Axel Merk

President
Chief Investment Officer

Axel Merk is the President of Merk Investments and Portfolio Manager for the Funds.

Mr. Merk has extensive experience and expertise in how the global financial imbalances, as evidenced by an enormous trade deficit, affect the markets. He has published many articles describing complex economic phenomena in understandable terms and he is a sought after expert presenter and moderator at conferences. Mr. Merk is a regular guest on CNBC, and frequently quoted in Barron's, the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and other financial publications.

Mr. Merk holds a B.A. in Economics (magna cum laude) and an M.Sc. in Computer Science from Brown University, Rhode Island.

Mr. Merk pursues a macro-economic approach to investing, with substantial gold and hard currency exposure.

In addition to over 20 years of practical investment experience, Mr. Merk has a strong foundation in both economic analysis and computer modeling.  His research in the early 1990s focused on the use of computer-aided models in financial decision making and he is a published author in the field.

Mr. Merk founded Merk Investments in Switzerland in 1994; in 2001 he relocated the business to the U.S.  He lives in the San Francisco bay Area with his wife and four children.