Eddie Donmez

📉 The End of the UK’s High-Income Era It’s not just over, it’s been over ! This chart says it all, the UK has fallen from near the top in 2000 to around 15th place for post-tax income among the top 10%. All in the space of 25 years. Once a hub of financial strength, the UK now trails behind Germany, Ireland and even France. Every day it gets worse for the UK, stagnant growth, rising taxes and declining competitiveness are driving high earners, talent and capital to greener pastures. Meanwhile, the US, Switzerland, and Australia continue to show they’re valid alternatives for top talent. The age of high-earning Britain has collapsed. #Economy #UK #Finance #Wealth #TaxPolicy

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"Do I have to be good at maths to be a great trader?" No but it helps to like numbers. There's no getting away from it so why not face the truth and love it rather than run away scared if the thought of maths gives you the shivers. As you may know I have a unique story to tell as I never came from an economics or mathematical background. I never did an MBA and I never worked in a bank. What I did have was access to expert mentors who taught me desk macro, how to manage risk and how to spot recurring patterns in markets. I learnt about probability and percentages and outcomes. When the Bloomberg Poll indexed a forecast for US tier1 data I learnt about the mean average, the outliers and how the US dollar was positioned before the figure. Here are my top 5 considerations, which might help: 1. Being a mathematician does not make you a good trader. Obviously, the going down the quant route is different but still - you have to be very good at numbers to be a quant. 2. Start with people and sentiment. 3. Embrace the subject. I'm currently studying and loving Calculus which is amazing. I'm doing it for no other reason than for the fun of it. I got by just fine without it for well over a decade but, having said that, I guess I was using it all the time - albeit in an unconventional way. 4. Remember - curiosity and grits wins over talent. 5. Remember economics is the most unreliable science. It's often all about people. Maths can help frame this but at the end the day remember the market is an auction based on sentiment and supply and demand. On that note just look at Gold right now. This tells you everything you need to know about madness. Good luck and dive into some numbers!

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🚀 Trading 212 Hits £25B in AUA – Quiet Giant of UK Retail Investing Roars Trading 212 just crossed £25 billion in assets under administration (AUA) and 4.5 million customers, more than Hargreaves Lansdown, AJ Bell, Interactive Investor, and Vanguard combined in the UK. “We want to make investing less scary,” says co-founder Ivan Ashminov in a rare interview. “We built in silence – now we’re ready to speak.” 🔹 Commission-free investing pioneer since 2017 🔹 UK’s largest Cash ISA provider (765k accounts) 🔹 Daily account openings outpace all major rivals 🔹 Offers £1 minimums, zero commission trading, and now, best-in-class cash returns at 4.1% Despite its scale, Trading 212 is still underestimated – perhaps because it grew quietly from a small office in Sofia with just £10 and two coders. But with the government now urging citizens to invest more, Trading 212 is stepping into the spotlight. Ashminov calls for bold reforms: “Cutting the Cash ISA limit would be a mistake. Cash is an essential tool. And investing needs less fear-mongering – not more disclaimers.” 🧠 Behind the platform: Emphasis on simplicity, automation, and education Model portfolios and ETF access for everyday investors Partners with infrastructure firms like Sharegain to offer fully paid securities lending, generating passive income for users 📈 Sector shakeup: Platforms like Freetrade, Trade Republic, and Scalable Capital are embracing securities lending and commission-free models too, but Trading 212’s lead is widening. 🔍 Competitors: Hargreaves Lansdown: £134B AUA, legacy pricing Freetrade: ~£1.7B AUA, building ETF range, offers securities lending Revolut & eToro: diversifying into investing, but lag in UK account openings AJ Bell, Vanguard, II: lower-cost models, but still charge for trades With just 130 employees in the UK, Trading 212 is scaling like a fintech, not a traditional investment firm. Think of it as the Monzo of investing, but with its own infrastructure. #Fintech #Investing #Trading212 #ETFs #CashISA #RetailInvesting #SecuritiesLending #ModelPortfolios #Sharegain #FinancialInclusion #ZeroCommission #WealthTech #UKFinance #ARKInvest

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Private equity money was behind nearly 30% of company acquisitions in the UK last month. This is either directly (from the PE funds themselves - the "PE" bit of pie in chart below) or indirectly (from the portfolio companies in the PE funds - "PE Backed" in chart below). The PE Backed buyers are now such a core part of the SME M&A landscape. More buyers = more liquidity + more competition for (quality) assets = good for SME owners. Source: MarktoMarket #sme #mergersandacquisitions #corporatefinance #privateequity #buyandbuild Olga Melnyk Bradley Evans Shaun Missenden Kathryn Stevenson Ewan R.

