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.
19 December 2014
Dollars, debt and dividends look set to dominate in 2015As one year ends, clients and advisers often sit down to review portfolios and see what lessons can be drawn with regard to strategy for the future.
This year is ending with a flurry of renewed volatility, a collapse in the oil price, a renewed decline in bond yields and a wobble in stock markets – all developments few would have been forecasting...
12 December 2014
Why the search for yield may call for some home comfortsChancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne's decision to buy back the remaining War Loan is the one policy to emerge from the Autumn Statement (3 Dec ’14) that still attracts surprisingly little attention. The Government will return the £1.9 billion principal to owners of the 72-year old bond next March. This might not seem like a big deal, but...
5 December 2014
Why the slide in Brent crude begs big questionsOil continues to make all the headlines, as the price of a barrel of Brent crude hovers around the $70 mark. That is some 40% below the peak for the year, reached in $115.1, and the big question now is why crude is crashing now.
A meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna late last month did nothing to arrest...
28 November 2014
Advances in energy could fuel a lasting recoveryAs the Paddington Bear film hits the nation's cinema screens, Darkest Peru is going to attract a fair bit more attention than usual and from a financial perspective Lima's government is trying hard to write a few headlines of its own. According to the Financial Times newspaper, the Peruvian finance minister, Alonso Seguera, this week (24 Nov)...
21 November 2014
Watch the oil price as transport stocks set the toneAfter October's wobble, global share prices appear to be finding their feet again, while Government bond markets also seem to be enjoying renewed calm, as yields grind lower and prices inch higher once more. Whether this is down to the application of fresh monetary anaesthetic, in the form of Japan's enhanced quantitative easing (QE) programme, a...
14 November 2014
Cash returns are still kingApologies for returning to the world of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) for the second week in a row but the latest intriguing product launch is worthy of note for several reasons. On Monday (10 Nov), Invesco's PowerShares Global Buyback Achievers UCITS ETF listed on the London Stock Exchange, with the EPIC code of BUYB.
The 'smart beta' tool...
7 November 2014
The race to the bottom begins againLast week's (31 Oct) monetary policy announcement from the Bank of Japan electrified the Tokyo stock market, pushed yields on ten-year government bonds ever low and at the same time drove a stake through the heart of the yen - perhaps appropriately enough given it was Halloween, after all.
The Japanese counter has since slipped further to around...
31 October 2014
It's all as easy as A, B ...and CROCIMonday's (27 Oct) survey from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) that reveals the fastest sales growth in more than three years for the UK's retailers is easy to understand in many ways. Oil and therefore petrol prices are on the slide, inflation is subdued at 1.2% and unemployment stands at a six-year low, all factors which suggest...
24 October 2014
Debt and dollars make for a potent mixRegular readers will have to indulge this column a little this week, as it returns to two themes which appear here frequently, namely debt and the dollar. The implications of the sixteenth Geneva Report on the World Economy continue to gnaw away at me, especially as the writers' conclude that debt as a percentage of global GDP is now 212%, some...
17 October 2014
Watch out for the canaries in the coalmineMarkets are now wrestling with fears that economic and corporate profits growth will disappoint and do so just at a time when the US Federal Reserve is removing the safety net enjoyed by holders of risk assets for most of the last five years. Fed Chair Janet Yellen is expected to confirm on 28-29 October that the American central bank is cutting...
