Insights categories - Investment insights

Investment insights

Our unwavering commitment to the same investment philosophy, through turmoil and triumph over four decades of investing, is what makes us different. Here we offer some insight into how we think about investing and our investment process.

Articles in "Investment insights"

Insights categories - Investment insights

Trends shaping the future of investment management

By Jithen Pillay on 12 Apr 2024

Listening time: 42 min

The commonly accepted wisdom is that if we want a glimpse into the future of South Africa’s financial services sector, we should take a look at the United...

Insights categories - Investment insights

How to be a little less wrong – with James Aitken

By Duncan Artus on 16 Nov 2023

Listening time: 56 mins

When it comes to investing, marginal improvements can make a significant difference to investment returns over time. In conversation with Allan Gray’s chief...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Looking to the long term

By Mahesh Cooper on 16 Nov 2023

Reading time: 7 mins

Turning 50 is an incredible milestone for any business. Over the last five decades, South Africa has experienced immense political, economic and societal...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Personal reflections on what makes a great asset manager over the long term

By Duncan Artus on 16 Nov 2023

Reading time: 12 mins

Given that we are in our 50th year of existence, Duncan Artus, who has been working at Allan Gray for over 22 years, reflects on what he believes makes a gre...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Investment lessons from the Springboks

By Braam Visser on 11 Sep 2023

Reading time: 7 mins

With the Springboks having successfully kicked off their Rugby World Cup title defence campaign in France, Braam Visser draws some interesting parallels...

Insights categories - Investment insights

The power of 1%

By Radhesen Naidoo on 04 May 2023

Reading time: 10 mins

As we celebrate our 50 th anniversary, we are mindful of the collective efforts of teams, past and present, in building our long-term track record....

Insights categories - Investment insights

Four contrarian investment questions to ask in 2023

By Jacques Plaut on 22 Feb 2023

Reading time: 6 mins

Jacques Plaut, portfolio manager, shares the four questions investors should consider this year and discusses how the Allan Gray Balanced Fund is positioned ...

Insights categories - Investment insights

The importance of alignment

By Saleem Sonday on 27 Oct 2022

Reading time: 6 mins

We believe that the price you pay an investment manager for managing your money should be aligned with the value they create for you over the long term. Sale...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Which currency is a good store of value?

By Jacques Plaut on 20 Oct 2022

Reading time: 3 mins

As the US dollar continues to make substantial gains on global currencies, Jacques Plaut, portfolio manager, discusses the factors investors typically consid...

Insights categories - Investment insights

How do you cater for extreme events when constructing resilient multi-asset portfolios?

By Gladness Rupare and Martine Damonse on 28 Jul 2022

Reading time: 11 mins

Gladness Rupare and Martine Damonse, who hosted panels with members of the Allan Gray and Orbis Investment teams, capture some of key questions and insights,...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Podcast: How to think about investing in an energy-short and volatile world

By Tamryn Lamb on 08 Jun 2022

Listening time: 61 mins

From the global technology stock sell-off and rising inflation, to the war in Ukraine exacerbating a global energy crisis, investors are tasked with navigati...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Is there value in our investment style?

By Grant Pitt on 26 Apr 2022

Reading time: 10 mins

Understanding your investment manager’s style may give you a deeper appreciation of how they will perform in different circumstances, and therefore help you...

Insights categories - Investment insights

How to invest to be crisis ready

By Stephan Bernard on 01 Apr 2022

Reading time: 6 mins

COVID-19 has driven home an important life lesson: Expect (and plan for) the unexpected. When it comes to your finances, this means balancing the need to hav...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Key questions that advisers and clients are asking

By Tamryn Lamb on 11 Oct 2021

Reading time: 23 mins

Uncertainty is a fact of life, and ever present in investing. There are times, however, when uncertainty seems to dominate sentiment and news flow – and...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Orbis: Crypto – currency or collectible?

By Shane Woldendorp on 17 Jun 2021

Reading time: 8 mins

It is widely accepted that distributed ledger technology, such as blockchain, has enormous potential. Like many new technologies it could be truly...

