Magic Markets

Magic Markets #243: Hallucinations and Hype: AI Bubble Risks

With the news of NVIDIA investing in OpenAI and with our focus this week in Magic Markets Premium on the truly wild forecasts being put out there by Oracle, we use our recent real-world experience with AI to comment on where it works and where it horribly fails to add any value at all. Or worse, where it confidently "hallucinates" and gives completely the wrong answer. Of course, there's a much bigger risk at play here: whether the world has found itself in bubble territory in AI, particularly in assets like data centres. Amidst all the excitement out there, it's important to keep the bear case in view for these assets. As the markets have taught us many times, things are rarely as good or as bad as they seem. As always, this podcast is a way to share our ideas with listeners and drive debate. It is for informational purposes only and should not be treated as financial advice.    

Magic Markets #242: Defending quarterly reporting

In the US market, companies are required to report quarterly - for now, at least. The latest utterances by President Trump suggest that quarterly reporting is being viewed in a negative light, with the SEC noting that they will be looking at whether reporting should move to align with most of the rest of the world i.e. results every six months. We don't like this idea. Although there are lots of arguments out there about short-term vs. long-term thinking and all the rest, our preference is always for fresh information and giving investors more to work with. In this episode, we discussed our views on quarterly reporting and debated some of the associated points. As always, this podcast is a way to share our ideas with listeners and drive debate. It is for informational purposes only and should not be treated as financial advice.  

Magic Markets #241: Catalysts and Meme Stocks

What causes share prices to move? Are there always sensible reasons, or does the market sometimes dish up crazy things? There are academic arguments and practical considerations for most things, ranging from dividend signalling through to technical indicators and even the pandemic-era phenomenon that is meme stocks. In this podcast, we covered a number of price catalysts and what they really mean, while touching on things to look out for. As always, this podcast is a way to share our ideas with listeners and drive debate. It is for informational purposes only and should not be treated as financial advice.  

Magic Markets #240: Omnichannel Observations - The Biggest Trend In Retail

As a follow-on show from the previous week where we talked about how to analyse retailers, we decided to cover the biggest trend right now in the sector: the rise of omnichannel retail. Digital isn't the future, it's the present! Retailers without proper digital strategies are being left behind at an alarming rate. We touched on global statistics around eCommerce penetration before diving into specific elements of omnichannel retail, including fascinating insights gleaned by our resident ghost in a discussion with Shoprite CEO Pieter Engelbrecht after the release of results. If you're interested in understanding the top-of-mind strategies in the retail sector, this show is for you.   As always, this podcast is a way to share our ideas with listeners and drive debate. It is for informational purposes only and should not be treated as financial advice.  

Magic Markets #239: Analysing Retailers

The retail sector isn't just a critical source of employment and consumer goods in every economy in the world. No, it's also a major contributor to stock indices and portfolio strategies that look for strong underpins that can give protection against inflation. Analysing retailers requires a nuanced approach that includes an understanding of margins, working capital and other balance sheet concepts. With a discussion that includes topics like category-level gross margin and the importance of omnichannel strategies to trading density, this episode of Magic Markets gives a useful overview of some of the key concepts used by professional analysts when they assess retailers. As always, this podcast is a way to share our ideas with listeners and drive debate. It is for informational purposes only and should not be treated as financial advice.