Visiting the archives, reading the filings – and trying to invest more wisely into the future.
I have spent three decades in financial markets, both selling and buying equities. For a decade at CLSA and Jefferies, I wrote Masaala Mix – a weekly handwritten collage of market notes, torn clippings and margin observations, sent to over a thousand institutional investors globally. The Fresh Eye comes a decade after the retirement of Masaala Mix – older, I hope wiser, and with a wider lens.
I now manage a family investment portfolio from London. I go down history rabbit holes – pulling out forgotten stories, forgotten deals, forgotten manias – and connect them to what markets are doing now. The past turns out to be surprisingly useful.
My research draws on archives and online primary sources. A non-fiction book on the 1860s Bombay speculative mania is forthcoming from Pan Macmillan.
The Fresh Eye publishes every second Thursday.