Welcome to the 44th CONKERS’ CORNER recorded on 1st March 2017. In this interview I have the pleasure of speaking with Colin Lloyd @colindlloyd who has been working in the City of London’s financial hub since 1987. During that time he has covered media policy, marketing, sales, derivatives, commodities, bonds, Hedge Funds and much more. He is currently working freelance with Linear Investments, where he writes articles for their magazine and also makes regular TV appearances on their Linear Talk TV channel. You can also find Colin’s brilliant macro blog articles on his own website at inthelongrun.co.uk.
Colin grew up in Wirral, where he went to a local prep school and then a boarding school in Shropshire. After that he wanted to go into Sales and Marketing and into his family’s business which was a Broker agent for producers and importers of Tropical Hardwoods from around the world. Following discussions with his Dad, he conceded to doing a business course and went to Salford College of Higher Technology where he undertook the shortest business course he could find. During that two year course he specialised in Marketing and Advertising and then went to work for the family business during which time he also completed a Wood Science course.
Colin gained his interests in stocks firstly from his Grandad on his mother’s side of the family. His Grandad worked for Rensburg one of Liverpool’s original stockbrokers in the 1930’s. He gained additional family insight with regards to investing as a young man from his Mum, as she managed her own investment accounts.
When he was around twenty years of age Colin made his independent investment in the markets, by making a purchase of Fidelity Unit Trust that was investing in China. He admits to have been terribly excited, and “watched the share price everyday”. Then one day the price fell sharply by around 20% and he states “it scared the living daylights out of him” and prompted him to sell his holdings for a small loss. He explains humbly that he learnt his first lesson “don’t be too myopically focused on price moves when you are taking a long-term investment”.
Colin stayed with the family business for around seven years before heading to London for a role with Gerrard & National (GNI) in 1987. He states that he was “very lucky” as he joined the firm after the financial crash of 1987. It was during his tenure at GNI that Colin gained experience of his first love “Global Macro Hedge”. Colin remained with GNI until 2005 during which time he had many great success and several roles which led him to travel globally on a regular basis.
Over the last decade or so Colin worked on the institutional side of the investment industry and then opted to set up own his consultancy in 2010 to help Hedge Funds and related startups. Colin began his macro-economic newsletter “In the Long Run” in 2013.
This discussion provides a fascinating insight into the journey that Colin has taken, which so far has encompassed Borneo, Europe, USA, Derivatives, Commodities, Futures, Options, Global Macro Hedge, Macro research, Marketing, Sales, Advertising, Consulting, writing, Private Investor, TV presenting and much much more.
The topics we discussed include:
-Stocks;
-Stoplosses;
-Managing your risks;
-Price discovery;
-Exchange Traded Markets;
-Liquidity;
-Hedge Funds;
-Diversified portfolio;
-Timing markets;
-Be comfortable with your investment time horizon;
-Commodities;
-QE;
-Emerging Markets;
-Bonds;
-Leverage;
-Lessons learnt;
-The real key to investing;
Having traversed several investment niches within the City of London during the past 30 years, it is Colin’s view that “one is always governed by ones own experience”. Listen now to gain insights into how Colin Lloyd selects, researches and filters investments dependent on the macro environment and the duration that he holds his investments for.
Learn from the lessons in his successful, insightful vast investing journey.