Insights categories - Investment insights

In pursuit of value

By Jacques Plaut on 26 May 2021

Reading time: 10 mins

The current disparity in markets, both locally and offshore, is creating an opportunity for bottom-up investors like ourselves to generate meaningful returns...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Investment lessons from a pandemic year

By on 22 Apr 2021

Reading time: 13 mins

A year on from our stringent Level 5 lockdown, much of 2020 seems surreal. While there are many aspects we may prefer to forget, reflection reveals valuable...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Podcast: A candid conversation with Orbis' Adam Karr

By Adam R. Karr on 09 Mar 2021

Listening time: 1 hr 15 mins

Taking a long-term, contrarian approach has influenced every aspect of how we invest and do business at Orbis and Allan Gray. From the way the firms are...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Predicting the unpredictable

By Braam Visser on 17 Nov 2020

Reading time: 5 mins

“It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.” Mark Twain

Insights categories - Investment insights

Orbis: The power of perspective

By Povilas Dapkevicius on 09 Nov 2020

Reading time: 1 min

It is easy to get caught up in the noise of short-term events like politics. What we have learned over the past 30 years is that a long-term view often revea...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Is your trust in your investment manager well placed?

By Nomi Bodlani and Tamryn Lamb on 16 Oct 2020

Reading time: 12 mins

It has been a volatile six months in the markets, following a five-year period of disappointing equity returns. At times like these, it is understandable for...

Insights categories - Investment insights

The uncertainty spectrum

Reading time: 1 min

Wildfires in Australia, mass protests in the US, a global pandemic. These are just some of the events that have roiled markets this year, leaving investors...

Insights categories - Investment insights

The framing fallacy

By Rory Kutisker-Jacobson on 01 Jul 2020

Reading time: 12 mins

We humans are fallible creatures who suffer from several cognitive biases. Using the COVID-19 pandemic as an example, Rory Kutisker-Jacobson highlights how...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Part 4: How to invest to be crisis ready

By Stephan Bernard on 09 Jun 2020

Reading time: 7 mins

COVID-19 has driven home an important life lesson: Expect (and plan for) the unexpected. When it comes to your finances, this means balancing the need to hav...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Will growth stocks beat value stocks forever?

By Graeme Shaw on 24 Apr 2020

Reading time: 1 min

Markets move up and down and investment styles move in and out of favour. With value investing being on the wrong side of the trend for around 12 years,...

Insights categories - Investment insights

The money bubble

By Claire Gallagher on 12 Feb 2020

Viewing time: 1 min

There’s something magical about bubbles. Formed of water, soap and a breath of air they seem incredible. In financial markets, bubbles are a lot less revered...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Allan's legacy: Investment thinking

By Allan Gray on 29 Jan 2020

Reading time: 19 mins

Our founder, Allan Gray, developed the distinctive investment philosophy that has been in place since Allan Gray and Orbis were founded. He also had an...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Is the US headed for a market meltdown?

By Vuyo Nogantshi on 11 Nov 2019

Reading time: 4 mins

As the S&P 500 and Nasdaq seem set to continue to record new highs, some market analysts believe that the current raging US bull market may be in for a nasty...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Mindful of risk

By Nadia van der Merwe on 28 Oct 2019

Reading time: 9 mins

Uncertain times may cause investors to shy away from risk. While it is important to be mindful of risk and understand the risks you are taking on when...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Are you comfortable swimming against the tide?

By Radhesen Naidoo on 28 Oct 2019

Reading time: 7 mins

Allan Gray and our offshore partner, Orbis, describe our shared investment approach as “contrarian”. “Contrarian” is usually defined as “opposing or rejectin...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Will Value ever be fashionable again?

By Henry Allen on 25 Oct 2019

Viewing time: 3 mins 20 seconds

Fashion trends tend to move in cycles. Anyone who lived through the 1990s and kept wearing their Doc Martens and bright neon colours would have spent 25 year...

