Contributors

Andrew Adcock is Chief Marketing Officer at Crowd for Angels, an FCA regulated crowdfunding platform which is approved by HMRC to operate the Innovative Finance ISA and offers a range of crowd bonds to investors. For more information visit www.crowdforangels.com.

Bill Blain is Strategist and co-head Special Situations Group at Mint Partners. Mint is a full service agency brokerage owned by, but independent of BGC, the leading financial brokerage. Bill is a regular commentator on fixed income and financial markets. He publishes a daily market comment - The Morning Porridge.

Simon Calton is a founder and CEO of the Carlton James Group (CJG). He brings a wealth of industry experience and management skills to both the group and the funds it administers. During his time leading CJG, Simon has successfully sourced and packaged deals in the US and the UK, delivering investment returns that consistently outperform market expectations.

An experienced financier, Simon knows that extensive due diligence, risk management and the provision of adequate collateral are all required to identify and secure a strong investment. Following this mantra, Simon has built and maintained a professional and effective team around him, utilising a network of industry professionals across the globe that add considerable opportunity to his deal sourcing and execution. As a result of these efforts, Simon and his team have acted as an advisor on deals that have led to substantial financial gain, and continued to develop investment vehicles that are suitable for modern day market conditions.

He often contributes property and global economic investment insight and content to a number of internationally recognized publications, including Forbes, Investment News, US News and World Report, Bloomberg, and a number of magazines and news sites that cater to financial advisors and the high net worth clients they represent.

Al Chalabi is an entrepreneur with a diverse professional background who started his career as a systems engineer in Canada. Following this, he worked as a management consultant advising corporations across a number of industries, and more recently as the CFO for a real estate investment company. He currently runs CASP-R, a firm he co-founded in 2008 to provide independent real estate research and advisory services to investors and corporate occupiers across the Asia-Pacific region. He lives in Hong Kong with his partner Fiona and two young children.

Miles had a successful career in the City heading up investment fund teams at Bear Stearns and Teather and Greenwood before setting up FSA authorised Wine Asset Managers (WAM) LLP in 2005. For more examples of WAM research please view the Blogs on the website www.wamllp.com.

Dave Evans is a market analyst and an editor of financial publications. His commentary has appeared in various publications from City AM to the Dow Jones newswire. His background is in psychology and previously practiced as a psychotherapist. He believes that as just as individuals can show mental bias when it comes to money, financial markets can show similar bias at certain extremes. Dave blends technicals with fundamental and political analysis on forex markets, while taking a primarily quantitative approach to trading stock markets.

Richard Gill is an investment analyst with almost a decade of experience of analysing small/mid cap equities. Richard qualified with the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in 2012 and was awarded PLUS Markets Financial Writer of the Year at the 2008 PLUS Awards. He has been a judge at the Small Cap Awards from 2013 to 2017

Victor is a financial economist, consultant, trainer and writer, with extensive experience in commercial and investment banking and fund management. His career includes stints at JP Morgan, Argyll Investment Management and World Bank IFC.

A well-travelled Londoner, Adrian has had many incarnations: accountant, programmer, musician, international layabout, poker player, political and social agitant, comedy performer/promoter, cunning linguist and shit tennis player. He's refurbished more than one house for himself and is a decent electrician, plumber and a better plasterer. Never trusting tradespeople or professionals to do things properly he's picked up a lot of skills along the way. As a result, he's been studying investing, as well as doing it, for many years. Having so much varied experience he tends to analyse things in a different, even abstract way, which is a good lens through which to see markets and the world.

The man the Daily Mail dubbed “The King of the Short Sellers”, Evil Knievil (aka Simon Cawkwell) is Britain’s most feared bear-raider. A big man with a bigger reputation, Evil Knievil famously made £1 million by short selling shares in Northern Rock during its collapse. He also uses his knowledge and experience to buy shares, often resulting in the same devastating effect. Evil now writes exclusively for Master Investor Magazine.

