Clem Chambers

Clement Hadrian Chambers (also known as The Alchemist – his nom de plume when writing for The Business is a British entrepreneur, author and journalist, best known for his involvement in ADVFN, formerly known as the Advanced Financial Network.

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
Chambers entered the early 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, the CRL Group, 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 (video game) 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 PLC. 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 Chambers 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 the name to All IPO PLC.

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 2002 and is credited with steering the company from likely dot.com failure to thriving market leader. In September 2006, ADVFN acquired InvestorsHub.com an online investment community website 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, Newsnight, BBC One, 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, The Daily Mail, 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: City A.M., Investors Chronicle, Traders Magazine, Stocks and Commodities, the Channel 4 website, SFO and Accountancy Age and has been quoted in many more publications including USA Today and 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 2009. The hardback of his second novel, The Twain Maxim was published in April 2010 and the paperback was published in May 2010. The third book in the series, Kusanagi, is due to be published in the first quarter of 2011.