Insights categories - Investment insights

A matter of index

By Tebogo Bore on 07 Aug 2019

Reading time: 4 mins

When evaluating an investment, performance is often top of mind for would-be investors. The next consideration should be how well the investment stacks up...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Managing risk through our investment process

By Nathan Wridgway on 10 Jul 2019

Reading time: 3 mins

Our primary objective is to build long-term wealth for our clients. To do this, we balance investment performance with the risk incurred in generating this...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Is your portfolio overly concentrated?

By Vuyo Nogantshi on 30 May 2019

Reading time: 6 mins

South Africa has a relatively small equities market with a handful of dominant shares, spread across a few sectors, which are available to invest in. This...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Investing in the rise of electric vehicles

By Sibabalwe Kasi on 10 May 2019

Reading time: 5 mins

The consumer appeal of electric vehicles has increased over the last 10 years, with manufacturers in a race to ramp up development and production of...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Our approach to portfolio construction

By Stephan Bernard on 08 Apr 2019

Reading time: 3 mins

Our investment approach is simple: We do careful research to identify good value businesses, buy shares when they trade below our assessment of fair value an...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Orbis: Think like a business owner

By Rob Perrone on 02 Nov 2018

Reading time: 5 mins

Say you own a small stake in a company. Every day, one of your partners tells you what he thinks the business is worth, and he offers to buy your stake or se...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Skilled Investing: Separating the wheat from the chaff

By Vuyo Nogantshi on 17 Oct 2018

Reading time: 7 mins

The difference between skilled and lucky investment managers is that over extended periods, skill should prevail in delivering good investment outcomes, whil...

Insights categories - Investment insights

How to spot investment red flags

By Duncan Artus on 03 Aug 2018

Reading time: 5 mins

South Africa has been rocked by a series of corporate scandals in recent years that have sent the share prices of former blue-chip companies like Steinhoff a...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Do you enjoy pain? How about the platinum industry?

By Andrew Lapping on 30 Jun 2018

Reading time: 9 mins

Over the past two years we have invested in certain platinum mining companies. These investments have performed extremely poorly. Andrew Lapping looks back a...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Finding opportunity in the volatility

By Andrew Lapping on 19 Apr 2018

Reading time: 5 mins

The first quarter proved to be a difficult one with the Allan Gray Equity, Balanced and Stable Funds all delivering negative returns. The most significant...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Long-term investing should have nothing to fear from the Viceroys

By Leonard Krüger on 19 Apr 2018

Reading time: 7 mins

Activist short sellers have been a prominent feature in stock markets for many years. It’s easy to get caught up in the hype when their ideas hit the news....

Insights categories - Investment insights

Study reveals reliance on recent performance in picking unit trusts

By Shaheed Mohamed on 09 Mar 2018

Reading time: 3 mins

Shaheed Mohamed surveyed more than 400 financial advisers in South Africa to identify attributes that financial advisers in South Africa consider when...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Investment lessons from 2017: be patient and trust your analysis

By Andrew Lapping on 01 Feb 2018

Reading time: 5 mins

Separating oneself from the noise is tricky. There is an enormous amount of information out there; you can listen to experts on television, read newspapers,...

Insights categories - Investment insights

The value of bitcoin

By Jacques Plaut on 24 Oct 2017

Reading time: 10 mins

The total market value of all bitcoins is US$80bn, which is more than the value of Richemont and triple the value of Anglo American. It is the topic on which...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Corporate governance and shareholder responsibility

By Richard Carter on 12 Jun 2017

Listening time: 10 mins

What is the role of a shareholder and where does their responsibility end? Listen to this 10 minute interview with Andile Khumalo on PowerFM as Richard Carte...

Insights categories - Investment insights

What to focus on when choosing shares and other assets

By Duncan Artus on 18 Nov 2016

Listening time: 15 mins

How do you distinguish a good investment from a lemon? And how do you create a well-diversified portfolio? Listen to this 15-minute interview on PowerFM...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Did we get lucky?

