Laith Khalaf is AJ Bell's Head of Investment Analysis. He joined the company in 2020 and continues to explore the world of personal investing, providing research and analysis to both AJ Bell customers and the media. He has a degree in Philosophy from the University of Cambridge.
Laith is a leading industry commentator with over 20 years’ experience. As well as being a regular contributor to the financial pages of the national press, he’s a frequent guest on TV and radio, and for several years provided daily business bulletins on LBC.
He started his career in 2001 on the customer helpdesk of Hargreaves Lansdown, where he gained invaluable experience understanding what DIY investors wanted, and the range of investments and tax shelters they held. This was in the early days of DIY SIPPs and ISAs, and coincided with the tech crash, the split cap investment trust scandal and the aftermath of the Equitable Life collapse. Suffice to say there was no shortage of drama!
In 2007, Laith began to focus on research and analysis, initially within the pensions market, and quickly built a reputation for providing commentary and data for everyday investors and financial journalists. He then moved on to investment analysis, looking particularly at multi-asset funds, and selecting default funds for group pension schemes. You can find his comments in the national papers most weekends, and he is a frequent guest on AJ Bell’s Money & Markets podcast.
Outside of work, he likes to eat pistachio nuts and has become addicted to padel tennis.
17 March 2025
Are safe havens good for those fleeing the Trump slump?The mighty S&P 500 has taken a tumble. The US index dipped briefly into correction territory, defined as a 10% fall from a previous peak. Markets have taken fright at the global trade war that seems to be erupting, because that can be expected to dampen global growth while pushing up inflation.
Donald Trump also appears to have spooked the market...
14 March 2025
Which investment strategy has delivered the best 10-year returns?We have put five common investing strategies to the test to see how they stacked up against each other. Perhaps not surprisingly in such momentum-driven markets, performance chasing came out top, with bargain-hunting bringing up the rear.
One of the basic tenets of investment is not to buy an asset just because its price has gone up. And yet, in...
26 February 2025
Why making your second ISA million is 2.5 times easier than your firstBecoming an ISA millionaire is the lofty goal of many investors, but new data shows that once you’ve hit that point it’s a far more rapid path to hitting your second million. Figures from AJ Bell show that it takes 25 years of saving £1,433 a month to build up a £1 million ISA, but only takes a further 10 years to make it to the £2 million mark.
T...
5 February 2025
Shareholders come out in force to vote on Saba proposalsRetail shareholders have come out in force to have their say on the proposals put forward by hedge fund Saba Capital to shake up seven investment trusts.
At the start of this year Saba announced shakeup plans for seven investment trusts it had built up positions in, putting forward two resolutions for customers to vote on: removing the current...
30 January 2025
How to protect your portfolio from a tech market crashUK investors might feel a million miles away from Silicon Valley, but their pensions and investment portfolios are probably brimming with US technology stocks. This has no doubt served them incredibly well in the past decade, and the Magnificent Seven may well continue to leave the rest of the market chomping at their heels.
But this week saw a...
22 January 2025
Why are so many active fund managers underperforming?Every six months at AJ Bell, we publish a report on the proportion of active managers beating the typical passive fund in seven key equity sectors. It’s called Manager versus Machine, and ever since we launched the report in 2021, it has made challenging reading for active fund managers.
In the latest edition, our analysis showed that overall...
14 January 2025
How to invest for incomeThe American business magnate John D Rockefeller was said to have remarked that the only thing which gave him pleasure was to see his dividends rolling in.
He was no doubt exaggerating for dramatic effect, but equity income investors will be familiar with the satisfaction of receiving dividends from their portfolio of investments.
Income investing...
9 January 2025
Fundsmith Equity posts fourth year of index underperformanceTerry Smith has published his annual letter to shareholders of the Fundsmith Equity fund, showing that 2024 was the fourth consecutive calendar year the fund has underperformed the MSCI World Index and the third consecutive calendar year it has underperformed the Global sector.
It means that Fundsmith Equity investors have now seen four calendar...
9 January 2025
What rising gilt yields mean for investorsThe bond market has taken fright from the growing sense of inflationary pressures in the air. The benchmark UK 10-year gilt has now risen to levels not seen since the financial crisis. It’s somewhat odd that bond yields have risen to new highs so long after interest rates have peaked, which suggests markets were complacent about inflation and...
3 January 2025
The outlook for shares, bonds, cash, gold and bitcoin in 2025Whether we like it or not, the US isn’t just the bellwether for the global stock market — it’s most of the herd given the country’s market value represents 70% of the MSCI World index.
The likelihood is that Donald Trump will push through lower corporate taxes and deregulation, which should be positive for US stocks, though at least a portion of...
