Share Dealing Discussion Area

eskbanker

A_Star wrote: »

Thanks eskbanker, do you recommend sticking with one of the platforms in the MSE article then?

I'd recommend plugging your anticipated investment activity into various comparison sites and establishing which of the mainstream platforms fits your needs best, although these really just compare costs:

http://monevator.com/compare-the-brokers/
http://www.comparefundplatforms.com/
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5583030

A_Star

Thank you for your help, much appreciated

sabretoothtigger

Howitiz wrote: »

Sorry it wasn't meant to be cryptic just a straightforward question from someone who doesn't deal in shares at all. Forget it and I'll sort it myself..

If people post relevant info then delete or edit the post a few days after then I think its safe enough to risk discussion.

Nobody wants to mention the company share they are talking about, its kinda funny but speak to a broker like Halifax who'll handle the personal info and they can deal alot of US shares and also certificates

https://www.sharecast.com//company_diary

WhatBox

Guess it really depends on what you mean by 'perks'.

Personally getting a discount off of something is of less interest to me than a healthy return on my capital.

For example, I've invested in a number of companies that have turned to the blockchain to launch new projects, the upside for which could easily outperform some of the established businesses quoted like Avis or Debenhams.

The blockchain is certainly the way the bond and equity markets are likely to move, and can be much cheaper to use.

scrabble26

Does anyone know anything about a company called Preston Holdings based in NY they are ringing every week regarding share for a liquidated company

AnotherJoe

It's. A. Scam.

Always is. No doubt the spiel goes along the lines of .... secret Chinese (usually) investor wishes to buy 51% of company will pay much more than it's worth just needs £x to complete the legalities then will return you the large amount they would pay you for these shares minus the commission you paid them. And you should hurry because they are speaking to other investors and might buy their shares before yours. Classic FOMO.

Once you've paid them you won't hear from them again.
After a while some else will contact you and will say you've been defrauded and for a payment of £x will recover your money. After all if you were stupid enough to fall for it first time round you'll probably take a second bite at the cherry.

englishmas

Never ever invest in a company which try to sell on the phone, even it sound good and reasonable, advise from a person how got bitten in the past.
Stay away from these crooks and scammers

sabretoothtigger

Ask to speak to Mr. A. S. Cam

https://www.sharecast.com/company_diary

BrockStoker

Is anyone else here investing in biotech stocks?


Here is my experience so far, if anyone is interested:

Background - I started DIY investing (with funds) in 2013, and found myself drawn to the more racy sectors. In particular biotech/healthcare, since I have a background in biology/science, and I found the whole sector to be fascinating as well as exciting.


Having already built up a portfolio of funds, last year I lost my mum, and inherited a significant sum, most of which I will invest in funds/bonds. So after 5 years of observing the sector, I was finally able to try my hand at investing in individual shares, and I bought my first shares at the end of October, about one and a half months ago.


I decided to invest a total of £20K (+ another 10K next year) in individual stocks, and have ended up (for better or for worse) with a portfolio of 19 or 20 individual small/mid-cap biotech stocks. My plan was to hold till I saw a significant gain, then review, and either take profits or let it keep rolling. Since the sector had been beaten down for a number of years now, many stocks with at least reasonable prospects had been beaten down unfairly.

Now there's no doubt that I would get it wrong on at least a few, but with biotech, when you get it right, the value can shoot up literally over night, and then keep going some more, so I opted to spread my money over more companies, in the hope that a few could be great.

A few of the stocks I bought are very risky, with companies that are low on cash, but at the same time, have catalysts approaching that could change all that in the blink of an eye. I under weighted most of them, apart from a couple which I really liked the look of. Most stocks have a decent market cap (1+ B USD) and plenty of cash, but have simply been overlooked by Wallstreet, as well as being beaten down.

Picking them was easier than I thought. I knew what I was looking for in terms of company - companies with novel treatments using cutting edge tech, especially in the areas of gene therapy/oncology.

These areas are where there is much currently unmet need, and consequently a large market, plus new/novel treatments patents don't expire for many years, making them potential lucrative.

Along with a good pipeline of potential therapies/treatments I'm also looking for companies that have at least one promising treatment that has already has good safety/benefit performance in early phase 1/2 human clinical trials, which at least partially de-risks them, and gives them a serious chance of rapid growth.

Nothing is certain of course, but with companies like these, you only need one or two catalysts (a good trial result, or large increase in sales for example), and each catalyst can potentially move the stock between 30 to over 100 percent, and in some cases more.

On the other hand, if something goes wrong, you can expect to loose a similar percentage!

