Has the stock crash started?

[ASB]

So...out of interest is anyone earning big money?

Yes. That other bloke. :-)

[Diver]

Bank and Building society shares are a big gamble at the mo.
I'd say wait for the outcome of Trading Standards V The Banks, Re: charges.

But if you like to gamble you could make a killing.

[mrdonuts]

Bank and Building society shares are a big gamble at the mo.
I'd say wait for the outcome of Trading Standards V The Banks, Re: charges.

its not this thats the issue its the subprime issues from the states that is casting a cloud

[LGDT]

I have been a regular investor for over 20 year in a period which has seen Black Wednesday in 1987, the 1989-92 recession and housing crash, the Asian crash in 1997, the Russian hedge fund failure of 1998, the dotcom crash of 2000, the horror of 9/11 and more recently SARS and bird flu in Asia. In the last 2 years we have had warnings of over-valuations in China, a credit crunch affecting western markets and an oil-shock from demand exceeding supply and pushing up the price of everything.

At each turn the media has screamed blue murder and threatened an apocalyptic end to anyone who remained in the market - of course £10bn wiped off shares in one day always makes a better headline than £100bn added to markets over last 5 years.

Generally speaking I shrugged my shoulders and kept up my monthly investments. I've needed to switch the odd under-performer over the years and I was jittery around 9/11 but perseverance has left me with no mortgage and counting down the days to my retirement in 5 years time.

Invest regularly to take advantage of pound/cost averaging, track your portfolio and ignore the doom-mongers. The stock market will out-perform pretty much any asset class over the long term.

Markets have their own dynamic and are cleverer than politicians and most experts. They adjust, find a way to keep making money and carry on.

[brownie74]

invest regularly?

whats pound/cost averaging?

wont transaction costs clobber you if you invest more regularly?

[alreadypacked]

LGDT, I think we need a bit of a master class on this ?

[LGDT]

whats pound/cost averaging?

wont transaction costs clobber you if you invest more regularly?

The problem with most amateur investors (and I'm one remember) is that they try to call the top and bottom of the market before making investment decisions.

The key with stock markets is time not timing. There's an algorithm somewhere that shows if you'd been out of the market for something like a one month a year for the last 50 years you would have missed out on 80% of the growth.

So logically, they key is to invest amounts regularly (into your ISA or pension if you have one) to spread your exposure and take advantage of the dips as well as benefiting from the spikes. This is what is known as pound/cost averaging.

WRT to transaction costs – it all depends on your strategy. For the most part I’ve avoided specific plays on single stocks and preferred to use collective investments like unit and investment trusts. For unit trusts I use Hargreaves Lansdown who discount the bulk of the bid/offer spread and annual management charges from the fund manager in return for a small annual commission. With investment trusts, which are quoted shares on the FTSE, I deal direct with the fund manager as they usually offer a savings plan that keeps the admin and purchase costs to a minimum.

But it’s cheap enough to deal monthly in specific shares using online brokers.

[alreadypacked]

What do you think about Fidelity, I had an account with them when I was in Germany, it seem to do ok.

[~Craig~]

just been onto the Hargreaves Lansdown website and they have some pdf guides you can download which even made sense to me!

[LGDT]

What do you think about Fidelity, I had an account with them when I was in Germany, it seem to do ok.

Most of Fidelity top-performers were overseen by Anthony Bolton who was a star fund manager for many years. I think since his retirement a couple of years ago performance has dropped off.

FWIW – and remember I am not qualified to give advice, investments can go down as well as up, do your own research etc – my current 2 main plays are:

http://www.trustnet.co.uk/ut/funds/?fund=4840 (fund of funds for providing income which rolls up alongside capital growth)

http://www.trustnet.co.uk/it/funds/?fund=45082 – star performer for the last 6 years. Ireland’s economy does all the things we used to do before NL got into power and this gives great exposure.