The Student Room Group

Investing In Shares

Right, I am a very keen investor, I have competed in a national competition with over 4000 teams involved and came 4th in april. What I have never been taught is how to advance myself within the share market and the ftse 100. My parents are completely against me investing and think it will be a terrible career choice for me. I need advice. How can I learn to be a better investor? Any good sites? I am really keen to start investing now (I'm 16) but of course my parents refuse to open me an account, is there away around that? I have so many questions haha
Have you thought about studying a finance-related degree in order to make this your career?

I don't think you can open share accounts (Stocks & Shares ISA, etc) until you are 18.
Reply 2
Original post by Hamo2509
Have you thought about studying a finance-related degree in order to make this your career?

I don't think you can open share accounts (Stocks & Shares ISA, etc) until you are 18.


I haven't looked into it no, the problem is I don't have any funding for college or uni, in this competition my team were the ultimate underdogs, coming from a poorer area of the UK, all the people we were up against had millionaire parents backing there education...
Original post by Foodmaster
I haven't looked into it no, the problem is I don't have any funding for college or uni, in this competition my team were the ultimate underdogs, coming from a poorer area of the UK, all the people we were up against had millionaire parents backing there education...


Get a student loan. If you truly have an aptitude for this it's a shame to let it go to waste.
It's great you were 'underdogs'. However, nepotism is extremely high in the finance industry.
Reply 4
This is a copy of a post from DJKL, all credit goes to him....


The stockmarket (excepting punts in the short term ) is a long play.

My criteria (except for the odd small punt)

1. Buy stocks you will be happy to hold for a minimum five years, you may not intend a five year hold but buy those that if the price moves against you will not make you uncomfortable. The stock paying a dividend helps, but high yields are not the be all and end all, a very high yield can be telling you something. Do look at dividend cover and beware companies that every year have vast exceptionals that significantly impact difference between basic EPS and adjusted EPS, if every year they are miles apart do much more digging.

2. Remember that the norm is you never lose all your money, unlike betting, usually you can exit with some of your stake returned. If you use stop losses you can mitigate the downside but you need a wide margin re volatile stocks to avoid being constantly auto sold.

3.Moving your stop loss up if the price has increased is a good way to protect some of your gains.

4. Never fall in love with a share, it is really easy to do, if you do fall in love not penny/aim stocks, they can break your heart. I have a running love affair with Shell but it is a big beast with a long dividend record, I probably always hold some as a core and buy extra if I think it is undervalued (the minus 2% this morning was such an event, it was in profit by close)

5. Spread risk, very tricky if you have limited stake, you do not want all eggs in one basket. If very restricted re money/transaction costs will be an issue, consider Investment Trusts as slow burners. I do not like unit trusts but that is possibly in the main prejudice (except re property, they are dangerous with illiquid assets, as we are currently seeing) ITs also good way to get exposure into foreign markets etc, I use them for this purpose.

6.Be careful in current market, it is very difficult to predict with the current macroeconomics/ political events (banks, property, exchange risk, contagion issues etc abound) There are very few 100% certs re economies but you do need to keep an eye on macroeconomic news and formulate what might happen if x happens-in my case, despite some study at university, I still misread market signals, so caveat emptor; remember markets can be irrational for quite a long time. (dotcom boom)

7. Never believe that because a share was once priced at X it can retest that figure if it has fallen, a past price merely tells you that at some time some people valued it at X, nothing more.

8. Understanding accounts is imho important, but I would say that, accountancy is how I earn a living. But it is helpful to be able to read published accounts (forget the five line summaries on your brokers site, delve deep)

9. Always be prepared to cut your losses, see 4 above. Be careful of falling knives, if the market has priced downward it may have good reason, ensure you understand why it has taken the view it has.

10. Despite fundamentals, P/E, Gordon Models, etc, always remember that the term profit is a vague concept, how/when an entity decides it has made a profit whilst subject to accounting regulation, is not exact. So when you look at the company with reported earnings and profits over 3-5 years dig into its cashflows, these are far more difficult to massage.

There are a loads of other things to look for, study, read, delve into accounts, look at RNS stories, use bulletin boards but with great care, watch and observe to decide who seems to talk sense and who may have other motives, watching posters from a distance over time can educate your senses before spending any money.