The nice thing is that many of the shares I've bought were already beaten down, so less chance of falling vast amounts.

Apart from that, reading analyst reports, looking for inflection points in charts, and looking at revenue/earnings for clues that the company may be close to/on the way to being profitable are the only ways I evaluate a company.

The one "punt" stock I bought was Virgin Galactic, bought a day or two after the IPO and it's the only non healthcare stock I hold. Go figure, it's currently (and has been since almost day 1) the biggest looser that I hold, but I believe it will still increase in value, as it has done recently.

As for the rest, I'm seeing plenty of green and very little red after after just 6 weeks. In fact, today, for the first time, one stock had me reaching for the "take profits" button:

Axsome Therapeutics Inc, which I'd bought 30 shares of for a tad over $25 per share was now trading for $80 a share thanks to a positive result in a trial testing a drug to treat depression. It had already gone up by around 90% by the end of last week, and I had contemplated (but resisted) selling it, but today I sold 10 shares, more than covering my original investment of £593.90, and still leaving me with 20 shares valued currently at over £1200 (if Yahoo Finance is to be trusted).

My platform (Iweb) is saying that I'm up by 6.32% but it's always a day behind, and last Friday was a small down for my portfolio of about -0.8% (according to Yahoo). Yahoo says I'm +13.56% (not including my sell today), but that is overestimated because it does not seem to take in to account currency, even though I'm using GBP as base currency.


A lot of this is new to me, and I am in at the deep end, but learning fast. It has helped that money to invest came through to me just in time for me to catch what looks like the start of a big rally in the biotech sector. That has no doubt given me an advantage, but my strategy is to long term hold, so I'm sure there will be some downs as well as ups!

I don't want to give anyone the impression here that they could make money doing this - it's risky even if you know a bit about the sector, and I'm prepared to loose all or most of what I invested. Only invest in what you understand!

Early days, but with AXSM, and a couple of others into high double digit % gains, including BCRX (up over 75%) and CRSP (up more than 36%), both of which I over weighted to begin with, the strategy seems to be working OK!

Worst biotech performer for me so far has been CRIS loosing me 18%, but it was a long shot, and I under weighted it so I'm only down about £100. A few others are down too, but no more than around 10%, and in most cases no where near that. I've only just bought many stocks, so that is to be expected.

Anyway, just wanted to share my experience here, and will come back and update (if it's ok?) here at some point. This is as much a new experience for me as I'm sure biotech will be for some of you out there.

I know it has been hyped in the past, and it's certainly not for everyone, but for those with the right mentality/knowledge, I think it's a very safe place to be investing right now, providing long time frames are involved.

There will be a need for medicines/treatments for a long time to come, so any talk of "price gouging" (which is effectively what kept the sector down for the last few years) is just noise if you are in it for the long term.

There are multi-billion dollar opportunities right now in biotech, being overlooked..

That's probably starting to sound like an ad, but biotech has all the ingredients for a major rally in place right now. The last time biotech rallied, the rally which ended in 2015, the index went up over 100% in a matter of months, and individual companies in some cases increased their values by thousands of percent!

The same is occurring right now, and could well continue for some time - but obviously there are no guarantees! Be wary of stocks that have already gone up! Biotech can be lucrative, but rushing into it can get you in trouble.

Probably best to buy a fund, and be prepared to hold long term if you are not sure.


I hope someone finds these ramblings useful.

Apodemus

Your “ramblings” are indeed useful and future updates will be interesting. I would suggest, though, that it might be better to copy and paste your posting into a new thread on biotech, so that your future updates are clearer to follow.

A few things I would note about the biotech sector in particular and investing in shares in general:

While it is tempting to get your initial stake back out when a share rises, I prefer the old adage of “ride your winners, cut your losses”.

Six weeks is too short a period to have any inkling on whether you have winners or losers!

Dealing costs can be disproportionate on very small purchases or sales and selling 10 shares at $80 each is a pretty small trade.

I would have thought that the biggest chunk of biotech is still with the big pharmaceutical companies who can out-invest or patent-bully the wee guys. Nothing wrong with buying the boutique companies and hoping to profit from a bid situation, though.

Unless you are an insider, you will never know the truth about the product pipeline. Patent periods are far too short for companies to be completely open about product development. And “prior art” considerations will restrict their research publications.

Unlike IT start-ups, biotech needs significant up-front investment to equip labs and run research and development programmes until an income stream is established. This means that they normally come with major debt financing and existing big backers, who will strongly influence company development and direction. This might stifle the innovation and personal shareholder return that you would prefer.

Having said all this, it is an interesting sector and I’m sure your progress with investing in it will be interesting.