Roger is currently Deputy Chairman of ShareSoc (the UK Individual Shareholders Society”) which promotes the interests of private investors. He has been an active stock market investor for many years; written numerous articles on stock market investment for a wide variety of publications; and has been actively involved in a large number of campaigns on “problem” companies. His previous career was mainly as a director of IT companies and he has done some “business angel” investments in early stage companies. He is a Member of the British Computer Society, has a Masters Degree in Business Administration and a first class degree in Engineering.

THE INTUITIVE TRADER... CEO of Clever Games UK (www.clevergamesuk.com), Andre Minassian started trading as a retail investor 11 years ago. Some six months into his trading, he discovered that conventional methods of predicting the stock markets, i.e the technical and the fundamentals alone, simply did not help him make profitable trades . According to Andre, whatever news and data that is put out there to the public and almost all market calls by the big players is simply to move the retail investor in the direction which they want him/her to move. Consequently, he decided to ignore all broker forecasts, most market data - in short all noise created out there - and look for the macro geopolitical & economic Game Plans and Agendas which, according to him, control and decide market directions.

Adam is an economist from the UK, currently living in Brazil where he is founder of a valuation fintech and partner in a corporate finance office. He has previously worked in the UK Parliament, various investment practices and HSBC Brazil. Adam's research focus is on political economy, infrastructure investment, Brazilian financial markets and asset valuation. He read politics at Leeds and economics at the University of London as well as studying at the CISI. Adam also holds an MBA Finance from the Federal University of Paraná, Brazil.

Filipe has been a contributor to SBM since the earliest years. His specialisation is monetary policy, macro issues and behavioural finance where he allies the practical experience of several years of trading with academic credentials. Filipe in fact teaches courses on Financial Markets and Monetary Economics at the University of Oporto Faculty of Economics, helping traders maximise profits and better manage risk.

Oto is the head of Research and Development at Blue Sky Binary, a London based financial technology company that creates algorithms and provides education for the binary options and FX sector. Visit Blue Sky Binary at www.blueskybinary.com.

Wendy Salisbury is a London-based antique dealer, author and broadcaster with a passion for collecting eclectic objets d’art for investment. “I’ll buy anything I can fit into the boot of my car if I think there’s a profit in it!”.

Ranjeet Singh, the CEO of FCA regulated stock broking firm, London Stone Securities has been trading for over 20 years in equities, bonds, forex and derivatives. He began his working career at Lloyds Bank, before moving onto RBS-Natwest Markets as a foreign exchange trader and then finally onto Deutsche bank. He now runs his own company in the City of London and performs many roles from a qualified stockbroker to accomplished technical analyst, with a focus on UK and overseas equities. He uses complex derivatives and options to protect and enhance client investment portfolios. Ranjeet has also appeared on numerous TV financial programmes including CNBC, Reuters and BBC News. As a father of three young children his time is scarce, but he always makes time to fulfil his role as a trustee and founder of a UK based charity to help social cohesion within different multi-cultural communities.

Alan Steel rose to prominence in the financial sector after being the first person to put pen to paper to accuse Equitable Life of rampant mis-selling. A true champion of the ordinary saver/investor, Alan founded Alan Steel Asset Management in 1975, and now has £900 million under management. Visit the company website at www.alansteel.com.

Nick Sudbury is an experienced financial journalist who has written extensively for a range of investment publications aimed at both private and institutional investors. Before moving into journalism he worked both as a fund manager and as a consultant to the industry. He is a fully qualified accountant and has an MBA with finance specialism.

A City veteran with a career stretching all the way back to 1967, Robert’s experience encompasses fund management (including a directorship at County Bank Investment Services), stock broking analysis and advisory, and investment research (notably as head of Quartz Capital Partners, a pan European investment bank). At Master Investor Magazine, Robert provides comment on the UK blue chip and mid cap sectors.

Laura Turner is an analyst at the AIM-listed investment company Agronomics, which targets life science investments such as the emerging alternative food technology. She graduated from the University of Oxford, with a Master’s degree in Chemistry.