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The London Junto The London Junto is modeled on the original Junto hosted by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia from 1727 to 1757. Each Junto brings together experts and leaders in their fields to discuss investment related issues and to provide new-and often controversial- perspectives. "People love China and India, like Asia, are skeptical about Latin America and hate Africa" is the way one commentator summed up the conventional wisdom about Africa. Yet between 1995 and 2005, African stocks showed compound annual growth of 22%- a higher rate than of the world's more favored markets. Sub-Saharan African countries have also grown by an average of over 6% over the last four years straight. At this rate, Africa's poverty rate will halve by 2015. Join the London Junto and the Harvard Business Forum as our panel of experts debate the prospects for Africa and its stockmarkets. David Damiba is Senior Portfolio Manager, Renaissance Investment Management since June 2007. He has worked for the past 14 years in either a trading or portfolio management role. His area of expertise is trading, portfolio construction, relative value investing, and quantitative macro analysis. Prior to joining RIM (UK) Ltd he spent 9 years with Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities (New York), a leading broker-dealer and investment manager; there he worked as a principal trader and later as a market neutral portfolio manager. As a portfolio manager his focus was on conducting sector based quantitative macro analysis and creating a low volatility "portable alpha" like product. From 2003 to 2005 he was a Vice President and Head of Block Equity Trading for the GPC Group at Merrill Lynch & Co. (New York) where he led one of the world’s largest equity transactional businesses with more than $1billion of annual revenues. Francis Beddington is Head of Research at Insparo Asset Management and one of the most experienced city analysts who covers African and Middle Eastern countries having been working on the region for over 15 years in both the public and private sector. He started his career as an economist with the UK Government in the Overseas Development Administration (now the Department for International Development) in 1992. He spent most of his career in the African Economics department covering all the major economies in West and North Africa. He was the country economist for Nigeria and involved in the Brady deal for Cote D'Ivoire.In 1997 Francis joined Chase Manhattan where his original remit was to provide economic analysis on South Africa. Following the merger with JPMorgan Francis was appointed Head of Economics and Strategy for the Middle East and Africa. In 2005 Francis joined Standard Bank Plc as Head of Research CEEMEA based in London Standard Bank's research was one of the driving forces behind the development of the domestic bond markets in a number of African countries. DATE: Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 Tickets for the event are £25.00. This includes: Please register for the event by paying for the event on the link below:
posted by Nicholas Vardy @ 1:15 PM Winston Churchill once famously described India as a mere "geographical expression" -- a land that was "no more a united nation than the Equator" -- with more than 35 languages and each language spoken by one million people. Yet today India has emerged as one of the top economic growth stories in the global economy. India has over 4,500 listed companies--a stock picker's paradise--and a recent report from Goldman Sachs says that India could leapfrog the UK, France, and Italy to become the world's fifth-largest economy. Join the London Junto and Harvard Business Forum's panel of experts in discussing the prospects for India and its stockmarket Deepak Lalwani is a Director with London stockbroker, Astaire and Partners and specializes on the Indian stock market. He is a qualified UK accountant by training and went on to become a Member of The London Stock Exchange. Deepak authors the India Report which is a macro view on the Indian economy. He appears on international television giving views on the India story. He is also quoted in various papers around the world. Sanjiv Shah is the Portfolio Manager of Agra India Fund Limited, a long/short Indian Equity Hedge Fund which commenced trading December 2006. He is also co-founder of India Value Investments Limited, a long-only India fund, which was established in 1996. He has also worked for Lazard Brothers, Paribas Capital Markets, the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority. Sanjiv has first class degree in Economics from Cambridge University. At Cambridge, he was taught Economics in the Keynesian tradition but his experience and observations of business cycles and markets since then has resulted in a conversion to Hayek, Von Mises and the Austrian School. Sumon Bauhmik is a Senior Lecturer at Brunel University, and a Research Fellow with the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan and IZA - Institute for the Study of Labour in Bonn. He has worked with ICRA Limited (the associate of Moody's Investors Service in India), London Business School and Queen's University Belfast. His research encompasses a number of issues in the broad areas of banking and finance, international business and economic development, and the context for much of his research is India. He obtained his MA and PhD in Economics from the University of Southern California. DATE: Thursday, March 27th, 2008 Tickets for the event are £25.00. This includes: Please register for the event by paying for the event on the link below:
