Market Indicators
- JSE All Share (ALSI) 68,934.0112
- Rand/Euro R 17.00
- Rand/Pound R 20.25
- Rand/US Dollar R 16.63
- Rand/Aus Dollar R 11.62
Risky Business
Shopping for a new car, iPhone or laptop is a relatively straightforward affair. You generally know what you are looking for, you have a budget in mind, and you can set off on your search and narrow down the options quite quickly.
Should any feature of your recent purchase fail to meet expectations there is a clear path to evaluate where your product has failed to deliver. In this case, the provider should hopefully back up their product with a remedy or a replacement. The investment industry does not work like this.
The key distinction is that while the industry offers ‘investment products’ such as unit trusts, retirement funds and the like, it is in fact a service and not a product which investors receive.
In this month’s commentary we take a look at why this is the case and highlight how this affects investment decisions.
