The “January effect” hypothesizes that the stock market tends to rise in January more than other months. This was first observed by Sidney Wachtel an investment banker in 1942. Having held for some time, more recent data particularly in the last 20 years, shows the effect being less pronounced.

The Seed Global Fund celebrated its 5th anniversary in December 2021. Over this period, it has comfortably delivered top quartile performance. Global investing should be an important part of…

Seed’s Multi Manager process, which offers diversification across fund managers, asset classes and investment styles, incorporates a wide range of ideas from the best managers in the industry.

South Africa’s savings rate has recently jumped up from 14.2% in December 2020 to 18.0% in the first quarter of this year, but remains very low compared to the global average of around 25.0%…

Over the last 25 years, the typical local balanced fund, as represented by the ASISA SA Multi Asset High Equity category average, has produced significant inflation-beating returns. However, as most of us know, this performance did not all come in a straight line.

The constant barrage of negative news adds to information complexity when looking at investments. It is hard to not be pessimistic about the financial situation given the kind of headlines we are exposed to daily. Morgan Housel wrote about the seductive power of pessimism …

The Seed Lifestage Employee Benefits offering is a comprehensive solution that enables participating employers to provide their employees with an optimal, risk-appropriate and diversified retirement fund that is managed on a continuous basis.

A key part of the investment process at Seed Investments is determining which asset classes we should overweight (relative to a Strategic Asset Allocation – SAA) and which should be underweight. The process has evolved over the past decade …

Nassim Taleb called it the “noise bottleneck”. This refers to the increased noise (irrelevant information) relative to the signal (relevant information) expected to be gained, when one consumes more data, with increasing frequency.

As one of his mental models, Munger explores the idea of inverting a problem. By turning a problem upside down and then approaching it by eliminating what will NOT work, you are typically left only with options that WILL work.

“People are afraid of things they don’t understand.” I’m sure bass guitarist Bill Laswell wasn’t referring to structured notes when he came up with this quote. However, the intrinsic human trait of aversion to the unknown.

It sure feels that there is greater uncertainty in our day-to-day life now, more so than ever before. But despite the uncertainty that Covid has introduced, the truth is that life is no more uncertain today than it was in pre Covid times.

The Seed Financial Needs Analysis (FNA) Tool is a comprehensive, flexible financial planning tool that slots in nicely as part of the initial advice process.

The Short List is a list of carefully selected funds, using Seed’s qualitative and quantitative manager research process. The funds are researched and monitored as part of the ongoing due diligence process.

As investment managers, we often get questions from potential clients and Advisors on how we manage our Funds. Our answer can often be a bit confusing. Here’s why!

While there is never one silver bullet when it comes to prosperous investing, it is definitely worth listening to, and as far as possible, applying, some of the pithy sayings from successful investors.

The debate over the respective merits and shortcomings of active and passive investing is one that has been raging in the financial industry for decades. Here is why active / passive investing shouldn’t be an either / or.

In this article Evan Smit, Seed Deputy Information Officer, explores a few security safeguards to ensure that your Advisory is up to speed following the implementation of POPIA on 1 July 2021.

Saving for retirement remains the primary goal of most of Seed’s Private Clients, and our team of Advisors put hours of work into finding the most suitable vehicles and products to suit each the unique circumstances of each client.

Over the past 6 years, the Seed Income Prescient Fund has been a useful building block for many investors and should continue to form an important part in any investor’s portfolio.

Like any Fund, the Seed Balanced Prescient Fund has had its shares of good and bad times, but over the fullness of time it has shown its value when included as a portion of an investor’s long term investment bucket.

In this article, we explore making long-term investing more manageable for clients. Consistent long-term outperformance greatly improves the chances of clients meeting their investment objectives.

Many consider investing to be one of the more complex processes when it comes to personal finance management. Investors are constantly trying to find answers to their questions.

The necessity for independent investment managers is becoming more and more relevant in a highly complex investment world as investment funds and products are evolving at a rapid rate.

This is a saying I am sure we’ve all heard many times in the past. This is a great concept, but in practice, how easy is it to really apply to our lives on a consistent basis?

It has been about 14 months since the South African Government declared a National State of Disaster in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Soon after, they implemented one of the earliest and harshest lockdowns around the globe. These lockdown measures have had profound implications on the lives.

Two of the most common questions we have received from our private clients over the last few years is 1) what would be my optimal allocation to global assets in an unconstrained portfolio, and 2) when would be a good time to increase my global allocation?

Understanding the technology behind it is a key part of the investment thesis, but for some investors, the attraction is the sheer amount of growth in value that has been achieved.

For Investors that fall into the bracket of “high net worth”, Investing globally is generally important for two main reasons, diversification and the provision of a safety net.

Why is Bitcoin Gaining This Much Traction? To answer this, we need to go back to basics and explore what money is, how money has evolved and how Bitcoin stacks up against other forms of money.