Simon Cawkwell

Last updated

Simon Cawkwel
Born1946 (age 76–77)
Oxford, England
Occupation Accountant
Nationality British
Education Dragon School,
Rugby School

Simon Allerton Cawkwell (born October 1946) a British stock market commentator, share trader, and author, best known for writing a thrice-weekly diary at the now dissolved T1ps.com, publicly identifying companies whose share price he believes will fall and betting his own money on such falls. [1] He is currently an author, public speaker + podcaster, known as Evil Knievil, his best known output is Evil Diaries on the Master Investor website. [2]

Contents

Background

Simon Cawkwell is the son of George Cawkwell, the historian and former Vice Master of University College, Oxford. He was educated at the Dragon School, in Oxford, and Rugby School.

His first job was an Articled clerk at accountancy firm Coopers & Lybrand. He worked in Zambia as a mines cost flow and taxation forecast accountant returning to the UK in 1973.

Trading and exposing fraud

Cawkwell was involved in exposing the fraud committed by Robert Maxwell specifically Maxwell Communication Corporation. [3]

Cawkwell did his first share trade in 1967 at the age of 21 and his first short position taken was MFI Group in 1973, it collapsed from 150p to 10p, [4] he also made £1 million on short-selling shares in Northern Rock, Polly Peck and Amber Day. [5] [6]

In the early 2000s, he made the correct prediction on the prices of gold stocks. [7]

Cawkwell was listed amongst the World's top ten most famous traders of all time in 2019 by IG Group. [8]

Short selling

His short selling activities were curtailed by the Short-Selling Prohibition disclosure rules in 2008 requiring notification if the short position covered more than 0.25% of a company's shares, which expired in May 2020. Further short-selling notification thresholds were announced in January 2021. [9] [10] [11]

Company directorships

In March 2001, Cawkwell issued a $1 million legal claim against former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Boris Fedorov, in response to moves to take control of the Russian oil and gas company Gazprom. [12] He was a director of Tranquillo, a major shareholder in Gazprom.

Cawkwell started his own accountancy firm in Jermyn Street, Mayfair. He also founded Company Communications Centre with two former directors of Oyez Group in 1978. Cawkwell was a director of Virgin Atlantic.

He was chairman of WineBank, but efforts to save this wine trading group were not successful. [13]

He was forced to resign as a company director of Kryso Resources (renamed China Nonferrous Gold in 2013) after he was found to have broken the rules of the AIM stock exchange by buying shares during a prohibited period.

Cawkwell was previously a director of Greasemeter Limited, Fisher Harrison Limited, Incase Solutions Limited, Custom Products Limited, and Kryso Resources Limited.

Gambling

Cawkwell trades on the betting exchange Betfair, he had a long-running dispute with the firm when his wager that Niall Quinn would not become permanent manager of Sunderland AFC was lost, despite Quinn's stating that he was taking the job only temporarily. Roy Keane took over the role a few weeks later in August 2006, after Betfair had settled the market. [14] [15] Betfair suspended Cawkwell's account in January 2020.[ citation needed ]

He had a dispute with Sportingbet regarding the ball crossing the goal-line without a goal being given in the 2018 soccer World Cup competition. In 2014 he was reported to have made £150,000 in one week of sports betting. [16]

Simon Cawkwell also known as "Evil Knieval" lost £150,000 in 2012 due to the collapse of the Spread Betting Company World Spreads. World Spreads went into administration after its clients' accounts were found to show a shortfall of £13 million. The Financial Conduct Authority FCA publicly censored the Chief Executive Officer of Worldspreads for market abuse and banned him from performing any roles linked to regulated activity. [17] [18] [19]

Cawkwell spoke about his gambling life, Business Accounting, and the difference between stock market investing and betting in three interviews in November 2021. [20]

Books

Related Research Articles

In economics and finance, arbitrage is the practice of taking advantage of a difference in prices in two or more markets; striking a combination of matching deals to capitalise on the difference, the profit being the difference between the market prices at which the unit is traded. When used by academics, an arbitrage is a transaction that involves no negative cash flow at any probabilistic or temporal state and a positive cash flow in at least one state; in simple terms, it is the possibility of a risk-free profit after transaction costs. For example, an arbitrage opportunity is present when there is the possibility to instantaneously buy something for a low price and sell it for a higher price.

