Best source of share tips etc?

MercilessKiller

I feel spoilt when it comes to news online. There's BBC News, Sky News, CNN, NewsNow, Twitter, and all sorts of other sources, all wanting to give me their content for free.

So when I browse ft.com, Hargreaves, Motley Fool, Investor Chronicle and other respected sources, I feel angry that they require me to pay simply because of how spoilt I've been.

Yes, I could buy the IC magazine but I feel anything printed is out-dated due to the time it takes to get to my door, and with something like shares, that could be the difference between a 20% profit and a 10% loss (if buying after the peak).

Does anyone have good advice for money saving while sourcing out intelligent articles from recommended sources?

Thanks!

westy22

Most inexperienced investors seem to assume that 'paid for' tips are more accurate, predictive and valuable than free tips. That, of course, is generally rubbish.

There are plenty of free share tips available on the internet from all sorts of financial sources including some of the ones you have listed above. All share tips are based on historical performance, guesswork and publicly available information and data - if they were based on 'insider knowledge' then they would be illegal.

Drp8713

MercilessKiller wrote: »

Yes, I could buy the IC magazine but I feel anything printed is out-dated due to the time it takes to get to my door, and with something like shares, that could be the difference between a 20% profit and a 10% loss (if buying after the peak).



Thanks!

Why not just sign up to the FT website? You get 8 articles a month for free, IC comes out once a week doesn't it so your 8 free articles should cover it.

grey_gym_sock

"tips" are the last thing you want ... the price has often already raced up, so you'll be buying at too high a price (whether the tip is online or printed).

OTOH, if you want shares that might be worth buying, but will need some further research first, then you can find some good (and bad) ideas on the motley fool forums (not the main site), which is free.

alternatively, you can avoid wasting a lot of time on research that may not make you any extra money compared to just buying a bunch of trackers (and may lose you money relative to the bunch of trackers), and just buy a bunch of trackers.

MercilessKiller

You say that tips are the last thing you want, but not necessarily.. obviously buying every stock at the peak and highest trading point can be pretty dumb, but it's not a bad start, especially for research purposes and learning what's going on in the market in general!

For example, Sports Direct was tipped after their high profits and started trading at peak! I felt like it was still a good investment but went with Hays PLC instead, but then they boomed 15% last week again!! Ha. Luckily Hays is doing well so not too fussed, but still, tips aren't completely a waste of time! I'm sure there are many stories of the opposite happening, but I'm a newbie investor and just want to read more about it - Following experts isn't a bad place to start.

grey_gym_sock

you'll certainly get both winners and losers by following tips. but that applies to just about any strategy, because there is so much unpredictable movement in share prices.

the point is: will you do better than buying shares at random? studies have often shown that a "monkey with a pin" - i.e. picking shares randomly from the FT - beats tips from so-called experts.

the market price of a share reflects publicly available information, and the opinions of everybody who's buying and selling shares. the "efficient market hypothesis" states that the market price of a share is a better estimate of its real value than any 1 person's opinion, since the price reflects everybody's opinion, not just 1 person's. now this hypothesis is, many (including me) would say, not the whole truth, but it does contain a very large element of the truth.

there is a real risk that following tips will give worse results than buying randomly selected shares. partly because in some case the price will have run up as a result of the tip (this is more likely for shares in small companies).

also because many tips are of shares which have done well recently, and eventually a share's run comes to an end. though this is more a question of how soon you get in. in the short term, share prices do generally exhibit momentum - i.e. risers keep on rising, fallers keeping on falling - but over slightly longer periods, they exhibit mean reversion - i.e. risers fall back, and fallers recover. riding these effects is possible, but dangerous. however, i suspect that when you see popular tips of a share, it's often too late to ride the momentum as it rises, and more likely you'll be hit by the mean reversion, as it falls back.

note that, if you literally bought shares chosen at random (buying a reasonably large number of different shares, to reduce the risks), you would get different results from buying a tracker, because you'd put more in smaller companies by treating all shares equally.

jimjames

MercilessKiller wrote: »

I'm sure there are many stories of the opposite happening, but I'm a newbie investor and just want to read more about it - Following experts isn't a bad place to start.

As a newbie investor buying on share tips just seems a way to lose money to me. It's nice to think you can beat the market but ultimately get rich quick is unlikely to happen, getting the market return year in, year out over the long term is a more likely way to build up a substantial portfolio.

If you are determined to go down that route then I'd echo the comments about the fool forums being a good place to look. There are even some discussions here mentioning certain shares.

MercilessKiller

jimjames wrote: »

As a newbie investor buying on share tips just seems a way to lose money to me. It's nice to think you can beat the market but ultimately get rich quick is unlikely to happen, getting the market return year in, year out over the long term is a more likely way to build up a substantial portfolio.

If you are determined to go down that route then I'd echo the comments about the fool forums being a good place to look. There are even some discussions here mentioning certain shares.

1) Just because I'm a newbie doesn't mean I'm going to invest a lot of money in a share because of a share tip - I understand why you made that assumption though, but it's not the case here (I understand a great deal about equity risks)

2) I'm not looking for a get rich quick scheme. Please don't assume I'm looking to make a 200% gain overnight from following a tip blindly!!

But thanks for the tip about the fool forum!

Looking at tips will help in a variety of ways but mostly looking at the market! What are people loving in the market, what are they hating etc.. All information is good information, but that doesn't mean I thinkthat just because a tipster says buy it means I should buy...!

Thanks!

oldtoolie

Other sites worth a look are

https://www.citywire.co.uk/

https://www.trustnet.com/

https://www.morningstar.co.uk/

Ifts

There is so much information available for free on the internet that I don't think its worth paying for share tips, only thing is its down to you to separate the good info from the bad.

The Motley Fool site is a good place, there are some very knowledgeable folk over on their forums and its free - it has got threads started on most shares already so you can read other peoples opinions.
Their forums do get a bit of getting used to to begin with navigating around them.

MercilessKiller wrote: »

For example, Sports Direct was tipped after their high profits and started trading at peak!

It was tipped on here too (19-10-2012) :

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/56649081#Comment_56649081
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=62919817&postcount=33


DYOH and best of luck with your investments.

charliehell

LSE is full of wonderment and hopefulness, quite a few companies are discussed, some for years on end..

http://www.lse.co.uk/shareChat.asp?page=1&ShareTicker=LLOY&1#1217686