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The UK's fiscal crisis isn't just about today's tax hikes - it's the bill for two decades of kicking the can down the road. While we're quick to criticize Labour's latest tax proposals, the real story starts with the 2008 financial crisis. We borrowed £141B to bail out banks, then chose austerity over investment. Instead of forcing banks to make good on their bailouts, we serviced debt while our infrastructure and productivity crumbled. This neglect bred the resentment that gave us Brexit. Then came COVID (£280B more borrowed) and supporting Ukraine (another £60-100B). Each crisis managed with borrowing, none with real structural reform. Here's the kicker: Post-Brexit, we've lost our key value proposition as Europe's English-speaking business gateway. Yet instead of defining a new national business model, we're stumbling from crisis to crisis, patching holes with borrowed money while our global competitiveness bleeds out. The result? Our debt servicing has jumped from £40B to £100B annually - that's nearly our entire defense budget just paying interest (the US seems to be in the same boat). Meanwhile, our workforce has shrunk by 11 million, productivity lags behind every G7 nation except one, and we hold the unfortunate record for highest homelessness in the developed world. So yes, we need more tax revenue. But before reaching deeper into taxpayers' pockets, perhaps it's time to address the elephant in the room: two decades of borrowing to patch wounds without treating the underlying disease or even knowing what we want to be as a nation. The path forward isn't just about who pays more tax - it's about fundamentally rethinking how we invest in our future and optimize current bureaucracy, rather than just servicing our past. #UKEconomy #EconomicPolicy #Leadership #PublicPolicy #Finance #SundayPonderings

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St. James’s Place (SJP) is one of the biggest names in the UK wealth management industry. Its flagship Strategic Managed Pension Fund is sold as a balanced, professionally managed solution for retirement savers. But the performance data shows something far less flattering: mediocrity that costs investors dearly. The 5-Year Reality From 2020 to 2024, the fund produced a total return of +28.3%, which works out to just 5.1% per year (CAGR). Period (2020–2024) Annual Return 2020: –2.73% 2021: +12.71% 2022: –5.64% 2023: +11.11% 2024: +11.62% On £100,000 invested at the start of 2020, you’d now have just £128,299. Meanwhile: MSCI World returned ~+84% (~13% p.a.). FTSE All-Share delivered ~+72% (~11.5% p.a.). So SJP’s flagship fund wasn’t just a little behind. It was in a different league altogether. The Long-Term Cost of Mediocrity The real damage isn’t visible in five years - it’s in 20. Compounding is merciless. A saver sticking with SJP ends up with £270k. The same money in a global tracker compounds to £1.15m. That’s a gap of £880,000. The difference between a modest retirement and a wealthy one. Why the Underperformance? High fees: SJP charges are notorious. The ongoing costs are multiple times higher than cheap global index funds. Fees compound too - against you. Missed opportunities: The fund failed to capture the huge global equity boom of the last five years. Even the UK market, often maligned for its lack of tech giants, left SJP in the dust. Volatility without reward: Investors took hits in 2020 and 2022, but were not compensated with outsized gains in the following years. The Verdict SJP’s Strategic Managed Pension Fund is marketed as safe, stable and well-managed. The numbers show something else: a slow-growth vehicle that lags both UK and global markets, while charging higher fees. It hasn’t protected investors. It hasn’t beaten benchmarks. And it hasn’t delivered the compounding that pension savers desperately need. The lesson is brutal but clear: in pensions, mediocrity is not safe - it’s expensive. If you want your money to work for you, you don’t just need returns. You need the right returns. And SJP’s flagship fund has failed that test.

