Stock markets

Bought £38 worth of Spectrum Interactive shares about 3 years ago, they were something like 5p a share. About a month ago the company was bought by someone else and they each sold for 76p each. Ended up with Around £560. Wasn't too bad I thought.
 
Buying and selling shares over the short term is a gamble - Vala did very well on his deal but there are many, many tales of woe where the value of shares has plumetted. If anyone has a magic formula, please let me know it via PM - we don't want everyone getting in on the deals! I have a fairly large portfolio - enough to support me with the dividends. Almost all have been long term investments, although there was a shake up after Dad died - I wanted out of tobacco completely sine smoking related ilnesses killed both my parents. Sure, the baccy shares were good earners as far as divvies went but I do have a conscience, it seems.
 
Naked Trader is a good read.

I had a good look into it a few years ago. You either have to be very lucky or very talented. Unfortunately most think they're the latter when they're actually the former.

It's basically gambling. If you treat it like that you can't go far wrong.
 
The shares for Spectrum did indeed plummet. Just prior to the company being taken over the shares had been well and truly at rock bottom. They were worthless. For me I had forgotten about them so didn't really worry about the money I invested (what little money it was) and then one day just got a letter through saying they had been taken over and the shares had been sold for x amount.
It's all a gamble really.
Invest with what you can afford to be without would be my advise.
 
to be honest if you don't know what you are doing you might as well just take your cash down to ladbrookes, or buy premium bonds with it
 
I will be looking in to doing a bit of this (not too much money just a little bit here and there)


big soft moose said:
to be honest if you don't know what you are doing you might as well just take your cash down to ladbrookes, or buy premium bonds with it
Click to expand...

I am doing quite a bit of reading on how to do it "properly" and won't invest a penny until I know and understand the workings of the stock market.
 
Anthony, even the experts who know the ins and outs of trading get their fingers burnt! That's the main reason I pay a stockbroker to oversee my portfolio. He only trades when there's a decent profit to be made after CGT (Capital Gains Tax) or my ethics turn me against a particular stock! And you don't keep a dog and bark yourself as my Grandfather used to say!
 
I had one dabble a few years ago and put a few £100 into Northern Rock

:'(:'(:'(

You could say Ive steered clear since then!
 
I joined a share club many years ago. Other members (thought they) had the knowledge. I admitted I didn't.

We managed to keep pace with or just ahead of inflation for quite a few years. There were times, after we had sold certain shares, that they had a dramatic rise:'(

As has been said, it's a gamble, especially in the short term. A diverse portfolio of long term investments has more chance of stability.

We wound up the share club when money laundering regulations meant we had to jump though too many hoops.

Ken
 
duttytd said:
Have anyone of you lot ever traded in the stock markets??? If so how did you do?


I'm thinking about having a go myself.
Click to expand...

Try www.iii.co.uk and I'd start with just basic trading. You can learn everything you need to know there. They recently started charging £20 per quarter but give you two free trades worth £10 each at the same time so as to encourage people to be more active with their trading.

Always worth checking the fundamentals of a company and ignore the message boards like the plague. If the company pays dividends then even better :) There's traditionally two routes with basic trading that you can go down:

High risk: oilies etc (oil exploration). Share price can rocket on an oil find but can also fall steeply on bad results. Very news driven and money is made from the share price change.

Low risk: large established companies (insurance companies, Shell etc). Share price won't move much but these companies tend to pay dividends. Fundamentals play an important role.

You don't have to invest much and it can be good fun to watch your shares perform. You can setup alerts to your email and phone for free. Also, remember that Google Finance now gives real-time share price information which you normally have to pay for - so this can make things even more exciting!

Have fun ;)
 
Spread the risks by investing not only in many different stocks but also different types of stock and fund. Personally, I'm not a great fan of funds but they should be included in larger portfolios.

I used to do a great deal of this years ago and have only recently got back into it. Just made a quick 7% on Direct Line :), Barclays are strong at the mo. TEP are always strong. But I can also cock it up :( I have one commodity investment at the moment which is a poor performer but that is largely due to it being quoted in $ so there's the exchange rate flux to cope with as well.

Only invest if you can spread your risk. And don't be afraid to pull out with a profit. Mugs tend to ride the good runs looking for better.

Disclaimer: This post does not constitute a recommendation to invest in any stocks mentioned - or any other stocks.
 
Last edited:
I used to spread bet, but quit when the markets went silly a few years back....still not sure I can be bothered putting the time in to required to do it properly yet while there is still so much FUD around.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top