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.
12 November 2015
Transport stocks flag risk of a global slow punctureFans and detractors of this column both point out its trainspotter-ish tendencies, something that will be taken as a compliment whether it is meant as one or not. And regular readers will be very familiar with our regular looks at transportation stocks in search for signals that cut through the market noise.
Freight, shipping, truck, train and...
4 November 2015
Bond funds continue to play the duration gameHere we go again. No sooner does market action start to take a distinctly deflationary bias than a major central bank pipes up with some fresh monetary stimulus, or at least starts to drop some awfully heavy hints in that direction. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi appears to be considering an increase to the Eurozone’s €1.2 trillion...
29 October 2015
Small caps look to build on solid yearAIM’s 1,063 members have a total market cap of around £73 billion compared to the 982 firms which make up the £2.1 trillion Main Market. That’s a 3.3% weighting toward AIM, a figure which can act as a benchmark for assessing whether a multi-cap fund is suitable for an investor’s risk appetite or not. Anything above that, the investor will need a...
19 October 2015
Why Lloyds and the banks are so important to the UK market for 2016The Government’s plans to sell its remaining stake in Lloyds and place a £2 billion block of stock with retail investors next spring means the bank is going to have a very high profile – and with good reason because it is one of the most important stocks in what looks to be the single most important sector in the UK market.
Chancellor of the...
8 October 2015
Why oil is important when it comes to picking an income fundWhen Goldman Sachs speaks, markets listen. So when the giant US investment bank last month suggested a worst-case scenario could see oil hit $20 a barrel in 2016, the result was quite a flap, even if this was not Goldman’s base case. Bears got excited as they warned of economic weakness and the risk of a new deflationary downturn. Bulls shrugged...
2 October 2015
Emerging markets look for light at the end of the tunnelThe old market saying that you can have cheap assets and low valuations, just not both at the same time, applies to continental and national equity indices as well as it does to individual stocks or bonds. Perhaps one approach to sniffing out where the value may lie is to look at what is doing badly, why and whether a case can then be made for it...
25 September 2015
How the need for income could underpin UK stocksLast week this column touched on the issue of the vexed issue of the valuation of the UK stock market, using market capitalisation to GDP as the key metric. The results provided a bit of a question mark over the long-term direction of stocks, given that on this metric the UK looks expensive relative to its own history, unless corporate...
16 September 2015
Why lofty corporate profits question current market valuationsValuation is the ultimate arbiter of the return on investment from any portfolio pick. No matter how strong the narrative, paying too much can lead to losses, while paying a lowly valuation can provide downside protection and the basis for positive long-term returns, once an asset’s true charms come to be better appreciated.
The tricky bit is...
10 September 2015
How to judge the market mood“Investors should remember that excitement and expenses are their enemies. And if they insist on trying to time their participation in equities, they should try to be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.”
This is just one of the many widely-quoted aphorisms from master investor Warren Buffett, whose long-term...
28 August 2015
Why indices matter when it comes to portfolio performanceWhile looking into the exact composition of a financial market index may seem no more relevant to some investors than a debate over how many angels you can fit on the head of a pin, the make-up of key benchmarks can be a vital contributor to portfolio returns. This issue is only likely to become more acute at a time when more and more of us are...
