Branson/Virgin to rescue Northern Rock [Merged]

Amnesia180

So if I'm looking to make money, but only have about £400-£500 to spare - is it worth it?

Browntrout_2

Amnesia180 wrote: »

Hi All...

My friend has advised me to start looking at investing in Northern Rock Shares.

They are now down to around £2. Apparently, they are being bought out by Virgin... meaning in 2 years I will have double my money?

Any advice on this?

How knowledgeable is your friend in matter like this, are they committing their own money at this time?

I think there is a good chance that you will lose 100% of your investment.

Will this person still be your friend if this happens?

PS - do they have a yacht?

Amnesia180

Well, he works for Barclays bank. And one of the business development guys there has advised him on this....

I was just asking the question.

I think I will see how things go at the moment. However, they seemed pretty sure in 2 years his money would be doubled and is actually looking to invest himself.

Aegis

Amnesia180 wrote: »

Hi All...

My friend has advised me to start looking at investing in Northern Rock Shares.

They are now down to around £2. Apparently, they are being bought out by Virgin... meaning in 2 years I will have double my money?

Any advice on this?

I think your friend is being incredibly irresponsible with this advice. You MIGHT do well with that. You might also lose nearly all your investment.

Generally speaking, hot tips aren't worth the hot air it takes to say them.

If you want to invest, then it would be worth learning as much as possible about the market, the company, the board, the possible takeovers, the likely impact of a takeover on the share price, the possibility for further growth after the takeover, etc. If you're not familiar with all of these, you should definitely avoid NRK, as it's a very volatile and risky stock right now.

I wish you the best with your money, but I suggest that you steer clear of this one until you know exactly why you're going to invest rather than relying on a friend's suggestion.

Amnesia180

Thanks for your help.

I really do want to start investing... but can't afford large amounts of money. And with something as dodgy as NR, I don't think it would be the right step for me. By what was being said, it sounded certain I could double my money. But like you've said, I could lose it all.

Can you recomend any websites to read up on, to get started in investing etc?

Aegis

Amnesia180 wrote: »

Thanks for your help.

I really do want to start investing... but can't afford large amounts of money. And with something as dodgy as NR, I don't think it would be the right step for me. By what was being said, it sounded certain I could double my money. But like you've said, I could lose it all.

Can you recomend any websites to read up on, to get started in investing etc?

Here is a fairly good place to start for the very basics. For example, you can learn the difference between shares, gilts, investment trusts, unit trusts, OEICs, ETFs, bonds, etc, and from that you can decide on an overall investment strategy (e.g. investing in a diverse portfolio of unit trusts/OEICs matching your risk profile rather than picking a company and diving right in a la your friend's suggestion). Once you've decided how you want to invest, you can start looking at where (for example, if you decide you want to invest in UK equitiy managed funds, you can look at the UK equity fund lists, work out which ones match your objectives well and have a decent management team with a history of outperforming the index and come up with "your" fund).

The process is quite long and labour intensive, but it can be both rewarding and fun if you like the idea of investing.

Amnesia180

Okay, I'll start reading more posts on here. And post questions as needed I think :-)

I won't have time to start looking into it until this evening.

Thanks again.

debbie42

If you are interested in researching particular shares (which you should do if you plan on investing your money in them!) then there are active individual discussion forums on the Motley Fool. There is one on Northern Rock.

https://www.fool.co.uk: look under boards. Like this site, you need to register to post, but it's free.

I personally wouldn't touch NRK with a bargepole at this time of uncertainty.

cheerfulcat

Amnesia180 wrote: »

Can you recomend any websites to read up on, to get started in investing etc?

Motley Fool, as mentioned earlier, in particular the Fool School. Incademy is an excellent source for basic information. Trustnet has a few ( sponsored ) articles. III offers some good stuff as well but it's spread around the site.

The more you read ( particularly books about investment ), the easier you will find it to sort the gold from the dross on bulletin boards. If you only read one book, make it The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham.

bristolleedsfan

debbie42 wrote: »

I personally wouldn't touch NRK with a bargepole at this time of uncertainty.

i agree, branson wants to buy NR shares for as little as possible in return for injecting cash into NR, he will offer very little shareholder value, shareholders could get anything up to 90p a share ive read unless their is a mega bidding war.

if shareholders keep their shares and virgin make a success of NR then shareholders value may well increase.