By Adri Senekal de Wet and Corrie Kruger
According to Mark Twain, “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities.”
When it comes to a story that involves the President of South Africa with hidden and undeclared large sums of money (the tip of the proverbial iceberg), and whose storyline’s veracity appears to be less of a possibility but a concrete fact, fiction would probably be preferred.
But alas, truth is indeed stranger than fiction in South Africa.
According to Corrie Kruger, an independent analyst: "In South Africa, an unlikely new strategy in forex trade has emerged and has traders across the world speechless with its unorthodox and unique approach.” Kruger is referring to the President’s potential of being the country’s most adventurous forex trader on record.
A good forex trading strategy allows for a trader to analyse the market and confidently execute trades with sound risk management techniques.
Tried and tested Forex trading strategies that now appear to be frowned upon by the head of state include:
Price Action Trading, which involves the study of historical prices to formulate technical trading strategies; Range Trading that includes identifying support and resistance points whereby traders will place trades around these key levels; Trend Trading where bullish or bearish trends are followed along the lines that the trend is your friend along with Position Trading and Day Trading.
The above strategies now eschewed, have given way to an emerging trend that involves the following potential scenario:
a) The trader feels confident that the US Dollar is in a bull phase relative to say the South African Rand (see chart above)
b) Cattle enters a bearish phase and both cows and bulls (think the Ankhole breed) are sold for Dollars. (The strategy therefore enters a bullish outlook and exits a bearish outlook, which includes the sale of bulls and cows)
c) The Dollars are then preserved by an uncle in the furniture business for an unspecified time. Microwaves, stoves, fridges and washing machines come in handy later in the process.
The above strategy, however, is only for the select few, those with connections in high places.
These friends need not insure or actively guard the Dollars, as the likelihood of some immoral group looking to share in the lucrative deal, is hardly a possibility.
Loss mitigation strategy
But in the instance where a rude intrusion does occur, these cheeky personages should have their own friends in foreign places and be prepared to leg it beyond the long arm of the law.
In the even more remote event that some uninvited guest helps themselves to portions of the furniture, it is important to take quick action to contaminate the scene where the crime took place.
This can be achieved by ensuring that many other footprints and fingerprints compete with those of the original perpetrators.
We thought we had a president kante we have a forex trader 🙆🏿♂️ pic.twitter.com/ovNcuuKeOf
— The Duke of Eccleston 🇿🇦🇱🇸 (@TsebangM) June 20, 2022
Smoke and mirrors have their place
The trader following the above strategy must cast some doubt about his/her strategy and for good measure, draw into the melee, the currency of a neighbouring sovereignty to further add to the confusion.
To end this farce, another saying, but this one closer to home by the author Langenhoven: “The best lie is the one with the most truth in it.”
Corrie Kruger is an independent analyst and Adri Senekal de Wet is the executive editor of Business Report.
BUSINESS REPORT