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.

Stablecoins are highly topical at the moment, with important new legislation in the US and many discussions taking place around the world with regulators. But why do they matter so much in the world of blockchain and crypto?

To explain the importance of stablecoins and to talk through critical concepts like yield-bearing stablecoins and the various use cases of this technology, Connie Bloem of Mesh.Trade joined us on this podcast.

We also touched on the recently launched SLVR token that allows investors to gain access to silver, an interesting follow-up the gold product that launched on Mesh.Trade earlier this year.

This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not financial or investment advice. Please speak to your personal financial advisor. Mesh Trade SA (Pty) Ltd is a licensed Financial Services Provider (53710) and an Accountable Institution registered with the Financial Intelligence Centre.

Stocks like Microsoft, Meta and Netflix have been strong winners in our portfolios (although we've had different exposures to them at different times). These stocks are great case studies to deal with two important questions.

The first relates to letting winners run. How do we think about having long-term vs. tactical positions and potentially trimming them over time?

The second relates to winners in a different context, being stocks in sectors with winner-takes-all or winners-take-most economics. Does this change the way we think about them over time?

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.