Due to our wide range of clients with differing investment objectives, ranging from the broad spectrum of retirement fund members, to individual investors with diverse objectives, GTC caters for a variety of investment strategies.

Investment objectives range from short term money market type holdings through to aggressive capital growth pursuing portfolios. Whilst these divergent objectives require fundamentally differing strategies, GTC consistently applies, to the extent possible, a philosophy of building capital on capital. This is not necessarily conventional absolute return investing, but places significant store in preserving gains made and continually building a portfolio rather than being driven by market momentum.

The principle of being focused on not losing money in bad times and making money in good times, is irrefutable. For example if an investor had R100 two years ago and endured a 50% loss in year one and a 50% gain in year 2, rather than breaking even over this time, the investor remains 25% down on his starting balance! A return mandate of (say) 10% per year would have resulted in a difference of some 80% improvement over the relative investment process.

GTC provides investment management capabilities across a wide range of the Group’s businesses. There are fundamental differences between the multi-managed unit trusts used by institutional and private clients, as compared with the stock broking and derivatives trading capabilities used for different clients. The expectations of large institutional retirement funds using GTC’s asset consulting capability differ from those of younger private investors. While GTC accommodates these different requirements, the principle of building growth on growth defines our investment philosophy well.

• Building solid, proprietary research in a transparent and repeatable process.
• Focusing on maximising value for each client by providing our maximum endeavour on their stated needs.
• Taking deliberate and appropriate risks in financial markets, maximising client reward within known risk and time parameters.
• Recognising that financial markets are inefficient, identifying the opportunities that exploit these inefficiencies.
• Identifying, and avoiding the pitfalls that destroy investment value – high asset management turnover, overly complex structures, excessive fees, etc.
• Encouraging client participation in our collaborative process of strategy formulation and portfolio selection.
• Always remembering that this investment process is built around a team and not around an individual.
• Providing a clearly identified standard of excellence and ethics in terms of client service.