Magic Markets

Magic Markets #272: REIT Returns and Red Flags

06 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

With South Africa finally emerging from its April “December-lite”, the hosts dive into property - an asset class that looks simple on the surface ...

Magic Markets #271: Record Highs, Uneven Returns

29 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, The Finance Ghost and Mohammed Nalla unpack why US equity markets are refusing to take a break. With the S&P 500 at all‑time hi...

Magic Markets #270: Holding Through Highs and Lows

22 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of Magic Markets, Ghost and Moe balance life’s milestones with market realities. Fresh off Ghost’s wedding celebrations, the duo d...

Magic Markets #269: SaaSpocalypse - Surviving the Shock

15 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

AI is eating software, with the market response being nothing short of brutal. The once-loved Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) stocks have been crushed, w...

Magic Markets #268: No One Brakes in Cairo - Except the Central Bank

08 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Fresh off a honeymoon in Egypt, The Finance Ghost brings on‑the‑ground perspective to one of Africa’s largest and most misunderstood economies. ...

Magic Markets #267: Oil and Toil - a Bruising Q1

01 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The first quarter of 2026 was a reality check for global markets. If you had oil, you made money. If you had almost anything else, you didn't.  With ...

Magic Markets #266: Dire Straits of Hormuz

25 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Four weeks into the war in Iran, the numbers tell a stark story around the risks for equity plays in regions like the UAE. Dubai-listed property and b...

Magic Markets #265: Iran and JSE Earnings Season Themes

18 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

From a macro perspective, the ongoing conflict in Iran has dished up some important movies in currencies, bonds, commodities and inflation expectation...

Magic Markets #264: Portfolio Positioning for the AI Epoch (with David Eborall of SaltLight Capital)

11 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

With lightning-fast developments in AI on everyone's lips, figuring out where to play in this value chain is no mean feat. Will the hyperscalers achie...

Magic Markets #263: The Oil Trade

04 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

With the conflict in Iran still fresh in the market at time of recording, we decided to talk about the commodity that everyone is looking at: oil. And...

Magic Markets #262: Free Cash Flow - Friend or Foe? (with Dagon Sachs of Aylett & Co.)

25 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What’s the vital difference between a management team that creates value and one that destroys it? Is the concept of a "capital-light business" alwa...

Magic Markets #261: The AI Effect on Free Cash Flow

18 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

2026 has seen US tech giants throwing enough capex at AI infrastructure to fund a small country. Amazon has guided capex that is roughly half of South...

Magic Markets #260: Grocery Giants and the Value Retail Rotation

11 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

While the world’s athletes compete for Winter Olympic Gold, Walmart has secured a podium finish of its own – becoming the first retailer to skate ...

Magic Market #259: Gold, Volatility and Asymmetrical Payoffs

04 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Can one hawkish Fed Chair nomination melt a golden bull’s wings? In this episode of Magic Markets, The Finance Ghost and Moe-Knows look at volatilit...

Magic Markets #258: Stock Picking in Emerging Markets

28 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In a week where the gold price soared to new heights and the rand flexed impressively against the dollar, The Finance Ghost and Moe-Knows have turned ...

Magic Markets #257: Investing in Copper with Mesh.Trade

21 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

While global superpowers eye new territories for mineral wealth and the likes of Glencore and Rio Tinto dance around a potential merger, investors are...

Magic Market #256: Geopolitics and Banana Republics

14 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The world order is shifting – the US is playing a global-scale game of Risk, the rand is getting stronger, and AI can’t count its ABCs. Amidst the...

Magic Market #255: Setting the Scene for 2026

07 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

With a new calendar on the wall, there's a lot to consider this year. The world doesn’t behave the same way that our calendars do, with the themes a...

Magic Market #254: 2025 Scorecard – The Good, The Bad and The Macro

10 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the final Magic Markets show of 2025, we looked back on a watershed year for geopolitics and the technology sector. With Moe focusing on the macro ...

Magic Markets #253: General M&A and Netflix - Warner Bros. Discovery

03 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

With news breaking of Netflix joining the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery and looking to potentially make a huge cash offer to get their hands ...

Magic Markets #252: G20 and AI Temperature Check

26 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

With the G20 in the rearview mirror in South Africa, we took the opportunity to discuss Moe's views on the geopolitical shenanigans from a North Ameri...

Magic Markets #251: How Sports Brands Win (And Lose)

19 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On Holding might have an awkward name, but the company counts Roger Federer among its early investors and biggest endorsements. Thanks to Nike's misst...

Magic Markets #250: Specialty Retail - When Niche Works Nicely

12 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Specialty retail is a fascinating sector on the global stage. It includes companies like Dick's Sporting Goods and Build-A-Bear, with the latter being...

