Share Investment, Discussion & Tips

[AtW]

I have always held shares long term but the only mining share I invested in lost so much I cut my losses.

Cheer up mate, at least that does not make you a dirty spekulant... but you are a mug!

[SimonMac]

Lloyds finally paying a dividend, albeit it a small one, added to the special dividend that PLUS500 also announced and the regular results from BATS and BDEV its been a very good week, 6 months into the year and yield is already 4.8% on capital/3.8% on current value of portfolio

[pjclarke]

Anyone know of a source to download dividend and yield data for UK stocks?

I'm building a basic portfolio spreadsheet and getting live data from Yahoo Finance,

http://download.finance.yahoo.com/d/quotes.csv?s=

which works well for price data but for UK stocks the divi and yield fields come back populated with 'N/A', so I'm looking for an equivalent for the yields.

Note I mean download rather than scrape from a web page, and am averse to paying a fee, being a lazy and tight kind of a guy...

TIA,

[d000hg]

So is now a bad time to buy shares, if you don't have a specific company in mind? I want to stick a few k in my shares ISA but with the FTSE being so high I'm more nervous.

My current holdings are all in hi-tech funds, mostly US-based.

[suityou01]

So is now a bad time to buy shares, if you don't have a specific company in mind? I want to stick a few k in my shares ISA but with the FTSE being so high I'm more nervous.

My current holdings are all in hi-tech funds, mostly US-based.

The crash commeth.

[SimonMac]

So is now a bad time to buy shares, if you don't have a specific company in mind? I want to stick a few k in my shares ISA but with the FTSE being so high I'm more nervous.

My current holdings are all in hi-tech funds, mostly US-based.

Depends what is your strategy? Long term or short term? Either way yes its a good time, as long as you pick the right shares. I personally am long term, 20 years before I need to cash in so if there is a crash in the short term I know it will recover, it always does

[d000hg]

The crash commeth.

Haven't you been saying that for about 10 years? Along with WW3, hyperinflation from QE, etc?

[pjclarke]

So is now a bad time to buy shares

?

If I could answer that definitively, I'd be a lot richer man. My own approach, long term buy and hold, high yield stocks, is blind to market conditions and depends on buying as soon as a tranche of cash from dividends and contributions reaches a threshold that makes purchasing worthwhile once transaction costs, spreads etc are taken into account. The threshold is currently 2K. Its served me well, indeed it's only really gone wrong when I've succumbed to the temptation to 'tinker'.

At the moment I like National Grid, BP and Vodafone .....

[mudskipper]

I wonder if election uncertainty will cause a dip in share prices - stick a few K in the ISA now, and buy when it looks like Millipede and SNP are going to be in charge.

[fullyautomatix]

I wonder if election uncertainty will cause a dip in share prices - stick a few K in the ISA now, and buy when it looks like Millipede and SNP are going to be in charge.

Very good point. If the elections result in a landslide for Tories, the stocks might go up.

If Millipede and SNP form an alliance, stocks and £ will crash beyond belief. The borrowing will go through the roof.

Also there is the thought of Ed Balls as chancellor. Now if that does not frighten the investors, I dont know what will.