Haha, it messes with your head more when it's real money though. I'm pretty risk adverse though, a lot of my stocks have low betas (less volatile than the market historically) and are large cap.

Reply 5

Fonzworth

Original post by maha_90

Saved money, invested it. I am doing a PhD in finance so it's my side hobby.....robbing wall street.

How frugal was your lifestyle whilst saving up?

Reply 6

maha_90

Original post by Fonzworth

How frugal was your lifestyle whilst saving up?

Extremely. I get a stipend from my university and I used to have a part time job as well, nearly 99% of that pay has gone into investments.

Frugality is the key though to building wealth.

Reply 7

Fonzworth

What job do you have alongside it and do you have any other sources of income?

Reply 8

Trapz99

So you decided to make a new account just to say this?

Reply 9

Wolfram Alpha

Sharing is caring... :smile:

Reply 10

Sam00

Have you bought shares in any pharmaceutical or medical companies?

Reply 11

maha_90

Original post by Fonzworth

What job do you have alongside it and do you have any other sources of income?

The job was pretty unrelated, pharmacy dispenser, I know right. No, just my stipend now and the dividends from investments. My stipend pays me £1250 a month and my dividends pay me £200 a month on average, so I get around £1450 a month to invest.

Reply 12

maha_90

Original post by Sam00

Have you bought shares in any pharmaceutical or medical companies?

No, although my dad owns around £38,000 worth of GSK shares. I haven't found a pharmaceutical company I like, the closest thing I like is a funeral director called Dignity Plc......I like stable businesses that are to die for.

Pharma is a complicated industry, you need to know your drugs and which are on patent and off patent, the big firms are so big, they are slow growers with a steady dividend. The real money in pharma is finding the companies which produce the next big drug.

Reply 13

maha_90

Original post by Trapz99

So you decided to make a new account just to say this?

Yes. If you have any questions, you can ask.

Reply 14

computationchive

What broker do you use and what are the fees?

Reply 15

maha_90

Original post by computationchive

What broker do you use and what are the fees?

Hargreaves Lansdown (I know, they are expensive), fees depend. Usual a buy is £11.95 plus stamp duty, a sell is £11.95. Funds cost nothing to buy and sell, but have monthly fees.

When you are paying around £17 a trade, you need to invest £1000 minimum per security.

Reply 16

maha_90

Original post by computationchive

What broker do you use and what are the fees?

Hargreaves Lansdown do have very good customer service and good data, when I pick stocks, I need to read the financial statements, look at past stock prices, look at the dividend record and dividend cover etc. I also need basic metrics like the P/E ratio, the P/B ratio and volume.

I also have access to Thomson Reuters Eikon via my university (it's like the Thomson Reuters version of the Bloomberg terminal) so I can get analyst data if I need it. My basic setup is to analyse the stock via Hargreaves Lansdown and use Google Finance for live prices. Hargreaves Lansdown give you live prices as well, but when you put in an order, it can change in a fast moving market as bids and asks are added and removed from the order book.

Reply 17

computationchive

Original post by maha_90

Haha, yes I was about to ask whether you use Bloomberg's terminal as I know the license fees are crazy money. Cheers for the insight!

Reply 18

maha_90

Original post by computationchive

Haha, yes I was about to ask whether you use Bloomberg's terminal as I know the license fees are crazy money. Cheers for the insight!

I could never afford a bloomberg terminal, they are good for data though, if you need to know absolutely everything about what you are buying. In most cases, knowing the dividend record, dividend cover, financial statements and key metrics like the P/E ratio etc is enough.

Google Finance is awesome to track live prices.