The Literate Investor was established to bring independent thinking, intellectual discipline and genuine research conviction to investment fund analysis.
We serve financial advisers, wealth managers, discretionary fund managers, fund selectors and other investment professionals through research, ratings and informed investment perspectives.
Our philosophy is straightforward: evidence should guide the research, challenge should test it, and independent judgement should determine the conclusion.
Shoaib Akhtar, CFA
Shoaib is an investment professional with more than a decade of experience across fund selection, manager research, investment analysis and multi-asset portfolio construction.
His research has covered UK, European, US, Japanese and emerging market equities, fixed income and multi-asset strategies.
He also brings substantial experience researching investment trusts, including specialist and alternative investment strategies where structure, governance and liquidity can be as important as underlying portfolio performance.
Before founding TLI, his work contributed to investment research, portfolio construction and ongoing manager monitoring for professional investment clients.
Research before ratings
A strong historical performance record does not necessarily establish a compelling investment proposition.
We believe meaningful research requires an understanding of who makes investment decisions, how returns were generated and whether the manager’s stated philosophy is genuinely reflected in portfolio behaviour.
The objective is not to produce the largest ratings list. It is to identify strategies where the evidence genuinely supports conviction.
This philosophy underpins TLI Premier™, our deliberately selective highest research designation. Ratings are awarded through independent research judgement, not purchased through commercial relationships.
Ideas, education and engagement
Alongside institutional research, TLI contributes to professional investment discussions through market commentary, webinars, longer-form writing and engagement with the wider investment industry.
The Literate Investor Journal explores investment research, financial markets, behavioural finance and the wider forces shaping investment decisions.
The Great British Disconnect
Shoaib is the author of The Great British Disconnect, examining the challenges facing the UK stock market, declining domestic participation in British equities and the importance of rebuilding a stronger investment culture.
Investment literacy and informed public discussion remain part of TLI’s broader purpose, alongside its primary focus on professional investment research.
Building for the long term
The Literate Investor is being developed as an enduring, independent research business, grounded in rigorous analysis, genuine professional relationships and the willingness to exercise independent judgement.
Our ambition is to produce research that investment professionals regard as credible, useful and worth returning to.
