Nice Doomed article by Telegraph

[craig1]

If you're going to "invest" then buy shares in companies and industries that you know about. Do some research instead of being a sheep.

Oh, I know the shares and markets I'm interested in and I'm happy to go my own way on these. For example, I generally avoid tech stocks for long term holds (>10 years) as too many have gone bang and developments mean that today's market darling might be tomorrow's Nortel Networks. Very subjective assessments of shares but then it's my future I'm gambling on

[craig1]

Average into the market over a period of time. If you're investing for the longer term then this would be a more appropriate way to get into the market and not risk it in one big hit

I understand your point but this is extra money I'm investing above and beyond my usual investments so I'm after the biggest bargain I can get. No point chucking money away if I can get the shares cheaper. My normal investing window is around the start of the tax year when I try to wedge as much as I can into tax efficient stuff and see what I can get that I think is underpriced.

Edit: that said, I have made some stupid investments. I have some Eurotunnel share certificates somewhere and I keep my Railtrack share certificate prominently placed to make me very careful over investing in something that's too good to be true.