posted by Nicholas Vardy @ 12:21 AM Katherine Burton draws upon her experience of interviewing the 23 of the world's top hedge fund managers for her recently published book "Hedge Hunters: Hedge Fund Masters on the Rewards, the Risk, and the Reckoning" in discussing what it takes to be one of the world's top hedge fund managers. Barron's called her book "A readable, relevant book, with lessons a new generation of hedge-fund managers... would do well to take to heart." Katherine will be presenting with Guillaume Rambourg of Gartmore Investments. Guillaume has spent the last 9 years working closely with colleague Roger Guy on Gartmore Fund Managers' European equity team where he is in joint charge of European retail investment and high performance funds. Together they will discuss what makes a great hedge fund manager. Guillaume will then provide his outlook for European equities/sectors for 2008. Join the London Junto and the Harvard Business Forum and come and catch a glimpse into the minds of today's top hedge fund managers. About Katherine Burton and Guillaume Rambourg Katherine Burton has been a reporter at Bloomberg News since 1993, covering hedge funds and investment management. Before joining Bloomberg, she wrote for the International Herald Tribune and U.S. News & World Report. She has an MBA from New York University and is a winner of the 2001 Society of American Business Editors and Writers Award for breaking news, and the 2005 New Jersey Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists Award for Excellence in Journalism for business writing. "Hedge Hunters" is her first book. Guillaume Rambourg initially joined Gartmore's European equity team as an assistant investment manager in 1995. Prior to embarking on a career in money management Rambourg studied at top French business school ESSEC. He graduated in 1993 having majored in Finance. at special discounted price of only £10. DATE: Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 Tickets for the event are £25.00. This includes: Please register for the event by paying for the event on the link below:
posted by Nicholas Vardy @ 6:09 PM Join the London Junto and the Harvard Club of UK Business Forum on September 18th with Deborah Owen, managing director of Investment Research of Cambridge (IRC), for her presentation: "Mapping the Markets: What Market Cycles Have To Say About Global Financial Turmoil" The recent turmoil in the markets unleashed by the subprime woes in the U.S. has served as a wake up call for investors. In her presentation, Deborah Owen will offer a global overview of business cycles and their impact on financial markets, explain how stock markets are affected by the cycles and by seasonal and secular trends, as well as reveal how to identify sectors and stock in which to invest. She will also provide global view of today's markets including macroeconomics , technical analysis, and demographic trends, as well as provide insights on how to detect forthcoming market fluctuations. Finally, Deborah Owen will also reveal her controversial take on the recent global market turmoil. Come and match wits with one of the City's leading market forecasters and technical analysts. About Deborah Owen Deborah Owen is managing director of Investment Research of Cambridge (IRC). Founded in 1945, IRC (www.irc100.com) was one of the first companies in the UK to specialise in technically-based research and it has a global reputation for the quality of its analysis of the financial markets. Deborah is co-author (with Robin Griffiths) of "Mapping the Markets" published by the Economist in 2006, which has been described as a lucidly written and carefully explained exploration of the cyclical changes of the market After reading economics at university, Deborah started working in the City as a financial journalist for Euromoney magazine. She then worked as a currency strategist for Chemical Bank and Charterhouse Bank before starting her own financial publishing business. In addition to "Mapping the Markets," she is co-author (with Peter Cole) of and EMU in Perspective published in 1999. She is a Fellow of the Society of Technical Analysts and edits the Society’s Journal. DATE: Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 Tickets for the event are £25.00. This includes: =>A welcome glass of wine or other beverage Please register for the event by paying on PAYPAL (link below-takes VISA etc.) You DO NOT need a PayPal account. However, some corporate firewalls block paypal payment. If so, please drop me an e-mail at info@londonjunto.com with the following details: Name, billing address, card type (VISA etc.), expiration date, card number, the CVN (Card Verification Number-the three digit number on the back of the card.)
