By WAYNE GIBSON
The Cambridge Dictionary defines a ‘maverick’ as “a person who thinks and acts in an independent way.”
While the investment community is notorious for displaying a lot of ‘group-think,’ Malvin Spooner, a long-time resident of South Etobicoke, has taken a very different road indeed.
Mal, as he usually goes by, has done it all in more than 30-years, both as a Portfolio Manager and as the CEO of his own TSE-listed investment firm, Mavrix Fund Management, which had achieved over $1 billion in assets under management. He had much media coverage along the way.
Mal is also the author of two books on investing: “Resources Rock,” which anticipated the last commodities boom years ago, and the recent, more general work outlining his investment philosophy “A Maverick Investor’s Guidebook.”
Being a Harley-Davidson enthusiast with many long rides across North America under his belt, he often compares the skills needed in investing to those required also when biking. Another sideline: he had helped raise thousands of dollars for various charities, with his participation as a guitarist in a rock group known as The Dealers. Along with other bands, they engaged in friendly competition at events such as “Bay Street Rocks:” these were much anticipated and widely-attended events 20 years ago within the Toronto investment community, with all money raised going to various charities.
After the sale of his investment firm 10 years ago, Mal spent some time lecturing on topics such as corporate finance at the Lakeshore Campus Business School of Humber College.
His most recent venture is the development of a new website: www.maverickinvestors.com Here, he is trying to, in his words, “…share my own decades of experience by providing a perspective not available to anyone who hasn’t been through market ups and downs”.
Given the current troubles with our economy now in shutdown mode because of COVID-19, Mal offers some solid advice on how to navigate the bumpy road ahead and offers some hope for a better future: “While we naturally want to run and hide when times are scary, scary times can create big opportunities.”
Mal says that his best investments were made by “rationally buying selected stocks during various world economic crises”. So, for those wanting to tap into Mal’s knowledge and experience gleaned over decades of ‘trial by fire’, a look at both his website and his book is highly recommended.