Where best to do research into shares etc

evosy1978

Hy all,

Basically I would like to get into buying and selling shares. One peice of advice that keeps cropping up is make sure you do lots of research before choosing a company to buy shares in.

Its this advice that confuses me,.

1) Where is this research from, is it just a case of reading the financial times???

2) How could you know that a companies shares are going to go up untill it releases some information which appears on the news, by which time the price has gone up...:mad:

3)How can you choose a company to research in the first place to know whether or not it will rise in share price?

4)What factors determine whether a companies share price goes up or down

5) Are there other websites/forums that deal with investing, other than this one forum?

Thanks for any help

Newbie2saving

As someone who hasn't actually parted with any cash I would say set up a 'virtual portfolio'. Follow shares you like and see how they perform for 6months plus, it teaches you some lessons, but still I am sure no substitute for parting with real hard earned cash! I look at Motley Fool, iii, FT and have read a few books. Also need to decide on your investment strategy. You never know whether a stock will rise in value, if we did we would all be rich, you can loose as well as gain. Some decide to follow safer compaines, whilst others go for small cost shares in the hope they will make lots of profit. Until you know what you want to buy into and what you can afford to loose I wouldn't risk anything.

cepheus

You first have to decide what your style of investing you wish to undertake, technical or fundamental. If the latter you then ask, what do I know that other financial types don't and what advantage is there for me as a small shareholder relative to the big dealers? If the answer is nothing then you're better of with a tracker! However, most financial articles are recycled crap and few 'experts' beat the average since most big dealers are supposed to be the experts!

How can you know more then? Well look in the non-financial press, perhaps specialist magazines within your area of expertise. You might also look round the shops to see which are getting busier, one financial journalist asked his teenage daughter for what fad or fashion was coming in vogue and made a small killing.

Xbigman

MSE isn't really an investing board in the sense you mean. If you want to read about shares try this site.

http://boards.fool.co.uk/index.aspx

You need to decide what sort of investor you are. Growth, value, High yield. All are worth considering but they are distinctly different. Only you will know your style of investing.

One thing I wouldn't bother with is virtual share dealing. Its just not the same as having your own money at risk. Start with a bit of you own money and see how it goes.
Which reminds me of the time a friend of mine is in the pub and strikes up a deep, involved discussion on shares. The little group waffles on for an hour or so about this and that and it becomes apparant that most of the group, except my friend, are nursing significant losses. My friend then starts talking about taking some profits and buying a car. There is a long silence and one of them says 'you mean REAL money...'



X

neilsedaka

If you are looking for shares that are volatile, that is large swings both up and down, the AIM market should be considered. With caution though, after doing lots of research on the internet (don't bother with newspapers). If this appeals to you a good starting point would be to visit http://thesharehub.com , read the recommendations thoroughly, then do your own research on a few companies by reading the RNS (Regulated News Service) announcements on the companies website, appraising the experience of the board of directors and reading the forums such as those at http://www.lse.co.uk/share-chat.asp . An example of a share on the AIM market that is relatively safe and still has great potential is Xcite Energy (XEL).

chris_m

Stockservant is a spammer, persistently flooding this forum with adverts for their penny stock suckerlist using new names practically every day, sometimes more than one per day, as they get reported and banned.

All the previous posters' advice is good, however.

mark13

I started by reading SHARES magazine and I trade the majority of my shares through my iii ISA account ( I do have a non-isa account for special situations) .
iii also has forums where shares are discussed , but you do have take some of the comments with a pinch of salt.
You do need to learn some fundamentals, but if there was a perfect methodology I'd be rich, and there wouldn't be stock market crashes.

My only advice is take your profits, especially on AIM.

Pachira

evosy1978 wrote: »

Hy all,


1) Where is this research from, is it just a case of reading the financial times???

For research, company financials etc I recommend Hemscott and Reuters.

They have the most accurate fundamental data.

Also, for ideas check out Investors Chronicle

And lots of free investment guides that may help here

Hughesy84

Lots of weekly/ monthly magazines you can buy in places like WHSmiths which are very useful and give you some basic guides based on either big companies or the smaller ones from the AIM market.

Once you have read up on some top tips whether it be from magazines, Sunday mail etc, research that company – check out any news that relates to them and consider whether it’s good or bad news. Check all news sites – Reuters and also the share hub.

For instance im watching GWP pharmaceuticals – They have already increased by 10% in the very short time iv held them. If they get permission for their latest drug (for MS sufferers – taking the extract from cannabis to help) in the US then they will boom, they already have permission in UK, Spain and other places and there sales are already on the increase.

And today comes more good news it appears :T
http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/GW-Pharmaceuticals-Sativex-afxcnf-1819779021.html?x=0&.v=1

Iv also been watching DTG (Dart Group) who basically run in flight meals etc – I read a tip about them last August about a deal they were about to sign to give them exclusivity to a particular airline aswell as branching out into other stuff– as of right now, they have increased 50% so far. :beer:

Always be aware of the news – things like Wars affect certain markets, things like the Oil Spill for BP is obviously bad news for them at the time….obviously looking around today you can see Petrol prices/ energy and gold are all very expensive, so obviously AT THE MOMENT their shares are attractive etc.

Once you buy shares – set yourself limits, if you’re making a bad loss – get rid, don’t hold on in the hope they recover. Also set yourself a limit to what you want out of a share. 15-20% profit is good so if your after quick profit you would sell – however if your in long term you might wana sit on it for some time…all depends on your own personal situation.

hbakhshi

Pachira wrote: »

Also, for ideas check out Investors Chronicle

+1 on this, its a great magazine, out weekly.

I use a programme called Sharescope, £16 per month, to help research my investments. May or may not be worth it for you, depending how seriously you want to get into this.

Read a quality paper, Times/Telegraph (my favourite). The Daily Mail has some surprisingly good stuff on personal finance and investing.

Once you know what you are doing, then get the FT.

If you are starting out, I wouldn't recommend individual company shares. Look at Investment Trusts, which hold a basket of shares, but which you can buy and sell on the stock market. Alternatively ETFs are good and you don't pay Stamp Duty.

If you buy individual company shares, stick with the FTSE100/FTSE250 companies until you learn what you are about. AIM are more volatile and are sometimes difficult to sell.

Hen_Step

If you search the forums on iii, you will see people tipping shares. Whilst I would generally take these tips with a pinch of salt, you may find some good ones in there, just be careful, and take your time and make notes of who tipped shares that came good.
The fundamentals that most people say, apart from the financials, are who are the board of directors, are they buying shares in their company, how stable are the countries that they operate in?