straight talking shares

Linton

Glen_Clark wrote: »

Recent events have shown how futile it is to try and guess the market. The banks should have gone bust, property prices and shares collapsed, and interest rates increased. But the Bank Of England money printing has turned all that upside down. So now you not only have to call the market correctly, you have to guess what the politicians are going to do to distort it. Unless you have inside information, (like the Bank Of England shifting its pension fund into index linked bonds before cranking up the printing presses and destroying ours) the best you can do is spread your eggs around a lot of baskets and hope for the best.

And you would have been happy to have lost your life savings? You would have also probably lost your job (if you have one) as your employer would have lost all his cash deposits. With the collapse in share prices would come a collapse in pension values - OK by you? That really shows a commitment to principle above mere self interest.

Glen_Clark

Linton wrote: »

And you would have been happy to have lost your life savings? You would have also probably lost your job (if you have one) as your employer would have lost all his cash deposits. With the collapse in share prices would come a collapse in pension values - OK by you? That really shows a commitment to principle above mere self interest.

Thats what has happened in Iceland then is it

Linton

Glen_Clark wrote: »

Thats what has happened in Iceland then is it

The Icelandic bank operations within Iceland were "restructured" by the government. Iceland reneged on the guarantees given to foreign depositors who formed a large part of the banks' customer base.

atush

CLAPTON wrote: »

as the current time, bonds and gilts are very very very high risk unless you expect interest rates to fall

if you have no real interest in the subject I would suggest you invest in a middle of the road unit trust/EFT tracker (e.g. ft100 tracker)

To me, investment in only a ftse100 traker is far too risky. A ftse350 would be better, but again it is risky to base all your investments into Just the UK market (even if some of the larger companies earn in foreign markets).

I would look at a good general investment trust. One that includes shares that might be in the ftse100, but also ones on the S&P500, the Dax, the Emerging markets and asian markets too. Along with property and other asset classes. Drip feeding can smooth Volatility.

CLAPTON

atush wrote: »

To me, investment in only a ftse100 traker is far too risky. A ftse350 would be better, but again it is risky to base all your investments into Just the UK market (even if some of the larger companies earn in foreign markets).

I would look at a good general investment trust. One that includes shares that might be in the ftse100, but also ones on the S&P500, the Dax, the Emerging markets and asian markets too. Along with property and other asset classes. Drip feeding can smooth Volatility.

FTse 100 is the UK market?

HSBC, BP, Barclays, GSK, Shell, RSA etc
all have a little exposure to the rest of the world

atush

Like I said, if you bothered to read it, they have exposure to other markets. But they rise and fall with sentiment (not facts) in the UK market when there are largish movements. They are essentially UK based, and cary currency risk (as quoted in GBP, and earnings in USD and other currencies.

I prefer a more global approach, although holding those shares ( I hold 4 individually and possibly the other 2 in funds) can be a part of that. But I don't beleive in JUST the ftse100 as a strategy.

bowlhead99

atush wrote: »

Like I said, if you bothered to read it, they have exposure to other markets. But they rise and fall with sentiment (not facts) in the UK market when there are largish movements. They are essentially UK based, and cary currency risk (as quoted in GBP, and earnings in USD and other currencies.

Sounds like you are saying currency risk is a negative feature of the major components of the FTSE 100?

I prefer a more global approach,

with your pounds exposed to larger number of companies with earnings in USD and other currencies...?

Sounds like you agree that we should put up with currency risk, which is an inherent risk of investing globally and a fair price to pay for the potential upsides of exposure to overseas earnings.

I agree FTSE 100 or even 350 is not a wide enough index to cover the broad range of sectors and geographies which one should include in their long term portfolio. But while some currency risk (getting non-GBP returns on your GBP investment)is a feature of these indices and people should be aware it exists, you can't simultaneously use it to support your case to go wider than the FTSE, and then recommend a strategy which deliberately gets you non-GBP returns on your GBP investments.

Linton

If you want to invest in large companies, which is what the FTSE100 gives you, then you are in general investing globally and so nowadays geographic diversification is of limited effectiveness.

A bigger problem with the FTSE100 in my view is the lack of sector diversification. Its over 25% extractive industries, 17% financials and around 5% manufacturing and technology. Sounds more like an Emerging Market mix than a representative of the global economy. The reason is that most globally significant technology and manufacturing companies dont list their shares on the LSE but rather in New York,Tokyo, Seoul and Frankfurt.

oldtoolie

The op seems to think you can get good advice from old American TV shows and people you don't know on the internet - us that is.

There might be some good advice here but the op does not appear to have anyway to evaluate the advice. Perhaps you should put your money in a savings account for the time being and read up on investing.

A website often recommended in this forum for this is http://monevator.com/

A book often recommended is Smarter Investing: Simpler Decisions for Better Results by Tim Hale

Vanguard Asset Management has some good briefings including this one:
"Investment fundamentals – an introduction to the basic concepts of investing
Aims to give you a solid understanding of different investment topics, including factors you need to consider, the importance of understanding risk and the importance of rebalancing your portfolio."
https://www.vanguard.co.uk/uk/portal/indv/resources-learning.jsp