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.
8 April 2016
Enhanced income funds explainedThese are tough times to be an income investor. Interest rates anchored at an historic 0.5% low for the past seven years and dividend stalwarts such as Barclays, Glencore and Rolls-Royce cutting their shareholder returns in recent months have hit many who invest to supplement their income or pay their bills in retirement.
There are, however...
31 March 2016
How dividend growth can help to boost total returnsMost investors tend to think of income investing as a matter of finding the fattest yield and harvesting the dividends. But our research shows that it is consistent dividend growth that really matters when it comes to generating the best total returns from a portfolio of shares, at least if history is any guide.
Since its inception in 1962, the...
23 March 2016
Transport stocks help to drive the spring rallyFor the moment, it seems, transportation stocks are taking flight and at the same time sending the bears scurrying for cover. One of this column’s favourite market indicators – the Dow Jones Industrial Transportation index – is now up on the year as are two of America’s broader indices, Dow Jones Industrials, S&P 500, although the tech-laden NASDAQ...
18 March 2016
Chancellor opens alphabet soup of ISAs and sours on sugary drinksThe Treasury seemed to resemble a colander rather than a Government department in the run up to this year’s Budget, at least judging by the number of apparent leaks on the big decisions running up the opening of that famous red box, but Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne still came up with a few big surprises.
From a personal finance point...
18 March 2016
Emerging markets start to show signs of lifeRegular readers will be (perhaps painfully) aware for this column’s penchant for quoting the old market maxim: “You can have good news and cheap stocks, just not both at the same time.” It may be pertinent to look at a possible current example of this, in the form of emerging market equities, which are showing signs of life after three poor years.
...
14 March 2016
Central banks take centre stage once more
The European Central Bank’s decision on Thursday 10 March to unveil a new four-pronged stimulus package begins a key week for policy decisions from the world’s leading monetary authorities. After President Mario Draghi’s latest moves to:
Cut the headline interest rate to zero from 0.05% Cut the deposit rate to -0.4% from -0.3%, increasing the...
7 March 2016
FTSE 100 reaches critical stage in its battle to beat the bearAfter a brief flirtation with bear market territory and a 20% peak-to-trough decline, the FTSE 100 is now rallying, leaving investors to decide whether the worst is behind us or not.
All sorts of behavioural traps and biases lie in wait here, not least as we are all aware that markets have over time tended to go up and that the bear case often...
26 February 2016
What a Brexit vote could mean for British stocks, bonds and the pound It is interesting to see Prime Minister David Cameron equate voting to leave the EU on 23 June with “a step in the dark”, as he gives the UK electorate the ultimate say on 43 years of membership of the economic bloc.That phrase is very close to the “leap in the dark” used by the now-defunct Punch magazine with regard to the 1867 (Second) Reform...
17 February 2016
How to prepare for financial market volatilityBy 12 February, the FTSE 100 had risen or fallen by more than 1% from open to close on 19 trading days out of 30. That was the most in any year going back to at least 1995 and the only years which come close to this year’s figure are 2000 and 2008.They saw 16 and 14 such movements respectively by 12 February and unfortunately neither of those years...
15 February 2016
How crude calculations continue to influence marketsStock markets remain rocky and very few asset classes are providing any shelter from the storm – Government bond yields are compressing as prices rise, the yen is trying to go higher and gold has rallied strongly after five years in the doldrums as some investors start to follow the yellow brick road, as it were.
Yet the only commodity really...
