Money Makers

The Money Makers website and service is mainly the work of four individuals. Jonathan Davis is the founder and editor; Stuart Watson is my valued fellow contributor; and Ben Gamblin is the producer of all our podcasts and chief techno-expert. An honourable mention goes also to Simon Elliott, the head of investment trust research at Winterflood Securities, the co-presenter of the free weekly investment trust podcast for its first two years and a trusted ally in this venture. We all share a belief in the value of providing high quality independent information and research to discerning private investors.

Jonathan Davis

I have been analysing and writing about financial markets for some four decades, initially as a business journalist on The Times, The Economist and The Independent, more recently as an independent investment professional and author/columnist/publisher. My main interests are in “big picture” investment issues – asset allocation, strategy and fund selection – but I also invest in private and listed equities where I see exceptional opportunities. I first became interested in investment trusts, the City’s “best kept secret”, back in the 1980s when I got to know the late Ian Rushbrook, the founder of Personal Assets in it s present form.

In 2017 I founded and edited the first edition of the Investment Trusts Handbook, an annual educational publication, and since April 2020 have hosted a free weekly podcast about investment trusts on the Money Makers website, reflecting the growing popularity of investment trusts among private investors. In 2024 that earned me the award of Broadcaster of the `year in the AIC Media Awards. During my regulated professional career I was a Member of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investments and held a Level 6 professional private client investment management qualification.

For several years I wrote a regular column for the Financial Times fund management section and also contribute regularly to The Spectator. Before that I wrote a popular weekly column on investment for The Independent for 12 years. I was a founding shareholder and the first City Editor of The Week when it was launched in 1995. I have written a number of books on investment and edited or published several more.

My most recent book, Templeton’s Way With Money, co-authored with Dr Sandy Nairn, the CEO of Edinburgh Partners, was published in the United States by John Wiley. It is the third book I have written that analyses the methods and insights of prominent professional investors. My interest in this topic began during a seminal year of study at MIT’s Sloan School of Management in 1990-91, during which I completed a postgraduate master’s degree thesis on the career and methods of Warren Buffett.

My professional employment included a number of advisory roles, including Saunderson House, a fee-based wealth management firm, where I was a senior adviser on investment strategy and research, and Smith & Williamson, where I was a strategist and investment director. Past mon-executive directorships included Hargreaves Lansdown and Jupiter UK Growth Trust. 

You can follow me on LinkedIn and follow Money Makers on X.

To discuss broader market issues, such as AI, and even some non-investment themes, including book recommendations, I contribute items to Substack, the publishing platform. You can follow me there and subscribe to my feed by following this link. The Money Makers newsletter will continue to focus on investment trusts, the connoisseur’s choice of fund, so the Substack is very much designed to be complementary rather than a substitute.

Stuart Watson

Stuart is a chartered accountant by training, first specialising in auditing and then in corporate finance on a variety of private equity and listed company transactions.

He has spent the past two decades working for The Motley Fool UK and as an independent writer and editor. He’s been an active investor, with a special interest in investment trusts, for over 25 years. In 2018, he started a blog called IT Investor producing detailed articles on individual trusts and funds.

Stuart joined the Money Makers team in July 2021 and contributes in-depth fund profiles and sector analyses for members of the Money Makers circle. You can find out more about his approach in this article written for the 2022 edition of the annual Investment Trust Handbook, published in December 2021.

Ben Gamblin

Ben Gamblin is the producer of the weekly Money Makers investment trust podcast and has many years of experience in radio and podcast production.

Here is a link to his professional website.