EasyEquities

👨‍💼🗣️🖥️ The EasyAssetManagement Desk Two major elections in two days, but what do they really mean for investors? Americans voted in the midterm elections on Tuesday, while South Africans headed to the polls for municipal elections on Wednesday. Both have important implications for markets, although perhaps not in the ways investors initially expect. 🇺🇸 In the US 🇺🇸 The Democrats secured control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, setting the stage for a divided government during the remainder of President Trump's term. This could make major legislative changes more difficult, particularly around government spending and fiscal policy. However, the administration retains influence over tariffs, regulation and energy policy. For investors, we're particularly interested in what this means for AI infrastructure, energy and technology businesses. Changes to trade restrictions, data centre regulation and government spending could affect individual companies, even if the underlying long-term demand for their products remains strong. 🇿🇦 In South Africa 🇿🇦 With counting still underway, we're watching what the results reveal about the broader political mood and public confidence in the country's direction. From an investment perspective, we're particularly interested in the implications for political stability, the coalitions that emerge and, importantly, whether these can translate into better governance and service delivery. Many South African municipalities have suffered from years of underinvestment, deteriorating infrastructure and poor service delivery. These challenges won't disappear following an election, nor can municipalities alone resolve South Africa's broader structural economic problems. However, a credible improvement in the political outlook could have meaningful economic implications long before physical improvements become visible. Greater political stability and confidence in future governance could support property prices, business valuations and consumer confidence, while encouraging businesses to invest. Importantly, this would only be the beginning of a much longer process of rebuilding infrastructure and restoring economic confidence. The real test will be whether improved expectations translate into tangible progress. 📊 What Does This Mean For Our Portfolios? 📊 At EasyAssetManagement, our investment decisions are driven by long-term opportunities rather than short-term political predictions. The EasyETFs Global Equity and AI World AMETFs are positioned around global investment themes and businesses with attractive long-term prospects. While political developments can affect valuations and individual companies, our investment theses generally extend well beyond a single election cycle. The EasyETFs Balanced AMETF combines different asset classes, providing diversification and additional flexibility to manage risk through periods of uncertainty. Being active managers also gives us the flexibility to respond when developments materially change our investment outlook. However, this doesn't mean reacting to every headline. 💬 Our View? 💬 Elections can change market sentiment overnight, but meaningful economic change takes considerably longer. 𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘶𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘴, 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘵-𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘮 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘯𝘰𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨-𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘮 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴. easyequities.co.za | #EasyEquities

📩 The Savage Take 📩 This week, @CharlesHSavage 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. Read the full take 📨 blogs.easyequities.co.za/the… #EasyBlogs | #EasyEquities

A unit trust is, essentially, a big pot. Lots of individual investors put money in. A professional manager invests it across a mix of assets - stocks, bonds, property. You own units in the pot rather than picking the holdings yourself. Two things follow from that. You get a wider spread than most people could build on their own, which helps spread the risk. And you’re not making the day-to-day calls - that’s someone’s actual job. The catch, stated plainly: the value of your units moves up and down with the assets underneath them. South Africans hold trillions of rands in unit trusts. On EasyEquities you can hold them in your ZAR account, your Tax-Free Savings Account or your Retirement Annuity. #EasyRetire | #EasyEquities

Worth noticing where this company actually earns 👇 → Listed on the NYSE → 43% of revenue comes from Africa → Americas 32%, Europe 19%, rest of world 6% A useful reminder that where a company is listed tells you almost nothing about where it makes its money. Same point we made about the JSE last week, just in reverse - plenty of SA-listed companies earn most of their money offshore, and plenty of offshore-listed companies earn theirs here. The listing is an address. The revenue split is the actual business. easyequities.co.za | #EasyEquities

One day you’ll explain compounding to someone and realise you’re using your own portfolio as the example. easyequities.co.za | #EasyEquities

Heads up that the JSE is closed today 🚫🇿🇦 for the #Elections2026 #LocalGovernmentElections! No immediate transactions in ZAR or TFSA accounts, but you can place a buy instruction. EasyProperties, EasyCrypto and all other markets are open. 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰 𝘪𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘢 𝘉𝘜𝘠 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. Make your mark. 🗳️ easyequities.co.za | #EasyEquities

📘 #EasyProperties Development Update 📘 Vanderbuilt is almost ready for keys - handover starts mid-November. The part where a construction site quietly becomes somewhere people live. Elsewhere this month: 🏗️ Monarch - all vertical columns on Blocks A and C complete, Block C now visible above the fencing 📄 Woodstock Quarter - reached lodgement stage 🔨 2 on Hill - roof going on, completion anticipated Q1 2027 🏠 The Hive - interior finishes underway, occupation Q1 2027 See the full update here 📄 properties.easyequities.co.z… #EasyProperties | #EasyEquities

