Sam Lipscombe

I've been fascinated by investing for as long as I can remember. The ability to compound wealth over time, and the sheer variety of ways businesses make money, keeps me permanently curious about markets.

I started investing when I got my first job - initially picking stocks I knew as a consumer, before experimenting with US options. It didn't take long to realise I'm a buy-and-hold investor at heart.

Joining Stockopedia was the turning point. I went from instinct-led stock picking to thinking about my investments as a structured portfolio - and accepting that not every pick will pay off, but that a systematic, rules-based approach gives me a better chance of consistent performance over time.

I'm Head of Marketing at Stockopedia, so markets are both my day job and my personal passion.

I invest systematically across most of my portfolios, letting StockRanks guide the majority of my decisions. I focus on stocks that score well on Quality, Value and Momentum - the evidence behind this combination is compelling, and it removes a lot of the noise that comes with discretionary stock picking.

My longer-term portfolios, including my SIPP, are almost entirely rank-driven. I do keep a more discretionary portfolio for individual stock ideas, but the shift to thinking in portfolio averages rather than individual winners has been the most important change in how I invest.