After a full-time career as a tennis player on the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) National Squad, James began his financial career as a Trading Assistant at AXA Investment Managers in London. At the same time, James went “back to school”, attending night classes to study A-Level Mathematics in order to gain a place on the prestigious Mathematics and Computing programme at King’s College London. He later graduated from King’s with a First-Class Honours BSc degree.
Whilst at university, James held a contracting role at Paxton & Associates, supporting the team in derivatives risk management. Upon graduating from Kings in 2000, he was hired by Lehman Brothers, joining the equities trading desk in London.
In 2005, Credit Suisse headhunted James to lead its European Mid-Cap desk in London, where he transformed a loss-making operation into a consistently profitable business. He was subsequently promoted to Deputy Head of Emerging Markets Equity Trading, a role in which he was instrumental in keeping the desk profitable through the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008 and 2009, an extremely rare outcome in the industry. In 2010, he moved to Dubai with Credit Suisse to lead its Middle East and North Africa (MENA) trading expansion.
In 2012, VTB Capital headhunted James to build their Emerging Markets Equities business in Dubai from inception. James went on to hold senior trading roles at HSBC and Bank of America in Dubai, working with the world’s largest hedge funds and asset managers, including BlackRock, Millennium and Jane Street, and running some of the largest trading books in the region.
Over his investment banking career, James generated considerable proprietary trading returns. He traded profitably through numerous market crises, including the dot-com crash (2000), September 11th (2001), the Global Financial Crisis (2008–2009), the European debt crisis (2011), the annexation of Crimea (2014), the Saudi anti-corruption purge (2017), COVID-19 (2020), the tech wreck (2022) and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (2022).
In 2024, James launched his own family fund in Dubai. He continues to actively trade a sizeable portion of his wealth through a Long/Short equity and equity options portfolio in the US markets.
Throughout his career, James has mentored, managed and supported junior traders at every major investment bank he has worked for. He is known in the financial markets as a determined, competitive and highly profitable trader who always seems to come out of any situation ahead. His successful 26-year career as a professional trader is not down to luck; it is down to a deep understanding of financial markets, solid risk management and sound, considered judgement.
James has now joined the Institute of Trading and Portfolio Management (ITPM) as a Senior Trading Mentor. His role involves mentoring Retail Traders on the Institute’s official Mentoring Program once they have completed the Professional Trading Masterclass (PTM) and Professional Options Trading Masterclass (POTM) video series. James helps ITPM traders apply the knowledge gained from the Institute’s online programs in building and running Long/Short Equity Options portfolios.
