to just be in the right space.
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JSEDirect is an independent broadcast and is not endorsed or affiliated with, nor has it been authorised, or otherwise approved by JSE Limited. The views expressed in this programme are solely those of the presenter, and do not necessarily reflect the views of JSE Limited.