LEX
Resources
Lex by email
Sign up
FT.com subscribers can now receive three email packages: Lex live, Lex alerts and Best of Lex
Related content and features
ABOUT LEX
Lex is a premium daily commentary service from the Financial Times. It is the oldest and arguably the most influential business and finance column of its kind in the world. It helps readers make better investment decisions by highlighting key emerging risks and opportunities.
Written with a sharp and authoritative yet often humorous voice, the column is unconflicted and fiercely guards its editorial independence. Traditionally it appears daily on the back page of the Financial Times, and sets the agenda on everything from company analysis and macroeconomics to financial markets to critical trends of the day.
Now, it goes much further than that. Lex appears in all four editions of the FT newspaper, with content editionalised for each region. Beyond that, its online offerings include:
- A premium e-mail service. Available only to premium subscribers, Lex’s editors send out three e-mails each day, for the Asian, European and American readerships, setting out the day’s agenda, giving an exclusive look ahead to the notes in preparation for later in the day, and providing a summary and links for all the notes published in the previous 24 hours.
- Lex Live videos. Every day of the working week, ft.com publishes a video debate between Lex columnists, arguing through one of the biggest stories of the day. Often entertaining, these arguments give a fresh analytical angle, and also give an insight into how the opinion column is put together.
- Best of Lex. Each week, premium subscribers get a compilation of the week’s best commentary, with a wry summary of the way the week has gone and the main issues it presented.
Lex Live videos are available to all subscribers. All Lex’s other services are available exclusively to premium subscribers. To subscribe to the e-mails, go to FT.com’s Alerts Hub: http://nbe.ft.com/nbe/profile.cfm
With a premium subscription you can post comments on all Lex notes.
Lex’s History
Lex grew up within the City of London, but these days Lex is truly global, both in its coverage and in its writers, who are based in Asia, Europe and the US.
The first Lex column to appear in the FT was on Monday, October 1, 1945. The answer to the mystery of how Lex got its name died with Hargreaves Parkinson, who conceived the column for the Financial News in the 1930s, and took the column with him when the FN merged with the FT. At first, it was called “Notes for Investors” and was by-lined “by Lex”. One explanation is that Lex derives from the phrase “De minimis non curat lex” (”The law is not concerned with trifles”) and was intended as a gibe at a rival column signed “Autolycus” - Shakespeare’s “snapper-up of unconsidered trifles”.
Lex still aims to provide useful “Notes for Investors,” and the global investment community is its core constituency. To stand up for the interests of investors, it is fair but contrarian, cutting through the hype that surrounds corporate announcements or big moves in the market, explaining significant news items of the day, and drawing attention to points of view that general readers otherwise ignore.
The column long ago gave up the pretence of being the work of a single person, and now includes six London-based writers, four in New York and one in Hong Kong. Most of the team has prior industry experience at investment banks, management consultancies or research houses, allowing Lex to conduct the primary analysis essential to its intellectual independence.
Lex remains the template that other financial commentary follows; its alumni have also founded or are running many of the newer columns inspired by Lex, including Reuters Breakingviews and the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street.
Other Lex alumni moved on to further heights in journalism, such as Dominic Lawson who subsequently edited the Sunday Telegraph, while many made careers in business, including Martin Taylor, former chief executive of Barclays Bank, John Gardiner, former chairman of Tesco, Richard Lambert, the director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, and John Makinson, chairman and chief executive of Penguin. Others went into politics, such as Nigel Lawson, chancellor of the exchequer under Margaret Thatcher.
Contact Us
We are constantly working to make Lex even better. If you have suggestions on how we might improve the service please share them with us at lex@ft.com
We welcome feedback, and positively encourage news tips and story ideas. Email the editorial team or telephone +44 (0)20 7873 3938.