Also maybe concentrate on particular companies or sectors, get to understand particular markets; analysts cover a niche for good reason, it is hard to cover everything, so you ought to do likewise.

Re my own credentials, I am old (a parent) have been investing for over 20 years, the last 8 with serious money (one of my pensions now a SIPP)

You will make mistakes, you will maybe get a ten bagger (I have had one, 3.5p went to 75p, I started selling between about 35p to 45p, so far too early with hindsight, but felt better when it fell back to 3p later-Beowulf-do not touch it, not for widows and orphans)

Anyway good luck.
Reply 5
Original post by Hamo2509
Get a student loan. If you truly have an aptitude for this it's a shame to let it go to waste.
It's great you were 'underdogs'. However, nepotism is extremely high in the finance industry.
I'm currently doing an apprenticeship, which finishes next year, what sort of age would you say the cut off is? Have you been interested in investing before or an investor?
Reply 6
The best way to make money is to buy undervalued securities (shares, bonds, any instrument which can be traded in the markets is referred to as a security) and then hold them for a very long time.

Even better is to buy income generating securities, so the dividend from a share, or the coupon from a bond. Then you will do very well if you have paid a good price to the security and you hold for the long term.

Sure these strategies won't make you a millionaire, but you won't go broke.

If you are interested, these are my holdings right now....

Apple (AAPL)
Starbucks (SBUX)
Walt Disney Group (DIS)
Barclays (BARC.L)
Legal and General (LGEN)
BP (BP)
Eros International Bonds (got them at 9.5% yield)
Greggs (GRG)

I have around £14,000 in the markets.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by Foodmaster
I'm currently doing an apprenticeship, which finishes next year, what sort of age would you say the cut off is? Have you been interested in investing before or an investor?


There is no age cut-off. I study finance at uni and I just finished my first year at 23.

I worked for a good few years before returning to college in order to go to uni to study finance.

However, when you apply for jobs they will want you to explain why you didn't go straight to uni from school and sell the skills you gained during this time to them.
Original post by Foodmaster
Right, I am a very keen investor, I have competed in a national competition with over 4000 teams involved and came 4th in april. What I have never been taught is how to advance myself within the share market and the ftse 100. My parents are completely against me investing and think it will be a terrible career choice for me. I need advice. How can I learn to be a better investor? Any good sites? I am really keen to start investing now (I'm 16) but of course my parents refuse to open me an account, is there away around that? I have so many questions haha


There's an app on Android + Google Play called Best Brokers which is a real-time stock simulator where you start off with $25,000.
I think this is pretty good experience for a future career, it's got the FTSE 100 as well as MDAX, Bitcoin's and all sorts.
Original post by Foodmaster
Right, I am a very keen investor, I have competed in a national competition with over 4000 teams involved and came 4th in april. What I have never been taught is how to advance myself within the share market and the ftse 100. My parents are completely against me investing and think it will be a terrible career choice for me. I need advice. How can I learn to be a better investor? Any good sites? I am really keen to start investing now (I'm 16) but of course my parents refuse to open me an account, is there away around that? I have so many questions haha


I do have some shares (£9,000) and would be cautious about using them as a career my shares are mainly kept for the perks
such as my £5,000 in BA gets me in the business lounge at the airport which I use a lot I travel abroad 4-6 times a year for work so that pays off in less than a decade
Original post by Foodmaster
Right, I am a very keen investor, I have competed in a national competition with over 4000 teams involved and came 4th in april. What I have never been taught is how to advance myself within the share market and the ftse 100. My parents are completely against me investing and think it will be a terrible career choice for me. I need advice. How can I learn to be a better investor? Any good sites? I am really keen to start investing now (I'm 16) but of course my parents refuse to open me an account, is there away around that? I have so many questions haha


Foodmaster, I also recommend that you assume another career with a reasonable salary which you then use to invest. Being an investor is not all like the 'Wolf of Wall Street' and I know people that have lost most of their wealth's in a stock market crash, imagine how bad this would have been for an investor. My father is self-employed and saves up his money and then invests it, I believe this is the best way to do it, as you can still make lots of money and perks from it but after a big crash or loss, at the end of the day you still have your livelihood, unlike an investor.

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