Shares?

Reesy

Reesy

Reesy

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16 Dec 2003
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Anybody have any shares with companies and are they a good or bad idea?

Just generally asking for an opinion. Nothing concrete. :)
 
I have shares in tesco when i first started to but them they were £2-57 they are now around £3-60, only invest what you can afford to lose. :)
 
Reesy said:
How would you go about putting shares in a company?

What is the process that I would need to take?
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TBH it may sound strange but I do not know, my share are bought by my sister who works in the company and I just give her the money. I hope someone else can be of more use. :)
 
Shares or Share Options?
I had options in the company I worked for - because I'd been at the company for so long I held options for shares at 20p & 32p.

Company eventually floated and I purchased all of my options and sold them at the same time at £3 each.

This was a no risk transaction for me as all I held was options so I hadn't actually paid any money out and only paid out when I knew what I was going to make back on the shares as soon as I sold them.
Because of the length of time I'd held the options I got massive taper relief so I basically just had some Capitol Gains Tax to pay and that was it.

Physical shares on the other hand - well that's a whole different ball game.
You apy your money and you own the shares, share prices go down as well as up as I'm sure you know.
The share options I mentioned above...the ones I sold for £3 each...the company is currently trading shares at around the 85p mark.
I'd have been gutted if I still had actual shares right now.
 
Reesy said:
How would you go about putting shares in a company?

What is the process that I would need to take?
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Go to your bank, or a bank. Get a stock broker and ask him/her to do it for you.
But if you're new, the bank is the best bet.

Edit: Barclays have options for new people to invest in shares. Book an appointment with them.
 
bought Standard Life Shares @ launch date (3 weeks ago)

Paid 218.5p per share
Today worth (as @3pm) - 256.50 per share

If i sold now i would make 17.22% profit in 3 weeks!! :) :)
 
Reesy said:
Anybody have any shares with companies and are they a good or bad idea?

Just generally asking for an opinion. Nothing concrete. :)
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If you buy them and they increase in value, then its a good idea.

If you buy them and they decrease in value then its a bad idea.

Knowing which shares will do what is the tricky part ;)
 
Reesy said:
Anybody have any shares with companies and are they a good or bad idea?

Just generally asking for an opinion. Nothing concrete. :)
Click to expand...
They are neither a good, nor bad, idea. It all depends on the company, and the economy, and the period of time you're talking about.

Generally speaking, any investment in shares will be a case of assessing risk versus projected return. The higher the risk, the higher the likely return .... or loss.

Let me give you an example. I bought Third Millennium Russia Fund ( a mutual fund, not a stock) in 2002. Price? $18-ish. Price today? $54. They've tripled my money in four years. BUT ..... as they centre on stocks in Russian industry (oil, telecoms, etc) they are entirely dependant on what happens in Russia. I could have ended up with nothing.

On the other hand, at one time, BT shares were > £15. They're now trading at £2.35, and my broker's recommendation (today) is "reduce". This reflects that that price is currently regarded as high. Now that drop from £15 to £2.35 isn't quite all it seems, since there's been some structural changes in the group, and sections hived off with more shares issued. But, nonetheless, their performance since that (somewhat artificial) £15 high has been very poor, to say the least.

So an apparently rock-solid major company has been an investment nightmare, and a mutual fund in a highly speculative and very risky part of the world has paid off handsomely.

If you were to invest, would you have gone for the "sure thing" (BT) and lost most of your investment? Or for the dodgy bet and made a lot of money? Also, be aware, that "dodgy" investment has been so good that the fund manager responsible (John Connor) is becoming something of a legend. Yet, the fact that he had specialist Russian knowledge (and contacts) and could do this in 2002-2003, doesn't mean the market will let him do it again in 2006-2007, even in Russia. That fund has yieldeded about 12% this year to date .... compared to 32% in the first 3 months of 2004.


If you buy shares, you usually pay a commission, with a minimum. That makes it comparatively expensive to buy small amounts .... or to chop and change. You need to find a broker (maybe your bank), and look at their dealing costs, compared to whatever sum you're prepared to risk, and you need to know what sort of risk you'll take.

Major industrials usually represent a sound investment over the medium to long term. But unless you're prepared to take large risks, you'll need to be very good indeed, or very lucky indeed, to make lots of money in the short term, and you might well make a loss in the short term. But, that loss may well still turn into a decent profit, long term.

Take Microsoft, for example. A $250,000 investment in the IPO back in '86 could have been turned into $160m plus, simply by sitting tight on the investmemt. Oh, and in the recent cashback, you'd have got a cheque for more than $10m, and STILL have had the shares. But, around the turn of the millenium, their legal troubles clobbered shares and they've never quite made the investment back into the doozy it was for a while. So, sitting tight can make you a lot, but knowing when to sell is critical.


All told, the stock market can be a very good place to invest, but do not do it with money you can't afford to lose, or that you might need urgently, because being forced to sell at the wrong time can be very expensive.
 
I have a few. All in share prices around the ~1p mark. Generally at around £100 or (10k shares) a company. Most of them reasonably new companies. The idea is although there all high risk. If one of them comes though in say 20-30years time I'll be a millionaire.
 
