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SHARENET VIEWS: Last year I wrote an article about how much capital a person would need to retire. At that stage I wrote the article because of how often I get asked the question - "How much do I need to retire?" Unfortunately, what I have seen in the last year is that not many people have read my previous article, because it is still the question I get asked most often.

SHARENET VIEWS: We have written ad-nauseam about the JSE being at nosebleed P/E’s and being propped up by a handful of large cap rand-hedges. Given that the J200 or the J203 no longer give any direction to anything, since they have essentially traded in a narrow band for the last two and a bit years, and completely skewed by the behavior of a few large caps, what is one to do if one is insisting on buying shares at reasonable P/E’s?

SHARENET VIEWS: Look out all you self satisfied growth stocks, there is a new boy in town and he is geared up to swish you into second place. The growth stock concerned is the Huge Group, who have just concluded their best deal so far by taking over the unlisted ConnectNet, which provides Huge and ConnectNet with brilliant and highly lucrative cross selling opportunities. Now which company benefits?

SHARENET VIEWS: Possible scenario: HAR failed to bounce on lower slope of its bull channel - as it has done a few times before - and breached it instead. On Tuesday it closed below our negative breakout level at 4,610cps, but its mega-oversold position has triggered a recovery.

SHARENET VIEWS: Global IPO (Initial Public Offering) proceeds thus far in 2016 are running at just below $50 billion, this is way below the average experienced in the last decade. There are clearly some important months to follow before the calendar year closes but there will need to be an acceleration in issues if we are to surpass the previous low year, which was 2008 when $85.2 billion was raised in new issues.

SHARENET VIEWS: Sticking your course over the long term is a very valuable lesson for investors, albeit, a difficult one in practise. Juxtapose this with another valuable lesson of not holding onto mistakes for too long and it becomes apparent how complicated the investment decision can be for the investor, particularly in tough markets. In order to get the maximum benefit of your investment, you need to stick with the investment over the long term, even during painful periods of underperformance which make it more challenging to determine whether you are holding on to a mistake or not.

SHARENET VIEWS: The earnings of JSE listed shares has collapsed 26% from their Jan 2015 peak. Since the JSE has essentially gone sideways since then, P/E ratios have skyrocketed to lifetime highs. However recent albeit small improvements to earnings hint at a possible bottom of the contraction. An improvement in earnings is crucial to laying the groundwork for further gains in the JSE.

SHARENET VIEWS: When one looks around SA we are a pretty well endowed economy. For years, we have dominated the gold production market, and being the biggest platinum producer as well as having very useful supplies of coal, silver and uranium. Now thankfully for investors, Sacoil has significant oil reserves, and is listed on the JSE and AIM.