Standard Life Shares

Strongly tempted to sell myself. But there is a little voice in the back of my head saying you never know. I'm only getting 188 shares. So right now I'm a bit confused.

Hold or Keep....hmmmmm

Not without giving you advice, which is a strictly regulated activity, for which I make a charge.

FWIW, no one is going to tell you (no one worth listening to anyways) 'these shares will definitely go up!' or such like, because NOBODY KNOWS. They may go up or down, left and right, we just don't know. But here are some questions you can ask yourself:

1) If I had received cash instead of shares, would I then use that cash to invest in standard life? If yes, do I like the company that much that I want to invest more?
2) Am I a big risk taker - I fancy buying more shares at a 5% discount then trying to sell them on quickly at a profit - but am I prepared to take the risk that the market moves against me before I get the chance?

If you have no other investments, Modray's advice is sound, unless you like taking big risks.

And the idea of hanging on to get an extra share for every 20 you hold is a bit pointless. 5% is a very small move in the context how shares move over the course of a year. The investment case should stand up on its own merits, without gimmicks like this.

My thinking is that the shares may go up following flotation similar to Friends Provident. Within the year, the shares may fall to below flotation price, similar to FP.

The difference with SL is that many of its new shareholders will have suiffered the losses due to the FSA's incompetence (and SL's failure to guess what the FSA might do). Therefore, I guess many of SL shareholders will sell on flotation reducing the upwards pressure on the share price.

So, my head says sell. Unfortunately, I 'm happy to gamble and even to hold onto the shares forever. I might even buy some additional shares and sell when the price hits 125% of purchase price. This would fund a holiday later this year. If they go down, I could always hold onto them with the 'free' shares.

In the end, it's not so much about how much the company's worth but more about how confident the market is that SL will make a profit.

GG

[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Should you buy, sell or hold your Standard Life shares?[/FONT]

Interesting how these experts managed to say nothing in the end - the reader is left little the wiser.

Eh? Two of the three were agreed that the shares were at best a " hold " and that for cautious investors a fund or cash-based investment might be more suitable. The third pointed out that there is a good yield and that the company is a potential takeover target ( the first mentions this as well ) - that should give you a fair idea of whether you want to hold or sell. Anyone who cannot decide this for themselves should take the cash.

A 4% dividend - about the same as you'd get in a...

"cash-based investment"

1) A 4% dividend is equal to 5% in interest payments. There is also the possibility of capital growth which you do not have with cash.

2) Dividends, unlike deposit interest, tend to be increased over time.

(a what?).. yes that's a 'bank account', silly!

Not necessarily - there are GEBs, building society " bonds " tied to various indices, cash unit trusts, most NS&I products including Premium Bonds...