Harmony and Ferrari

Good Morning Voornaam,

Ghost Bites:

For these stories (and an important correction re: the Walmart standby general offer to Massmart shareholders), make sure you read Ghost Bites today. It includes fascinating information ab out the investment vehicle of the Agnelli family, the founders of Fiat.

Russia mobilises

The horrors I learnt about in history are repeating themselves right now in Ukraine. With a Russian mobilisation of troops, the conflict is escalating rather than simmering down. Chris Gilmour feels passionately about this subject and has dedicated his weekly column to the impact of this mobilisation on the strength of the Russian campaign.

Commodities falling like a rock

If you hold a local resources ETF and you haven't checked your portfolio since last we ek, then rather don't. It will be very ugly, as the resources index fell by a whopping 7% on Friday. Yes, 7% in one day!

As TreasuryONE points out, the fear of a global recession was clearly evident in Friday's price action. Things could get worse before they get better. The rand is within touching distance of R18 to the dollar and the pound is at its weakest level against the dollar in 35 years.

Brent Crude has fallen all the way down to below $86 per barrel. Commodity prices suffer the sharpest drops when demand fears kick in, as this impacts the supply-demand balance that drives prices.

Latest podcast

In Episode 94 of Magic Markets, Dino Zuccollo joined us to reflect on what he's seen in the alternative assets industry this year. Predictably, flows have been strong at a time when equity markets have dished out a lot of punishment. With eight prior Magic Markets shows dedicated to learning about the different asset classes at Westbrooke, this was a great way to look back on what we've learnt and what the market is doing.

A decent downturn strategy - help from EasyEquities

In the latest article from the team at EasyEquities, Chuck Saletta offers tips to investors who have taken a beating in the US market. EasyEquities has over 94,000 investors in the American market and seeing this as a long-term endeavour is critical to success. To help you manage the times when the market isn't in your favour, you should read this article.

"Wow, I get all this for free?!?"

Yes, you do. In fact, you always have, even when Ghost Mail started out as a weekly publication and InceConnect was a daily mailer. Now, I'm asking you to spare your coffee money this morning and help others.

The charity shop for the orphanage near my house was robbed on the night before Heritage Day. There's so much to unpack in that situation that it deserves an entire feature article. We can't solve South Africa's problems this morning. What we can do is help Home of Hope, as the shop is a huge part of how they literally feed those kids.

If you have ever thought to yourself that you would happily pay for Ghost Mail, then please put something in the tin here. The world is awful. It becomes even worse when good people do nothing.

Banking details:

You can choose whatever you want as a reference. I'm not interested in being credited with raising the money. If you've ever appreciated a single thing that I've written, then this is the way to show it.

Have a beautiful Monday!