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 PrintableVersion Being a Christian in the CityLeading City figure and hedge fund manager Michael Farmer spoke to EN about his work and faith. EN: Would you give us a bit of background on yourself and how you came to be working in the City of London?MF: I started work as a clerk in a metal exchange firm back in 1963 aged 18 years old and worked my way up, gaining a wide experience of the metals market. At one stage I found myself working for Enron, and then with Price Waterhouse who hired me to help recover funds from Enron when they went bust. Having prayed to be removed from Enron as it wasn’t somewhere I felt comfortable — you do get what you pray for at times! — it was around this time that I was advised to start running a hedge fund (Red Kite) due to my experience in the market. I’m a great believer in praying about things and so, after the Cornhill Course, that’s what I did. EN: Red Kite is one of the biggest industrial metals hedge funds in the world. Can you give us a non-technical explanation of what a hedge fund is?MF: The ‘hedge’ part of it is similar to how one would say ‘hedging my bets’. People who want to invest their money may invest in commodities (metals in this case) as a balance to their other company investments, i.e. shares. If their shares go down, the hedge fund investment will go up. There is a risk element, but we have a large amount of expertise built up over many years within the field, so the risk is managed. (EN: It is a little more complex than this, but space is limited!) EN: There are many people in the City who earn a great deal of money. Is the love of money a greater temptation to those Christians who earn larger than average amounts? MF: Money is neutral. It’s like a knife: you can cut food with it, or you can stab someone. Anyone can have a love of money no matter what they earn. I encourage people to pray about it. Protect me from greed, from having a closed fist and so on. Help me to remember, Lord, that I won’t be taking it with me when I die, as Psalm 19 teaches me to number my days. EN: So how does your faith affect your attitude towards the poverty which exists close by in London and around the world?MF: I am prayerful, asking the Lord to show me what to do and the Lord guides people in different ways to meet the different needs there are. Heartfelt needs are responded to directly. And our biggest poverty, the mortal wound, which we try at times to plaster up with a sticking plaster, is our spiritual poverty. People are going to hell and they need the Lord. So what produces the most good is faithful teaching. EN: So how do you encourage those with great personal wealth to use this for the good of Christ’s kingdom (1 Timothy 6.17-18)?MF: I believe in encouraging people with grace. Encouraging Christians to see that they can be ‘Christian’ all the time and to recognise the good they are doing, which often can be more than they think! We are saved into glorious freedom and there is joy in service, not in being weighed down by the guilt and creating an unwilling attitude to give, but by being free. I encourage people to read, pray, meet together and then you’ll be led down the right paths. Also, ensure that, whatever you do with your money, the glory is given to God, and not reflected back onto you. Your left hand should never know what your right hand has done. No one gets the management of their money correct at all times, but the closer you are in your walk with the Lord, the more you’ll recognise that prod of your conscience when things are not right. This prayer breakfast is about encouragement; to encourage Christians to be a Christian at all times in all places. Michael will be speaking at the City Prayer Breakfast on November 11 at St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, London. See http://www.cityprayerbreakfast.com © Evangelicals Now - November 2011 |
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