Magic Markets #249: How Westbrooke Deploys Capital

05 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When it comes to understanding the Westbrooke investment philosophy and approach, there's no better way to do it than through looking at deal case stu...

Magic Markets #248: Stream Wars

29 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The content and distribution game is a hotbed of competition, with leading lights like Netflix, Disney and of course YouTube within the Alphabet (Goog...

Magic Markets #247: Investing in Property with Mesh.Trade and 27four

23 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Property is a vibrant asset class in South Africa. From convenience retail centres through to mixed-use developments, property is a popular way to ear...

Magic Markets #246: To Hedge or Live on the Edge?

15 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There's a lot of nervousness out there at the moment around global asset prices, leading to discussions around whether the top is in. Naturally, thi...

Magic Markets #245: How Big Deals Create Big Problems

08 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The quality (and track record) of corporate M&A ranges from incredibly smart deals through to corporate disasters. One thing is for sure: results ...

Magic Markets #244: Buying Shovels in the X-Rush

01 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The concept of "shovels in the gold rush" is really useful in investing, as it speaks directly to thematic opportunities where the approach is to pick...

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

24 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 O...

Magic Markets #242: Defending quarterly reporting

17 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the US market, companies are required to report quarterly - for now, at least. The latest utterances by President Trump suggest that quarterly repo...

Magic Markets #241: Catalysts and Meme Stocks

10 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What causes share prices to move? Are there always sensible reasons, or does the market sometimes dish up crazy things? There are academic arguments a...

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

03 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 sect...

Magic Markets #239: Analysing Retailers

27 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 st...

Magic Markets #238: Stablecoins with Mesh.Trade

20 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Stablecoins are highly topical at the moment, with important new legislation in the US and many discussions taking place around the world with regulat...

Magic Markets #237: Buying Market Leaders

12 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Stocks like Microsoft, Meta and Netflix have been strong winners in our portfolios (although we've had different exposures to them at different times)...

Magic Markets #236: Mpact's Bullish Outlook on SA Agri - Fact or Fiction?

06 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Earlier this week, Mpact gave the South African market a positive surprise. The packaging group is a major supplier to the agri sector, particularly f...

Magic Markets #235: Can Fast Food Stocks Keep Growing?

30 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Are consumers still having fries with that, or have changes in consumer preferences (like more awareness of health and nutrition) given fast food stoc...

Magic Markets #234: How Do Banks Manage Their Balance Sheets?

23 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After covering the financials sector on the JSE last week and with our latest Premium research being on Goldman Sachs, we decided to talk about bank b...

Magic Markets #233: Financials on the JSE - Paradise for Stock Pickers

16 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The financials sector on the JSE is a substantial contributor to the overall index. Although banks make up the bulk of the sector, there are also majo...

Magic Markets #232: Hybrid Capital - Best of Both Worlds (with Westbrooke)

09 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The "capital stack" refers to the mix of debt and equity that provides the funding for a business. With so many options on the spectrum from senior de...

Magic Markets #231: Platinum and the cheese spread

02 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Drawing charts like orange juice and cheese futures might be fun, but there's an important underlying influence that soft commodities have on inflatio...

Magic Markets #230: Insights from five global companies

25 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of Magic Markets, Mohammed Nalla and The Finance Ghost decided to each choose three companies from the recent research in Magic Market...

Magic Markets #229: Macro World Tour

18 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There's a lot going on in the world right now, giving us a great opportunity to let Moe wax lyrical about the key macroeconomic indicators and trends ...

Magic Markets #228: Mesh.Trade and the Titans

11 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Magic Markets listeners have become familiar with AnBro's approach to building global equity portfolios with different mandates. Titans is just one su...

Magic Markets #227: Saudi Aramco and Ferrari

04 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After a few weeks of Formula One races every weekend, many sports fans have been bombarded with two brands: Saudi Aramco and Ferrari. This gave us a g...

Magic Markets #226: From Analyst to Entrepreneur

28 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Muofhe Kwinda is a Magic Markets listener who reached out to us because he has an interesting story. He's made the leap from being a financial analyst...

Magic Markets #225: US Downgrade and JPMorgan Views

21 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The US credit downgrade by Moody's wasn't a huge surprise, as they are just playing catch-up to what other ratings agencies already did. The complacen...

Magic Markets #224: REITs Taking a Breather

14 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After a wonderful year in 2024 for property funds (especially in South Africa), the sector has taken a breather in 2025. That's not surprising given h...

Magic Markets #223: Nuggets from Omaha

07 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In an incredible contrast of wisdom, this episode focuses primarily on insightful comments from Warren Buffett at the latest Berkshire Hathaway annual...

