This week, Charles finished his CEO letter, the US marked its scorecard, and South Africa marked its own. Three very different exercises, one question: did you deliver what you said you would? Then Thursday’s markets forced a second look. Here’s what he’s taking from the week. The Savage Take is where EasyEquities CEO Charles Savage shares what he’s seeing, learning and thinking about each week, in markets, business and the bigger shifts shaping how people build wealth and ownership.

From Charles 

This week I finished my CEO letter. On Tuesday night the United States began marking its own scorecard. On Wednesday South Africans went to the polls to mark theirs. Three very different exercises, with the same question underneath all of them: did you deliver what you said you would?

On paper, a CEO letter is straightforward. The year has happened and the numbers exist, so you explain them, thank the team and look ahead. In practice it takes weeks, and this year it took longer than ever.

It starts with what you said a year ago and every commitment attached to it. Then you go and look. At the people: who they are, how they are growing, whether they are well, and what they need to do their best work. At the processes that carry the business through an ordinary Tuesday. At the products and the platforms beneath them, from a first share to a retirement fund to an insurance policy.

Behind all of that sit the licences, the controls and the reporting, and the questions we must always be able to answer. There is what our clients actually did, what they told us, and whether we listened. There is the technology, the data and the AI we are building, and the responsibility that comes with each. And there is the money, line by line, until every figure traces back to its source.

Then you mark all of it against the standard you set before you knew the result. That is the hard part. Anyone can be generous with a standard they set after the fact.

You edit. You take feedback you would rather not have and discover it was right. You decide what belongs in the letter and what is not yet ours to say. You go back and do it again.

Somewhere in the middle of that, I stopped and looked at the whole thing. Twelve years ago EasyEquities was an idea about fractional shares and who gets to own a piece of the world. Today, reviewing the Group means looking across all these people, products and platforms, and taking responsibility for how they work together.

A great many people built that, mostly out of sight. The annual report gives you a chance to hear from more of them. Read their accounts alongside one another and you begin to appreciate how much goes into making investing Easy, and how much responsibility sits behind that promise.

That was the part I found most rewarding. I know these businesses and I work with these people. Even so, seeing their work brought together made me appreciate the whole more deeply. What we have built, what it takes to run it, and how much we now have to build with.

It was humbling too. A scorecard has no interest in your intentions. The effort matters, but effort cannot award itself the marks. You still have to look at what happened, hold yourself to what you promised, and accept where there is more to do. You also owe people proper recognition for what they delivered. A demanding standard should make success worth more.

And underneath every part of the report are our clients. Someone making a first investment. Someone putting money away for a child. Someone trusting us with retirement savings earned over decades. That is what gives the work its importance, and what makes getting it right worth the effort.

I came out of it grateful, inspired and invigorated. Proud of what we have achieved, clearer about where we need to improve, and more ambitious about what comes next.

I am a better chief executive for having done it.

I look forward to sharing my letter and our annual report with you all next week. You be the judge.

The Verdicts

Americans delivered a clear result on Tuesday. Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress. What that means for policy, spending and business is taking longer to settle, as Thursday’s markets made painfully clear.

At home, the count has moved well beyond the first results. Overnight into Friday, roughly two-thirds of voting districts had reported. The provisional ward ballot put the ANC around 31.6%, the DA at 25.1% and MK at 8.5%. Thursday morning’s near tie between the ANC and DA has widened as more districts have come in. These remain incomplete results.

The metros tell a more useful story for anyone thinking about South Africa’s economic future. The DA was leading in Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni in the overnight count. Tshwane had changed from the early picture, when ActionSA was ahead. Cape Town remained strongly DA, while MK led the much less complete count in eThekwini. Leading the count is still some distance from securing a governing majority.

For investors, I would spend less time trying to turn a national percentage into a verdict on the country and more time watching what happens in these cities. Who can form a government? Can it last? Can it get water, electricity, roads and billing working properly? Those are investment questions too. They affect whether businesses expand, whether people find work and whether capital stays.

There is room for optimism about greater competition and accountability. But a coalition agreement only becomes valuable when it produces a functioning council. We should welcome the possibility and keep marking the delivery.

The count and objections process continue. The results become final when the IEC declares them. Until then, provisional means provisional.

