Share/Investment advice

[redsimon]

You seem to be building up a High Yield Portfolio (HYP), there are about a zillion posts on the motley fool http://boards.fool.co.uk/high-yield-hyp-practical-51676.aspxl http://boards.fool.co.uk/high-yield-share-strategies-51166.aspx on this after steven bland "invented" the idea a few years ago. Loads of bloggers have done the same for example http://monevator.com/a-new-high-yield-portfolio-for-2011/

Vanguard are like the pokerstars of fund management, no share holders so they are not out to grab every single penny from their clients. They tend to be passive not active which tikay doesn't like but if you read this to get the opposite opinion http://www.amazon.co.uk/Smarter-Investing-Simpler-Decisions-Results/dp/0273722077 then a Vanguard LifeStrategy fund prob 80% equity does seem like a very good idea to me. http://www.hl.co.uk/funds/fund-discounts,-prices--and--factsheets/search-results/v/vanguard-lifestrategy-80-equity-accumulation

I spent way too much time in my past on the motley fool website.  Even though Stephen Bland didn't strictly invent high yield/value investing, there isn't much wrong with a strategy like this.

What Stephen Bland is very right on is people knowing their level of ignorance.  Most people lose a lot of money trading on the most spurious of reasons, just buy, hold and forget wins for most.

I'd certainly look at maxing your ISA every year.  It may not matter much now when you are a non tax payer, but in the long run, you don't want a big CGT bill when you need to sell.

I'd buy each share in reasonable chunks, so maybe looking at 3k in each, so after 2 years you have 6 or 7 shares in your ISA, by 4 years, you have a proper portfolio.

I wouldn't get carried away on Tesco, there is no harm in having half Tesco, half Sainsbury/Morrison.

I have money in banks, I have HSBC, Barclays, RBS and Lloyds.  HSBC are pretty much the safest bet, Barclays always seem a bit spivvy but are probably still safer than Lloyds and RBS.

You haven't got an oil company, something like Shell or BP should be good long run.

Utilities are fine, I wouldn't be rushing in and out just for the sake of a 5% drop.  Was trying to work it out in my head, but 5% doesn't seem a massive over-reaction to what Milliband has said.  Good luck to him putting that through though.

If I had any funds, I think you should be looking overseas, once you have a big chunk invested in your own shares, all you do by buying funds is guarantee losing 1% or 1.5% a year.   Most fund managers really aren't worth it.   

This is excellent advice. Great post Doobs

[vegaslover]

I have a house with a mortgage, but as my main source of income is poker, things are a bit tricky om that fromt. I have been looking to getting a new place tho and asked for advice from Eso which had some positive signs and will be looking into moving sometime next year.

Getting into rental properties is something that is a major possibility in 2-3 years but as my immediate future is gonna be firmly in poker I think it's something that is best left to a time when I can dedicate more time to it.

If you got the money spare, get the mortgage paid off, you save sooo much money in interest payments being reduced. Will also make it much easier to get a new mortgage if you have lots of equity and a good history of paying chunks off.

I paid my mortgage off on my first house and lenders were falling over themselves to offer me a mortgage when I bought a bigger place

[rfgqqabc]

With the returns on premium bonds about half of what inflation is, you are basically losing money with them, pay off your mortgage instead.

I work for a pharma company, most of the big companies like AZ are struggling because of blockbuster drugs coming off patent and them not being replaced by new money spinners, there is also heavy downward pressure of drug prices by governments making it harder still. Even though I work in that sector I'm not sure I'd be investing lumps into it. The next big thing in medicine is stem cell research and gene therapy, over the next 20 years and beyond you are going to start to see cures or at least big remissions in some diseases because of this technology, they will be able to charge huge money for this. Even if it costs £50k to cure a patient of diabetes, this will be cost effective to do so, these new technologies will be huge. The companies developing these are the ones to look at, the problem is binking the right companies who win the race.

Hmmm someone beat me to this...
To essentially second what's been said here, I also work for a large pharma company.
When investing in pharma companies you need to look primarily at their R&D pipeline and the longevity of the patents of any of their 'blockbuster' drugs... Those that bring in the majority of the revenue for the company.
Happy to talk over pm if you want to learn anymore 

Not sure this is at all true, people who work for companies aren't always the best judges of their companies investment potential.  I could find a whole host of reasons not to invest in any of the shares I own, and I still invest.

I first invested in GSK maybe 10 years ago, and there were the same issues raised about the lack of blockbusters in the pipeline and Government trying to force down the prices of drugs then. 

