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.

Robbie Burns - The Naked Trader has been a full-time trader since 2001 and has made in excess of a million pounds trading the markets. He’s also written three editions of his book “Naked Trader” and the “Naked Trader Guide to Spreadbetting” and runs day seminars using live markets to explain how he makes money. Robbie hates jargon and loves simplicity. Catch him at www.nakedtrader.co.uk.

Connor joined Spreadex in November 2014 as part of a newly expanded Financial Analyst team, after graduating from the University of Southampton with an MA in English. His focus is on providing Spreadex’s customers with up-to-date and informative news, and is responsible for the market analysis found on the Spreadex website.

John is semi-retired after 40 years in City research of one sort or another covering most sectors, and an earlier career in the MoD and management consulting. As well as institutional research he has also long taken an interest in research for private investors, editing the long established and top performing Investors Stockmarket Weekly in the ‘90s, and later Small Cap Shares. In the noughties he worked for seven years with Hardman and published his own research for institutions via his FourSquare Research. He believes it is scandalous that the FCA’s misplaced rules have denied quality research to private investors - leaving them at the mercy of bucket shops and tipsters.

At 22, Caroline Drewett started an education business in London. After diversifying into the world of conservation, and the buy-to-let market, at 28 she now lives and works between Hong Kong, London and Ecuador overseeing the company’s projects. Clients include governments, foundations and private individuals. Her passion for nature, the outdoors, and exploring the world means Caroline spends much of her time travelling, experiencing new cultures, and identifying new opportunities whilst keeping abreast of global trends in real time. Caroline writes for our growing 'millennial' readership. Follow her on Instagram: @carodrewett.

A true stockmarket anorak, James Faulkner began investing in the stock market in his early teens. James is a devotee of the PEG-based growth investing model pioneered by Jim Slater in his seminal book, The Zulu Principle, while also being t1ps.com’s resident economic ‘guru’. James is an Associate of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment and holds the CISI Certificate in Investment Management.

Chief Executive Officer with 9+ years’ experience in research at leading financial institutions, including the European Central Bank, Burnbrae Group and Stockhub. Imperial College graduate, and passed both levels 1 and 2 of the CFA, the most respected investment management qualification in the World. Featured in the press, including CityAM, Bloomberg and Master Investor.

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.

Claire, Hybridan’s founding partner and CEO, was previously at Nomura in the UK Small Cap Life Sciences and Technology Sales and Trading team, and prior to joining Nomura, Claire was a mid cap equity analyst at Lazard, with a significant involvement in IPOs and capital market transactions. Claire started her career as an analyst and consultant at Datamonitor covering large cap companies. Claire is on the Board of the Quoted Companies Alliance as a non executive Director and is also Deputy Chairman of the QCA Board. Claire also heads up the Small Cap Awards judging panel of investors and advisors as Chairman. Claire has a Double Honours Degree from Manchester University, where she also undertook some postgraduate studies. She is fluent in French and German, and actively involved in a number of groups and government initiatives to empower women in the workforce and on Boards. Claire remains a mentor at Manchester University.

After completing his MBA at Birmingham University in 1993, Simon joined the corporate finance team at Singer & Friedlander working on small and mid-cap mergers and acquisitions. In 1997, he joined the senior banker team at ABN AMRO before moving into their corporate finance department in 1999, where he specialised in private equity. He then became head of investment management at Strutt & Parker’s Real Estate Financial Services before becoming a director of Topland, one of Europe’s largest private investment companies. In 2008, he set up Brookville Capital, a capital-raising business which subsequently won mandates with, amongst others, Bunge, the Bank of China (Suisse) and Fleming Family & Partners. Brookville provides him with daily contact with institutions such as pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, private banks and family offices seeking to deploy capital in real assets such as agriculture and gold. He has previously written two newsletters, Metals & Miners for Moneyweek and Gold Speculator for Agora. He now writes the Brookville Capital Newsletter which covers gold and silver mining stocks.

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.