In a nutshell: we are a group of former and current traders, financial advisors, brokers, journalists and internet boffins.
In 2002, Louw Aucamp realised that the financial service industry was about to undergo radical change. He also realised that the scattering of brokers and traders across the country (as a result of the internet), created the need for a place where market participants could meet again and interact daily, just like the old days at 17 Diagonal Street.
"Why not use the internet to overcome the distance problem?" he thought.
He discussed it over a cup of coffee with friend and former colleague, Francois Roux. "Why not open it up to traders from other financial markets as well?", suggested Francois.
And so the idea was born of a single forum where all market participants from all financial markets could "meet" on a daily basis to discuss the markets and economy, issues of mutual interest and plan social events - in short: a place where financial advisors and other market players could belong to something (no pun intended).
After discussions with various traders from different markets, they soon realised that there was a huge interest, not only among traders, but also among investors, economists, market commentators, sponsors, advertisers, and even insurance brokers.
A few fiends and former colleagues were approached and soon KeyNews consisted of a staff of nine people, each a specialist in his/her own field.
By the end of June 2004 (before the web site was even launched), KeyNews boasted with an office in Johannesburg (with representatives in Pretoria, Stellenbosch and Knysna), telephone and fax lines, a comprehensive web site, an agreement with Amazon.com regarding the supply of books on financial and economic matters, commitments from several sponsors with regards to events, parties interested in advertising on the web site, companies enquiring about other kinds of sponsorships (from sponsored links on the web site to sponsored gholf shirts), a mail group (consisting of several traders from 7 different companies and 3 different markets) as well as some 50 subscribers to the weekly newsletter!
"The enthusiasm shown by interested parties across the spectrum really blew us out of the water! We knew there was a need, but never dreamed it would be such a demand," says Louw. "It seems we lost more than we realised when the JSE moved from Diagonal Street to Sandton. The broking community in South Africa is an industry on its own."
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