I think I paid about 1100p a share.  10 years on, they are 1598p a share and pay me an income of 74p a year.  Even if GSK do reach a stop, you still get that 5% or so yield to stop you getting too grumpy.

As I said earlier.

What Stephen Bland is very right on is people knowing their level of ignorance.  Most people lose a lot of money trading on the most spurious of reasons, just buy, hold and forget wins for most.

Well I'm not talking about the company I work for as you cannot buy shares in them, I'm talking about the industry as a whole. Medicine is so far advanced now that the cupboard is not exactly bursting going forward, the sales of most of the top companies have declined slightly in recent years because of this. I am privy to info than people outside the industry can't won't see unless they make a special effort. Anyway up to you what advice you take on board, but there are better areas to invest than pharma companies currently imo unless there are specific reasons to invest in a particular company.

Turnover is fairly flat.

ROI from my holding about 9% a year.
Forward p/e 13
Expected dividend yield 5%+

The company isn't priced for massive growth, it is priced to give "mugs" like me my 9%.

I agree with a whole heap of what you mention in the thread but surely these statistics have a great deal of variance attached to them?

[paulhouk03]

I heard desire petroleum r a good buy

they gonna find chunks of oil soon

[Woodsey]

I heard desire petroleum r a good buy

they gonna find chunks of oil soon

Lol

[Doobs]

With the returns on premium bonds about half of what inflation is, you are basically losing money with them, pay off your mortgage instead.

I work for a pharma company, most of the big companies like AZ are struggling because of blockbuster drugs coming off patent and them not being replaced by new money spinners, there is also heavy downward pressure of drug prices by governments making it harder still. Even though I work in that sector I'm not sure I'd be investing lumps into it. The next big thing in medicine is stem cell research and gene therapy, over the next 20 years and beyond you are going to start to see cures or at least big remissions in some diseases because of this technology, they will be able to charge huge money for this. Even if it costs £50k to cure a patient of diabetes, this will be cost effective to do so, these new technologies will be huge. The companies developing these are the ones to look at, the problem is binking the right companies who win the race.

Hmmm someone beat me to this...
To essentially second what's been said here, I also work for a large pharma company.
When investing in pharma companies you need to look primarily at their R&D pipeline and the longevity of the patents of any of their 'blockbuster' drugs... Those that bring in the majority of the revenue for the company.
Happy to talk over pm if you want to learn anymore 

Not sure this is at all true, people who work for companies aren't always the best judges of their companies investment potential.  I could find a whole host of reasons not to invest in any of the shares I own, and I still invest.

I first invested in GSK maybe 10 years ago, and there were the same issues raised about the lack of blockbusters in the pipeline and Government trying to force down the prices of drugs then. 

I think I paid about 1100p a share.  10 years on, they are 1598p a share and pay me an income of 74p a year.  Even if GSK do reach a stop, you still get that 5% or so yield to stop you getting too grumpy.

As I said earlier.

What Stephen Bland is very right on is people knowing their level of ignorance.  Most people lose a lot of money trading on the most spurious of reasons, just buy, hold and forget wins for most.

Well I'm not talking about the company I work for as you cannot buy shares in them, I'm talking about the industry as a whole. Medicine is so far advanced now that the cupboard is not exactly bursting going forward, the sales of most of the top companies have declined slightly in recent years because of this. I am privy to info than people outside the industry can't won't see unless they make a special effort. Anyway up to you what advice you take on board, but there are better areas to invest than pharma companies currently imo unless there are specific reasons to invest in a particular company.

Turnover is fairly flat.

ROI from my holding about 9% a year.
Forward p/e 13
Expected dividend yield 5%+

The company isn't priced for massive growth, it is priced to give "mugs" like me my 9%.

I agree with a whole heap of what you mention in the thread but surely these statistics have a great deal of variance attached to them?

Well forward P/E and dividend yield not so much, long returns well massively so. 

You can cut your variance down by buying lots of shares, buying safer shares, buying shares in different sectorsand buying higher yielding shares.  You can't remove it.

As examples, my portfolio which was mainly built on similar principles to the ones linked to on fool.co.uk lost half its value over a couple of years not, and it wasn't that long ago.  I have bought one share that lost 75% of its value in 2 days, I bought another that it took me a day to realise I had likely lost all my money.  Both of these were bought when a lot of the risks were known, but you can still never be sure.  That lot at RBS flat out lied to their investors for a long time.  And Paul Ho remembers the last shares thread we had here. 

[brookie]

Well i did well when i got 404 shares from the place i work at NEXT,i paid 17.83 for each, there at 51.50 at the moment,

[paulhouk03]

Thoughts of buying chunks of penny shares?

