Buying Shares

[Spiderweb]

I am a complete newbie and I’ve just opened an online share dealing account, transferred money and bought my first lot of shares. Do any of you financial wizards have any recommendations of what companies I should be looking into with a view to investing in?

 

[sleuthey]

Me personally, Royal Mail

 

[Gunk]

If you’ve already bought some, you tell us!

 

[sheddy]

Not Petrochem...

 

[vickster]

Pharma, but the shares tend to be very costly to buy.
Check the vaccine manufacturers maybe

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Past performance is not a guarantee of future performance.

However there was a crash recently so you may be buying at the right time.

Are you doing this for the Dividends or a Buying and Selling exercise? The latter requires nimbleness in the market place and I've never found the former to return much on investment. But then I've never played. I've been given shares once or twice and not been impressed at all. Methinks better to invest in a fund where a professional (who may also get it wrong) has the full time job of playing the market. The wider the fund spreads the investment the lower the overall risk but then the overall return will also be lower. Or looked at the other way - the smaller the losses.

HTH

 

[Spiderweb]

If you’ve already bought some, you tell us!

Well I bought Lloyd’s shares. They were priced low before the Covid crash then they almost halved. Dividend yield is good, way better than current interest rates so I thought it would be a good time to buy. I’m expecting a big boost after the Covid recession but I don’t plan to sell, I fancy them long term.
Shares values have always recovered well after any crash.

 

[MarkF]

Standard Life Aberdeen, it's been a tumultuous few years but they are as low as they will go IMO, wish I had said this yesterday. Long term winner.

 

[snorri]

A request for financial advice goes out to an anonymous group of cyclists, some of whom may have even given up cycling,
You have provided insufficent information regarding your present situation, age, marital status, assets, funds available to invest, attitude to risk, etc. etc., to inform any adviser before he or she could give out useful advice tailored to suit your needs.

 

[alicat]

I wouldn't buy individual shares especially if I were asking for tips on which to buy. Have a look at a fund like Vantage Lifestrategy 60. At your own risk. All usual disclaimers apply!

 

[Mike Ayling]

I wouldn't buy individual shares especially if I were asking for tips on which to buy. Have a look at a fund like Vantage Lifestrategy 60. At your own risk. All usual disclaimers apply!

Listed investment companies usually have lower cost/fee structures than most funds.

 

[lane]

The best I could recommend given limited information is an index tracker fund. In fact they are probably not a bad option anyway.

Share prices have fallen recently but for a very good reasons. Some bank shares went down in the 08 recession - it didn't necessarily make them a good buy.

 

[lane]

A request for financial advice goes out to an anonymous group of cyclists, some of whom may have even given up cycling,
You have provided insufficent information regarding your present situation, age, marital status, assets, funds available to invest, attitude to risk, etc. etc., to inform any adviser before he or she could give out useful advice tailored to suit your needs.

Could probably do worse though. For example trust all your money to a highly paid professional investor like Neil Woodford.

 

[Mike Ayling]

I bought CSL which makes vaccines about 25 years ago when it was privateised by the Aussie Government About AUD 2.40 off the prospectus AFAICR. All the "experts" said that it was a good deal at the time and did they get that right, about AUD290.00 atm
I have also had a couple of duds btw.

Mike

 

[Drago]

Big firms that will weather the storm. Oil is a good one right now, over supply and an artificial drop in demand has depressed prices. It will rebound as industry recovers and demand form plastics, fuel etc increases. Ife put some money into Petronas this week and later this year or the next I expect a good return on that.

Gold fluctuates too much for my like, but silver is stable and down, firms that deal in that are a good bet.

Lithium producers are good, but I think I missed the boat on the big gains.

Have a play with the plus500 app in demo mode for a while and you'll soon get the hand of it. Returns aren't huge in percentage terms, but it beats going out and working for it.