posted by Nicholas Vardy @ 12:47 AM Join the London Junto and the Harvard Club of UK Business Forum on June 12th with Nicholas Nassim Taleb, author of the bestsellers "Fooled By Randomness" and "Black Swan" for his presentation: "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable" A black swan is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random, and more predictable, than it was. The astonishing success of Google was a black swan; so was 9/11. For Nassim Nicholas Taleb, black swans underlie almost everything about our world, from the rise of religions to events in our own personal lives. Why do we not acknowledge the phenomenon of black swans until after they occur? Part of the answer, according to Taleb, is that humans are hardwired to learn specifics when they should be focused on generalities. We concentrate on things we already know and time and time again fail to take into consideration what we don't know. We are, therefore, unable to truly estimate opportunities, too vulnerable to the impulse to simplify, narrate, and categorize, and not open enough to rewarding those who can imagine the "impossible." For years, Taleb has studied how we fool ourselves into thinking we know more than we actually do. In this revelatory book, he explains everything we know about what we don't know. He offers surprisingly simple tricks for dealing with black swans and benefiting from them. Elegant, startling, and universal in its applications The Black Swan will change the way you look at the world. Taleb is a vastly entertaining writer, with wit, irreverence, and unusual stories to tell. He has a polymathic command of subjects ranging from cognitive science to business to probability theory. Join the London Junto and the Harvard Business Forum to hear and debate Nassim Nicholas Taleb his important and groundbreaking views. Derivatives traders who disagree with Taleb's thinking are particulary encouraged to attend. About Nassim Nicholas Taleb Nicholas Nasim Taleb is an essayist, belletrist, & researcher only interested in one single topic, chance (particularly extreme & rare events, the "Black Swans" i.e. outliers); but it falls at the intersection of philosophy/epistemology (skepticism; knowledge about the dynamics of history; inferential claims), philosophy/ethics (stoicism facing random events; theories of nonhedonic happiness), mathematical sciences (probability theory, statistical physics), social science/finance (opacity & incomplete information in economics), and cognitive science (the mental biases making us "fooled" by randomness). He mainly derives his intuitions from a 2-decade long and intense practice of derivatives trading ("nondull" activities with plenty of randomness). DATE: Tuesday, June 12th, 2006 Tickets for the event are £30.00. This includes: =>A welcome glass of wine or other beverage and a buffet dinner after the events Because this is a joint event with Miller's Academy, the London Junto is limited to a total of 30 places. PLEASE register early to avoid disappointment! Please register for the event directly on Millers Academy website (www.millersacademy.co.uk) Not that London Junto members are eligible for the member's rate posted by Nicholas Vardy @ 4:24 PM In his important book "Flat Tax Revolution," Steve Forbes discusses how a simple flat tax regime would slash tax rates, spur economic growth, stop special interests from getting tax breaks, eliminate shady accounting--and put legions of tax collectors out of work. The Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania implemented flat tax regimes in the mid-1990s- and have recorded Asian Tiger-like economic growth rates ever since. Russia introduced a flat tax in 2001- and tax revenues doubled. Others like Ukraine followed in 2003, Slovakia in 2004, and Romania in 2005. Macedonia announced the introduction of a flat tax just last week, and Greece and Croatia intend to introduce flat tax regimes as well. Countries that have implemented flat tax regimes have seen both tax revenues and economic growth rates explode. With both the opposition Tories and the Liberal Democrats considering radical new tax policies inspired by the successes of flat tax regimes in the "New Europe," the flat tax is firmly on the political agenda in the UK-just in time for the upcoming elections in 2007. Join the London Junto and the Harvard Business Forum to hear and debate former U.S. Presidential candidate Steve Forbes on his important and groundbreaking views on flat tax regimes. About Steve Forbes Steve Forbes is President and Chief Executive Officer of Forbes and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes magazine. Since Mr. Forbes assumed his position in 1990, the company has launched a variety of new publications and businesses. They include: ForbesLife (formerly FYI), the irreverent, lifestyle supplement; Forbes Asia; and Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Arabic, Hebrew, Polish and Turkish editions of the magazine. The company’s flagship publication, Forbes, is the nation’s leading business magazine, with a circulation of more than 900,000. Forbes combined with Forbes Asia and the company's eight local-language editions together reach a worldwide audience of over five million readers. Mr. Forbes writes editorials for each issue of Forbes under the heading of “Fact and Comment.” A widely respected In both 1996 and 2000, Mr. Forbes campaigned vigorously for the Republican nomination for the Presidency. Key to his platform were a flat tax, medical savings accounts, a new Social Security system for working Americans, parental choice of schools for their