Magic Markets #222: The Long and the Short of Day Trading

30 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Our very own Mohammed Nalla thought that the recent tariff volatility would be an excellent opportunity to dust off the day trading strategy that work...

Magic Markets #221: Mesh.Trade - Unlocking Private Markets

23 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As the recent trend in IPOs and delistings on public markets tells us, an increasing number of companies are looking to private markets for their capi...

Magic Markets #220: The Global Asset Ownership Web

16 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

With markets bouncing around like crazy practically every day at the moment, most of the focus among investors is usually on the equity indices. But w...

Magic Markets #219: Trade Wars and Trading

09 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

With the markets all over the place and practically impossible to predict, Moe is busy with a day-trading strategy and Ghost has bought a few dips, ra...

Magic Markets #218: Consumer Conundrum

02 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The first quarter of the year was an unhappy one for most consumer stocks. Tariffs are top of mind, as is the pressure that many brands have been faci...

Magic Markets #217: Time for Africa?

26 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As we continue to look beyond the US to demonstrate the opportunities available elsewhere in the world, our gaze turns to Africa. Firmly a currencies ...

Magic Markets #216: Europhoria - hype or the new hustle?

19 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

These days, the narrative has shifted from US Exceptionalism to one of punters working through the list of European companies to try and find somethin...

Magic Markets #215: The art of investing in art

12 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tristanne Farrell isn't shy to admit it: she's mildly obsessed with art. As a Senior Wealth Manager at Investec Wealth & Investment International,...

Magic Markets #214: Tradition meets tech - buying gold on the blockchain

05 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

If there's one thing the markets taught us recently, it's that gold remains as relevant as ever. Mesh Trade brings you a new way to invest in this sto...

Magic Markets #213: Can Argentina-style reforms work in South Africa?

26 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Having covered MercadoLibre in Magic Markets Premium this week, we had Latin America on the brain. Combined with the mess around the South African bud...

Magic Markets #212: Expropriation, exaggeration and exports - the bull case for SA agriculture

19 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Wandile Sihlobo is an agricultural economist, an advisor to President Ramaphosa and one of the leading voices in the agriculture space in South Africa...

Magic Markets #211: Private markets are a hive of activity

12 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For companies seeking capital, founders wanting to exit their stake and investors who desire diversification and solid returns, private debt and equit...

Magic Markets #210: Tariff Tantrum

05 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Given the widespread impact on the companies that we follow, it's hard to ignore the geopolitical fires that are raging around Trump and the countries...

Magic Markets #209: AI, Trump and turnarounds

29 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As we sign off on January, it's been a month of major moves in markets. Globally, the valuation risks in AI were thrust into the spotlight in recent d...

Magic Markets #208: Banking on banking

22 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The banking industry is part of the fabric of any economy. This is both good and bad, as success in that sector therefore depends on broader economic ...

Magic Markets #207: Retail turnarounds: high-risk, high reward?

15 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Stories like Nike and Walgreens in the international market (both recently covered in Magic Markets Premium), as well as Pick n Pay in South Africa, t...

Magic Markets #206: The year ahead - buckle up!

08 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

To kick off the year, we couldn't resist talking about the major themes that have carried over from 2024 into a new calendar year. US - China relation...

Magic Markets #205: A year of gold, bitcoin and the US

11 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In our final free show for the year, we look back on a year that has been dominated by gold and bitcoin, along with US equities that have shot the lig...

Magic Markets #204: Blockchain Technology in Financial Markets (with AnBro and Mesh.trade)

04 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Although the terms blockchain and crypto are often used interchangeably, this hides the diverse use cases for blockchain technology - even in traditio...

Magic Markets #203: Year in Review - Alternatives at Westbrooke

27 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As the year of global elections draws to a close, Dino Zuccollo of Westbrooke Alternative Asset Management joined us to look back on how global trends...

Magic Markets #202: The automotive sector race

20 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Start your engines has quickly become start your batteries - or has it? Are electric vehicle adoption rates problematic everywhere, or are some compan...

Magic Markets #201: Trump Trades

13 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

With the dust barely settled on the US election, Dimitri Zabelin of Pantheon Insights joined us to bring his international geopolitical lens to the sh...

Magic Markets #200: Big Tech, Big Opportunies?

06 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

With most of the big names in tech having just released earnings around the same time as US elections, there's so much to consider in the market. We s...

Magic Markets #199: Making Forex Better

30 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Harry Scherzer at Future Forex is a familiar voice to Magic Markets listeners, especially those who took advantage of the excellent crypto arbitrage o...

Magic Markets #198: What can we learn from market sector rotations?

