Info on shares

max11

Dear All,
I normally use 2-3 websites for financial news. I then use few more occasionally.
I own 9-10 shares, some of which are gaining, some others are losing value, some of which are of big comapnies, some other are of smaller one. Ideally, I would like to reduce their number, as I do not have chance to follow them.
I would like to get some info about them, so I can try to make
a better decision whether to sell or hold them! Which websites do you use, maybe the ones that advise sell/buy/hold!?
(I know they may be wrong, but it is always good to have some points of view!)

Shall I find an IFA instead ?

Many thanks
Max

srcandas

I use hl. Lots of very clear information. Graphic comparison tools. Comment from various sources. Summary broker recommendations. All company announcements and events.

I find it very useful. When it comes to buy/sell decision time I look at other sources in addition but the hl facilities give me a comprehensive starting position.

I don't however always trade within hl. :beer:

Linton

If you want to invest in shares directly you do need to put the effort into understanding the companies. I use advfn for any detailed data I require. I would say that you should be looking to increasing the number of shares you hold rather than reducing. Individual shares are risky so you need a fair number to prevent any one failure having a major impact on your wealth.

An IFA cannot help you with direct share investments, it really is something you have to do yourself.

It sounds to me like you should consider investing in funds rather than shares. As each fund may well hold hundreds of separate shares you have less need of detailed information and need hold only a small number to achieve sensible diversification.

gadgetmind

Forget an IFA as even if you found one who knew anything about individual equities, they couldn't advise you on them.

As others have said, try advfn (and maybe also the Motley Fool forums) but realise that neither random strangers nor analysts can be relied upon.

I also agree that you need more holdings to reduce volatility. 15 to 20 used to be the norm, but everything is now far more correlated, but 25 is maybe close.

OTOH you might care to instead look at collective investments and/or trackers.

Ifts

I use The Share Centre website among others for advice and research information (I find their website easy to navigate around).

You can open a practice account (free to register and use) with them to have access to their tips and advice, also you can use their research tools.

Link: https://www.share.com/a/learn-practice-account.html

max11

Many thanks to all of you for the suggestions. Also,

Linton wrote: »

I would say that you should be looking to increasing the number of shares you hold rather than reducing. Individual shares are risky so you need a fair number to prevent any one failure having a major impact on your wealth.
It sounds to me like you should consider investing in funds rather than shares. As each fund may well hold hundreds of separate shares you have less need of detailed information and need hold only a small number to achieve sensible diversification.

gadgetmind wrote: »

I also agree that you need more holdings to reduce volatility. 15 to 20 used to be the norm, but everything is now far more correlated, but 25 is maybe close.
OTOH you might care to instead look at collective investments and/or trackers.

Yes my plan is to reduce the number (maybe completely) and invest only in index trackers, which I can follow better.

At the moment I own 14 shares, which I do not have much chance to follow, and therefore it is difficult (I know it always is ) to try and guess when the value is fair/ good and so to sell.

How often do you check your shares ?

I was thinking of sell all of them together, maybe it would be easier, but now does not seem the right time to do it!

coastline

Theres a few websites with company results and forecasts..the link below will give you future earnings estimates for the next 2 years..always good to know..

http://markets.ft.com/research/Markets/Companies-Research

I personally use the FTSE tracker ETF....ISF.L for my UK buying as its cost effective...as posted you might need around 20 shares to get balance..
I tend to look at charts and indicators as a guideline for exit and entry...at the moment indicators are showing oversold so you could say its a fair chance to buy...although this can't be taken as exact..

http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail?type=chart&display=chart&code=cotn%3AUKX.L&it=li&timeframe=1y&index=&versus=&linetype=line&overlay=&overlay2=&overlay3=&overlay4=&indicator=slowstoch&indicator2=RSI&indicator3=MACDhist&indicator4=&chartwidth=500&buylines=on&triggers=on&Go=Plot

max11

coastline wrote: »

Theres a few websites with company results and forecasts..the link below will give you future earnings estimates for the next 2 years..always good to know..

http://markets.ft.com/research/Markets/Companies-Research
t

That is very cool, thank you

coastline wrote: »

I personally use the FTSE tracker ETF....ISF.L for my UK buying as its cost effective...as posted you might need around 20 shares to get balance..

I hear that ETF are very popular but I do not fully understand them so I prefer not to invest in them at the moment!

coastline

max11 wrote: »

That is very cool, thank you


I hear that ETF are very popular but I do not fully understand them so I prefer not to invest in them at the moment!

http://funds.ft.com/uk/Tearsheet/Summary?s=ISF:LSE:GBX

coastline

more research..analysts estimates..

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/q?s=HSBA.L

grey_gym_sock

max11 wrote: »

I was thinking of sell all of them together, maybe it would be easier, but now does not seem the right time to do it!

there's nothing wrong with selling them all together, and immediately reinvesting all the proceeds in index-trackers. then you're not out of the market at all (well, perhaps for a few minutes or days, depending on how you do it), so you're not trying to time the market.