II Today

A ringside view of global financial markets

About The Author

I have been analysing and writing about financial markets for more than 30 years, initially as a business journalist on The Times, The Economist and The Independent, more recently as an independent investment professional and author/columnist. You can read a fuller personal profile on the main Independent Investor website.  My main interests are in “big picture” investment issues – asset allocation, strategy and fund selection – but I also invest in private and listed equities where I see exceptional opportunities.

My professional employment includes a number of directorships, including Agrifirma Services Ltd, founders of and advisers to the  Brazilian farmland company Agrifirma Brazil, and non-executive positions at the Jupiter Primadona Growth Trust, an investment trust listed in London, and Victoria Capital (UK) Ltd, a London wealth management firm which advises a small number of successful entrepreneurs on their investment and liquidity needs.

I am also a member of the investment committee of D&G Asset Management, which specialises in managing prime central London residential property, another investment interest of mine. For three years, from February 2008 until January 2010, I was an independent non-executive director of Hargreaves Lansdown plc, the UK’s leading fund and stockbroking firm.

In addition to editing and publishing the Independent Investor newsletter, I have also written a regular column in the Financial Times fund management section since 2007 and contribute regularly to The Spectator.  I have written, edited or co-published six books on investment, including Money Makers, a series of profiles of successful professional investors, and Investing with Anthony Bolton, a study of the UK’s most successful postwar fund manager. I also carry out specialist consultancy projects from time to time.

It goes without saying that any comments I make on this blog are entirely my own responsibility, and should not be regarded as being the views of any of the companies of which I am a director.  My professional livelihood depends on the ability to act with integrity and  retain my independence at all times.  Please read the Investment Warnings page on this site.

As a matter of policy Independent Investor does not seek, nor is it authorised, to give individual investment advice. It is not practical for me to give suitable individual investment advice in a general publication. I am however an Approved Person at an FSA-authorised firm, Victoria Capital, and hold the Investment Management Certificate, a Level Three qualification issued by the CFA in the UK, as well as degrees in history and management from Cambridge and MIT respectively.

Written by Jonathan Davis

November 1, 2009 at 1:15 PM