Rakesh is a professional financial markets trader and portfolio manager. He has a passion for finance and investing and since the early 1990’s worked in a number of Global investment banks in the UK and the US. He left in 2005 to set up Ten Point Trading, a trading systems and training company to help traders and investors successfully navigate the markets, and also Kingly Capital, a professional asset management firm dedicating to help family offices and investment firms with trading systems for buying and selling currencies, commodities and equities.
Rakesh is also the Communications Director (on a voluntary basis) for a charity, ISKCON-London (also known as the ‘Hare Krishnas’), based at the Radha Krishna Temple in Soho, London. Here he shares the ideals of life based on ‘simple living and high thinking’ from the philosophy of Krishna Consciousness and the Bhagavad Gita.
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1) What is your current position?
I am currently trading and investing each day in financial markets at Kingly Capital. Part of this involves designing and building trading systems. I have spoken at hundreds of events over the last 20 years to both professionals and private investors on the science of successful trading and investing, paying particular focus on how your personality will affect your results.
2) What are your proudest achievements?
Over the years, as well as benefiting from the markets personally, I have helped hundreds of people to achieve their financial ambitions and objectives. This has enabled many people to become free of their prior daily work commitments and use the free time to explore lives of their own choice and making. I am very blessed to have been given the chance to support the Hare Krishnas and Vedic leaders in hundreds of programmes we have delivered to give people a better quality life.
3) What inspires you?
Seeing the transformation that yoga has brought to society by leading a dharmic and sattvic life through the practical application of philosophy in everyday life. I wish everyone could experience this. I really like TED Talks and there is a great mobile phone app that lets you catch up on them during small breaks.
4) What has been the biggest obstacle in your career?
Challenging the status quo that to win in business, another person does not have to significantly lose out. The issue is that holistically (dharmically speaking), thinking win, win often does not result in the most profitable outcome, but the whole system is set up to ignore this and profitability is the number one and only objective in most situations. It’s a major challenge in both corporate and western mind-set. Maybe I should write a book on this one day.
5) Who has been the biggest influence on your career to date?
Firstly, gratitude to my parents who have been invaluable guides. Next I have taken inspiration from many disciples of the late A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami and especially a thought provoking international speaker Jeffrery Armstrong based in Vancouver, Canada, who left a successful Silicon Valley executive job in the early 70’s to become a philosopher and vedic practitioner bridging the gap between the east and west in both corporate and personal life. A day with him can really change your life. I would have never believed this until I did it! Check him out. Once you know who you really are and how your brain works, you are really in control of your own destiny (and blissfully happy in the process).
6) What is the best aspect about your current role?
I really enjoy meeting new people and discussing the financial challenges they face and the solutions available. I coach many students on a one to one basis and this is very rewarding to see the change in their characters from start to finish. Financial markets offer new opportunities every day, but in my personal opinion, the most valuable commodity in life is not money but time and my current role allows me to do things outside of work that I know will have a huge positive impact on the lives of both my family and the local community.
7) And the worst?
Hearing the stories of many investors and traders that have lost small and big fortunes that had started trading the markets with often unrealistic (false) plans sold to them by many of the crooked (so-called experts) in the financial markets. I can tell you that the bitter loss of losing hard earned money is far more painful than any happiness gained by earning money in the financial markets. Taking a calculated risk is necessary in investing, but following an impossible dream is a tragedy.
8) What are your long term goals?
I will continue to grow my financial business and I am currently working hard on funding a project to set up a ‘Vedic Academic Centre of Science Arts and Culture’ in London for people to learn Vedic teaching on a practical level to improve the quality of life and showcase beautiful art of all forms.
9) If you were Prime Minister, what one aspect would you change?
I would change the transparency of the political system by educating each and every individual on how the political system works as a compulsory module in the school system. I would also make sure education included lessons on how to live a good life, understanding the importance of why philosophy, culture, art and creativity bind together to make a beautiful society. Many of the problems we face today, can be solved by the youth of the tomorrow if they are properly equipped to know their purpose of being here.
10) If you were marooned on a desert island, which historical figure would you like to spend your time with and why?
I would dream to spend some time with William Shakespeare, probably regarded as one of the greatest poets in modern history. I have always been fascinated with his ability to use words to express meaning and ideas. I always wonder, where did he get all those brilliant stories from and how amazing to have created so many words, in common use today in the modern world. Really he was a genius.
