The Art of Investing

This week on The Art of Investing , Sophie Cocker steps in as host alongside Mark “Spice” Holden and Chris “CJ” Fellingham. Special guest, Claire Flynn Levy, author of “Stock Market Maestro’s” explores what truly separates top investors, and why behaviour, not stock picking, often drives long-term success.  The team use their extensive experience across wealth and hedge fund management to unpack a...

This week on The Art of Investing , Rich McDonald, Mark “Spice” Holden and Chris “CJ” Fellingham draw on over 100 years of combined experience across wealth and hedge fund management to break down a remarkable moment in markets. US equities are pushing to new all-time highs, despite ongoing geopolitical tension, energy uncertainty and lingering concerns around credit markets. With the S&P 500...

This week on The Art of Investing , Rich McDonald, Mark “Spice” Holden and Chris “CJ” Fellingham bring over 100 years of combined experience across wealth and hedge fund management to unpack a dramatic rebound across markets, as a fragile ceasefire in the Middle East sends oil lower, rate expectations ease, and risk assets rally hard. With bonds recovering, equities surging and some of the hardest...

This week on The Art of Investing , Rich McDonald, Mark “Spice” Holden and Chris “CJ” Fellingham are back for a Quarterly Review special , reflecting on how Q1 has played out across the portfolio, with standout strength from BlackRock World Mining Trust and broader gains across developed and emerging markets, while positions like India and the VanEck Crypto ETF lagged. From oil shocks and bond vol...

This week on The Art of Investing , Rich McDonald, Mark “Spice” Holden and Chris “CJ” Fellingham are joined by Stu Thompson, Economic Strategist , to break down a market being driven less by fundamentals, and more by shifting interest rate expectations. With central banks holding steady but markets rapidly repricing from rate cuts to potential hikes, the team explore whether interest rate expectat...

This week on The Art of Investing , Rich McDonald, Mark “Spice” Holden and Chris “CJ” Fellingham break down a more fragile market backdrop as momentum stalls and volatility creeps back in. With commodities cooling, equities diverging and bond markets wobbling, the team ask whether this is a healthy pause… or the start of something more meaningful. They’re also joined by Geopolitical Strategist Rog...

This week on The Art of Investing , Rich McDonald, Mark “Spice” Holden and Chris “CJ” Fellingham unpack a volatile week in global markets as geopolitical tensions, rising oil prices and credit concerns ripple through investor sentiment. Despite the second consecutive weekly drawdown in the portfolio, markets have remained relatively resilient. The team discuss why energy shocks quickly affect infl...

This week on The Art of Investing , Rich McDonald, Mark “Spice” Holden and Chris “CJ” Fellingham unpack a volatile week as geopolitical tensions, banking sector nerves and shifting energy policy collide. Despite rising uncertainty, from renewed conflict fears to credit market concerns, the portfolio remains resilient. The team discuss whether markets are overreacting, why bank stocks sold off, and...

This week on The Art of Investing , Rich McDonald, Mark “Spice” Holden and Chris “CJ” Fellingham unpack a strong week for the portfolio, led by commodities, emerging markets and continued European resilience. While the US debates tariffs and policy direction, global equity markets are pushing higher. Mining stocks surge, crypto stabilises, emerging markets extend gains, and the team ask whether th...

This week on The Art of Investing , Rich McDonald, Mark “Spice” Holden and Chris “CJ” Fellingham unpack a quietly powerful week in markets. While headlines remain focused on AI, tariffs and geopolitics, European markets are breaking higher, bonds are behaving, and liquidity is quietly driving asset prices. The team explores why risk assets continue to rally despite macro uncertainty, and why the b...

This week on The Art of Investing , Rich McDonald, Mark “Spice” Holden and Chris “CJ” Fellingham return after an intriguing week in markets to debate a major shift in positioning. With Japan surging, emerging markets breaking higher, software stocks wobbling and AI disruption accelerating, the team asks a big question: Are we rotating from tech into old-world value, and is private equity the next...

This week on The Art of Investing, Rich McDonald and Mark “Spice” Holden are joined by JP Smith for a wide-ranging and timely discussion on one of the most volatile weeks markets have seen in months. With gold and silver suffering brutal flash crashes, crypto tumbling, US tech rotating hard, and a surprise nomination for the next Fed Chair rattling liquidity expectations, the team unpack what’s re...

This week on The Art of Investing , Rich McDonald, Mark “Spice” Holden and Chris Fellingham are joined by JP Smith , veteran emerging markets strategist and former Chief Global Strategist at Pictet, for a deep dive into the forces shaping global markets, and where investors may be underestimating risk. From Russia’s 1998 crisis to China’s governance problem, US dollar fragility and the future of e...