By Simon Raubenheimer on 14 Nov 2016

Reading time: 5 mins

The Allan Gray domestic equity strategy delivered returns of 17.2% for the 12 months ending September 2016, after having subtracted all fees and costs. The...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Orbis: We welcome the rise of passive investing

By Ben Preston and Rob Perrone on 11 Nov 2016

Reading time: 6 mins

The Wall Street Journal ran a series this month commemorating the rise of passive investing. The articles make ‘the case for the triumph of passive’, calling...

Insights categories - Investment insights

How to select an investment manager

By Mahesh Cooper on 19 Oct 2016

Reading time: 3 mins

Focusing on past performance is often the first and only port of call for investors when trying to differentiate between investment managers. But there is no...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Nuanced numbers and valuation pitfalls

By Leonard Krüger on 30 Sep 2016

Reading time: 8 mins

We pick shares for client portfolios following a rigorous, bottom-up, fundamental research process. This involves, among many other considerations, the caref...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Investing tutorial: Our approach to value investing

By Wanita Isaacs on 30 Jun 2016

Reading time: 8 mins

Our investment philosophy and process is so much part of our DNA that we forget not all clients are familiar with what we actually do and how we make our...

Insights categories - Investment insights

How things change

By Andrew Lapping on 31 Dec 2015

Reading time: 13 mins

Global mining businesses have had a remarkable fall from grace over the past 18 months. Talk has moved from a 20-year supercycle and commodity shortages to...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Asset allocation: Top down, or bottom up?

By Mahesh Cooper on 07 Dec 2015

Reading time: 4 mins

Within a multi-asset class balanced portfolio , there are different ways to manage the asset allocation. Some managers prefer to follow a ‘top-down’ strategy...

Insights categories - Investment insights

SA mining and the sunk cost fallacy

By Ian Liddle on 30 Sep 2015

Reading time: 10 mins

Ian Liddle discusses why the challenges in South African mining provide an interesting case study of the 'sunk cost fallacy', a behavioural bias that sees us...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Avoiding the overwhelming bias for action

By Dr Suhas Nayak on 30 Jul 2015

Reading time: 8 mins

In life, we have a natural bias for action. From a young age, we are told stories about heroes who overcame great odds and many setbacks to do something grea...

Insights categories - Investment insights

What is a PE ratio?

By Wanita Isaacs on 30 Jun 2015

Reading time: 4 mins

Central to our investment philosophy at Allan Gray is buying shares that the market has priced below what we believe they are worth. We then sell these share...

Insights categories - Investment insights

The upside to downside protection

By Shaun Duddy on 30 Jun 2015

Reading time: 10 mins

Warren Buffet famously said that there are two rules when investing, 'Rule No.1: Never lose money, Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.' Shaun Duddy discusses...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Building an investment team that thrives (not just survives) on generational transition

By Ian Liddle on 31 Dec 2012

Reading time: 8 mins

We aim to provide you with benchmark-beating investment returns for at least the next 100 years. But we can succeed in this ambition only for as long as we a...

Insights categories - Investment insights

It is the price you pay that counts, not the headlines

By Andrew Lapping on 31 Dec 2011

Reading time: 9 mins

People enjoy stories; they are fun. This is true in all facets of life, including investing. Investors often have stories to tell about individual equities,...

Insights categories - Investment insights

The risk that matters

By Delphine Govender on 30 Jun 2011

Reading time: 9 mins

Discussions about investing are incomplete without including the topic of risk. Delphine Govender elaborates, focusing on the most important risk in investin...

Insights categories - Investment insights

Happy equilibrium

By Duncan Artus on 30 Sep 2010

Reading time: 7 mins

Duncan Artus discusses the implications of the growth in the local asset management industry being focused on asset managers who variously describe their...

Insights categories - Investment insights

The role dividends play in generating returns

By Chris du Toit on 31 Mar 2010

Reading time: 6 mins

In the previous edition of the Quarterly Commentary, Richard Carter and Roenica Botha demonstrated the importance of reinvesting income distributions from un...

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