Wednesday was relief. Thursday was a reassessment, and a brutal one.

The Nasdaq fell 5.5%, the S&P 500 4.4% and the Dow 3.4%, more than reversing their Wednesday gains. Semiconductor shares fell about 12%. Nvidia lost roughly 9%. All eleven sectors of the S&P finished lower, so this went well beyond a few technology names having a bad day.

The election result had not changed. Investors’ reading of it had. Attention moved from a decisive outcome to the possibility of greater restrictions on data centres and the AI infrastructure build-out. A crowded investment theme met a new source of uncertainty. Analysts also pointed to investors cutting risk and trading strategies that can amplify selling when volatility rises.

For anyone opening their portfolio this morning, that distinction matters. A sharp fall deserves attention. It does not, by itself, tell you whether the business you own has become a worse business.

My conviction in what AI can do comes from using it and seeing what it changes. That conviction does not tell me what every AI-related share is worth. The speed of adoption, the profits companies will earn and the price investors should pay for those profits are different questions. Thursday was a reminder to ask all three.

The same discipline applies to an ETF. A technology fund, a Nasdaq fund and an S&P 500 fund can hold many of the same companies. Owning all three may leave you more exposed to one investment theme than the number of funds suggests. Look through the names to what you actually own.

Oil also challenged Wednesday’s confidence. Prices rebounded on Thursday as investors reconsidered how quickly the Iran war could realistically end. Interest-rate expectations moved the other way: by Thursday’s close, markets were no longer fully pricing another Fed increase until March. That is a market expectation, not a decision from the Fed. Friday’s jobs report is the next important test.

South Africa had a very different Thursday. The JSE All Share gained 3.67%, with precious metals shares helping the advance. Our market was catching up after Wednesday’s election-day closure, and much of the move reflected international developments. It would be too generous to award the whole rally to our local election result. The sharp US sell-off also gathered pace after Johannesburg’s close.

That makes today’s JSE session one to watch. We will see how much of Thursday’s optimism survives the overnight reversal in America. It will also help us distinguish the support coming from local developments from the forces moving markets everywhere.

For a South African holding offshore investments, the rand adds another moving part. A stronger rand reduces the rand value of an unchanged dollar investment. That can make a portfolio look weaker without the underlying business changing at all.

What would I take from the week? Check whether your conviction still rests on the business, its earnings and a price you can justify. Check how much of your portfolio depends on the same outcome. And check whether the money invested has the time you originally intended to give it.

For money being invested regularly over years, lower prices can improve future buying opportunities. They do not make every fallen share cheap. For money needed soon, a long-term story offers little protection from a short-term loss.

Conviction should survive a difficult day because you understand what you own. When the facts change, your view should be allowed to change too.

What Im Watching 

Today’s JSE session comes first, followed by the US jobs report and how markets respond to it. Then the South African count and the coalitions it makes possible. And through all of it, the Iran negotiations and the debate around AI investment, because both are moving expectations faster than policy can move.

Closer to home, next week brings our results, my CEO letter and the annual report. I look forward to the conversation that follows.

The Savage Take

The most useful thing about an honest review is what it allows you to do next.

You give people credit they have earned. You recognise progress you were too close to see. You face the gaps properly, while there is still time to do something about them.

Writing this report gave me all three. It reminded me how much people have built together, how much our clients have entrusted to us, and how much opportunity we still have ahead.

We should be proud of that. We should also expect more of ourselves because of it.

Markets added something to that lesson this week. I held back publishing this edition because the story had moved. Wednesday’s explanation was no longer enough by Thursday evening. The work was to look again and decide what the new information meant.

The same applies when you review a business or your own investments. You need enough conviction to keep going through difficult conditions, and enough willingness to question yourself when the evidence changes. Both take work. Neither is helped by defending yesterday’s words simply because they were yours.

That is what I valued most about putting this report together. It gave me a fuller view of what we have achieved and a more demanding view of what we can still do. The pride and the responsibility grew together.

Before the year disappears into the next one, give yourself the same opportunity. Look at what you said you would do and what actually happened. Appreciate the people who helped you get there. Decide what deserves more of your time and what has to change.

I found far more to be grateful for than I expected. I also know more clearly what I need to do next.

The world is not waiting. What you do next is the only thing that matters.

Stay Savage,
Charles

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