Russ Mould is AJ Bell's Investment Director. He has a Master's degree in Modern History from the University of Oxford and more than 30 years' experience of the capital markets.
He started out at Scottish Equitable in 1991 as a fund manager, where he had responsibility for the Nordic and Swiss equity markets. In 1993, Russ joined SG Warburg, now part of UBS investment bank, and worked there as an equity analyst covering the technology sectors for 12 years. He has also worked on IPOs and M&A deals. Russ was voted best analyst in the semiconductor sector in 2001 by Institutional Investor and reached the level of Managing Director in 2003 when he became head of UBS' global semiconductor research effort.
A member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (MSCI), Russ is responsible for providing written and video content for customers and clients. He also helps to build the company’s profile in print and broadcast media as part of AJ Bell's wider PR and brand team, working alongside the Investment Committee.
Russ joined Shares Magazine as technology correspondent in 2005 and took on the post of Editor in 2008. He was appointed as AJ Bell's Investment Director in 2013 following the company's acquisition of Shares' parent company, MSM Media. Russ regularly creates content across the AJ Bell website, including the Daily Market Update and Chart of the Week, and he hosts his own 'Breaking the Mould' weekly video series.
Outside of work, Russ is a qualified cricket coach, Italian speaker and avid fan of Doctor Who and NFL.
30 June 2017
Investments to watch when the oil price movesLast week we looked at the four indicators which could help investors to spot turning points in the oil price (which is currently hovering around $46 a barrel, using Brent crude as a benchmark, just above its year lows). They were:
US oil inventories US and global oil rig activity US shale oil output The oil futures markets and whether...
23 June 2017
Why oil’s latest slide matters to UK investorsOil prices are sliding to fresh lows for the year, despite May’s agreement in Vienna by OPEC and leading non-OPEC members (notably Russia) to stick to and extend the production cuts first announced last November by nine more months to the end of March 2018.
Oil is trading at new lows for 2017Source: Thomson Reuters Datastream
This will be as...
16 June 2017
Why the tech sector remains a key sentiment indicator for global stocksNo sooner had America’s technology-laden NASDAQ Composite stock index crossed the 6,000 mark for the first time in late April than two of its leading members, Amazon and Alphabet, have seen their share price reach $1,000.
The numbers in themselves mean little in absolute terms but they do signal that technology is well and truly back in fashion...
9 June 2017
Hung Parliament may not hamstring FTSE 100(although oil, the dollar, metals prices and interest rates still could)
A dreadfully poor campaign, where the slogan “Strong and Stable Government” smacked far too much of Tory Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin’s uninspiring and unsuccessful “Safety First” campaign of 1929, has caught up with Theresa May and the Conservative Party and eroded its...
31 May 2017
Five ways to value a stockOne of the most important lessons of investing is to buy as cheaply as you can (with the ultimate aim of selling as expensively as you can, or even not selling at all, if you really pick a winner).
While they may sound like the blindingly obvious, investors can occasionally be seduced, especially when markets are rising, to forget this discipline....
24 May 2017
How to check whether ETFs are right for your portfolioLast week’s column noted the phenomenal rise of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and the concept of passive investment. This is best exemplified by data from independent consultant ETFGI which shows that $197 billion flowed into ETFs worldwide in the first quarter of 2017. That compared to inflows of $70 billion in the same period in 2016 and was...
18 May 2017
4 reasons to include ETFs in your portfolioAccording to data from independent consultant ETFGI, global fund flows into exchange-traded funds (ETFs) came to $197 billion in the first quarter of 2017. That compares to inflows of $70 billion in the same period in 2016 and is enough to take total assets under management to $3.9 trillion.
It is easy to see why this trend is developing so...
11 May 2017
Four ways to test whether a dividend is safe or notThe swingeing dividend cut from Talk Talk and BT’s decision to abandon its plan to increase its shareholder pay-out by 10% a year are both timely reminders to investors of the dangers of over-reaching for yield in a low-interest-rate world.
BT’s shares held up relatively well on the news, albeit in the wake of a near 30% slide over the past 12...
5 May 2017
Why retailers may be looking to the pound for some reliefAt its core, stock-picking can be pretty simple stuff.
The key is to identify firms which are going to show the best profit and dividend growth. (The hard part is doing the research into companies’ business models, competitive position, financial strength and management acumen so you have a good grasp of the firms’ potential to consistently...
27 April 2017
Why the Conservatives power cap pledge may not short circuit the FTSEConfirmation from the Conservative Party that its manifesto will feature a commitment to cap certain power tariffs charged by the Big Six energy providers means that FTSE 100 Centrica and SSE are both among the list of the 10 worst performers in the FTSE 100 over the past week and the past month, while both are also in the bottom 15 on a three-...
