CONKERS' CORNER

Welcome to the 15th CONKERS’ CORNER. In this interview I have the pleasure of speaking with Mike Rawson @the7cirlces. Mike has been investing for over 30 years, having first got the bug from his Dad. His first investments back in 1984/85, were companies that had evolved from the Conservative government’s de-nationalisation policy of utilities and services.

Mike completed a Science Degree in 1984, but found due to the Recession at the time, that he could not find a job in his chosen field. He opted instead to work in Computing, gaining his fist role with Software House. He would go onto work for UBS on Computing Integration Projects. Whilst at UBS Mike also completed a MBA in Finance.

Mike has held several other roles over the years including running and maintaining a property portfolio in relation to its tech/computing requirements. Mike admits that he tends to get restless and easily bored. Hence his many varied roles over the passed thirty-two years. During those roles Mike also refined his approach to investing having experienced all the stock market crashes and majors dips of the 1980’s, 90s, the 2000’s.

Mike now appears to have found something to address his restlessness, since 2011 he has been running his own investing portfolio full-time. In additional to this, he is a prolific blogger via his website http://the7circles.uk/ . Listen now to gain insights into how he invests, how he manages his portfolio and learn from the lessons in his investing journey.

Welcome to the 14th CONKERS’ CORNER. In this interview I have the pleasure of speaking with Steve Larratt @slarratt1 on Twitter.

Many on Twitter call Steve “Mr 88E” because of the fact that he completed more than a staggering 600 hours of in depth research into 88 Energy after finding what he thought was a once in life-time investing opportunity. Unlike many Steve did not covet ‘his’ research, he instead freely shared it with many investors via Bulletin boards, Twitter, discussion forums and across social media. Steve accumulated shares in 88E over several tranches and the lowest price that he paid for a tranche was 0.33p . At one stage Steve’s profit was more than 1200% on his cheapest tranche. At 88E’s recent peak, Steve ‘s name was lauded every where he went because he made several investors that had followed his extensive research “very rich indeed”.

Many of you will be wondering how or indeed why would someone spend 600 hours researching one stock. Well therein lays Steve’s background as an Internal Analytical Research Auditor, where he was employed by a significant organisation to find items and truths that individuals and entities did not want found.

As a shrewd private investor and generous sharer of information, Steve has numerous examples of exceptional returns including that of Rockhopper, Melrose Industries, Greggs and of course 88E. Listen now to gain insights into how Steve invests, how he researches potential stocks and learn from the lessons in his investing journey.

Welcome to the 13th CONKERS’ CORNER. In this interview I have the pleasure of speaking with Annabel Brodie-Smith @annabelbrodies on Twitter . Annabel is the Communications Director of the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) http://www.theaic.co.uk/representing Investment Trusts and Venture Capital Trusts. These Trusts are currently valued at nearly £165 Billion, most of which are listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Annabel’s journey and interest in the Investment Industry began whilst studying for her Geography Degree at Kings College, London where she found herself in a joint department with the London School of Economics. She then did a Economic Geography MA at Syracuse University in New York, where she focused on developments in China and Hong Kong. After returning to the UK and doing some jobs that she did not enjoy, Annabel completed a Public Relations course. In 1996 this led to her gaining a job with the Public Relations and Communications company Hill & Knowlton (H&K) (which is part of WPP – one of the biggest PR agencies in the world). At H&K Annabel worked on some notable projects and events including the Athens Olympic bid.

In November 1997 Annabel successfully gained a PR & Communications role with the AIC. Her role focuses on communicating the uses, features and benefits of investment companies to the media, opinion formers, financial advisers, wealth managers and private investors. Now nearly 19 years into the job, Annabel has led the AIC’s public relations and managed the reputation of the industry through great growth and challenges. These challenges have included transforming the profile of the AIC, its advertising campaign and the splits crisis as well as a number of regulatory threats. Most recently she has led the AIC’s response to the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) included in which, she has overseen the training of over 5,000 Financial Advisers and Wealth Managers.

Annabel has been a long-term investor for over 18 years and has refined her investing strategy over those years taking into consideration asset allocation, diversification and a broad global approach.

Welcome to the 12th CONKERS’ CORNER. In this interview I have the pleasure of speaking with Nicolas Marx @marxnd on Twitter.