[Doobs]

Thoughts of buying chunks of penny shares?

There is money to be made from properly investigating and investing in small cap shares.  That isn't the same thing as saying there is money to be made from following penny share tips.  In fact they are miles apart as investment strategies.

[Tal]

Well i did well when i got 404 shares from the place i work at NEXT,i paid 17.83 for each, there at 51.50 at the moment,

You could buy a nice watch for that...

[rfgqqabc]

With the returns on premium bonds about half of what inflation is, you are basically losing money with them, pay off your mortgage instead.

I work for a pharma company, most of the big companies like AZ are struggling because of blockbuster drugs coming off patent and them not being replaced by new money spinners, there is also heavy downward pressure of drug prices by governments making it harder still. Even though I work in that sector I'm not sure I'd be investing lumps into it. The next big thing in medicine is stem cell research and gene therapy, over the next 20 years and beyond you are going to start to see cures or at least big remissions in some diseases because of this technology, they will be able to charge huge money for this. Even if it costs £50k to cure a patient of diabetes, this will be cost effective to do so, these new technologies will be huge. The companies developing these are the ones to look at, the problem is binking the right companies who win the race.

Hmmm someone beat me to this...
To essentially second what's been said here, I also work for a large pharma company.
When investing in pharma companies you need to look primarily at their R&D pipeline and the longevity of the patents of any of their 'blockbuster' drugs... Those that bring in the majority of the revenue for the company.
Happy to talk over pm if you want to learn anymore 

Not sure this is at all true, people who work for companies aren't always the best judges of their companies investment potential.  I could find a whole host of reasons not to invest in any of the shares I own, and I still invest.

I first invested in GSK maybe 10 years ago, and there were the same issues raised about the lack of blockbusters in the pipeline and Government trying to force down the prices of drugs then. 

I think I paid about 1100p a share.  10 years on, they are 1598p a share and pay me an income of 74p a year.  Even if GSK do reach a stop, you still get that 5% or so yield to stop you getting too grumpy.

As I said earlier.

What Stephen Bland is very right on is people knowing their level of ignorance.  Most people lose a lot of money trading on the most spurious of reasons, just buy, hold and forget wins for most.

Well I'm not talking about the company I work for as you cannot buy shares in them, I'm talking about the industry as a whole. Medicine is so far advanced now that the cupboard is not exactly bursting going forward, the sales of most of the top companies have declined slightly in recent years because of this. I am privy to info than people outside the industry can't won't see unless they make a special effort. Anyway up to you what advice you take on board, but there are better areas to invest than pharma companies currently imo unless there are specific reasons to invest in a particular company.

Turnover is fairly flat.

ROI from my holding about 9% a year.
Forward p/e 13
Expected dividend yield 5%+

The company isn't priced for massive growth, it is priced to give "mugs" like me my 9%.

I agree with a whole heap of what you mention in the thread but surely these statistics have a great deal of variance attached to them?

Well forward P/E and dividend yield not so much, long returns well massively so. 

You can cut your variance down by buying lots of shares, buying safer shares, buying shares in different sectorsand buying higher yielding shares.  You can't remove it.

As examples, my portfolio which was mainly built on similar principles to the ones linked to on fool.co.uk lost half its value over a couple of years not, and it wasn't that long ago.  I have bought one share that lost 75% of its value in 2 days, I bought another that it took me a day to realise I had likely lost all my money.  Both of these were bought when a lot of the risks were known, but you can still never be sure.  That lot at RBS flat out lied to their investors for a long time.  And Paul Ho remembers the last shares thread we had here. 

Italics = Makes sense.

Bold = Systematic and non systematic risk etc, all parts of my degree. I know enough to know I don't really know anything but your views back up much of my own beliefs from my studies and outside reading. Stock market wizards <3

[BangBang]

Firstly you should invest in one of my movies, great gamble/investment

Secondly please smile in at least one picture.....!!!

Thirdly we're looking for a posh lad for one (I promise it won't be as bad as Dead man running, real blunder) so come audition  

[peejaytwo]

Royal Mail anyone?

[Waz1892]

Royal Mail anyone?

Defo undervalued - which the gov needed for corporate cash.  News this morning said, some analysis reckon could be under-valued by up to £1b!

Small investors have until Midnight tomorrow to buy.  Minimum £750

Share price released on Friday.

For a short term investment, A++...

[Dubai]

Without sounding like a complete moron- how do I buy Royal Mail shares. Can someone just tell me what I need to do please