Need a refresher on recent JSE news? This week's Ghost Wrap podcast (brought to you by Mazars) needs just over eight minutes of your time to bring you up to speed on Zeda, Emira, Attacq, Italtile, Cashbuild, Pan African Resources, AngloGold, Gold Fields, DRDGOLD, Absa and Discovery. Find it here>>>

Unlock the Stock is back! In proud association with A2X, we are thrilled to bring you this year's first instalment of Unlock the Stock, the exciting platform that gives you direct access to listed company management teams. On Thursday 23 February at noon, you'll hear from the management teams of Afrimat and Capital Appreciation, with the opportunity to ask questions after the presentations. You just need to register here>>>

If it's too hard to understand...

You know, I really don't mind the concept of "adjusted earnings" - within reason. Absa is a great example, giving us an idea of earnings including and excluding the exposure to sovereign instruments in Ghana. With Ghana in serious trouble, owning bonds in that country is going to hurt. You might recall that the Ghanaian governmen t went after MTN in a blatant attempt to fleece the company of more taxes before giving up on that silly idea.

It helps investors to know how the group is performing without that exposure, as it tells us something about the bank's core operations (which are doing very well by the way).

In stark contrast, Discovery would like us to pretend that interest rates don't exist. In fact, they claim that they have "no impact on operations" and hence we shouldn't look at reported earnings (down between 7% and 12%). Instead, we should look at "normalised" earnings which are up between 27% and 32%. Talk about going from Blue to Diamond Status in a hurry!

Speaking of that colour, Blue Label Telecoms is another company that manages to bamboozle absolutely everyone, including those with accounting qualifications. Even core HEPS tells a horrible story, so they go a step further by stripping out practically everything related to the restructuring of the Cell C investment. On that basis, earnings would be up 14%. Otherwise, earnings collapsed completely, with core HEPS (already an adjusted number) down as much as 96%.

I am generally nervous of investing in companies with complicated reporting structures. If you draw a long-term chart of Discovery and Blue Label Telecoms, you'll see that both have been real disappointments in the past decade. This doesn't mean that traders can't make money from them, with Blue Label as a firm favourite because of wild levels of volatility.

For the latest on Absa, Aveng, Barloworld, Blue Label Telecoms, Dis-Chem, Discovery and Steinhoff, read Ghost Bites here>>>

Helium: not just for balloons

Party balloons may be fun, but they certainly aren't the most important use of helium. As I recently learnt in a podcast with Renergen CEO Stefano Marani that I'm excited to be releasing this week, helium has multiple industrial uses.

To set the scene for that podcast and to begin your journey of learning about helium, you can read this really insightful piece from the company on why helium is so important>>>

Some respite for the rand

After a horrible week for our currency, the rand ended the week on the front foot. With the US out of action today, many players likely squared off their positions, which helped the rand. The South African Budget Speech is scheduled for this week so that could impact rand movements.

TreasuryONE also notes that commodities were a sea of red on Friday, with all major commodities losing ground. Brent Crude took the most strain (good news for most of us), down to $82.50 a barrel. Gold has been hammered by more than $130 in the past couple of weeks, trading at around $1,826 per ounce. With the dollar looking strong overall, commodities are likely to remain under pressure. Volatility is the name of the game.

The nuts and bolts of a brokerage

If you've ever wondered wh at goes on behind the scenes at a multi-asset investment platform, now is your chance to find out. Together with Trive South Africa COO Marius Grobler, we learnt about the engine room at Trive and what makes a brokerage tick. Learn all about it here>>>

There's a deal on the table

For founders, the process of selling a business or finding an investor is daunting to say the least. The worst part is that even once there's a deal on the table, the risk of failure is substantial because of the due diligence process.

To empower founders in this process, the next bizval webinar will be focused on due diligence concepts, with industry experts joining us for a panel discussion. The webinar takes place on Wednesday at 12pm and you need to register here to attend>>>

Have a great start to your week!