Imagine sitting in a restaurant...wait! Let me stop there for a moment. Just imagine sitting in a restaurant.

Sigh. Ok, back to where I was.

Imagine sitting in a restaurant looking at the menu. Of all the delicious things you could choose, it's the steamed broccoli with an accompaniment of brussel sprouts that jumps out at you. In the world of corporate announcements, that's known as a "bland cautionary" - tasteless, useless and disappointing once it arrives.

On Friday, Hulisani Limited issued a textbook brussel sprouts announcement. The renewable energy company gave no details at all, other than noting that there are negotiations underway which may have a material effect on the share price. Thus, investors must exercise caution.

Hopefully Hulisani will add some sauce or even some cashew nuts to the salad at some point. Bland cautionaries are generally disliked by the JSE and certainly by investors, because they give absolutely nothing to work with.

Then we have Steinhoff, who used another favourite corporate trick on Friday. They released a juicy announcement after 5pm, relating to a judgement in the Western Cape High Court that went against Steinhoff.

The court ruled that a Companies Act procedural issue rendered a previous board decision void. Steinhoff needs to explain to the market how this could impact the progress towards a court settlement. There are parties in the market who are hunting for liquidation, not a settlement.

This adds to the recent newsflow on Steinhoff, which I wrote about here.

Otherwise, it was a rather quiet day on the JSE. I took the opportunity to write about some major international stories, of which there were a few over the past week.

The lead story is the Robinhood IPO, with the filing now made public. It lifts the veil on the company that has defined an era in the markets which will forever be remembered for the uprising of retail investors.

Then we have the contrast of East vs. West when it comes to regulation. Facebook had major court victories in the antitrust cases brought against it, driving the share price higher and helping the company reach the $1tn market cap milestone. On the other side of the world, Chinese regulators casually ordered the removal of the Didi app from Chinese app stores, just days after the company listed in the US.

Make sure you don't miss the latest episode of Magic Markets. We had Tracey Davies from Just Share join us on the show to discuss what ESG activism is really like in South Africa. It's an incredible, passionate discussion about corporates behaving badly. We've received a lot of feedback over the weekend that this is one of our best shows thus far.

To finish off, I have some exciting news. InceConnect is introducing an initiative to encourage you to write letters to the editor. Yes, me. Your favourite purple poltergeist.

Every week, the author of the best letter will receive a R250 EasyEquities voucher. If it's really good, we might even publish it in InceConnect! To enter, send your letter to news@inceconnect.co.za with the subject line: My Ince Insights.

Oh, and here's a top tip: you won't win by asking me which shares to buy. Legally, I unfortunately cannot answer that question for you. However, you just might win if you have an interesting angle or argument on something you've read in InceConnect.

Happy Monday,

The Finance Ghost