[Archived] Shares/ Stocks Thread

[Billy Castell]

FTSE has opened about 8% down, so I think Hughsey will be buying Stan Ternent's mini.

Is the point system of the stock market on the same scale throughtout the world, i.e. 1 point in London is worth 1 point in New York or Tokyo?

[Al]

FTSE has opened about 8% down, so I think Hughsey will be buying Stan Ternent's mini.

Is the point system of the stock market on the same scale throughtout the world, i.e. 1 point in London is worth 1 point in New York or Tokyo?

No it's the percentage that makes the difference. The sick thing is that if you lose 50% on your shares the market has then to gain 100% to get you back where you were. It will take a long time to do that. In fact if you go back as far as the dotcom collapse you will see that in all that time the FTSE 100 never got back to that level again.

[Billy Castell]

Its a long term game on the whole, which makes all the panic all the more crazy. Somone needs to fire a few shots in the aire and shout to everyone 'calm down, we can sort this out'. Stock brokers must be the most jittery, insecure people around. The Friday night armistice team proved that by influencing the price in coffee or sugar. Sadly there is no clip of this on youtube.

[Hughesy]

Keep your powder dry and then buy bank shares when the prices start to rise again mid/ late next year.

[jim mk2]

Keep your powder dry and then buy bank shares when the prices start to rise again mid/ late next year.

Thank you Warren Buffett.

[Jordan]

Bought 1000 shares in RBS yesterday at 99p per share. Went down to 55p per share this afternoon and closed at 74p I think.

When I started with RBS it was above £10 per share and were as high as £20 per share at one point. How things change.

[broadsword]

Have you given it up for now, Hughesy?

[ABBEY]

hows it going hughsey?

[Hughesy]

I stopped back then....decided it was too dodgy at the time.

However now looking to get back into it, iv been tracking several companies for the last couple of months, mainly new or small AIM companies....but considering re-entering the market.

Anyone else on here trade in shares?

[Glenn]

I've never done stocks and shares, but we've just written a bunch of tools tracking foreign exchange rates, primarily to identify the optimal time to transfer between currencies in PayPal. Intriguing stuff and I think I already have enough data to game the system quite effectively.

I know forex markets aren't supposed to be massively lucrative, but it's tempting.

[Mattyblue]

I have a dabble trading the Betfair markets.

I may soon break even!

[Mike Graham]

I stopped back then....decided it was too dodgy at the time.

However now looking to get back into it, iv been tracking several companies for the last couple of months, mainly new or small AIM companies....but considering re-entering the market.

Anyone else on here trade in shares?

yep, put a few ££'s away every month.

The ones that have done best are SSE (Scottish and Southern Energy)and Vosper Thorneycroft which were sold to Babcock International where the shares have continued to perform fairly well.

I am also looking to do well out of Amec and Serco. If you look at today's papers serco are looking to do well out of future contracted out central and local government contracts.

At a punt have also put a bit of dosh in Pursuit Dynamics (PDX), they have just won new contracts with the National Nuclear Laboratory.

Buy when dropping, sell when rising...I normally offload at 10% profit apart from those that I keep for the dividends

good luck...and the above is not financial advice and markets go tits up!

PS. made an overall 14% profit in 2010, and 5% to date this year.

[Hughesy]

How much you put in each month? And what site/ company you use to buy/ sell with?

So PB your strategy is 10% profit & you get out??

Im watching a few AIM companies at the moment....been following several oil, gas and similar type companies.

[colin]

I'm probably being a bit of a Cassandra here.....

Back in about 2005 I invested in a portfolio of shares via Ethical Investors Not that they had anything to do with what followed.

My investment grew nicely until 11th September 2001 when there was a bit of an incident in New York & Washington and my investments dived back to less than they were worth 6 years earlier.

Given last week's events you may just want to take your money out of shares and stick it into something a little more secure and boring, at least for a year or so.

Just a suggestion, it's your decision.

Cheers

Colin

[Neil Weaver]

Just a suggestion, it's your decision.

That sums it up entirely Colin.

Taking an alternative view though, if you'd invested on Sept 12th, I'd wager you'd be quids in now. As in so many things in life, it's all about the timing and having the cojones (sp?) to be contrarian.

[Mike Graham]

How much you put in each month? And what site/ company you use to buy/ sell with?

So PB your strategy is 10% profit & you get out??

Im watching a few AIM companies at the moment....been following several oil, gas and similar type companies.

Strategy varies.

Firstly half my portfolio is aimed at longer-term growth with shares that pay dividends (an amount per share held at a given date) out of their profit, I look for those companies that invest profit back into the business as well as pay a dividend, companies such as SSE have done v well this way and I have also started to buy Astra Zeneca with a similar approach.

Secondly with approx 40% of the portfolio I aim for short term growth such as British Land, as soon as I hit 10% profit I will sell and buy elsewhere.

Finally I punt 10%, this is why I have gone for PDX (Pursuit Dynamics). I believe that this will grow massively in say 6 to 12 months time and will be ripe for a takeover, in this case there are companies sniffing around.

I use Halifax sharedealing. I put a steady amount (not appropiate to say, but I strongly believe that this is far better than safe cash investments such as ISA's which pay naff interest)away every month and also invest as and when I see something I want to buy.

Also look at the financial pages on a regular basis. The other option is a stocks and shares ISA. If you invest monthly this takes out the risk of market movement and you can re-invest dividends. I am prsently investing in Russia and Brazil having pulled out of India as stocks are overpriced. Indeed there is so much UK money going into Latin America that the investment houses are finding it difficult to invest all of it.

