JSEDirect with Simon Brown

Simon Shares MTN (JSE code: MTN). Woe is MTN, another $2billion for tax evasion. Is it a shake down? Maybe, maybe not. Truthfully we have no idea and it does cover the same period (2007-2015) of their previous Nigerian fine. I long ago sold my MTN shares and no interest in buying more. Steinhoff (JSE code: SNH) ex directors Jooste and La Grange have now both appeared before parliament and both bla...

The SAFcoin saga continues ( my initial stay story here  and the  follow up with legal threats here ), I hope this will be the last. Neil Ferreira finally offered to answer my concerns and I sent him a list of 43 questions Sunday afternoon and he returned them on Wednesday, you can find the questions and answers  here . The tl;dr version; While SAFcoin did answer a lot of my questions and clear up...

Simon Shares Safcoin finally responded to my caution around their 'coin'  with a lawyer's letter. You can read our response and see the letter  here . One possible correction is the source of the coins. I stated that Neil Ferreira had created them via  cryptocoincreator.com  and he Tweeted me a link to Etherscan.io for Safcoin. Not sure if that means it wasn't created by cryptocoincreator.com but...

Subscriber to our feed  here Subscribe or review us in  iTunes Simon Shares ZAR almost 15.50 early Monday morning on Lira rout. Improve to around 14.10 but now back at 14.60. Chart of the Top40 shows our market been moving sideways since February between 49,000 and 52,000. fairly small range that has made ALSI futures trend trading hard, very hard. [caption id="attachment_8270" align="aligncenter"...

Subscriber to our feed  here Subscribe or review us in  iTunes Simon Shares Fidelity in the US is no offering two of its index funds at zero fee . They do this partly perhaps as a loss leader but also they can generate revenue via script lending. I think we'll see negative fee funds (they'll pay you to hold) in time and even locally in South Africa zero fee funds are possible in time. Local July t...

Subscriber to our feed  here Subscribe or review us in  iTunes Simon Shares Jacques Magliolo and Business Consultants International (BCI) . Two people have recently emailed me about this gent and his company specifically about the FSB warning against him and the company in September 2017. One emailer has already lost money the other wanted to know if he should worry about this as he wanted to inve...

Subscriber to our feed  here Subscribe or review us in  iTunes Simon Shares Steinhoff (JSE code: SNH) almost 400c then under 200c. If you're in SNH understand you are trading it, this is not a recovery story. Nothing wrong with trading but rule 1 is stop loss and rule 2 is profit. Don't forget either. Blue Label (JSE code: BLU) back below 900c. I have no idea what the story is here regarding the c...

Subscriber to our feed  here Subscribe or review us in  iTunes Simon Shares I was at the Mandela Lecture on Tuesday at which Barack Obama spoke. A special day. A truly talented orator and a speech well worth watching . Famous Brands* (JSE code: FBR) CFO quits. Now directors are always quitting, but the CFO when you have indigestion from a over priced UK burger? JSE (JSE code: JSE) trading update i...

Download the audio file  here Sign up for email alerts  as a new show goes live Subscribe or review us in  iTunes Simon Shares JSE Direct is ten years old. Started 8 July 2008 on Classic FM. Aton out smartens Aveng (JSE code: AEG) and Murray and Roberts (JSE code: MUR) with a 25.4% in Aveng that can effectively block any special resolutions such as a take over. Alternative if the deal between MUR...

Subscriber to our feed  here Subscribe or review us in  iTunes Simon Shares Steinhoff (JSE code: SNH) results = nasty. Aveng (JSE code: AEG) get their money and price falls to 9c. Top40 vs. Rafi. The most tax efficient entities Upcoming events; Investing in BEE Inside the robo advisor Robo advisors are all the rage these days but I wanted to know what's inside the robo so I sat down with Grant Loc...

Subscriber to our feed  here Subscribe or review us in  iTunes . Simon Shares Markets have been falling, and the world has not been ending. Long4Life* (JSE code: L4L) has announced a purchase of Rage for R3.915billion with EBITDA of R360million. That's expensive and as they're issuing new shares for much of the payment also a chunky dilution. Management say the deal is not yet a done deal. Steinho...

Subscriber to our feed  here Subscribe or review us in  iTunes . Simon Shares Basil Read (JSE code: BSR) has filed for business rescue and nobody should be surprised. Blaming government and labour is also weak, construction is a weak industry and only really boomed in the lead up to the world cup in 2010 (not forgetting the price fixing). Of concern was that the stock was not suspended until Monda...

