If you're only making a "few" investments then perhaps not a good idea to invest in individual equities as you're inherently over exposed (by nature of only having a few holdings) to the performance of any single company you hold. Maybe better to just get yourself a tracker or find a fund that fits your goals.
Definitely this - I dabbled a bit in alternatives, etc. with a few investments and it was more luck than judgement (or rather I knew the risks I was playing with and offset elsewhere) that I didn't make a loss.
On a related note and I have no idea why but I woke up Wednesday and just closed all my investment accounts, etc. I'm still not really sure why I just woke up and decided to do it - but I was having a hard time just switching off and not micro-managing which might have been a motivating factor.
EDIT: Though a big factor in that was getting out of Alliance Pharma last September... (right before it dropped off a cliff).