23 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Although there's a risk of churning your portfolio too often if you become obsessed with short-term market movements, there's a lot of value to be gai...

Magic Markets #197: GNU follow-through - are businesses changing?

16 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The GNU-phoria in South Africa is now a few months old. Loadshedding is becoming a distant (albeit still painful) memory. Sentiment has clearly turned...

Magic Markets #196: The China Effect

09 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

News of stimulus in China has caused substantial volatility in the markets, with a sharp initial rally and then a cooling down as the market started t...

Magic Markets #195: How to Read a Balance Sheet

02 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The balance sheet is often the difference between success and failure for a corporate. A strong balance sheet can carry a company through the worst of...

Magic Markets #194: How to Interpret Profits

25 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The income statement is the lifeblood of any business. Luckily, you don't need to be an accountant to understand what's going on there. As is usually ...

Magic Markets #193: How to Build a Bear Case

18 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After covering the building of a bull case in the previous week's show, we moved on to the other side of the coin: the bear case. This requires you to...

Magic Markets #192: How to Build a Bull Case

11 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When assessing stocks, it's so important think about the good and the bad, not just what you wanted to see going into the analysis. The world is grey...

Magic Markets #191: The India Opportunity

04 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As the world pays an increasing amount of attention to emerging markets and the concept of the Global South, India's outperformance vs. China remains ...

Magic Markets #190: Is Quantum Computing the Next AI?

28 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been all the rage in recent times. Coming up just as quickly is quantum computing, an exciting new technology that h...

Magic Markets #189: Portfolio Construction with AnBro

21 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Picking stocks is one thing, but how do you bring all the pieces together to create a sensible portfolio that meets risk and return objectives? Portfo...

Magic Markets #188: How to Research Stocks

14 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Investing in stocks is exciting, but also dangerous unless you know how to research them. In this episode, we talk through some of the approaches we t...

Magic Markets #187: How to Prepare for a Crash

07 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As the Nikkei had a terrible day of historical significance and the world held its breath for what might happen on the Nasdaq, those who did the resea...

Magic Markets #186: Is the Automotive Sector a Good Investment?

31 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The automotive sector is part of our daily lives, but does that mean it should be in our portfolios? Should the car in your garage drive an investment...

Magic Markets #185: Why the US Election Matters for Everyone

25 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

With the news of President Joe Biden stepping away from the presidential race, all bets are now off when it comes to the outcome later this year. The ...

Magic Markets #184: Geopolitics, Defense Stocks and Tech Ideas

17 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In our quest to bring you global insights into the markets, we are thrilled to welcome Dimitri Zabelin to Magic Markets. As Founder and Geopolitical S...

Magic Markets #183: Investing in Global BRNDZ

10 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In a discussion that started with a reflection on the market moves in the latest quarter and the extent to which Big Tech has driven the indices, Crai...

Magic Markets #182: A GNU Dawn

03 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The GNU dawn is all the rage in South Africa, but what does this mean for portfolio strategies? In this show, Mohammed Nalla and The Finance Ghost add...

Magic Markets #181: The Real-World DD: EVs, Sephora, Topgolf and more

26 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

With The Finance Ghost having just returned from a trip to the UK, France and Dubai, the opportunity was clear to talk through some of the brands and ...

Magic Markets #180: Home Country Bias

19 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Home country bias is a real danger for investors. We tend to buy the brands we know, rather than taking an objective view on a global opportunity set....

Magic Markets #179: Demystifying US Jobs Data

12 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The headlines will often focus on US jobs data, but what does it really even mean? Why should people outside of the US care? And of course, what do al...

Magic Markets #178: Collision Politics

05 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

With South Africa entering a new era of politics, we will soon find out whether coalition politics actually look more like collision politics. Either ...

Magic Markets #177: Nvidia and Intuit

29 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Nvidia has been a headline grabber of note in global markets, with eyewatering returns that have left even the other semiconductor stocks for dead. Mo...

Magic Markets #176: Walmart and Under Armour

22 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Walmart is a good example of a pullback from the work-from-home trend that became a feature of the pandemic, with many viewing this as a return to the...

Magic Markets #175: Chipotle Mexican Grill and Wingstop

15 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When quick-service restaurant groups get things right, they really get it right. Fast-growing companies in this sector can achieve rapid expansion b...

Magic Markets #174: Electrifying Stocks

08 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

 The electrification theme is a rare thing, as it dishes up opportunities for value and growth investors alike. Some are buying coal and others are b...

Magic Markets #173: Forex at Future Forex

01 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

You already know about the crypto arbitrage offerings at Future Forex. If you don’t, refer back to Episode 170 for full details on how to avoid your...