LEX BIOGRAPHIES
| Stuart Kirk, Head of Lex | |
 | Stuart Kirk joined Lex in 2006 and is now the US Lex editor based in New York, as well as deputy global editor. For two years prior to joining the FT, he was a management consultant at Mercer Oliver Wyman. This followed eight years at Deutsche Asset Management as a senior portfolio manager. Stuart graduated from the University of Cambridge with a degree in Economics and was President of the Union. |
| Robert Armstrong | |
 | Robert Armstrong joined Lex in 2011 and is based in New York. Prior to joining the FT, he was a senior columnist at Dow Jones Investment Banker and an equity analyst at Seminole Capital Partners. He earned his PhD in philosophy at Columbia University and a BA in philosophy at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He is also a CFA charter-holder. He covers US technology, healthcare, and consumer goods companies. |
| Vincent Boland | |
 | Vincent Boland joined Lex in 2010, based in London. He has been a foreign correspondent for the FT in Prague, Ankara and Milan, and covered international capital markets between 1997 and 2003 in London and New York, most recently as capital markets editor. He graduated with a degree in French and History from University College Dublin and worked for Bank of Ireland in the 1980s, including five years in private client investment management. He joined the FT in 1994 after a period at The Irish Times. |
| Jennifer Hughes | |
 | Jennifer Hughes joined Lex in 2011 and is based in Hong Kong. She joined the Financial Times in 1999, working in web production in London. After a stint on the markets desk as Currencies Correspondent, she moved to New York in early 2004, writing extensively on US and global capital markets, including foreign exchange, bonds and credit derivatives. She was made Deputy US Markets Editor in 2005. In 2007, she took up the post of Financial Correspondent, covering accountancy and financial regulation. She later became senior markets correspondent covering topics such as asset allocation, capital markets and cross-asset class issues. Jennifer has a BA in history from the University of Exeter, and an MSc in Business and Journalism from Columbia. |
| Spencer Jakab | |
 | Spencer Jakab joined Lex in 2008 and is currently based in New York. Prior to that he worked at Dow Jones Newswires covering energy markets and wrote the award-winning Street Savvy column. Before Dow Jones, Spencer was head of Emerging Europe, Middle East and Africa equity research for Credit Suisse in London, and a top-rated country analyst for Credit Suisse in Hungary. Spencer holds an MIA from Columbia University, and a bachelors degree from Brandeis University, summa cum laude, in political science. |
| Ben McLannahan | |
 | Ben McLannahan joined Lex in 2007 and is currently based in Hong Kong. Before that he was the London correspondent for Institutional Investor magazine. He also spent five years at the Economist Group, three years at a legal publisher, and two years as an English teacher in Japan. Ben graduated from the University of Cambridge with a degree in English Literature. |
| Richard Stovin-Bradford | |
 | Richard Stovin-Bradford joined Lex in 2008, based in London. Before the FT, he was banking editor of Business Times for eight years and of Business Report for three, both in Johannesburg, South Africa. This followed 17 years in investment and commercial banking with UAL Merchant Bank, Hambros, SG Warburg, Sanwa, and Lloyds Bank International based in South Africa, the UK and Spain. Richard graduated from the University of Oxford with a degree in modern languages (French and Spanish). |
| Nikki Tait | |
 | Nikki Tait joined the London Lex desk in 2011, after 25 years with the Financial Times. During that time, she has been a foreign correspondent for the paper in New York, Sydney, Chicago and, most recently, Brussels. She also covered M&A activity when she first joined the FT in the late-1980s, and legal issues from 2002 to 2007. She holds an economics degree from the London School of Economics and, while at Investors’ Chronicle before joining the FT, edited a beginner’s guide to the stockmarket, which won a Wincott Foundation commendation. |
| Luke Templeman | |
 | Luke Templeman joined Lex in 2009 and is currently based in London. For three years prior to joining the FT, he worked for Macquarie Group following two years at private equity firm Pacific Equity Partners in Australia. Luke graduated from the Macquarie University with degrees in Commerce and completed his MBA at London Business School. |