Worth noting what kind of money this is 👇 → A one-off sale, not a new income stream → Changes balance sheet, not earnings engine → Still has conditions before anything lands “Unlocking value” usually means exactly this: swapping an asset you own for cash you can do something else with. Genuinely useful - just a different thing from the business earning more. It’s also why a once-off can flatter an earnings number for a year. Same lesson as Vodacom last week: check which figure you’re looking at. 💊 easyequities.co.za | #EasyEquities

Check out the #EasyEquitiesTop5Buys in this weeks digital issue of the @FinancialMail ▪️ ZAR Account ▪️ TFSA Account ▪️ USD Account What are 𝗬𝗢𝗨 buying? easyequities.co.za | #EasyEquities

The only poll my portfolio actually cares about is whether people will still buy the thing the company sells. easyequities.co.za | #EasyEquities

Money left sitting still doesn’t stay still. It quietly buys LESS every year. That’s what this one is really about. Inflation is just a measure of how much the cost of living has gone up - and each year the same amount in your pocket buys a little less than it did. The interest you earn on savings often isn’t enough to keep up. Investing is one way to try to stay ahead of that. Not a guarantee: share prices move around, and you can lose money. But staying invested, rather than hopping in and out, is what gives you the chance to ride out the short-term wobbles. Consider starting as early as you can. And build it around your own needs and goals, not someone else’s. #Thrive | #EasyEquities

Your feed is about to fill with people telling you exactly what the results mean for markets. So here’s one statistic you’ll see regularly, with the part that usually gets left off: “Since 1950, the S&P 500 has been higher 12 months after every single midterm election.”📄 Nineteen elections, nineteen times higher. A genuinely striking record. Now the footnotes... Nineteen is a small number. Shorten the window and it gets messier - from election day to year-end, the record is 13 out of 19. And nobody has found the cause. Researchers keep landing somewhere less dramatic: interest rates, inflation, and what companies actually earn. Which US party wins shows no consistent pattern. The stat isn’t wrong. It’s just being asked to carry more than it can. The loudest voices this week will be the certain ones. Certainty is the cheapest thing on the internet. Honest question for you 👇 𝘚𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬 𝘺𝘦𝘵? 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘮? easyequities.co.za | #EasyEquities

💸 Dividends & Corporate Actions 💸 A busy one this week - 22 US names on the list, a solid JSE line-up, and a rare Australian entry. Prosus leads locally at R5.20 a share. Here are some names with upcoming last dates to trade to qualify for their next dividend payments: 🇿🇦 Prosus N.V. 🇿🇦 PSG Financial Services 🇿🇦 Equites Property Fund 🇺🇸 Visa 🇺🇸 Pfizer 🇺🇸 Wells Fargo 🇦🇺 National Australia Bank Heads up: the JSE names have last days to trade today, 2 November. See the full breakdown 📋 easyequities.co.za/corporate… #EasyRetire | #EasyEquities

We had the opportunity to engage with teachers at Hoërskool Birchleigh, where we spoke about investing, the different ways they can earn income from their investments, and the importance of making informed financial decisions. We also discussed the Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA), explaining how it works, its tax benefits and how it can be used to grow wealth over time. The session aimed to encourage teachers to explore investment opportunities and make their money work for them. Learn more 📖 easyequities.co.za/tfsa-inve… #EasyRetire | #EasyEquities

A whole Amazon share costs more than most people have lying around. A fraction of one costs whatever you’ve got. Meet Angela. She has $20 - not enough for a whole Amazon share. So she buys a piece of one instead. Same share, smaller slice. And if she keeps adding, those pieces add up to a whole one. That’s the bit worth sitting with: the price of a share doesn’t decide whether you can invest in it. You don’t have to stay out of the market while you save up for the whole thing. You still get the benefits - the share’s potential to grow, and dividends relative to the size of your piece. And putting smaller amounts across different shares is a sensible way to spread your risk. Read more 📖easyequities.co.za/fractiona… #Thrive | #EasyEquities

That feeling when... Your R1 dividends become R10. Your R10 dividends become R100. Your R100 dividends become R1,000. And your R1000 dividends become R10,000. Keep building. #Thrive easyequities.co.za | #EasyEquities

EasyFX gives your money a passport - now Thrive gives some of the fee back*. Convert your rands with EasyFX and earn an #EasyMoney rebate on your conversion fee, from 2% at Thrive Level 1 up to 20% at Level 10. The rebate lands in your Thrive Rewards account as EasyMoney (EM10 = R1), ready to invest however you like. Reach Level 3 and the R25 monthly Thrive fee falls away. See what you’d earn at your level 📖 easyequities.co.za/thrive #Thrive | #EasyEquities