Welcome back to our Spotlight Series, where we interview and showcase members from our team!
In this month’s “Spotlight,” we’d like to introduce you to Art Molloy, our President & Founder. With 41+ years of professional experience, Art prides himself on delivering financial advice with the highest integrity, including creative and thoughtful solutions to your financial planning and investment management needs. In this interview, we get to know the journey that brought Capital Growth to life.
Good morning Art! Let's start by chatting about the vision - as the Founder & President of Capital Growth, what inspired you to start your own firm?
Well, I was actually working with someone else in the industry, and I just knew that I could be doing a better job by running a business on my own, so I set up shop and started Capital Growth in 1983!
Amazing initiative. What would you say is your favorite part of the job?
I would say that delivering outstanding results to my clients is the part of my job that I enjoy the most. It’s not just investment returns, but innovative solutions and providing five star service.
I see that you were a biophysics student first - what made you switch gears over to finance?
In my sophomore year of college right, before college started back up for that summer, I discovered the stock market and began to read intensely about investing and how the stock market worked. I was fascinated and sucked in right away.
Just a different complex system to study, right? What was the first trade you ever made? How old were you?
The very first trade I made was an options trade. I bought April call options on digital equipment corporation when I was 19 years old. That trade made me 11 times my money which is like taking drugs for the first time… It’s very addictive.
How much did you make?
I turned $333 into $4,000.
Wow - I can see how that'd be addictive. What would you say the most common misconception people have about investing?
By far the biggest misconception is that they think it’s easy. And then they also think that index funds are all that you need. The real problem is having the mental fortitude to know when to hang in there, buy more or get rid of some, sell off positions. That’s really the difficult part, because you have to be selling when everyone else is feeling greedy and you have to be buying when everyone else feels anxious.
Have you ever experienced anything similar to COVID-19 when it comes to financial trends?
The 1987 stock market crash felt similar, but there really hasn’t been a time that is even remotely close to how this year has gone.
What is some financial advice that you’ve passed down to your children / grandchildren? Did you start teaching them healthy financial habits at a young age?
I probably didn’t do as good a job on this as I could have. I felt that it was important for them to make their own discoveries and their own paths in life. That’s how I ended up finding my passion and I wanted that for them.
What are 3 books that you read in the last year?
I have read The Misbehavior of Markets by Benoit Mandelbrot and Richard L. Hudson, and the book Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind by Yuval Noah Harari. The third book is not yet read…As in I have only read two books so far this year.
Reading is a luxury! What are some of your other favorite activities outside of work?
I actually have a couple, one is golf, the other is taking exercise walks with Dana. We walk around 4 to 6 miles about 5 days a week.
What is the best way for clients to get in touch with you?
That would be phone or email. I don’t give out my cell phone number so no texts (please!). Also, I only access emails on my computer in order to keep my cell phone as a personal device, not a work device. It helps me keep my life in balance.
You can reach Art Molloy at artm@capitalgrowthinc.com, or visit my landing page to get to know me a bit more.