ONSIDE / QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
A passion for investment
Simon Callow is one of the fund managers at Seneca Investment Managers in Liverpool.
He explains his investment thinking to Michael Taylor
Investing has always been my main
passion. I started reading the Investors
Chronicle at the age of fourteen,
which
led me to invest personally as soon as
I was legally permitted to at the age of
eighteen. Even today, when people ask
me what my hobbies are, my eyes shy
away, as my only real hobby is reading
about markets, spotting the next
investment opportunity.
How long have you been
doing this?
I have been a professional investor
since 1996, so I suppose eighteen years.
What are your guiding
investment principles?
Who are you?
I am Simon Callow, a local guy who
has lived on the North West coast for
over forty years. I am married with
two children and live in Formby. I
studied at Edinburgh University and
subsequently travelled extensively,
living for a period in both Berlin and
Hong Kong. Ultimately, Liverpool and
Formby have always been close to my
heart, enjoying the passion of the city
and the natural beauty of Formby’s
pine woods, sand dunes and beach.
I would rank family and friends very
highly in my hierarchy of life values.
It is almost inevitable my response
to such a question is to para-phrase
Warren Buffet, the legendary US
investor. He once stated that he had
two investment rules. Rule 1) don’t
lose money Rule 2) refer to rule one.
My overriding investment principle
is therefore unsurprisingly to protect
capital to the best of my ability in
all market conditions. Another is the
identification of asset classes that are
in favour (trending upwards) with
institutional investors, understanding
why and then piggy backing the
established trend. Sometimes these
trends are not so obvious and take a
while to spot.
Seneca Investment Managers, Horton House, Exchange Flags, Liverpool, L2 3YL
0151 906 2450 | www.senecaim.com
What themes are important
at the moment?
The current investment environment
is more complicated than 2013.
Assetvaluations are rich by historical
standards and the end of US and UK
quantitative easing (loose monetary
policy) are reasons for investor
caution. However on the plus side, the
UK economy is growing strongly and
company balance sheets are strong.
Bull and bear arguments are equally
valid and only time will tell who will
be victorious. Matters are further
complicated by geo-political turmoil
in Ukraine, while over the horizon
the UK 2015 General Election could
also undermine markets, especially
sterling.
How’s that driving what you do?
In simple terms, our investment
themes are currently to avoid UK gilts
(rising interest rates are bad for gilts),
underweight US equities (expensive)
and to have meaningful UK and
European equity exposure (improving
economics).