Triumph of the thoughtful—36ONE and Ranmore dominate a sobering 2026 Raging Bulls

Key topics:36ONE & Ranmore dominate 2026 Raging Bull AwardsValue investing vindicated after tech frenzy falloutDiscipline and process triumph over market hype.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..BizNews Reporter.In the noisy echo chamber of modern finance, where algorithms chase microseconds of momentum and narratives often trump numbers, it is easy to lose your bearings. We have seen plenty of that in the last few years—the vertiginous tech frenzies, the geopolitical shocks, and the inevitable, painful hangovers that followed.But the 2026 Raging Bull Awards presented last week — the undisputed "Oscars" of the South African investment industry — served as a potent reminder of Benjamin Graham’s unbeatable truth. In the short run, the market is a voting machine, driven by sentiment and adrenaline. In the long run, it is a weighing machine.And this year, the scales tipped decisively, almost overwhelmingly, in favour of the thoughtful - two of the BizNews tribe’s best-loved money managers; a duo who will be gracing us with keynote addresses at BNC#8 in Hermanus in just over three weeks' time (click here - there are still tickets available).The evening belonged to two houses that, on the surface, operate in different spheres yet share a fundamental DNA rooted in rational capital allocation: Cy Jacobs’ 36ONE Asset Management and Sean Peche’s Ranmore Fund Management. Their near-total dominance of the major categories this year isn't just a win for their clients; it's also a reassuring signal that financial sanity has returned..Read more:.SA consumer and bank stocks set for 2026 rebound.36ONE’s haul was spectacular, if unsurprising to close observers. Cy Jacobs and his team have long been the disciplined behemoths of the local landscape. They don't seek the limelight, preferring the relentless grind of forensic analysis, astute risk management, and the nimbleness that flows from rationality rather than narrative.Winning the top honours for South African equity and flexible performance is merely confirmation of a reality established over fifteen years: their ability to protect capital during inevitable downshifts and to capture upside when the smoke clears is unrivalled in this market. 36ONE doesn't chase fads; it dissects them, often profiting from the folly of others. The success of Team Jacobs is a testament to the power of consistency over charisma.Then there is the vindication of Sean Peche and Ranmore.For years, Sean has been a familiar, often contrarian voice here on BizNews. We’ve listened as he patiently explained why overpaying for popular "compounders" is a fool's errand, and generously shared how he finds absolute gems hidden in the unloved, dusty corners of the global market.There were times during the tech-driven mania of the early 2020s when Ranmore’s deep-value approach looked pedestrian to the untrained eye. Yet, the Raging Bulls for Best Global Equity Performance affirms what his loyal, long-term investors have known all along: being lonely at the bottom of the cycle pays handsomely when the tide eventually turns. Peche’s victory is a vindication of pure, unadulterated value investing in an era that famously tried—and failed—to declare it dead.What is the takeaway for the average investor looking at these results in 2026?It is that process matters vastly more than predictions. Both 36ONE and Ranmore possess the discipline to ignore the siren songs of "Mr. Market" on his manic days. They have skin in the game by always investing alongside their clients, they do their own homework, and they have the courage to look wrong in the short term in order to be spectacularly right in the long term.In a financial world increasingly dominated by passive flows and momentum-chasing bots, the 2026 awards were a refreshing salute to human judgment, deep research, and temperament. The weighing machine has spoken. We would do well to listen. And you can do so in person at BNC#8. Don’t miss this opportunity.

Triumph of the thoughtful—36ONE and Ranmore dominate a sobering 2026 Raging Bulls

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