BUY CHEAP AND SELL EXPENSIVE

In the beginning those rather natty scarves in the colours of the SA flag and sported by most of the South African delegates SA to the Davos World Economic Forum, may have been a good idea. Team building and identity signalling and that sort of thing. These days, however, the wearer of this scarf is likely to be a mendicant, eager to spin a story and hold out an upturned palm. “The Saffers are here, hide your wallet” will be the whisper round the room. Frankly, Davos may have somewhat lost its cachet compared to the days when it was mainly a gathering of the rich and famous swapping stories about how terribly nice some of the poor people turn out to be. President Cyril did not attend in person this year, but nevertheless delivered an online speech in which he whined about how selfishly the rich countries were behaving. It would be interesting to learn what the audience numbers for that presentation reached. Since then, PC has, without any trace of embarrassment or shame also asked for private local money to help with funding the vaccination program. Unsurprisingly this is quickly becoming a confused mess which includes forgetting to shut the door of a fridge being used to store temperature-critical doses. And now a strange nationalism is creeping into the vaccination debates where allegedly more virulent and transmissible variants of the nasty bug are attributed to various countries. South Africa included. A few weeks ago, Tidemarks lamented the apparent dearth of truly knowledgeable and unconflicted people in the matter of the Covid-19 pandemic. Seemingly everyone has an agenda or a position to promote. Suddenly, some seemingly neutral true experts are beginning to put up their hands and for me at least, much of the confusion, propaganda and ignorance is being replaced with credible facts. It will still take a long time to displace the entrenched “accepted wisdom” so eagerly promoted by ignorant and power-drunk functionaries. Unfortunately, politics and racism has now become woven into the fabric of official guidelines and response to this new respiratory tract viral infection. Worse is that various regulations have allowed racketeering to flourish and there is considerable resistance to lifting even the most senseless restrictions like the closing of schools, the ban of liquor sales and the use of beaches. It was really refreshing and nostalgic to attend an online investment meeting this week. To hear the careful arguments about the painstaking search for value among the companies listed on the JSE was wonderful. Copious ingenuity and smart thinking and hard work was evident. Integrity is still a thing. One had quite forgotten these techniques in a world seemingly overrun with blatant dishonesty and corruption in the handling of other people’s money. It is terrifying to contemplate what the National Budget due in a few weeks has in mind for savings like investing in shares. Consider that for more than a decade now every single financial flow related to share ownership already attracts a tax. The sole reason to try and follow the astonishing GameStop share price story from the NYSE is that it is probably quite amusing. In events like this it is often hard to get the truth anyway, as the winners and losers are both reluctant and embarrassed to become known. The lesson as always is to caveat emptor. If you are surprised to learn that short positions have an all but unlimited downside risk (i.e. you and your grandchildren can lose everything) you really should not be playing. There will undoubtedly be little pockets of fanaticism trying to whip up support for the Sharks in tomorrow’s Currie Cup Final but the absence of the opinion of the man at the end of numerous bars around the province tonight will put a damper on events. He can always be counted on for a pithy comment that raises the standard of discussion, at least until the next round. But since none of these components are allowed at present, the best we can hope for is that the power stays on. James Greener Friday 29th January 2021