AcidHell2 said:
I have a few. All in share prices around the ~1p mark. Generally at around £100 or (10k shares) a company. Most of them reasonably new companies. The idea is although there all high risk. If one of them comes though in say 20-30years time I'll be a millionaire.
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Could happen .... if you've picked well, and the company has a bit of luck.

It's a bit like buying £100-worth of lottery ticket, though. Odds are your bet won't cme off, but if it does, it could come off big. And, of course, even if it doesn't pay off with a jackpot, you could still end up with a decent return on investment, just like you hope for all 6 numbers on the lottery, but four or five numbers isn't bad, for the stake. Or your numbers might not come off at all. Lots of small, start-up companies do go under.
 
I invested in shares a few years ago and they've more than tripled in value. It's not for the faint hearted though, the first 10 months i lost money (or i would have done if i had panicked and sold them).

It's a great buzz seeing the value of your shares increase though, and I've actually made enough money to pay off the mortgage!
 
Sequoia said:
Could happen .... if you've picked well, and the company has a bit of luck.

It's a bit like buying £100-worth of lottery ticket, though. Odds are your bet won't cme off, but if it does, it could come off big. And, of course, even if it doesn't pay off with a jackpot, you could still end up with a decent return on investment, just like you hope for all 6 numbers on the lottery, but four or five numbers isn't bad, for the stake. Or your numbers might not come off at all. Lots of small, start-up companies do go under.
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Yep, that's the idea as you said it's not just the big one. The hope is a few will become at least reasonable size. Also hedging your bets £100 isn't a lot. haven't invested a lot yet. But hopefully in October I'll Try and buy one set of shares in a company a month.
 
I buy and sell my shares through Barclays Stockbrokers, though i've been with them for a few years now, so not sure whether you can apply online or not. I had an account with barclays, set up another one and when i buy shares the money gets debited out of this account 3 working days after i buy shares.

The actual buying of shares...if i trade more than 10/11 times a quarter (buying and selling added) then it costs £7.50 a deal (plus stamp duty when buying shares) otherwise i think its £12 (again plus stamp duty). They have the usual reccomendations, but also tools to chart with, links to all recent news articles concerning the shares, i can see my holdings in a easy-to-view portfolio that gives me buying value, current value etc so its easy to check how i'm doing. I'm happy with them, you might find a stockbrokers that you could deal cheaper with, but i like the layout with barclays, the amount of information etc. I don't know whether they give out advice if you ask as I don't ask them, but they've been very helpful etc if i've had a problem.


One thing to note with them if that you don't actually hold the shares. They hold the certificates for you, i get all the dividends credited to my account etc but i don't see share certificates. personally that was a plus for me, as moving between home and uni i didn't have to bother about trying to keep my certificates with me, but that depends what you think on that. I don't have the certificates so i can't sell my shares through another broker, but I have no desire to.

You can deal in CFD's with barclays, though being a student i don't bother ;) It depends what you are wanting to do, whether you are looking to invest for, say a 3 year period, and have a company you think will give you sufficient gains for that, or whether you want to jump in and try trading for a few months to get quick gains, or even day trading which i tried my hand at.

There is a lot of money to be made, but its difficult to consistently make money and beat the market. Some of mine I am keeping as a longer term investment, some I have for dividends, some for capital gains, and some for other reasonds. Some companies give you special privaledges if you hold a certain amount of shares...eg 500 shares might give you X% off in their shop etc. I held Signet for a while, who if i remember rightly own H Samuels etc, and i held enough shares to entitle me to 10 - 15% off stuff in their shops etc, not that i ever used that one.

There are benefits to having shares. My best one to date was buying O2 just after it came out for about 49p a share...and that was up around the £2 a share mark...so i was happy with that.

If you don't want to spend time hunting round for gems...then consider a fund that has a basket of shares...tracker fund or something like that, which diversifies your risk so you won't get caught out by one share dropping, though conversly you wouldn't profit necessarily as much if it had gone up.

It has its upsides, its a little hobby of mine that I do, that has given me decent returns over the last few years. This depends on how much you have to sell, because buying £100 of BP shares a) won't get you many, b) after dealing costs you'll have less and c) it would have to go up a lot to actually be worth selling. Of course BP is a huge company, and the share price isn't likely to tumble, but with stocks there are no certainties.

Sorry for the long post peeps, but its something i'm interested in, so thought i'd pass some info on :o
 
I use my ISA 7k allowance to invest in unit trusts tax free which over the last 2-3 years has provided about a 10-20% return pa tax free. I also have my own small investment portfolio which so far has managed a 4.5% return this year (just on capital growth) so its possible to make good gains but at one point this year my share portfolio was down 6-7% so don’t always expect to make a profit. If you’re a first time investor looking to get in I’d recommend a FTSE tracker fund or well known income fund from one of the big names they rarely make big losses and don’t charge extortionate fees
 
AcidHell2 said:
I have a few. All in share prices around the ~1p mark. Generally at around £100 or (10k shares) a company. Most of them reasonably new companies. The idea is although there all high risk. If one of them comes though in say 20-30years time I'll be a millionaire.
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I've taked in a simalar tact. My share cost €0.12 now worth €0.07 :D

Eurodisney ones.

Revenues are up 4% this year but they still have arround 1billion euros debt (I think)
 
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