The Official Stocks and Shares Thread

Been reading through a few of the later posts...not seen any mention of AIM trading? I've just started doing this over the last few months...have picked out a couple of companies which I feel could be multibaggers in the next year or so, and am up 60% on one already.

Seems to me like there is a lot of money to be made on the AIM, of course high risk though. I'm personally now looking at the Horse Hill oil companies which will spud soon and if they hit oil could rise quite significantly.

Just quite wary of the distribution of my savings. Have about half in shares and half in funds...the funds have been doing quite crap recently tbh and thinking of taking them out into my own hands and put them into shares that I have my eye on. Greed can't be good though in these situations surely.

Interesting thread.

Ok. So I am a beginner, in fact I haven't started. My aim is to save about £1000 for stocks over the next few months. I live at home so it's not too hard if I can get a job as I pay little rent.

So would like to ask a few questions.

Firstly is £1000 enough to win decent amounts of money or is it not worthwhile with £1000?
Secondly what do people look for in the markets? What precisely tells you whether stocks and shares will rise or whether it will fall?

Interesting thread.

Ok. So I am a beginner, in fact I haven't started. My aim is to save about £1000 for stocks over the next few months. I live at home so it's not too hard if I can get a job as I pay little rent.

So would like to ask a few questions.

Firstly is £1000 enough to win decent amounts of money or is it not worthwhile with £1000?
Secondly what do people look for in the markets? What precisely tells you whether stocks and shares will rise or whether it will fall?

That isn't really enough. You need around 10k as a minimum to be able to hold a diverse portfolio and not get wiped out via comission costs. There are generally three groups of people: Fundamentalists, Technical Analysts and Arbitraugers. Generally you look at past data to get an idea of trends, use indicators etc. In order to win in the markets you have to have an edge (as mentioned above).

Ok. Thanks for the info.

Now in that case I think I'll have to wait. How much would you say is a decent profit? When would you pull out from 10k stocks e.g.

It depends on your time horizon etc. What do you mean when would you pull out from 10k stocks?

I'm not good with the terminology. I mean when would you sell your shares/stocks and get actual money from it?

I'm assuming that the trade works by person A buys shares. Shares go up, person B sells shares while it's at its highest point?

I'm not good with the terminology. I mean when would you sell your shares/stocks and get actual money from it?

I'm assuming that the trade works by person A buys shares. Shares go up, person B sells shares while it's at its highest point?

I'm not good with the terminology. I mean when would you sell your shares/stocks and get actual money from it?

I'm assuming that the trade works by person A buys shares. Shares go up, person B sells shares while it's at its highest point?

As you didn't get a response...I hope that you read that over again and realised how stupid that. I could write a long post based on my experience of retail investors getting ****ed over and over again by these deals, I will summarize: why are you so smart? what is your edge over the person you are buying from?

About your funds...yes, a lot of people are getting ****ed atm. A ton of people looked at UK smaller companies funds in the new year, saw their historical performance was really good...and have now been taking it up the ****ter since February (tell me if I actually got that right?). I would say that the key here is not to have wild expectations, look at what the FTSE100 has done, don't panic, and think carefully about what you are doing (i.e. don't just shove it all in a Greater China fund or whatever). If you want to learn about how to make a lot of money you will have to take some serious time out and apply yourself, fund managers aren't stupid though and they won't lose all your money betting on some P.O.S oil stock.

As you didn't get a response...I hope that you read that over again and realised how stupid that. I could write a long post based on my experience of retail investors getting ****ed over and over again by these deals, I will summarize: why are you so smart? what is your edge over the person you are buying from?

About your funds...yes, a lot of people are getting ****ed atm. A ton of people looked at UK smaller companies funds in the new year, saw their historical performance was really good...and have now been taking it up the ****ter since February (tell me if I actually got that right?). I would say that the key here is not to have wild expectations, look at what the FTSE100 has done, don't panic, and think carefully about what you are doing (i.e. don't just shove it all in a Greater China fund or whatever). If you want to learn about how to make a lot of money you will have to take some serious time out and apply yourself, fund managers aren't stupid though and they won't lose all your money betting on some P.O.S oil stock.

I don't really get this viewpoint. Would you say ROSE and LGO were P.O.S oil stocks? RIs could have made big gains on those and then sold out. Yes of course there is a load of **** on the AIM which can shaft you like dog shares, such as Quindell, Madagascar Oil and Desire Petroleum, then there are those that had grown so much with too much future prospects priced in that a buy at the price would be idiotic, I.e. ASOS and then there are those which are pumped so high before being dropped like a stone. But you ignore the fact that Funds will not touch companies with MCAPs lower than 200m ish. That leaves a hell of a lot of shares out there which are inherently undervalued.

Then you get the companies with MCAPs 200-300m, one of which I have my eye on ATM, which look to have solid products and alliances with companies to bring that product through. Surprise surprise when you look at the holdings of many small company funds this particular one has a consistent presence in their top holding shares.

Your opinion on the Aim does just seem to be rooted from share snobbery. These companies clearly have great prospects if you do your research and don't just jump onto the latest bandwagon.

Ok, I don't get the point of much of your reply. Yes, some shares go up and some go down...what is your point? You have to predict which ones will go up before the case. You are correct that small companies are undervalued (not for the exact reason that you give) but you are going into stocks that are created exclusively as a way for bankers/management to rape money out of retail investors. Retail money loves a gamble and so loves oil and gas, as a result these are always overpriced (even if they succeed). You aren't picking up something new: I remember Gulf Keystone was the hot stock here years ago when it was over 200p, I imagine that everyone lost money (I think FOGL was another one...).

So you are misunderstanding what I am saying, I am not talking about AIM (I have invested there frequently) or really anything like that. This is about you and you not understanding what you are doing. You really don't know enough to understand how little you know. I think that someone probably can make money from this sector, why is it you? I know someone that has managed it (or at least he hasn't lost huge sums) but he has managed money for about two decades and spent years (not a couple of months) learning about the geology, engineering, and chemistry behind the industry. You are competing with people like him or investors that serious contacts (for example, Wood Mackenzie will consult with people who have drilled the same areas and give this info to investors) and even then you still have to work out which deals are dodgy which requires a whole different set of skills (as it usually involves straight lies) outside of the skills required to work out which projects will work out.

So again, what is your edge? How will you succeed? What is this company you have your eye on? What is your edge there? Retail investors never think about this stuff ( for example, they don't even seem to recognize that they are actually buying from a real person who has probably thought a lot about what they are doing) and pay because of it.

I have been watching an AIM stock for a while and it was increasing slowly and steadily. Looked like a good long term investment. I put my money in it and boom a week later the price plummets 10% as they announce their results.

Damn. I'm not good at this investing thing. Hopefully it's just a shock reaction from the market and the price will start climbing again.