Spread betting is any of various types of wagering on the outcome of an event where the pay-off is based on the accuracy of the wager, rather than a simple "win or lose" outcome, such as fixed-odds betting or parimutuel betting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Short (finance)</span> Practice of selling securities or other financial instruments that are not currently owned

In finance, being short in an asset means investing in such a way that the investor will profit if the value of the asset falls. This is the opposite of a more conventional "long" position, where the investor will profit if the value of the asset rises.

Betfair is an international gambling company founded in 2000. It operates the world's largest online betting exchange. Its product offering also includes sports betting, online casino, online poker, and online bingo. Business operations are conducted from its headquarters in Dublin, alongside satellite offices in Ceuta, Leeds, London, and Malta. In February 2016, Betfair merged with Paddy Power to create Flutter Entertainment.

In finance, a put or put option is a derivative instrument in financial markets that gives the holder the right to sell an asset, at a specified price, by a specified date to the writer of the put. The purchase of a put option is interpreted as a negative sentiment about the future value of the underlying stock. The term "put" comes from the fact that the owner has the right to "put up for sale" the stock or index.

A betting exchange is a marketplace for customers to bet on the outcome of discrete events. Betting exchanges offer the same opportunities to bet as a bookmaker with a few differences. Gamblers can buy and sell the outcome, and they can trade in real-time throughout the event, either to cut their losses or lock in profit. Bookmaker operators generate revenue by offering less efficient odds. Betting exchanges normally generate revenue by charging a small commission on winning bets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hedge (finance)</span> Concept in investing

A hedge is an investment position intended to offset potential losses or gains that may be incurred by a companion investment. A hedge can be constructed from many types of financial instruments, including stocks, exchange-traded funds, insurance, forward contracts, swaps, options, gambles, many types of over-the-counter and derivative products, and futures contracts.

In finance, a contract for difference (CFD) is a legally binding agreement that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between two parties, typically described as "buyer" and "seller", stipulating that the buyer will pay to the seller the difference between the current value of an asset and its value at contract time. If the closing trade price is higher than the opening price, then the seller will pay the buyer the difference, and that will be the buyer's profit. The opposite is also true. That is, if the current asset price is lower at the exit price than the value at the contract's opening, then the seller, rather than the buyer, will benefit from the difference.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stock trader</span> Person or company involved in trading equity securities

A stock trader or equity trader or share trader, also called a stock investor, is a person or company involved in trading equity securities and attempting to profit from the purchase and sale of those securities. Stock traders may be an investor, agent, hedger, arbitrageur, speculator, or stockbroker. Such equity trading in large publicly traded companies may be through a stock exchange. Stock shares in smaller public companies may be bought and sold in over-the-counter (OTC) markets or in some instances in equity crowdfunding platforms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IG Group</span> British online trading company

IG Group Holdings plc, trading as IG Group, is a United Kingdom-based online trading provider, offering access to spread betting and CFD trading, which allow traders to bet on the direction of equities, bonds and currencies without owning the underlying assets.

Andrew Black is a British entrepreneur who, together with Edward Wray, a gambling entrepreneur, founded Betfair, the world's first and largest bet exchange. He is now a noted angel investor in technology businesses in the UK and further afield, and is a keen race horse owner and professional bridge player.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Ackman</span> Billionaire American hedge fund manager and investor

William Albert Ackman is an American billionaire hedge fund manager who is the founder and chief executive officer of Pershing Square Capital Management, a hedge fund management company. His investment approach has made him an activist investor. As of June 2023, Ackman's net worth was estimated at $3.5 billion by Forbes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crown Resorts</span> Australian gambling and hospitality company

Crown Resorts Limited is Australia's largest gaming and entertainment group that owns and operates three of Australia's leading gambling and entertainment complexes, Crown Melbourne, Crown Perth and Crown Sydney. It was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange until purchased by Blackstone in June 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stock</span> Shares into which ownership of the corporation is divided

Stocks consist of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporation in proportion to the total number of shares. This typically entitles the shareholder (stockholder) to that fraction of the company's earnings, proceeds from liquidation of assets, or voting power, often dividing these up in proportion to the amount of money each stockholder has invested. Not all stock is necessarily equal, as certain classes of stock may be issued, for example, without voting rights, with enhanced voting rights, or with a certain priority to receive profits or liquidation proceeds before or after other classes of shareholders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CMC Markets</span> British foreign exchange company

