The Crypto VIP Club is an education & support club focusing on blockchain & distributed ledger technologies including cryptocurrencies. This was born out of my passion for trading & Technical Analysis which started in the mid 2000's. I regularly analyse traditional stock market indices and trade using an SB account. However, my real passion lays with the long term transformational possibilities of cryptocurrencies & utility tokens. I trade these using a multitude of exchanges and cold & hardware wallets. This deep passion for the crypto/blockchain market led me to complete Oxford University's Blockchain Strategy Programme in July 2018 and I am currently enrolled with the University of Nicosia to complete their DFIN-511 course in January 2019 with a view to taking their MSc in Digital Currency.Having learned technical analysis trading ES Mini futures during the lead up to the 2008 Credit Crisis, this sparked a deeper interest in monetary history and economics and the flaws in the current debt based Petrodollar, Central Bank, IMF, BIS Fiat system which it appears will lead to a global Dollarisation. It will be interesting to monitor developments as the Petroyuan, New Development Bank/AIIB CIPS system becomes fully operational and whether new cryptocurrencies like Venezuela's Petra will gain traction. Will we see an eventual return to a gold standard or could the hardest money the world has ever seen eventually take over?

As a residential & commercial mortgage broker my role is to secure the most cost effective solution to financing your asset purchase. This includes residential homes right through commercial properties like shops, offices, self build & property development.With 20 years experience, I have worked within all sectors of the industry and implement tailored financial solutions that meet individual client needs. I am able to consult and implement solutions at all financial levels, from raising £100,000 through to multimillion pound mortgages. I have worked with clients from all walks of life from Nurses, Police Officers, Self Employed, Company Directors, Senior NHS Consultants, Airline Pilots, Offshore Oil Workers, Solicitors, Judges, Foreign Currency Traders.

Having spent 2 years developing Mortgage Genie, the UK's first execution only, self-service non advised, mortgage comparison supermarket, the service was launched in April 2005. Homeowners were empowered with the tools to source the best mortgages from across the UK using a proprietary version of the Internal Rate of Return business appraisal formula. This allowed clients to find the deal offering the lowest overall cost and choose to get paid for processing their own application. My role now took on a business development & marketing capacity. I marketed our service through various chat forums & through press releases. This proved immensely successful and Mortgage Genie was featured in the mainstream media from the likes of the Financial Times, The Guardian, The Daily Mail and was recommended by Martin Lewis (UK Financial Guru) on the Jeremy Vine radio show. This lead to Mortgage Genie being recommended on Martin Lewis's Money Saving Expert (the UK's number one consumer finance website) until the Credit Crisis forced closure in October 2009.Mortgage Genie was directly regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority and I was responsable for all controlled functions.

Due to the increasing demand and complexity of the mortgages market, which now comprised over 4500 products, I decided to focus in on this market rather than investments and setup Key Mortgage Options. While still working with one Estate Agent, I developed and invests in internet marketing and started to build and online presence through various chat forums including Motley Fool, Singing Pig, ADVFN & Martin Lewis's Money Saving Expert. During this period I started to learn HTML, CSS, VB.NET & MySQL and spent 2 years developing the UK's first execution only (self-service non advised) mortgage comparison website.

Having built a good relationship with the RMT & CWU from my previous position, I became aware of product limitations as I was only authorised to offer investment products from Colonial First State, therefore I moved to a self-employed position with Investment Strategies UK, who were fully independent. This allowed me to offer Independent Finance Advice on financial products from all UK Financial Service Authority (FSA - Now FCA) regulated companies and mortgages from over 100 banks.By mid 2001, banks started to offer agressive pricing to attract new business from Independent Financial Advisers and Mortgage Brokers. I found myself increasingly focusing on mortgage business approached local Estate Agents, 2 of which became exclusive introducers and I ran a mortgage desk their offices.

This was a field based role which involved self generating client leads and visiting them in their home or office to provide Financial Planning across the complete product range offered by Colonial First State. (Pension, PEPs/ISAs, Endowments, Life Assurance) For this aim, I approached the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and developed relationships with their regional representatives. This lead to holding regular surgeries at their officies and presence at their annual conferences.

I was responsible for motivating & training colleagues across 5 branches to generate mortgage leads in order for me to advise our clients how best to structure their finances in order to benefit from our most competitive mortgage and associated products from across the Natwest Banking Group.