I agree, So-called religious and spiritual people are not as pure...as they may seem, or make themselves out to be They're regular humans too, and are susceptible to the vanities/sins we all desire.
There actually was a priest on American Greed who was arrested for stealing money through his hedge fund. It was a pretty amazing story.
In the same vein the lure of money attracts people into trading, the lure of money ( yes religion brings serious money http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/megachurches-top-united-states-newsmax/2015/11/11/id/701661/ ) attracts people into religious "jobs". In the same vein, if you have not "studied" trading seriously, you will not be able to distinguish between traders or even ask the good questions ( risk questions, drawdown questions, sample sizes, etc). In the same vain, if you have not "studied" religion seriously, you will not be able to distinguish the "false prophets" ( as warned in the Bible itself 2000 years ago, and actually well explained by "integrist" catholics) from the "real religious" one ( questions about vows of piety, celibacy, "poverty" ( and not misery!!!), frequency of confession, steps in examining one's conscience, sins of fornication starting in the mind, generational sins, etc). Some other questions, is kind of vulgarized well here:
That was my first thought too. But I watched the video and the guy seems legit. I don't know anything about his fund, but his philosophy seems consistent. I agree with his views of multiplying talents and not looking at all wealthy people as simply blessed or lucky as many religious people do.
If he ran a family office I'll have zero issues with a priest/ religious figure trading or investing but he is running a hedge fund IE raising funds from outside sources, his flock and those people who invest with him are doing so not because of his trading or analytical prowess but because he is their priest and they trust him...
As long as he had the training and the background, sure.....but I wouldn't invest with him just because he was a priest and a nice guy. And I'd check his background on FINRA to make sure he was registered. Barry Minkow was not a priest but he fleeced his flock.....he is the clown that had a publicly traded company called ZZZ Best that specialized in the restoration of damaged buildings....he was the CEO at 21. On June 14, 2011; KGTV in San Diego interviewed several members of Minkow's former church, who said Minkow swindled them. One woman said Minkow asked her for $300,000, purportedly to help finance a movie about his redemption.[63] On January 22, 2014, Minkow pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud and to defraud the federal government. He admitted to embezzling over $3 million in donations to Community Bible Church from 2001 to 2011. He opened unauthorized bank accounts purportedly on the church's behalf, forged signatures on church checks, diverted money from legitimate church accounts for his personal use, and charged unauthorized personal expenses on church credit cards. He also concealed $890,000 of income and $250,000 in taxes from the IRS.[64][65] Among his victims were a widower who gave $75,000 to fund a supposed hospital in Sudan to honor his wife after she died of cancer, and a woman who gave Minkow $300,000 that would have otherwise gone to help raise her teenage granddaughter.[66] At sentencing and in interviews with media, Minkow claimed that he committed securities fraud because he had become addicted to his migraine headache medication Oxycontin.[53][6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Minkow