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Pension Fund Managers: You're Missing the Biggest Opportunity in 50 Years I've spent the last decade watching pension funds struggle with the same question: How do we protect wealth through generations when everything is changing so fast? Here's the uncomfortable truth: Your traditional 60/40 portfolio isn't built for what's coming. The Challenge: - AI is disrupting every sector in your equity portfolio - Interest rates create uncertainty in your bond allocations - Inflation continues to erode purchasing power - Your members are retiring into an uncertain economic landscape The Opportunity: The most sophisticated pension fund managers I know are quietly allocating 1-5% to digital assets. Not as speculation - as portfolio diversification. Here's why this makes sense: Stablecoin yields offer: • Transparent, programmable returns • No fractional reserve risk like traditional banks • 24/7 liquidity and global accessibility • Yields that adapt to market conditions Bitcoin allocation provides: • Non-correlated asset performance • Digital commodity exposure • Hedge against monetary debasement • Growing institutional adoption validation The pension funds that adapt early will outperform. The ones that wait will be playing catch-up in 5 years. I'm not suggesting you put everything into crypto. I'm suggesting you stop pretending it doesn't exist. Your members' retirements depend on you staying ahead of these shifts - not behind them. What's your pension fund's digital asset strategy? Or are you still waiting for "regulatory clarity"?

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Creating capital efficiency is crucial for institutional allocators today. I've seen first-hand how Dedicated Managed Accounts (DMAs) allow institutional allocators to use their capital efficiently through notional funding. Looking at a practical example in the Bodhi Brew podcast below shows exactly how DMAs can free up significant capital while maintaining the same investment exposure and risk framework. It's rewarding to see institutions unlocking more value from their portfolios through smarter structuring.   I shared more thoughts on this during my conversation with Bodhi Research Group (available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts). #DedicatedManagedAccounts #CapitalEfficiency #InstitutionalInvesting

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We often tell young people to “start investing early.” As my eldest is mid-way through his studies and my youngest is just about to leave the nest, I guess it prompted me to reflect on how I could best show them why an early start to investing matters. It is clearly about getting tailwind into your sails. So, here is a simple example. Say that over your 40 years active life you invest per year: • CHF 1,000 for the first 10 years • CHF 2,000 for the next 10 years • CHF 5,000 for the following 10 years • And finally, CHF 10,000 for the last 10 years Assume your annual return starts at ~12% (reflecting full equity exposure in early years), gradually declining to ~8% in the last decade as you shift your allocation to Fixed Income to reduce volatility as you move closer to retirement. Your capital after 40 years will be ~CHF 750’000. Now, imagine you miss just the first 10 years of investment, i.e. the CHF 1,000 phase, the lowest contribution phase with only 6% of your total contributions over the 40Y. Your capital after 40 years will now be ~CHF 470’000, almost 40% lower. In other words, these 6% contributions at face value drive nearly 40% of your long-term results. This is because of the power of compounding. Start early and invest wisely. This is not a game. It is about long-run financial sustainability. #Investing

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How many investors are there in the UK? Private markets are deeper than we thought. The UK Business Angels Association represents roughly 15k investors, but it seems that's just the start. We checked today, and our database of individual investors in Scribe is now over 700k names, all from the last six years. There were also more than 4k Limited Partners, who have invested into UK funds since 2023. The size and scale of early-stage funding is both underestimated and underreported. Chart from British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA), showing Limited Partner investments.

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🔹 I’ve come across many brilliant entrepreneurs with powerful ideas that could transform the UK economy and boost GDP. Yet, too often, they overlook a fundamental truth—business growth depends on building key assets and scalable systems that drive efficiency and long-term success. Ask yourself these 3 critical questions: 📑 Are your processes documented to ensure consistency and efficiency? 📈 Is your business model optimised to generate repeatable and sustainable revenue? 📊 Can you quantify your impact through data analytics and strategic storytelling? 💡 Playing it safe stifles growth. The fear of failure prevents innovation. Without bold action, your business remains stagnant. It’s time to think bigger. Join me on this transformative journey and subscribe to Gabe’s Fundamentals of Resilience to learn more 👉🏾: https://goto.now/hbwm3 #UK #Entrepreneurs #BusinessGrowth #FinancialServices #InvestmentManagement

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85-90% of founders we spoke with were frustrated with their accountants. They needed real-time support and traditional firms couldn’t deliver it. So at Haven we built what we wished existed. That’s Paul Graham’s insight in action: “Live in the future, then build what’s missing.” Here’s the real test for any startup idea: Who needs a solution? Who wants it so badly they’ll use a crappy version of something they’ve never heard of? If you can’t answer that, you’re solving the wrong problem. You need people who can’t wait. The market doesn’t reward clever ideas. It rewards urgency. Start paying attention to the problems that annoy you every day. Your next company is probably hiding there.

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