After completing his Apprenticeship in the Hospitality Industry, Nicolas went onto study at Hotel School in Germany. It was during this time that he became curious as to where those in Hotel investing and Operations got their funding. His curiosity led him into the Investment Industry firstly with Merrill Lynch in Commodities trading & Retail Brokerage. Then with Credit Suisse (First Boston) in their Mergers and Acquisitions Team and Private Equity specialising in the Real Estate and Hospitality Sector.

Nicolas states that the first stock that he held was HOST MARRIOTT. He explains that he was gifted 100 shares as a young man from his Dad. Although he describes himself as a contrarian that likes high risk, decades on and many share-splits later Nicolas still has Marriott stock in his long-term portfolio.

When First Boston was dismantled, Nicolas decided to set up his own shop. The year was 1997 and aged just 30 years of age Nicolas set up NMCO, his very own Boutique Investment Bank. Which he describes as being “in the intersection between Investment Banking and Private Equity”, specialising in Turnaround, Restructuring and Structuring.

Nicolas’s passion for Corporate Finance, Private Equity, Real Estate and the Hospitality Industry leads him to travel globally. It is just as well that he speaks Spanish, English, German and Italian. AGILIENCE who measure professional influencers have rated Nicolas within the Top 100 Private equity fund authorities, covering also Private equity and Mergers & Acquisitions.

Nicolas recommends that all those that are interested in successful long-term investing should read the memos from Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital Management. Nicolas is a vastly experienced and accomplished Private Equity investor and he stresses the importance of “Second Level Thinking” and questioning everything. Listen now to gain insights into how he uses in depth research to run his Boutique Investment Bank and Fund, learn also from the lessons in his investing journey.

Welcome to the 11th CONKERS’ CORNER. In this interview I have the pleasure of speaking with Mark Bentley @marben100 on Twitter.

Mark’s career started in the IT industry with Logica in 1980, where one of the notable projects he worked on was the Giotto Halley’s Comet intercept mission for the European Space Agency. In 1984, Mark took his first tentative step into investing. He admits that his initial investment approach, was one of an undisciplined approach where he did not give his strategy a great deal of thought. Although as he points out, his Tech background influenced him not to invest in any Tech companies during the tech boom and safeguarded him from the Dot-com bust!

With his IT Services & Software Development background Mark decided to start his own IT services business in 1987, Anvil Technology Ltd. He went on to run this business with great success for 14 years.

For the past few years, whilst remaining as a full-time investor, Mark has also been a proactive and passionate Director of @ShareSocUK http://www.sharesoc.org/index.html ShareSoc is dedicated to the support of individual investors and shareholders rights.

Having refined his investing strategy over 34 years his approach is now one that takes a much deeper thought process, which focuses on research; asset allocation, intrinsic value and taking a top down view.

Welcome to the 10th CONKERS’ CORNER. In this interview I have the pleasure of speaking with David Jones @JonesTheMarkets on Twitter. David has been a Technical Analyst for almost 20 years and has seen Technical Analysis move from – in the early days at least – something of a dark art, to a very mainstream way of trying to forecast markets. When it comes to short-term trading of FOREX, INDICES and COMMODITIES it is probably the most widely used approach, particularly among individual retail traders.

David first started trading in stocks over 25 years ago and admittedly went into it with “the wrong mentality”. This was compounded by the fact that like many others before him, his first forays were in “penny stocks”. He admits that at the time he didn’t have the patience for said stocks due to their volatility.

At the end of 2013 David decided to take a break to look for other opportunities.

David is also currently a @bbc5live http://www.bbc.co.uk/5live BBC Radio 5 Live Markets Presenter on the Wake Up To Money program that airs on Mondays and Wednesdays. David is clearly now an experienced and accomplished investor and trader. Listen now to gain insights into how he uses Technical Analysis to invest/trade and learn from the lessons in his investing journey.

Welcome to the 9th CONKERS’ CORNER. In this interview I have the pleasure of speaking with Malcolm Palle @malcolmpalle . Malcolm’s career started in the Travel and Leisure sector as a Tour Guide in Eastern Europe and he is now a serial entrepreneur and shrewd private investor. He admittedly had “no strategy” in the 1980’s and learnt a lot of expensive lessons, especially during the 1987 crash. One of Malcolm’s favourite maxims is “Markets are only really there for two things, to make you money or to teach you a lesson”.

