Share Investment, Discussion & Tips

[Fred Bloggs]

@tomtomagain. Fair enough. I have made my money pot now. This stuff is for fun. I don't need the money as such but I am not chucking it away. What I make will either buy a few luxuries or more likely I will give it to the kids. They need it more than I do.

[MontyD]

I've been doing reasonably well on eToro. The advantage for me is the ability to copy trades from other folks which has helped me no end in understanding what I am doing.

Making a steady profit. It has only been 8 months but reasonably consistent.

I made a fortune on Ethereum in just a couple of months but that was a lucky one-off (but the 430% headline profit on my profile is fun to see!)

For those who don't know eToro; it is one of them "social trading platforms". You can see what other people trade and even copy them automatically. You don't buy actual stocks, rather you buy into a contract for difference on stocks, commodities, ETF's etc. This does mean you can use leverage (be bloody careful about high leverage... best still, don't use it or no more than 5x) and you can open buy as well as sell positions.

Most importantly, I find it easy to use and I am enjoying the experience.

[Cirrus]

I have noticed in conversations with fellow investors there is a strong propensity to fool yourself. I have had chats with friends who say "I've made thousands on this share! You should buy it too!" But when I've continued to question them have discovered they've also lost thousands on other shares but they just disregard that. They totally block it out

That's how all gamblers work. That's how day traders believe they are successful. That's how half the City works - hedge funds, asset managers, the lot.

It's a huge human failing. We've evolved to be reckless - only lottery ticket holders can win the lottery. The Huns created rivers of blood. A lot of it was theirs but Attilla's genes are everywhere. We've arrived here as risk addicts. And it has massive negative impacts on orderly society.

[SimonMac]

Wanted AstraZeneca to compliment GSK in the pharma sector, took a punt for a few £k after yesterday's drastic fall, still thinking long term the dividend yield is worth a punt on the company

[MarillionFan]

AstraZeneca have pinned all their hopes on their new wonder drug and it's failed. May cost you this one.

[northernladuk]

AstraZeneca have pinned all their hopes on their new wonder drug and it's failed. May cost you this one.

Always difficult with the Pharma's. It's either boom or bust with the new drugs which is why they are so expensive when something does work and comes to market. You've then got the longer term view as to whether they can prop up this loss with the other drugs before the patent expires.

If AZ have plenty of time left on existing patents and enough promising drugs in the pipeline, both of which you'd expect a company the size of AZ to have I think it's pretty safe bet alround and a chance to get some long term shares cheap I'd say.

Focusing on Cancer drugs is a pretty high risk strategy but the first one that nails a viable drug that has proper results is going to have a licence to print money.

[b0redom]

So my strategy has been mostly to invest in FTSE 100 + FTSE 250 + IWRD (to limit exposure to UK only stocks), but over the past 3 years, when I think the market has over reacted, I've had a punt on various stocks. Recent examples have been Game, RBS, Barclays, BHP etc.

I'm now in a position where they've recovered and made a modest profit, but I have no idea if they're likely to continue making money or if I should just ditch them and consolidate back into FTSE+IWRD.

What do you more experienced guys to? Do you have a bunch of diverse holdings, or just a few funds?

[Fred Bloggs]

Consider taking profits equal to original investnent then leave the remainder for a free ride.

[SimonMac]

So my strategy has been mostly to invest in FTSE 100 + FTSE 250 + IWRD (to limit exposure to UK only stocks), but over the past 3 years, when I think the market has over reacted, I've had a punt on various stocks. Recent examples have been Game, RBS, Barclays, BHP etc.

I'm now in a position where they've recovered and made a modest profit, but I have no idea if they're likely to continue making money or if I should just ditch them and consolidate back into FTSE+IWRD.

What do you more experienced guys to? Do you have a bunch of diverse holdings, or just a few funds?

Hope big is your exposure to these "other" holdings, and any good yielders?

Don't know about Game and I assume RBS is a non starter, but Barclays and BHP aren't really shares I would hold long term based on their returns (but then again I care less about capital as I have no desire to sell any shares for at least 10 years).

Suppose the question is would the money serve you a better return in else where?

I took a punt on LLOYDS when they were something like 30p a share, they have more than doubled in price and I am now getting a healthy yield which I base on the purchase price rather than the current value (not everyone agrees with this but it's what I do), could RBS get any worse, probably not, will it return to profitability at some point in the future, probably yes, can you afford to sit on dead money while you wait to see if that happens, only you can answer but it's worth a shot in the long term (other factors dependant)

[b0redom]

Tends to be £1-2k per share punt, with a disastrous over exposure on Carrillion at the moment. The reason that I'm thinking of moving (and the problem is to where - probably FTSE+IWRD trackers as they're 'safe') is that I don't have the time to dig into yields, news etc for the various shares. My gut tells me that Game isn't a safe long term hold as they'll probably succumb to Amazon etc at some point, but I have no idea about the banks, miners etc.

I guess working out the historic yields is a good start.