This week, Rich McDonald, Mark “Spice” Holden and Chris Fellingham unpack one of the most volatile macro weeks of the year, from Japan’s bond market shock to Trump’s Davos comments, rising geopolitical tension, and a sharp shift in momentum across assets. With Japanese yields spiking to multi-decade highs, markets wobbling on Greenland headlines, and gold once again leading the leaderboard, the te...

This week, Rich McDonald, Mark “Spice” Holden and Chris Fellingham are joined by Frances Donald, Chief Economist at the Royal Bank of Canada and regular commentator on CNBC, Fox News and Bloomberg. Tune in to talk what really matters in markets right now, and what most investors are still missing. With geopolitics flaring, commodities surging, and uncertainty everywhere from Washington to Tokyo, t...

The first episode of 2026 kicks off with a bang as Rich McDonald, Mark “Spice” Holden and Chris Fellingham review a late but powerful Santa Rally, a standout quarter for commodities, and one of the strongest periods of performance since the portfolio launched. Listen to find out why we are cashing out our best performer! With markets pushing to new highs and geopolitics back in focus, the team bre...

Happy New Year and welcome to The Art of Investing’s 2026 Outlook Special . Rich McDonald, Mark “Spice” Holden and Chris Fellingham are joined by economist Stu Thompson to cut through the noise and focus on the big themes that could shape markets in 2026. Not next week’s headlines, not bank price targets, but the forces that really matter for long-term investors. With consensus forecasts pointing...

Merry Christmas and welcome to a special Best Bits episode of The Art of Investing . To round off 2025, we’re revisiting some of the most memorable moments from 2025, the bold calls, the big debates, the lessons learned the hard way, and the moments that genuinely made us laugh. From investor psychology and AI optimism, to Budget chaos, bond market nerves and why selling well matters more than buy...

This week’s episode is the Christmas Party Special . The tone is festive, but the market conversation is anything but fluffy. Rich McDonald, Mark “Spice” Holden and Chris Fellingham reflect on a volatile end to the year, asking whether the long-awaited Santa Rally is simply late… or quietly getting back on track. With US markets lagging, tech wobbling, commodities rallying and rate cuts finally la...

Rich McDonald, Mark “Spice” Holden and Chris Fellingham are joined once again by economist Stu Thompson for a wide-ranging episode that uncovers why QE and the Fed Cuts might just be kicking off the Santa Rally, and how it's multiplying your portfolio returns. From blockbuster takeover bids and trillion-dollar IPO rumours, to a surprise return of quantitative easing and rising long-dated bond yiel...

🏆 NOW AN AWARD-WINNING PODCAST Huge thank you to everyone who voted! TAOI just won Best Financial Podcast , Best Financial Analysis , and Best Investing Education at the Good Money Guide Awards. This week, Rich McDonald, Chris Fellingham and Mark “Spice” Holden break down one of the most complex macro weeks of the year. From Japan’s shock rate-rise chatter to a crypto wipeout, a commodities surge...

🏆Enjoying the show? Cast your vote for us in the Good Money Guide Awards: https://goodmoneyguide.com/awards/finfluencer-awards/ This week on The Art of Investing , Rich McDonald, Mark “Spice” Holden and Chris Fellingham break down one of the most dramatic weeks since the portfolio launched – a UK Budget that surprised market and confused economists. With the FTSE wobbling, the pound drifting, and...

🏆Enjoying the show? Cast your vote for us in the Good Money Guide Awards: https://goodmoneyguide.com/awards/finfluencer-awards/ This week on The Art of Investing , Rich McDonald, Mark “Spice” Holden and Chris Fellingham are joined by Adam Smith , former Special Advisor to the Chancellor, for the most inside-Treasury Budget preview we’ve ever recorded. With Rachel Reeves’ first Budget just days aw...

🏆Enjoying the show? Cast your vote for us in the Good Money Guide Awards: https://goodmoneyguide.com/awards/finfluencer-awards/ Welcome to Episode 19 of The Art of Investing - brought to you by IG, the global investing platform. This week, the team hand over the mic to Lee Freeman-Shor , fund manager turned author of The Art of Execution - the book that proves great investors aren’t defined by th...

Welcome to Episode 18 of The Art of Investing - brought to you by IG, the global investment platform. Rich McDonald, Mark “Spice” Holden, and Chris Fellingham take a trip through financial history to explore one of the most important questions facing the UK government right now: what happens when a budget goes wrong? With just weeks until Rachel Reeves delivers her first budget, the team looks bac...