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.
6 July 2015
Greece is the wordGreece's failure to repay €1.5 billion owed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on 30 June may have only a limited economic impact on the Eurozone (unless you are Greek) but its wider effect on financial markets and investors' portfolios remains harder to judge.
The uncertainty may help to explain why the FTSE All-Share has just had its...
3 July 2015
Macro and multi-asset funds look to make the headlinesIn a year when we have already seen the Swiss franc rocket, crude oil prices bounce and sovereign bond prices gyrate horribly investors could be forgiven for feeling exhausted as we approach the summer holiday season. Yet the ongoing Greek drama, an abrupt correction in Chinese stocks and debate over the timing and speed of interest rate rises in...
24 June 2015
Asia look rattled by the greenback’s riseWhether the reason is concerns over the timing of US interest rate rises, fatigue with the ongoing Greek debt drama or a simply the traditional summer lull, equities are giving up some of the ground earned during the earlier part of the year. Moreover, Emerging and Frontier markets have ceded nearly all of their gains for 2015 and Developed arenas...
19 June 2015
Markets look for a better deal from raw materialsInvestors know all too well that following the crowd – the consensus – is usually a quick way to the poor house. Meanwhile, going against the herd can often bring the best long-term results, even if the wait for market opinion to turn and go your way can often be longer than expected and therefore uncomfortable.
At the moment the one asset class...
12 June 2015
Looking for liquid alternativesIt was privilege to attend the sixth annual ETF.com Inside ETFs conference in Amsterdam earlier this month (8-10 June), even if the inside of two taxis, the venue and Schiphol airport were all I saw of the beautiful Dutch city. The event covered a huge range of topics related to Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) and it was a particular pleasure to...
8 June 2015
Markets steam higher even as Transport index hits the buffersEquity indices as diverse as America's Dow Jones Industrials and NASDAQ Composite, the UK's FTSE 100 and FTSE 250, Germany's DAX, Israel's TA-25 and Sweden's OMX-30 have reached new peaks in 2015, while Japan's Nikkei 225 stands at an 18-year high and China's Shanghai Composite at levels last seen some five years ago.
As such, the bulls seem to be...
1 June 2015
Waiting for Uncle Sam to turn the cornerOne of the most interesting developments of 2015 is how the market's enthusiasm for US equities appears to be cooling. Even the dollar's strength relative to sterling offers only a minor amount of comfort to UK-based clients who will, ultimately, be banking their returns in pounds and pence rather than nickels and dimes.
US is lagging the pack in...
27 May 2015
The lessons to draw from the bond market blitzMany investors will use bonds as ballast for their portfolio. During their lifetime, these tradable debt securities will provide regular income in the form of coupons, paid in a set amount at a pre-determined time – that Is why bonds are known as “fixed income,” after all. Unless the issuer of the debt gets into financial trouble the original...
18 May 2015
Election result offers fresh questions as well as answersAccording to T.S. Eliot’s multi-layered poem The Waste Land April is the cruellest month, but if you are Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg or Nigel Farage then May is already proving to be no fun at all. Rough winds have given all three a vigorous shaking and potentially left their careers with all too short a date, from their perspective at least, if not...
15 May 2015
Activist funds are still seeking tempting targetsThe one hundred and forty first running of the Kentucky Derby, may have gone to form when punters' favourite American Pharoah romped home (2 May) but the corporate sponsor of America's greatest horse-race may not have enjoyed themselves quite as much as normal. Yum! Brands is the the operator of licensed brands such as KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut...
