User:Francescad/Clement Chambers

Clem Chambers

Clement Hadrian Chambers (also known as The Alchemist – his nom de plume when writing for The Business http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Business_(magazine)) is a British entrepreneur, author and journalist, best known for his involvement in ADVFN.

Early Life

Chambers was born in 1963 in Kent. The son of a commodities trader, he became interested in the workings of the financial markets as a child. He became accustomed to the varying fortunes created by the markets from an early age.

Business career

Clem entered the nascent software industry where he was a pioneer of computer games, massively multiplayer games, multimedia and the internet. He founded and ran a video games company CRL Group plc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRL_Group_PLCc from the age of 18. CRL Group released over 200 titles including a number of adventure games based on classic horror stories such as Dracula, Jack the Ripper and Frankenstein. Tau Ceti and Academy were two of the CRL-published games that achieved critical success. Dracula and Frankenstein were awarded "15" certificates by the then British Board of Film Censors; the first games ever to do so. Wolfman later gained an 18 certification - another first. In 1989 Chambers, along with fellow computer veteran Michael Hodges, co-founded On-line. The company was amongst the first to develop both massively multiplayer internet games and CD-ROM boxed products. In 1996 On-line PLC floated on London’s AIM market. In 1999 Clem co-founded, and became director of, Akaei plc, the games development and publishing subsidiary of On-line PLC. On November 15, 2004 at Akaei’s EGM shareholders approved the acquisition of All IPO Limited and the change of name to All IPO PLC.

The All IPO website allows private investors to apply for new issues online, enabling access to Offers for Subscription and Placings as well as tax efficient opportunities such as Enterprise Investment Schemes (EIS) and Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs).

On-Line incubated ADVFN, of which Chambers was a founder and which is currently a leading global financial market website, in the last quarter of 1999. The company floated on AIM in March 2000. Clem became CEO of ADVFN in January of 2002 and is credited with steering the company from likely dot.com failure to thriving market leader.

With full real-time coverage of the London Stock Exchange, the euronext-liffe, PLUS Markets, NASDAQ, Amex and NYSE, including FTSE, Dow and S&P indices, ADVFN provides professional quality information to the person on the street. The site now has over 1,400,000 registered users who generate in excess of 300 million page impressions a month. In September of 2006, ADVFN acquired InvestorsHub.com and Silicon Investor - two top five online investment community websites in the North American market.

Media and writing

A broadcast and print media regular, Chambers is a familiar face and frequent co-presenter on CNBC and CNBC Europe. He is a seasoned guest and market commentator on BBC News 24, Newsnight, BBC 1, CNN, SKY News, TF1, Working Lunch, China’s Phoenix TV, Canada’s Business News Network and numerous US radio stations. He is well known for his market calls and predicted the end of the bull market in January 2007. He has appeared on ITV’s News at Ten and Evening News discussing recent failures in the banking system and featured prominently in the Money Programme’s Credit Crash Britain: HBOS — Breaking the Bank and on the BBC’s City Uncovered: When Markets Go Mad

Clem Chambers has written investment columns for Wired Magazine, which described him as a ‘Market Mavern’; The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Express, Your Trading Edge and currently writes for The Scotsman and Forbes. He was The Alchemist stock tipster in The Business for over three years and has been published in titles including: CityAM, Investors Chronicle, Traders Magazine, Stocks and Commodities, the Channel 4 website, SFO and Accountancy Age and has been quoted in many more publications including all of the main UK national newspapers. He also wrote a monthly spread betting column in gambling magazine Inside Edge for over a year

His first novel, a financial thriller called The Armageddon Trade was published (No Exit Press) in April of 2009. Ted Greenwald, Senior Editor of Wired Magazine wrote: “Like a digital-age John le Carré, Clem Chambers spins a gripping tale of terrorist apocalypse informed by a deep understanding of financial markets and computer technology” and Geoffrey Wansell writing for the Daily Mail said of the book: "Full of insight, it never lets up for a moment. Fresh as today’s headlines, it reminds the world just how close it could be to financial meltdown."