Buying Shares for Fun

Tayus

Hi Everyone,

I normally have a bit of a gamble on the football every week, safe to say I never make any real profit and in general I lose approx. £150 a month..... So.... I have decided to stop that and have just opened a youinvest share dealing account! Instead of wasting the £150 a month i'm going to buy some shares. I've put £500 in to start with and have bought individual shares in 2 different companies. My theory is if I lose it doesn't matter as the money would be lost gambling on sports anyway!

I know that some of you experts will come on a tell me I should invest in certain funds etc. but to be honest my attention span isn't long enough to research these thing plus I'm not investing a massive amount of money.

Does anybody else do anything similar to this? Do you buy shares in the same company regularly or do you mix it up a little? Any success stories doing this?

marvin

If you want to invest this small amount in shares a month best doing so in a sharebuilder type account (that is a Halifax one but others do similar) where you commit to an amount each month and pay small smaller dealing fees (£2 on Halifax)

I liken all share buying as similar to gambling on horses, some do it with a lot of knowledge (breeders/trainers) some with great deal of research (serious/professional gamblers) and then there are those who have a little knowledge and stick to certain sectors, then there are the pin stickers, right now this is where I would put you.

Nothing wrong with having a little fun if you can afford to lose the money no worse than an E/W in the 3:15 at Haydock Park.

There are also share clubs out there where you may be able to get the same fun in a social way. There is even one which is run by the cashback site Imutual (http://www.imutual.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=23&sid=50e0a19de2385261af2627e12f701197 link to the message boad where this is discussed) where you can use the cashback earn't to invest in shares.

So no, what are you mad from me, just if you can afford it and it gives you fun go for it.

sorcerer

The only thing I would say is that with such small amount, you are losing quite a bit in costs, so you spend £250 each for two funds, and you spent £10 in trading costs + other charges, so you will a few % down already before you begin, on bigger amounts this matters less.


What shares did you buy out of interest.

Tayus

I bought some in egdon resource and graphene nanochem. Thoughts?

thegrind

Tayus it sounds like your gambling to me.

That aint so bad if its money you would have peed away anyway but think about this example:

You save £150 a month for 10 years that's 18k. Now factor in say for example a modest 5% income and 5% growth PA you'll be looking somewhere in the region of £30,500 after 10 years.

Thats not the sort of money you want to gamble away.

Read up on shares and markets and do not throw your money away at broker costs.

bowlhead99

I hold GRPH and have done for over a year. I bought about 65p which was a little under half their placing price a matter of months earlier.

They had some setbacks and delays last year but seem to be doing broadly OK for a startup operating in the oil industry - oil and drilling generally is hardly buoyant at the moment with the oil price. However their share price had a shock down to 40p levels a month ago when the half year results came out and they admitted they would not hit their full year targets, due to a delay in rolling out Platdrill. It did not surprise me too much though and I'm not trying to trade in and out, but it was not great transparency and could probably have been handled better. I will see if they give more confidence going forward or else I may consider an exit a bit further down the line.

For me it is just one to tuck away for the long term and see if it comes good. I have a few speculative AIM punts and have done well on some, badly on some, and well-then-badly on others. It is important to realise that despite the buzzword in their company name (which probably helped their profile when fundraising), graphene is only a small part of what they do. It is more on the advanced materials side where they are making their money which may or may not end up being enough of a cash cow to allow them to get some actual graphene enhanced stuff rolling.

£250 per company (less dealing costs) is not going to make you a millionaire and it seems that the amounts are deliberately so low that it's just a blind punt that won't change your life, just an alternative to a gamble on the footie. I can't see that you'll have bothered to research either of the companies sufficiently well to know when to buy, sell, add to your position or what stories the press releases and financial statements are actually telling you. So, it almost doesn't matter what you invest in really.

Thrugelmir

Tayus wrote: »

My theory is if I lose it doesn't matter as the money would be lost gambling on sports anyway!

Start a pension scheme. You may get a pleasant surprise in 30 to 40 years time.

Tayus

Im not completely daft, i pay into a cash isa and contribute a combined 14% into my pension

sparkychris

I've done the same as you, Tayus... Opened a youinvest account and Spunked a few quid on tesco shares :0 but I am also using just the money I'd have lost at the bookies. (I only ever gamble what I can afford to lose, etc) and although shares are a long term thing (unless you get lucky) I still enjoy checking my share prices more than I enjoyed checking flashscores.com!
Good luck and have fun!

omgpop1

bowlhead99 wrote: »

I hold GRPH and have done for over a year. I bought about 65p which was a little under half their placing price a matter of months earlier.

They had some setbacks and delays last year but seem to be doing broadly OK for a startup operating in the oil industry - oil and drilling generally is hardly buoyant at the moment with the oil price. However their share price had a shock down to 40p levels a month ago when the half year results came out and they admitted they would not hit their full year targets, due to a delay in rolling out Platdrill. It did not surprise me too much though and I'm not trying to trade in and out, but it was not great transparency and could probably have been handled better. I will see if they give more confidence going forward or else I may consider an exit a bit further down the line.

For me it is just one to tuck away for the long term and see if it comes good. I have a few speculative AIM punts and have done well on some, badly on some, and well-then-badly on others. It is important to realise that despite the buzzword in their company name (which probably helped their profile when fundraising), graphene is only a small part of what they do. It is more on the advanced materials side where they are making their money which may or may not end up being enough of a cash cow to allow them to get some actual graphene enhanced stuff rolling.

£250 per company (less dealing costs) is not going to make you a millionaire and it seems that the amounts are deliberately so low that it's just a blind punt that won't change your life, just an alternative to a gamble on the footie. I can't see that you'll have bothered to research either of the companies sufficiently well to know when to buy, sell, add to your position or what stories the press releases and financial statements are actually telling you. So, it almost doesn't matter what you invest in really.

gj tell the man to buy a graphene company thats never made a profit with -0.12 eps, GoodJob, and its down 57% since january with -2.99p interim eps BEST COMPANY EVER TO INVEST IN LOLOLOLOLOL

omgpop1

omgpop1 wrote: »

gj tell the man to buy a graphene company thats never made a profit with -0.12 eps, goodjob, and its down 57% since january with -2.99p interim eps best company ever to invest in lololololol

you are the best investor batboulman lol