Get ready for Unlock the Stock on Thursday with TWK Investments. You can join us for a management presentation and Q&A session by registering at this link for the event scheduled for 12pm. Don't miss out on this opportunity to wear your equity analyst hat, brought to you by A2X!

Enhance your knowledge with these podcasts

If you want to learn more about banking and how to assess banks as investment opportunities, then listen to Episode 120 of Magic Markets featuring Alexander Weiss of Trive South Africa as our guest.

Get up to date with recent news on the JSE by listening to Ghost Wrap, made possible by Mazars. In Episode 20, I covered Aveng, PSG Konsult, De Beers (with look-through to Richemont), Alphamin, Universal Partners, Stor-Age, Sappi and Glencore.

Bruce Whitfield's Investment School segment on The Money Show is as educational as the name suggests. I was invited to this segment last week, where I took the opportunity to talk about my approach to research and why I believe that common sense is a powerful weapon in investing.

And for the entrepreneurs who read Ghost Mail, tap into the skills and outright enthusiasm of property entrepreneur Murray Clark on the bizval podcast. He joined me to talk about his unique approach to property and the way he is building the Neighbourgood business. I can honestly say that he is one of the most impressive entrepreneurs I have the pleasure of knowing.

Nice try, Altron

Whenever I see companies writing about adjusted or normalised earnings, I can feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Sometimes, there are sensible adjustments that help investors gain a better understanding of performance. Most of the time though, this is just corporate nonsense as management teams try their best to plaster over the cracks.

One of the tests you can apply is to look at the size of the difference between reported and adjusted numbers. The smaller the difference, the less you need to worry. When reported numbers show a negative result and adjusted numbers miraculously turn green, you need to be even more alert.

Altron is a perfect example, with adjustments to earnings that I simply don't agree with. I unpack these adjustments in Ghost Bites this morning, along with my rather strong views on Investec Property Fund and the internalisation of the ManCo. There are also notes on earnings from AH-Vest, the potential mandatory offer at Brikor and the latest trading performance at Sirius Real Estate. You can read Ghost Bites here>>>

Trim the hedges with Satrix

In his latest article, Nico Katzke of Satrix explores the impact of rand hedging in balanced portfolios. This is a technical but very interesting article, laying bare the concepts of tactical and strategic hedging. Challenge yourself this morning and learn with Satrix in this article.

Hike in May and go away?

The dollar was on the front foot yesterday as Fed speakers continued to talk up a big hiking game. The market is fully pricing in a 25 basis points hike at the May meeting and is only slightly pricing in more hikes thereafter. This cycle is helping bigger banks like JP Morgan but is hurting smaller banks that don't hold excess reserves. With factors like the shape of the yield curve at play, TreasuryONE thinks that the hike in May might be the last in this cycle.

The rand feels stuck between R18.00 and R18.50 at the moment.

Have a lovely T uesday!