Just One Lap was founded in 2011 as an independent source of free, unbiased trading and investment education. Through free-to-attend webcasts and live events, founder and media personality Simon Brown and a number of expert guests have been sharing knowledge, hard-won through experience, at no cost to the user.
In 2015, Just One Lap broadened its reach by adding jargon-free financial and investment education to the mix. We hope to present information that is easy to understand at any level. We want to empower each user, regardless of their financial situation, to take charge of their financial well-being. If you are not sure where to begin this journey, start here.
The team
Simon Brown is a market commentator, educator, trader and investor. Developing a keen interest in trading during the mid-1990s, Simon learned his market lessons at the School of Hard Knocks.
Throughout his career, he has launched a number of successful trading and market-related businesses. With each venture he became increasingly aware of a huge gap for free and readily-available financial education.
Since 2002, Simon has been honing his educational prowess on various platforms, ranging from his own business, SAWarrants, to Standard Online Share Trading (OST). His educational experience culminated in a desire to offer free, trustworthy education and thus Just One Lap was born.
Simon is a well-known and trusted market commentator. He shares his views in the media, writes for Financial Mail, hosts a daily morning show on Moneyweb and is a co-host of The Week That Was on BusinessDay TV. He also hosts and produces JSE Direct, a weekly podcast in which he comments on significant movements in the market and conducts interviews with noteworthy players in the South African landscape. He publicly discloses his portfolio here.
In addition to his Just One Lap work, Simon offers training on behalf of various large financial institutions. He is also an engaging and entertaining public speaker and master of ceremonies.
Reach Simon by email at simon@justonelap.com, or on Twitter @SimonPB for public speaking requests and educational training.
Njabulo Nsibande is the founder of VillageTrader.co.za, a founding member of Sakha Ingcebo investment club, and writes the Village Trader blog for JustOneLap.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @njabulo_goje and @VillageTraderZA
I developed an interest in trading in 2016, the thought of making money by betting if a currency pair is going up or down gripped me, along with Instagram “fx traders”. I just saw freedom – I can make money from anywhere with an internet connection!
Like many others after spending time losing money in the markets (“paying school fees” some would say), I decided to start a podcast where I learn from other traders. My main goal has shifted from making money in the markets to trading well, and the money will follow. I am now trading like the casino not the gambler.
My association with Just One Lap began when I came across Simon Brown thanks to YouTube algorithms, and moved from being a user of Just One Lap to a contributor in 2018.
Nafisa Akabor writes our Cache This blog covering tech that’s worth writing about.
Nafisa is a freelance technology journalist who accidentally got into her career by following her passion. She grew up breaking and fixing PCs, doubling up as her family tech support, and eventually found herself in the online publishing space.
Her career started when she was nominated for an ICT award for citizen journalism back in 2007 and was subsequently offered a full-time job to write about tech and update a tech blogging website.
Fourteen years later and she hasn’t looked back. Nafisa covers business and consumer tech from topics like mobile payments, robotics, fintech, telecoms, electric cars, start-ups, travel and medical tech, IoT and AI. On any given day, she is testing the latest smartphones and gadgets.
Nafisa is published in the Financial Mail, Forbes Africa, TechCentral, Visi Mag, Mail & Guardian and does corporate blogging. She has her own tech blog called Wired to the Web, and can be found on Twitter @nafisa1 or Instagram @nafisa.
Carina Jooste
Carina Jooste has been writing the Retire blog since 2018. As a full-time marketer and overtime mother-of-two, she expected to whiz through the hype and pick out the kernels of value to apply to her own retirement planning. But it’s not that easy to find your way through the confusing concepts and industry jargon. And having children makes you a lot more anxious about the future (and your own mortality). So she set out to tackle the big, hairy ‘retirement’ monster, demystify the concepts and find the tools to manage retirement, before and after the event.
De Wet and his trusty tax elves (actually AJM Tax) write the Tax Tuesday blog. For Just One Lap they focus on tax issues that people saving, investing, and trading commonly encounter. This is surprisingly vast. They’re a gold mine of information on everything tax related (and corporate governance, the non profit sector, emigration, business restructuring … ). What’s more, they’re able to translate theory into practical insights and assistance. We’re very appreciative of their existence.
Award-winning financial journalist Kristia van Heerden joined Just One Lap in 2015 as CEO. Before joining the team, she was a writer and online editor at Finweek.
Her journey into the financial world started with a major financial misstep. As a result of financial ignorance, she became heavily indebted at a young age. She managed to break free of her financial burden through access to education and with the support of her family. Understanding the huge emotional impact of out of control finances, she became passionate about sharing her experience. Through Just One Lap, she has offered support, encouragement and education to those who are trying to change their financial destiny.
Kristia left Just One Lap in March 2021 to head up the education division at a global listed broker. She will always be missed and while she’s no longer an active contributor to Just One Lap she remains a close associate, and of course, her past contributions continue to educate and entertain our users.
