Investment manager and business consultant Craig Allen has been writing about financial matters for nearly 20 years. On Monday, he begins writing a weekly business column for Noozhawk.
Allen’s column will focus on the global economy and he will discuss the market’s recent volatility in his first article. (Click here for the column.)
“I will be doing a big picture overview of how we got here,” Allen said. “Investors see the volatility every day, but many people don’t know what to make of it and panic. It seems like the market suffered huge losses (last) week and there were bad days, but at the end of the week it’s down 1.7 percent.”
Allen has more than 20 years of investment management experience. He studied international relations as a UCSB graduate student and in 2004 started his own company, Montecito Private Asset Management. He also recently launched Dump Your Debt, a Web site that provides user-friendly debt-elimination strategies.
He’s also a familiar presence around town. In addition to providing stock market updates weekday mornings on KZSB-AM 1290, he’s the board president of Transition House. Previously, he wrote a weekly business column for the Santa Barbara News-Press.
“Noozhawk readers know Santa Barbara is blessed with an abundance of talented financial asset professionals,” said Bill Macfadyen, Noozhawk’s publisher. “It’s not so easy to find one who is comfortable writing for a weekly deadline, however. We’re thrilled to welcome Craig to Noozhawk because he’s at ease in both worlds.
“I think our readers will find his columns informative and personable, and I hope some of his longtime fans will find Noozhawk to be a good match for them, too.”
Understanding how the economy influences people’s decisions has always inspired Allen. Investing is easier when the market is healthy but it’s more difficult to make an objective decision when it falters, he said.
“People are emotional about investing their own money,” Allen explained. “It’s better to have a professional, detached opinion.
“Most people don’t have the time or expertise to come up with a long-term strategy and implement it.”
Allen says it’s best to develop a strategy and stick to it, and leave the day-to-day fluctuation to short-term traders.
“With access to so much information for the individual investor, it makes it more difficult to decide what’s important and what’s not,” he said. “What I do is shed light on what is important and break down complicated language and data.”
In terms of efficiency, the online medium is the best way to convey that insight, Allen said.
“It’s more flexible,” he said. “It’s a cheaper form of delivery, and the print business is dying as a way to deliver content. The Internet provides immediate access and an automatic delivery of content, and that’s what people demand today.
“I’m excited to write for Noozhawk because I think the electronic delivery format is the way of the future and how everyone will get their information. Noozhawk is on the cutting edge of the local news market and is increasingly popular in terms of delivery.”
Wing Shots
» Who are your influences? “My dad, on a personal basis. He taught me to be honest and forthright and to do a good job for people.”
» What’s something people don’t know about you? “There’s nothing all that exciting about me that’s not already public. A lot of things I do influence my life … I’ve always played music and done martial arts. They keep me focused.”
» What sports do you enjoy? “I like individual sports. Tennis is one of the few sports where you are pretty much on your own. I like that it’s all about the individual person, and each person in the top 25 has to stay on top of their game or fall out of the rankings.”
» Formula One or NASCAR? “Formula One. It draws people from everywhere. I like the technology and I think they are better drivers, although some might argue that.”
» Cats or dogs? “Cats. Pound for pound, a cat will take a dog’s house down.”
— Noozhawk business writer Alex Kacik can be reached at akacik@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.