testing my investment mettle

gadgetmind

I'll be doing 2xS&S ISA come April 6th and like the OP am also struggling to find anything cheap. However, there is plenty that's fairly priced, which is good enough for me.

I'll probably time my time investing the new cash, and I also have some cash sitting in various accounts as a result of recently taking profits on a selection of bank shares. The summer nearly always throws up some interesting opportunities, but I'll be more steadily rebalancing rather than trying any degree of market timing.

Jegersmart

IronWolf wrote: »

Timing the market is futile. If you want to increase your returns you are better off spending time researching individual companies and picking good individual investments.

It certainly hasn't been futile for me, anyone that held firm through 2008 and 2009 are very naive imho.

I am of course not advocating continually buying and selling, but some price sensitivity has to be displayed imho.

J

tushingham

Thanks all for sharing your thoughts. Think I was just venting my spleen about this and am glad that most of us have these thoughts.

I think the comment about taking responsibility is very true. If I'm expecting a market drop then I should sit tight waiting to take advantage and see where that would get me....! Not very far I think as the messages about constantly trying to time market entry and exit comes to the fore.

Think I need to give it some more thought and possibly devote some time to research where I feel theres value. There must be some in there and I think i'm not casting my net wide enough.

Am planning around July so this might present some opportunities to get cash into the market though its difficult when everything is going up and by a similar amount too. I think this picture might change.

Thanks for the suggestion about share tip subscription might look into it out of interest but think i'll be leaning towards funds in all likelihood.

t

brasso

OP --

If you have a lump sum to invest, even a modest one, consider drip-feeding over a period of time. This will give you some automatic market-timing benefit. Obviously, if the amounts are small then fees may become disproportionately high.

gadgetmind

tushingham wrote: »

If I'm expecting a market drop then I should sit tight waiting to take advantage and see where that would get me....! Not very far I think as the messages about constantly trying to time market entry and exit comes to the fore.

Yes, absolutely right.

Try going to any investor's forum that's been around since the late 90s and see what even experienced investors were saying through some of the huge drops. Even when they were happening, no-one knew what next week would bring. More of a drop? A dramatic recovery? No-one knew!

Try also looking at what various fund managers were holding in their portfolios in 2008. If these wisest of the wise knew that equities were toast, banks toxic, and that only bonds and gold were worth holding, then they certainly didn't reflect this in their asset allocations.

Of course, some fund managers did get it right, or at least better, and are now spoken of in hushed tones and given billions to play with. Will they get it right in the future? Probably not!

tushingham

Thanks guys

I'm sure part of it is my own annoyance at not starting to drip feed as soon as I'd done my initial lump sum.
I had intended to so have missed some gains but will portable start again in April after side research this month.

Thanks
T