Our Story
What are we about?
In a nutshell we have the confidence to keep things simple!
The world of investment is far too complicated. Investors are required to understand different asset classes, different managers and then spend time (and money) looking backwards to see if it worked.
We think you can meet most investor needs with Options.
We believe that you only need Equity Options. This means less time spent on understanding asset classes and less time spent on trying to choose managers that can invest well.
So what’s the catch? Readers are probably thinking two things:
How can Equity Options possibly be easy?
How can Equity Options meet all of our investment needs?
This is where our skills and experience comes in. We have built and managed these strategies for 20 years. Our experience gives us the confidence to keep things simple (very few of our clients were investment experts). Our experience means we know how to design simple strategies to meet most needs.
Our mission is to make Options mainstream.
That's why we created Doris.
Doris turns our unique experience into technology and we are really proud of it. So much so we have applied for patents for the technology.
We are pleased to have been accepted onto the FCA’s Innovation Pathways programme. Doris is not authorised by the FCA, we have been accepted on the FCA’s Innovation Pathways programme to provide regulatory assistance as we develop our product, in a compliant manner, before applying for authorisation.
We are connecting Doris to markets and investment platforms to bring this mission to life.
Who are we?
Novum was set up by Masroor Ahmad and Mark Davies who were the founders of the derivatives team at River and Mercantile. The team was built from scratch to a business managing almost £30bn of derivatives for over 130 pension scheme clients by the end of 2021. The team managed the entire derivatives process – from training through to execution, portfolio management, operations and reporting. This all means that we know every detail of what is needed to use Options. Importantly we know how to do it in a way that makes them easy for people to use.
Mark and Masroor are joined by Jason Wood, Jon Wilson, Marc Dinardo and Sophia Man – also former team members at River and Mercantile.
Jason has traded Equity Options since the early 90s (think coloured jackets and shouting) then joined River and Mercantile. Jason will be travelling around (preferably physically but also virtually if need be!) meeting with clients, prospects and anyone who wants to see how we can make Equity Options easy to understand. Jason is the proud owner of a Highland Cow called Doris!
Jon is our Chief Technology Officer. Technology is the critical part of our vision and Equity Options to life. Our experience means we know what that Technology needs to do and Jon knows how to build it.
Marc and Sophia are the glue that bind us together. They come up with new ideas, add robustness to our thinking and are not afraid to tell us that we are being stupid. Marc has worked with Equity Options his whole career. Sophia was a Portfolio Manager at Schroders and prior to that at River and Mercantile, where she designed and traded derivatives hedging strategies for pension funds.
Want to know more?
We are happy to meet anyone who is interested in what we are doing. We love to travel but are also happy to meet virtually. Please email info@novum-im.com and we will get back to you.