A Value View - The Merchants Trust PLC Podcast
Aug 28, 2026 · 21 min · 9 segments
In this episode of A Value View, The Merchants Trust brings together its three Portfolio Managers together for the first time to offer a behind-the-scenes look at how investment decisions are made…
Simon GergelGuest
John CroninHost
Richard KnightGuest
Andrew CoshGuest
Do you want to move on from the disagreements or lack of or the healthy debate to what that says about how you work together in terms of the experience that you all bring to the table and the experience of obviously working together.
Has the time that you've worked together shaped the way that you reach decisions now? Have you changed the way that you approach things through the experience of working together?
I think having three people rather than two actually makes it a lot easier to crystallise a decision.
But the third person changes the dynamics and makes it much easier to coalesce around something.
Or maybe say, okay, two of us don't have a strong view, but the third person has a really passionate view.
I think three works really well and that's probably been the biggest change over the last four or five years when Andrew joined us.
Simon's been in the market a long time and I'm extremely fortunate to work with someone who's been through those cycles and seen so many points in time that can be extremely volatile, quite scary in the stock market for the holdings you've got, for your positioning.
And I've done an awful lot of, you know, my background's in economic history and I read a lot about financial crises and disruptions and all sorts.
And I obviously have experience going, just touching the great financial crisis.
When this industry, what we're trying to do is much more about controlling your emotions than people realize and perhaps much less about being the smartest person in the market or doing the most research into an issue.
The market is inherently emotional and it's extremely tempting to follow that emotion when it's been very strongly exhibited.
And one of the things I find, as I say, best about working with Simon is that calmness in a kind of crisis.
It might not seem like a crisis later, but it always feels like it at the time or can do.
So just picking up on the point you've made there, Richard, markets, as you say, can become pretty emotional, are emotional.
So I guess the point I'm interested in exploring is, amongst all of that, does having the team help you stay more disciplined then, Andrew? Is that your experience?
There are times when there's news out in the morning, important news and often it's not black and white.
It's very helpful to Look at it, analyse it as best you can, but then sound it off your colleagues.
Do you want to move on from the disagreements or lack of or the healthy debate to what that says about how you work together in terms of the experience that you all bring to the table and the experience of obviously working together.
Has the time that you've worked together shaped the way that you reach decisions now? Have you changed the way that you approach things through the experience of working together?
I think having three people rather than two actually makes it a lot easier to crystallise a decision.
But the third person changes the dynamics and makes it much easier to coalesce around something.
Or maybe say, okay, two of us don't have a strong view, but the third person has a really passionate view.
I think three works really well and that's probably been the biggest change over the last four or five years when Andrew joined us.
Simon's been in the market a long time and I'm extremely fortunate to work with someone who's been through those cycles and seen so many points in time that can be extremely volatile, quite scary in the stock market for the holdings you've got, for your positioning.
And I've done an awful lot of, you know, my background's in economic history and I read a lot about financial crises and disruptions and all sorts.
And I obviously have experience going, just touching the great financial crisis.
When this industry, what we're trying to do is much more about controlling your emotions than people realize and perhaps much less about being the smartest person in the market or doing the most research into an issue.
The market is inherently emotional and it's extremely tempting to follow that emotion when it's been very strongly exhibited.
And one of the things I find, as I say, best about working with Simon is that calmness in a kind of crisis.
It might not seem like a crisis later, but it always feels like it at the time or can do.
So just picking up on the point you've made there, Richard, markets, as you say, can become pretty emotional, are emotional.
So I guess the point I'm interested in exploring is, amongst all of that, does having the team help you stay more disciplined then, Andrew? Is that your experience?
There are times when there's news out in the morning, important news and often it's not black and white.
It's very helpful to Look at it, analyse it as best you can, but then sound it off your colleagues.
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