Simon Shares Stor-age (JSE code: SSS) results were totally solid and in a very niche property space that is doing very well. When they listed a few people recommended them to me and I wasn't convinced. Well I was wrong. Sasol* (JSE code: SOL) was one of the first stocks I ever bought and my longest holding in my 'til death do us part' portfolio having first bought it around 1994. A few years ago I...

123 Download the audio file  here Subscriber to our feed  here Sign up for email alerts  as a new show goes live Subscribe or review us in  iTunes . Simon Shares Wildest story of the year. Imbalie (JSE code: ILE) is ditching beauty to become a miner via a reverse listing! Local GDP for Q1 2018 was a shocker at -2.2%. Expected was -0.5% and the number is usually shifted higher over time, but wowzer...

Subscriber to our feed  here Sign up for email alerts  as a new show goes live Subscribe or review us in  iTunes . OUTstanding money: Saving and investing are not the same How to be financially independent with Patrick McKay Finding dividend superstars Upcoming events; JSE Power Hour: How to identify quality stocks How to choose a stock broker First off understand the difference between a stock br...

Subscriber to our feed  here Subscribe or review us in  iTunes . Simon Shares I am traveling again this week so recording on Monday. Consolidated Infrastructure Group (JSE code: CIL) seems to have a life line albeit existing shareholders will be diluted by some 50%. With the issue at 400c and the share below that price no need to follow your rights, just buy in the open market if you want. Upcomin...

Subscriber to our feed  here Sign up for email alerts  as a new show goes live Subscribe or review us in  iTunes . Would you buy it again? Would you buy that share today if you didn't already own it? If not, why not? I'm talking about those dog shares again because we all have them. This week I pose a simple question to solve the problem. Sometimes tech fails. This was one of those weeks, so a sho...

Subscriber to our feed  here Sign up for email alerts  as a new show goes live Subscribe or review us in  iTunes . Simon Shares So a friend has a business that has been beset by fraud and is now bankrupt and is trying to find some new investors. They have no financial statements to show you and no real idea how bankrupt the company is or how bad the fraud was. Do you invest? So why scramble for bu...

  Simon Shares Apple (Nasdaq code: AAPL) results show a maturing company as iPhone sales have decidedly slow. But they're far from down and out with app store sales, accessories etc. doing great and they still have a monster cash pile. Rand under serious pressure trading out at R12.60/US$ after R11.50/US$ in late February. This is in large part due to US$ strength and it does not make me panic and...

Subscriber to our feed  here Sign up for email alerts  as a new show goes live Subscribe or review us in  iTunes . Simon Shares Libstar listing is proceeding and I am not taking part. I do think the market will love it but Google the private equity sellers (Abraaj) lots bad happening their and the company has declared a R800million pre listing dividend - while raising R1.5billion? Consol has pulle...

"Brought to you by Absa ETFs" Simon Shares EOH (JSE code: EOH) under pressure again trading at 5 year lows. The company claims it is because of false allegations published on some news website. CPI in March was 3.8%, a great number but April has both VAT and petrol tax increases so we may have seen a low in CPI for a while. Pallinghurst (JSE code: PGL) issue audited results but they use an auditor...

"Brought to you by Absa ETFs" Simon Shares SARS announces tax must be paid on Bitcoin profits - why is anybody surprised? Sagarmatha (JSE code: SGT) listing on Friday, if they tick all the boxes. Some saying they should not be allowed to list but this fails to understand the role the JSE plays. They are regulatory gate keepers, not quality of profitability gate keepers. Steinhoff (JSE code: SNH) n...

If you secretly hate us but haven't been able to find a different source of financial information, I have some great news! I found a Freakonomics Radio episode that summed up exactly the principles we champion on this show. In this episode, Simon and I take the financial literacy survey. It's only three questions, but understanding their answers will enable you to make great financial decisions. I...

"Brought to you by Absa ETFs" Simon Shares I mentioned last week it had been a negative first quarter for the Top40 and it just continues weaker with the current theory being trade wars. Looking at the charts of the main indices it looks ugly and we're now some 15% off the all-time highs of November. A proper correction that may still go lower and my sense is we're close to the end of the sell off...

"Brought to you by Absa ETFs" Simon Shares Back from holiday and with lots of ideas around what you do and don't like for JSE Direct. That said main comment was not to really change except maybe some experts occasionally on broad topics. Markets falling and Top40 is down some 8% for the year so far. End of the world? Not likely. As always, traders know and obey your stops. Investors know your stoc...