Author: Aaron

  • A question of offshore ins and outs

    Are some South African investors developing an inverse relationship with offshore markets? Could some of us be subject to a strange, contrarian compulsion to get into markets just as the smart money gets out? Or perhaps we ring the changes by coming onshore just as the smart money goes off? The questions are prompted by…

  • Gulf Arabs Bet Theme Park, Cargo Firm Will Temper Next Oil Bust

    Persian Gulf monarchies, flush with record oil revenue, are betting that a $7.5 billion theme park with an indoor ski slope, a $1.2 billion power grid and a $1.2 billion cargo shipper will shield them from the next energy bust. Gulf investors have announced $8 billion of overseas acquisitions in the past 18 months, including…

  • Capital Idea for China’s Wealth

    Americans so love the latest, inexpensive “Made in China” products – cars are coming soon – that Chinese firms are flush with export profits. One might think, however, that those companies could easily export that wealth as well, investing the money made in America back into US companies, as the Japanese and Europeans do. Not…

  • UK property industry calls for urgency on trusts

    UK property industry By Jim Pickard – The ownership of billions of pounds of property will move offshore unless the government urgently introduces Reits (real estate investment trusts), the property industry warned yesterday. The Treasury is keen to introduce a new tax-efficient vehicle for property investors but is adamant that such a system should not lead…

  • Hedge funds in the crosshairs

    Hedge funds have long been viewed as one of the more untouchable areas of the financial markets, and now 30,000 Canadian investors, along with a handful of pension funds, know why: Quite literally, they can’t touch their money. More than $1.2-billion they invested in two domestic hedge fund companies has been frozen by securities regulators…

  • Commodity Funds Can Diversify Portfolio

    NEW YORK — If you own both stock and bond funds, you probably consider yourself well-diversified. But research by Lipper Inc. suggests broad exposure to commodities like gold, oil and copper can go a long way toward rounding out a mutual fund portfolio, as long as you understand the risks. One of the reasons stocks…

  • The Strange Tale of the Bare-Bottomed King

    They say never sell America short and with good reason. Any country whose equity market has been able to crank out 6.8% real returns annually over the past century stands as a formidable obstacle for any speculator willing to bet the “don’t come” line. The odds of winning a long-term wager laid against the U.S.…

  • ‘Now is the time to invest offshore’

    With the rand looking vulnerable, now is the opportune time to invest offshore, even though global markets are experiencing a soft patch, Mark Appleton, chief investment officer at Barnard Jacobs Mellet (BJM) Private Client Services, said in a statement on Monday. According to Appleton, softer international economic indicators have led to a downgrade in expected…

  • U.S. Dollar Gains May Not Be Permanent

    NEW YORK – It may be too soon to call the dollar’s recent rise a full-fledged turnaround. And there may be some in corporate America who are just fine with that. After being beaten and battered for the last few years, the greenback appears to be emerging from its funk by making significant gains in…