I understand where Colin is coming from with ethical investments and I am not prepared to criticise him, however if you want to make money, which I presume you do, then look to make money and do not invest based on pet interests or loyalty.

I must add that I am an amateur at this and NON OF THE ABOVE IS ADVICE. Indeed you can use the Halifax Sharedealing to run a dummy account and try it out. However 1st of all have a strategy, and secondly when you are in it you are in it for the long-term.

PS. Good Luck

Finally read the financial pages in the quality press (Times, Telegraph etc).

[Mike Graham]

I'm probably being a bit of a Cassandra here.....

Back in about 2005 I invested in a portfolio of shares via Ethical Investors Not that they had anything to do with what followed.

My investment grew nicely until 11th September 2001 when there was a bit of an incident in New York & Washington and my investments dived back to less than they were worth 6 years earlier.

Given last week's events you may just want to take your money out of shares and stick it into something a little more secure and boring, at least for a year or so.

Just a suggestion, it's your decision.

Cheers

Colin

Colin

The alternative view is given last weeks events it is the best time to invest. If you look at the volume of shares traded that is exactly what happened.

[thenodrog]

Back in about 2005 I invested in a portfolio of shares via Ethical Investors Not that they had anything to do with what followed.

My investment grew nicely until 11th September 2001 when there was a bit of an incident in New York & Washington and my investments dived back to less than they were worth 6 years earlier.

Given last week's events you may just want to take your money out of shares and stick it into something a little more secure and boring, at least for a year or so.

Just a suggestion, it's your decision.

Cheers

Colin

Assuming that '2005' is actually meant to be '1995' then it's nice to note that you embraced and obviously supported one of the strongest principles of Thatcherism so eagerly. Wider share ownership by the public. We do all owe a vote of thanks to Margaret Thatcher for making it all possible don't we Colin?

I bet Jim's got a bulging portfolio thanks to St Margaret too.

[Hughesy]

Ah so you go with the big companies that pay divis? And also those doing back back schemes, to increase the amount they own of the company. You must put away fairly hefty sums if you are buying £30 a share Astra Zeneca.

Do you use a share ISA Tax wrapper? I know all about the annual limits etc, so it’s something I will be looking into soon.

Iv done all the ‘fantasy’ trading stuff before, and have an account using the ‘Daily Express Sharedealing’ site which charges around £7.50 a trade.

I follow a number of traders and share news sources on twitter each day who link into some useful news items, aswell as using sites like iii, interactiveinvestor and bloomberg etc and also subscribe to the weekly share magazine. The Financial times isnt one iv started buying yet, but may well do.

I find it all quite addictive to be honest, its great to watch your investments move each day (not so great is it’s a downward trend).

[Ste B]

That sums it up entirely Colin.

Taking an alternative view though, if you'd invested on Sept 12th, I'd wager you'd be quids in now. As in so many things in life, it's all about the timing and having the cojones (sp?) to be contrarian.

I've got Stocks and Shares ISA - split accross 2 different funds. In 2008 they lost a good 30% of that value very quickly. As I kept paying in rather than cashing out, then with the Market recovering, the money I was still paying in at that time has grown rather well.

[ABBEY]

How do they work?

[jim mk2]

As Yoda rightly pointed out, probably best to have our own thread for this.

So come on you share magicians, all your good advice and help in here.

Im new to it all but im currently doing a paper trial of it. Im trying to get all the advice I can before I take a step into it with my money so any help is good.

Well done for starting this thread in the middle of a bear market although you were a little early as the market did not bottom until March 2009 when the economic recovery started thanks to Gordon Brown's quantitative easing programme.

Anyone who bought from Jan - April 2009 when prices started to recover must be sitting on some very healthy profits now. Barclays bank for instance fell to just 40p at one point and have been over £3.50 in the past year. Some small companies in the mid-250 index have multiplied 20 fold. Ten-baggers are commonplace.

Investment trusts (a favourite of mine) have done well for those riding the gold and oil commodities boom and investors in some emerging markets in Asia and Latin America will have doubled their money too over the past few years.

World crises throw up opportunities and the past 3 years have been no exception.

Certainly beats bricks and mortar.

[colin]

Taking an alternative view though, if you'd invested on Sept 12th, I'd wager you'd be quids in now. As in so many things in life, it's all about the timing and having the cojones (sp?) to be contrarian.

That's a good point Neil, Scott Carson, in his dilbert blog suggested that when BP shares plummeted after the "Deepwater Horizon" fiasco in the Gulf of Mexico that it would be a good time to invest in BP.

And so it proved. Invest in the disasters seems to be a decent strategy.

Whether you feel comfortable with that is another matter.

[Hughesy]

How do they work?

How does what work?

[Hughesy]

Well done for starting this thread in the middle of a bear market although you were a little early as the market did not bottom until March 2009 when the economic recovery started thanks to Gordon Brown's quantitative easing programme.

Anyone who bought from Jan - April 2009 when prices started to recover must be sitting on some very healthy profits now.

The main one for me was Dragon Oil, purchased at £1.40, now up to £5.40 (under valued - should be £6) and also have added a divi payment for the 1st time.

I too watch Astra Zeneca as they tend to go in cycles from £28-32, up & down constantly.

BP was also one which I saw all the info about 'good time to buy' but at that time I wasnt doing anything with shares, and therefore missed out.

Iv got my eye on about 6 or 7 low priced shares at the moment, aswell as one that should enter the AIM market in September.