The most popular question we get asked is “What should I invest in?” but easily the second most popular question is "Why the name JustOneLap?" The answer is simple, we get JustOneLap at life, and so we can't afford to mess it up. This means being on top of our relationships, careers, health, and of course our money, and that's where we come in. Managing money is really very simple - but we need the knowledge, hence our punch line is "know your money - grow your money".
 
The impact to investors from last week's budget is still trickling in and the latest edition of FinWeek has an excellent cover article about this. In short, retirement annuities (RAs) are suddenly looking attractive - something that sticks in my throat, but if that's where we build funds for retirement, then we have to consider it. The big issue is the new dividend withholding tax at 15% rather than the expected 10%, and the fact that RAs are exempt from this tax. Alternatives would be investing via a CC or private company, but then you will be hit by a much higher capital gains tax. I suspect we may be moving into a new era of investing with the higher taxes on investors and we're planning some webinars around this subject.
 
The past week saw a brilliant webinar by Alwyn Burger - Identifying Trading Ranges. The real power of the video was that he started with a clean chart and then we watched as he added his trend lines and other indicators, continually explaining his thinking. It is a hugely powerful video in which we essentially sat on a trader’s shoulder as he prepared for his trading week ahead.

Coming up

Monday 12th at 8pm - Valuations: EV/EBITDA Model (Theory) 

Thursday 22nd at 1pm - Which chart to use?

Week that was

Identifying Trading Ranges

Investing in debt instruments

International Commodity Futures

Money tip

I love pizza, heck who doesn't? But a night out at the local pizzeria or even ordering in is not a cheap experience; so why not make it yourself? The main tool required is a pizza stone to cook it on and this will set you back a couple of hundred Rand. Then the fun starts as it is surprisingly easy and the whole family can get involved and make their favourite pizza, at a fraction of the cost. Pizza isn't the only favourite food that we can do at home while having fun and saving money; what about homemade burgers, toasted sandwiches and even steaks? Discover your kitchen, save money, have fun and eat quality food - it's an all round winner.

All the best

JustOneLap

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We were asked a great question this past week: “What’s the secret to great trading and great investing?” My first response was that they are different worlds and hence different words. For investors it is about time, the more you have the easier it is; for traders it is about discipline, without it a trader will go bust. So now ask yourself, as an investor are you using your time wisely? As a trader is discipline your focus?

We got a huge response to our request for comments last week and we appreciate them all. If you have any more feedback about JustOneLap let us know here and we’ll draw a random person on our first birthday (Friday 23 March) for a bottle of my favourite red.

The past week saw Keith Mclachlan take us further down the valuations road with a great video on Valuations - EV/EBIDTA. To be honest I had to watch the video twice to fully grasp the concept; but it does make sense, especially his comment that EV/EBIDTA is essentially a clean, smarter version of a PE ratio That bit really made the penny drop and I am certainly a better investor for watching the video. We'll do a practical webinar using Famous Brands as an example in mid-April.

In the week ahead I will do a live webinar at 13h00 on Thursday on Which chart to use? Closing price or candles, what of intra-day or end of day? The differences are both marked and simple; we’ll delve in and help you start with the right chart for your desired outcome and risk profile.

Coming up

Thursday 22nd at 1pm - Which chart to use?

Recent uploads

Valuations - EV/EBIDTA

New Taxes and the market

Identifying Trading Ranges

Money tip

We’ve said this before but I wrote this at my nephew’s 4th birthday party, where there were more gifts than one can imagine and most of them will be discarded and forgotten before the end of the day, so here is the tip again: why not rather buy ETFs that can help pay for their education or a first car or even a first flat?

All the best

JustOneLap

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Last Friday was our first birthday (we launched on 23 March 2011, but our first webcast was only on 4 April 2011 - so we get two birthdays) and it's been a great year with 80 videos online for viewing and/ or downloading and almost 35,000 views across those 80 videos. This success is of course all thanks to our users and we really appreciate your support and feedback. While we are on the topic of feedback, the winner of the bottle of Warwick Trilogy for giving us feedback over the last two weeks is Simphiwe who said she loved JustOneLap just as it is. I promise there was no bias in the draw, it was totally random :)
 
But now for something alarming which we (as in all of us) need to do something about. Marc Ashton, FinWeek editor, wrote an online column The financial education time bomb in which he talks about financial engagement and literacy, and frankly the numbers for SA are shocking. Worse is that seemingly we're going backwards as the number of "financially excluded" South Africans has risen!
 
To me this is a problem that we can help solve as individuals and I call it the responsibility of knowledge. Just the fact that you're reading this newsletter means you are likely to know more about the markets than the vast majority of the population. Now you may think that your knowledge is tiny, but you still know things that you can pass on to others. Tell somebody about Exchange Traded Funds, ask them when they last did a personal balance sheet and offer to help them do one, tell them about JustOneLap.com, suggest they interrogate the fees they're paying for financial products, buy them a subscription to FinWeek as a gift, take them along to a JSE event, etc. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of ways that we can help those around us to be smarter about money.

My passion is to start a revolution in SA, making all citizens smarter about money, and it starts with us as individuals. Let us start today with just one person and let us put into practice that responsibility of knowledge.
 
In the past week we did a webcast Which chart to use? Technical analysis is used by the majority of traders, but often the distinction between candles and line charts or between different time frames confuses new traders. This video breaks it down into simple to understand choices.
 
Our next live webcast is on Wednesday 11 April at 13h00 with a new presenter - Warren Peacock. He's a massively knowledgeable student on using harmonics for charting and his first webinar will be on Harmonic charting; ab="CB".

Coming up

Wednesday 11th at 1pm - Harmonic charting; ab="CB"

Wednesday 18th at 8pm - Valuations: EV/EBITDA Model (case study)

Recent uploads

Which chart to use?

Valuations - EV/EBIDTA

Money tip

BEE shares are generally a great way for people to get into the stock market and at a discount, albeit often with lock in periods. If you qualify as a BEE candidate FinWeek is hosting a BEE share evening event on 3 April 2012 in Johannesburg (R150 per person to attend including drinks, snacks and a copy of FinWeek). Read more about it here, and remember the responsibility of knowledge theory. If you're not able to attend or maybe you don't qualify then pass the link onto somebody who does.

All the best

JustOneLap

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