CMC Markets is a UK-based financial services company that offers online trading in shares, spread betting, contracts for difference (CFDs) and foreign exchange across world markets. CMC is headquartered in London, with hubs in Sydney and Singapore. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">City Index Group</span>

City Index is a global spread betting, FX and CFD Trading provider. City Index is part of the Nasdaq listed StoneX Group and is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK, The Australian Services and Investment Commission in Australia and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in Singapore. The company has offices in the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, and Poland.

Sporting Index is a British-based company specialising in sports spread betting. It claims an estimated UK market share of over 70%. The company is best known for spread betting; offering a wide variety of sports, politics and showbiz events, as well as a portfolio of unique virtual games. The betting firm also provides a Fixed Odds service. Business-to-business trading and risk management services are also offered to international betting and gaming operators under the Sporting Solutions brand.

OvalX is a British financial services product providing financial derivatives trading such as contracts for difference (CFDs) and financial spread betting and, As of 2020, corporate brokerage services.

markets.com, is a global trading brand owned by Finalto Group. The company provides online trading using the electronic trading platform MetaTrader 4 for trading on the foreign exchange market, commodity market, cryptocurrency market, stock market, ETFs and bonds through Contracts for Difference (CFDs) and in the UK & Ireland, Spread Bets along with CFDs.

In January 2021, a short squeeze of the stock of the American video game retailer GameStop and other securities took place, causing major financial consequences for certain hedge funds and large losses for short sellers. Approximately 140 percent of GameStop's public float had been sold short, and the rush to buy shares to cover those positions as the price rose caused it to rise even further. The short squeeze was initially and primarily triggered by users of the subreddit r/wallstreetbets, an Internet forum on the social news website Reddit, although a number of hedge funds also participated. At its height, on January 28, the short squeeze caused the retailer's stock price to reach a pre-market value of over US$500 per share, nearly 30 times the $17.25 valuation at the beginning of the month. The price of many other heavily shorted securities and cryptocurrencies also increased.

References

  1. ↑ "T1PS".
  2. ↑ "Evil Knievil, Author at Master Investor". Master Investor. 3 July 2023. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
  3. ↑ Doward, Jamie (17 November 2002). "The City stuntman". The Observer . Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  4. ↑ Silvester, Christopher (1 November 2007). "Eat My Shorts". Spear's. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
  5. ↑ "Cawkwell nets £1m from Northern Rock".
  6. ↑ "Why 'Evil Knievil' is riding high".
  7. ↑ "Who is infamous Evil Knievil? And what is he doing now?".
  8. ↑ "Who are the world's most famous traders?". IG. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
  9. ↑ core.ac.uk June 2009 | https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/16325008.pdf
  10. ↑ "Short selling restrictions and prohibitions". FCA. 13 May 2016. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
  11. ↑ "Short Selling (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018: explanatory information". GOV.UK. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
  12. ↑ Wootliff, Benjamin (12 March 2001). "'Evil Knievel' raises $1m for Russian legal bid". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  13. ↑ "Profile: Prophet of the plunge: Simon Cawkwell's passion for falling shares has shaken the markets". Independent.co.uk . 18 July 1992.
  14. ↑ Cawkwell in Betfair Dispute, The Daily Telegraph .
  15. ↑ Proposed further appeal Cawkwell v Betfair.
  16. ↑ "Profile: City Spy: Evil Knievel pulls off another big punt". 28 July 2014.
  17. ↑ Spence, Alex (7 July 2023). "Evil Knievil hit by fall of spread better". ISSN   0140-0460 . Retrieved 7 July 2023.
  18. ↑ "FCA publicly censures former Worldspreads CEO for market misconduct". FCA. 8 September 2020. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
  19. ↑ "Former Worldspreads chief Conor Foley faces €730,000 fine". The Irish Times. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
  20. ↑ "#BettingPeople: SIMON CAWKWELL". Football & Racing News - Star Sports. 26 November 2021. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
  21. ↑ "goodreads".
  22. ↑ "Simon Cawkwell".
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