children, term limits and a strong national defense. Mr. Forbes continues to energetically promote this agenda. Mr. Forbes is the author of the recently published Flat Tax Revolution: Using a Postcard to Abolish the IRS (Regnery, 2005). He also wrote A New Birth of Freedom (Regnery, 1999), a book of bold ideas for the new millennium. In 1985, President Reagan named Mr. Forbes Chairman of the bi-partisan Board for International Broadcasting (BIB). In this position, he oversaw the operation of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. Broadcasting behind the Iron Curtain, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty were praised by Poland's Lech Walesa as being critical to the struggle against communism. Mr. Forbes was reappointed to his post by President George H. W. Bush and served until 1993. Steve Forbes was born on July 18, 1947, in Morristown, New Jersey. He graduated cum laude in 1966 from Brooks School in North Andover, Massachusetts. He received a B.A. in history from Princeton in 1970. At Princeton, he was the founding editor of Business Today, which became the country's largest magazine published by students for students, with a circulation of 200,000. The magazine continues to be published today by Princeton Mr. Forbes serves on the boards of The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, the Heritage Foundation and The Tickets for the event are £35.00. This includes: A welcome glass of wine or other beverage, and assorted canapes. Please pay on PAYPAL (link below-takes VISA etc.) You DO NOT need a PayPal account. Alternatively, drop me an e-mail at info@londonjunto.com with the following details: Name, billing address, card type (VISA etc.), expiration date, card number, the CVN (Card Verification Number-the three digit number on the back of the card.) Lansdowne Club, 9, Fitzmaurice Place, London. W1J 5JD. Booking: 077 80 677 360 /info@londonjunto.com Tube: GreenPark. Registration essential. THE DEADLINE FOR REGISTRATION AND PAYMENT IS December 1, 2006
posted by Nicholas Vardy @ 10:34 AM Join the London Junto and the Harvard Club of UK Business Forum for an evening with Philippe Bonnefoy, Head of Cedar Partners, and one of the world's leading authorities on Global Macro Hedge Funds. The granddaddy of all hedge fund strategies, "Global Macro" guaranteed fame and fortune for hedge fund greats George Soros, Louis Bacon, Paul Tudor Jones and Bruce Kovner. Yet in 2006, managers of global macro hedge funds have lagged behind market benchmarks such as the Standard & Poor's 500 Index after being caught off guard by this year's choppy stock, bond and commodity markets. With information travelling at light speed across the globe, is global macro yesterday's game? Can investors still make a fortune betting alongside managers who bet on big picture thematic views? Come listen to and debate the views of one of the world's leading experts in the global macro hedge fund space. About Philippe Bonnefoy Philippe Bonnefoy is Chairman, Tactical Asset Allocation Committee, Cedar Partners; Director, Cedar Fund; and Portfolio Manager of the Katana Fund. Philippe began his career at Kidder, Peabody & Co., New York, in 1983, as an analyst in international corporate finance. There, he managed the international equity investments for Kidder, Peabody, later joining ex- colleagues, in 1988, to develop a risk arbitrage proprietary trading group pursuing a number of hedge fund strategies. In 1999, Philippe identified other opportunities in alternative investments. He founded Cedar Partners Investment Management Limited ("CPIM") to provide alternative investment advisory services to financial institutions. Between 1999 and 2001 Philippe was an external consultant to Commerzbank Securities, and from 2002 to 2006 CPIM was the external advisor for alternative investment strategies (which grew to $2bn assets under management) to Commerzbank Capital Markets Corporation. He established the Cedar Fund in 2002, which had been the bank’s proprietary hedge fund investment portfolio. Philippe is also responsible for overall portfolio positioning, idea generation, strategy weightings and tactical investments for the Katana Fund, to be launched in December. Philippe is currently a member of the Sound Practices Committee of the Alternative Investment Management Association. Tickets for the event are £20.00. This includes: A welcome glass of wine or other beverage Please pay on PAYPAL (link below-takes VISA etc.) You DO NOT need a PayPal account. Alternatively, drop me an e-mail at info@londonjunto.com with the following details: Name, billing address, card type (VISA etc.), expiration date, card number, the CVN (Card Verification Number-the three digit number on the back of the card.) Lansdowne Club, 9, Fitzmaurice Place, London. W1J 5JD. Booking: 077 80 677 360 /info@londonjunto.com Tube: GreenPark. Thurs. June 22, 6:30 -9:00 PM; £20. Registration essential. THE DEADLINE FOR REGISTRATION AND PAYMENT IS November 10, 2005
posted by Nicholas Vardy @ 9:48 PM About Me Nicholas Vardy is Managing Director of Global Guru Capital. He is also editor of TheGlobalGuru.com, a weekly free e-letter with over 135,000 subscribers; Global Stock Investor and Global Bull Market Alert. As Executive Director of the London Junto, he hosts a regular forum where leading London investment professionals gather to debate the top investment issues of the day. He is a graduate of Stanford and Harvard Law School, a former Fulbright scholar, and a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). View my complete profile
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