Priest by Day, Hedge Fund CEO by night – Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Lemelson of Lemelson Capital

It’s always interesting to hear how people got drawn into the world of investing and finance. This week on the Invezz Podcast, I spoke with somebody with an especially unique background.

How about a priest by day, hedge fund manager by night? That would be Reverend Emmanuel Lemelson, a Greek Orthodox priest who is CEO of Lemelson Capital, the hedge fund specialising in deep value and special situations.

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Achieving notable press back in 2014 for a prescient and highly publicised short of WWE, Lemelson has seen a lot in his time leading the hedge fund. We discuss why he believes “shorting is a terrible investment”, despite his hugely successful WWE position.

We also chat about the concept of morality in investment. How does Fr Emmanuel’s faith impact his investments? Moreover, we discuss why he thinks that Wall Street may get too much criticism and that it’s not the greedy, money-grabbing monster that it often is perceived to be.

Of course, it’s difficult to discuss the two issues of short selling and Wall Street greed without mentioning the meme craze of last year, when retail traders fought hard to “stick it to the man” and rally up enormous short squeezes on shares such as Gamestop.

We also discuss a topic which I have written about a lot recently – the growing inequality that money printing and inflation is bringing about in society. Fr Emmanuel opines on the recent discussion in the US on the Biden administration cancelling student debt (or a portion of it, at least) and the potential impact this could have on inflation and inequality going forward.

He also talks about why he would “never” invest in precious metals, and gives his opinion on cryptocurrency, too. There is a difference between speculation and investment, with the former a lot closer to gambling, he says. It’s tough to argue with that logic, in all fairness, as it is with his other big takeaway: anytime emotion comes into investing, you’re playing a dangerous game.

Obviously, that’s a really wide range of topics. Fr Emmanuel is clearly highly accomplished in the field of financial markets – a quick glance at his CV will reveal that quickly enough – but it’s fascinating seeing how his religious background is layered into his investment approach, as well as his outlook on life in general.

I have interviewed a whole bunch of people over the last while, but few – if any – have a background and perspective as unique as Fr. Emmanuel’s. Forgive me for plugging my own show here, but this episode is well worth a listen.

As always, feel free to reach out with comments.

Spotify Link -> here

YouTube -> here

For more on Lemelson Capital, visit https://www.lemelsoncapital.com/
or Lemelson Capital sister site Amvona: https://amvona.com/

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