Hi, I’m Mike ✋
First, Some Background
I’m Irish, living in the Caribbean and I’ve always been a bit obsessed with investing.
I started properly actively investing in 2015. Looking back, I had absolutely no clue what I was doing, but I was convinced I knew it all. Call it youthful ignorance.
What I lacked in knowledge, I made up for with blind enthusiasm. I traded headlines and invested in every ticker symbol the financial media was peddling.
After a few quick wins, I was hooked — convinced that my proprietary blend of Google searching and back-of-the-envelope math was enough to beat the market.
18 months later, just when I had convinced myself I was the master of my craft, XRP and a few ‘YOLO’ trades wiped me out, and I just watched it happen.
Turns out, losing the equivalent of your annual wage in a matter of weeks is an eye-opening experience.
Needless to say, I’ve learned a lot since then and my approach has changed dramatically over the years.
A decade later, I run a fully independent wealth management office based in the Cayman Islands. I take what I do very seriously, that doesn’t mean I take myself seriously. There’s a difference.
As an ode to a more reckless 24-year-old me, I write to truly create conviction in my own opinions, and hopefully it helps some people along the way.
A Bit About My Career
Nobody is here for my ‘career highlights’ so let’s keep this short.
- After finishing my Economics and Finance degree, I started at a hedge fund trading desk in Ireland.
- 3 years later, I moved into a large institutional investment firm, developing investment portfolios for various pension funds and insurance companies.
- Another 3 years later, I moved to the Cayman Islands, working with a family office as an investment strategist.
- 4 years after that, I opened the FigTree Office in Cayman where I now spend my time creating profitable investment portfolios for clients and solving every aspect of their financial life so they can focus on the more important things.
- Throw in a couple of thousand hours of research, too many exams and a debilitating obsession with everything investing and that just about covers it.
What To Expect
I Have One Goal with This Newsletter - Talk About Markets and Investing in a Way That’s Personal and Honest.
When I started out my career as an equity analyst, everything I used to read about investing was sterile, factual, analytical — and most importantly, completely devoid of someone’s actual opinion.
You know the ones — 20-page market reports that say nothing at all. Just 600 data points, 14 different potential outcomes, and a closing argument about the merits of ‘broad diversification.’ Useful to approximately nobody.
And I get it. Markets are uncertain, humans are messy — and we’re trying to make predictions where the two intersect. The probability of being right every time sums to zero.
Nobody wants written evidence of their idiotic calls. So, to avoid the career risk, investment commentators talk out of both sides of their mouth to cover their tracks.
I try to push against this approach.
I won’t always be right, but I will always be honest.
The aim is to provide practical investment advice you can actually use — in a format that is personal and accessible.
Why I Write
In the words of Jules Renard:
'Writing is the best way to talk without being interrupted.'
I write to figure things out — not because I have it all figured out. That’s the point.
Writing helps me process ideas about markets, risk, money, ambition and life in general.
I flesh out these ideas in public, in real time, with all the uncertainty and curiosity that comes with that.
One Thing to Warn You About in Advance:
There’s no strict editorial calendar. I write what I’m thinking about.
I’ve tried (and failed) to neatly package this as a strictly investment newsletter. I just can’t do it.
Writing is a pastime for me. I don’t make any money from this, so I simply write about what interests me each week.
Typically, it’s something in the investment space given my line of work — but not always.
Think: Part investment guide, part personal diary.
Some days it’s glimpses into my investment portfolio and trade ideas. Other days it’s just whatever I’m currently obsessing over.
So, if you want something a little more human — thoughts from someone who’s in the trenches, making decisions with real money, and sharing lessons in real time — then I think you’ll enjoy it here.