His entrepreneurial streak started when he was a Managing Director of CBNP Ltd and he pioneered the company going into Value Added Services (VAS) within the mobile telecoms Service Provider (SP) niche. In 2000 the business was acquired and integrated into an insurance administration operator.

He is currently the co-Founder and Director of Catalyst Information Services Ltd. The flagship operation is a fast growing investor hub and web publisher @theminingmaven http://www.miningmaven.com/ focusing on investment opportunities in the mining, exploration, natural resources energy and clean-tech sector. Established in 2009 MiningMaven has grown to become one of the leading investor communications and web publishing services with a primary focus on the UK and Australian small cap natural resources markets.

In addition, @UKInvestorForum http://www.ukinvestorforums.com/ was formed in 2013 as an Events organiser with a focus on emerging opportunities and alternative investments. His role within both areas of the business focuses on development, strategy marketing and sales.

In March 2014 with an eye on the Bitcoin revolution, Malcolm founded @CoinsiliumGroup http://coinsilium.com/ . Coinsilium was the first Bitcoin/Blockchain IPO in the world when it joined the ISDX Growth Market in December 2014. The company is now set to be a major player in this emerging area.

Now a experienced and shrewd private investor with a refined investment strategy, Malcolm has numerous examples of exceptional returns including that of Red Rock Resources. He started buying RRR in 2009 at 0.25p and his timing and cyclical analysis led him to vast profits as the stock hit 16.00p and went as high as 20.00p.

Welcome to the 8th CONKERS' CORNER. In this podcast I have the pleasure of speaking with Roz Sherali @Aim_Trading or Roz as everyone knows her on Twitter. Roz’s first interest in stocks and shares evolved from the Conservative government’s de-nationalisation policy of utilities and services. She participated in some the privatisations in the early 1990s, including that of Scottish Power.

Roz is an ex-Investment Banker and has worked for both Deutsche Bank & JP Morgan.

Welcome to the 7th CONKERS’ CORNER. In this interview I have the pleasure of speaking with John Rosier @johnrosier . In June 1984, John left university with a degree in Zoology and started work in The City of London. He enjoyed the first 14 years of his career at Fleming Investment Management, initially as an analyst and then as a UK portfolio manager; in 1997 he was appointed Head of UK Equities. He was a Director at Henderson Global Investors from 1998 until 2004, before moving to the West End and working for two hedge funds. His investment career at Flemings and Henderson was focused on managing UK equity portfolios for corporate and local authority final salary defined benefit pension schemes as well as the reserve fund for the NSPCC.

During 2009 he left full time employment, since then he has been managing my own portfolio. He has thoroughly enjoyed the freedom of investing from home and despite some tricky periods during 2011 he has found it a rewarding experience.

On 1st January 2012 John decided to chronicle his JIC Portfolio, which he started with cash of £151,110. You can see his outstanding performance here:http://johnsinvestmentchronicle.com/

Listen now to gain insights into how John invests and learn from the lessons in his investing journey. His passion for investing has enabled him to enjoy the freedom and flexiblility that many of us have as long-term goals.

Welcome to the 6th CONKERS’ CORNER. In this podcast, I have the pleasure of speaking with Matthew Bird @mattbird55 on Twitter.

Matthew’s interest in stocks and shares started when his Dad gave him some Jim Slater investing books in his mid teens. By his late teens he had started investing in stocks within his Dad’s trading account. With a degree in economics and qualified in regulated financial planning to Diploma level, Matt currently specialises in pensions, investments, mortgages and protection advice.

Keen to build a career out of his passion, Matthew has completed his Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning and hopes to gain Chartered status in the not too distant future. Prior to joining Seer Green Financial Planning Matthew spent 10 years managing his family’s wholesale firm.

Matthew has a keen interest in all things financial and has been an active private investor for many years. He enjoys researching his own share selections and writing a blog voicing some of his musings on investment-related topics. Whilst he admittedly has a very high risk personal attitude to investing he marries this with his Growth at Reasonable Price (GARP) & Quality over Price methodology. Over the past five years Matthew’s strategy has enabled him to beat the FTSE ALL-SHARE INDEX benchmark measure handsomely.