Benjamin Waters | Trader
A graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Science, Ben Waters, trader, has been managing a real-money portfolio of his own funds since 2012, with the profits derived from his trading endeavours funding his university tuition and associated living costs. He mainly invests in stocks and options, deploying a range of strategies including horizontal, credit and debit spreads, outright calls, fundamental analysis, and DCF and multiples valuation. The portion of his portfolio allocated to stocks offers both a safe long-term return and acts as a ballast against large-scale market movements.
Value Investment
As an experienced value investor, Mr Waters selects stocks that seem to be trading for less than their book or intrinsic value, actively seeking stocks that he believes the stock market is underestimating. Often requiring both patience and diligence, value investing is something of an art, rather than a science. Value investors like Mr Waters typically identify a strategy that works for them, with two investors often arriving at different decisions after assessing a company’s valuation data. Value investors tend to use financial analysis, not follow the herd and be long-term investors in quality companies.
Investment Analysis Experience
From June 2014 to June 2015, Mr Waters was an investment analyst for the University of Auckland Investment Club Inc, managing a £70,000 real-money fund. The committee followed an intensive and thorough investment selection process requiring both fundamental analysis and valuation using the DCF model. Here, he performed so well that he was awarded the Outstanding Performance by a UAIC Committee Member 2014 to 2015 award.
Education & Experience
Since March 2019, Benjamin Waters, trader, has worked in Global Indices/MSCI as an equity delta one trader. Prior to attending university, Mr Waters studied at Westlake Boys High School, where he achieved the Top A-Level Scholar award, achieving 380 UCAS points. Mr Waters’ key technical skills include those around MSCI futures, index delta one, options strategies, equities, equity options, total return swaps, index options, computer programming, VBA, Matlab, Python and Excel.
