Investment strategy - any old hands here with good advice?

CreativeMedia

Hi,

I'm new here and am seeking some thoughts / opinions about my shares.

I'm fed up with our savings being used by businesses that are wrecking lives and the environment (and my ISA only paying 0.25% interest!), so invested in some shares, where I can choose what's being done with my money; 

I've got investments in:
INV1: a solar company that invests in solar farms around UK and Europe
INV2: an offshore wind energy investor.

(I'm being circumspect about my investments because I don't want to broadcast them all over the web - one never knows who's reading...)

After the initial COVID19 impact, INV1 rose quickly then has roughly levelled out at about 9% less than the money I've put in over a few years, BUT it pays a decent dividend four times a year (it's yielded 6.7% annually over the years)

INV2's value has consistently risen and is now worth nearly 60% (!) more than what I put in a year ago, but the annual dividend seemed to be a lot lower than INV1's.

What I'd like some thoughts / advice on is:

1. Is it sensible to hang on to INV1 and hope I don't need to sell any time soon? Is now a good time to buy MORE INV1 shares, or would I just end up losing more? Or should I sell now before it drops any further? Are there good ways of assessing whether the company's on the way out, or if we're just in a pandemic doldrums?

2. Should I sell my INV2 shares and get a big payout, or should I follow the standard advice of holding on to the shares for the long term, even when they inevitably begin dropping in value. I don't want to be kicking myself for losing a chance at a 60% return, but I'd then have to find somewhere else to invest that money, where I might lose it again... And I have a feeling that speculation (is that what it's called?) like this is a Bad Thing in general, even if it puts cash in my pocket.

Yes, I know the answer is "welcome to the tricky world of investment", but there must be some good ways to be informed and avoid major blunders?

Thanks all

Old_Lifer

I think you need to do a lot of reading about investing before you take any more investment decisions.

You need to give more information about your own financial position, including age and pension provision and your aims in life  before anyone can give a meaningful reply and also name the companies in which you hold shares if you want to receive the views of Forum members.

Albermarle

Is it sensible to hang on to INV1 and hope I don't need to sell any time soon? Is now a good time to buy MORE INV1 shares, or would I just end up losing more? Or should I sell now before it drops any further?

Nobody can give you a sensible answer as it would mean being able to see in the future . Even more difficult without actually knowing who the company is !

[Deleted User]

Welcome, CreativeMedia.
You're doing fine. You have invested according to your conviction and have one growth, one defensive stock.
INV2 is growing fast, INV1 is also in profit when you count in dividends.
It is tempting to subscribe to the theory that investments will star in turn, and take money from INV2 to buy more of INV1 at a bargain price. It's called rebalancing. Don't do this. It generally doesn't work.

jimjames

CreativeMedia said:

Yes, I know the answer is "welcome to the tricky world of investment", but there must be some good ways to be informed and avoid major blunders?

Thanks all

First thing is that most people start with investment into funds initially as it means their money is spready across many companies and thus reduces the risk of problems at one company affecting their whole portfolio. With only 2 companies that are in the same sector you are running a very high risk if one company has issues or goes bust. Most people are not prepared for that sort of risk. Without knowing the companies it's hard to make any other comments but unless it's a very small company (which would increase the risk even more) then it would be very unlikely that anyone would know who you are just from 2 investments.

Just be aware that these 2 investments are nothing like savings accounts and unlike savings they could drop to zero at some point - without knowing the companies it's impossible to say if that is likely or not but people would have thought Thomas Cook and Debenhams were big secure companies at one point.

Linton

Investing in one or two individual shares is very high risk - you could easily double your money or halve it in a year.  If this is serious money rather than something to play with I strongly suggest you invest in funds which hold hundreds of individual shares.  However if you are prepared to lose the lot in a chance for a bit of excitement and a possible major win, best of luck. 

As to advice on what you should do, as Albermarle says, it is not possible to predict the future.  If you dont know, asking lots of people who also dont know isnt going to help you very much.
.

Thrugelmir

CreativeMedia said:

Yes, I know the answer is "welcome to the tricky world of investment", but there must be some good ways to be informed and avoid major blunders?

2 individual shares doesn't constitute a diversified portfolio. Renewable energy is no different to any other industry. Over time the level competition will grow. There's no moats to make any one company unique and protect them. No harm in naming the companies you hold. 

enthusiasticsaver

A bit of a risky strategy so far.  Why don't you look into ethical funds?  Much more diversified than just two different companies. 

CreativeMedia

Thanks everyone - this is the kind of thing I was hoping for, particularly what you said ZingPowZing about defensive stock and rebalancing - I was indeed wondering about doing that!
I've got the shares money in Nextsolar and Black Rock Sustainable (offshore).
I've also got money in an ethical ISA and more in a ethical fund with another bank, some invested with a local company and some more in a solar bond, so my portfolio's somewhat spread around like some of you rightly advise.
Some ethical funds turn out to put a lot of the money into what I consider unethical banks, and in companies with a long bad track records - some people think "ethical" means no tobacco or gambling but anything else goes!
Thanks again

LHW99

CreativeMedia said:

Thanks everyone - this is the kind of thing I was hoping for, particularly what you said ZingPowZing about defensive stock and rebalancing - I was indeed wondering about doing that!
I've got the shares money in Nextsolar and Black Rock Sustainable (offshore).
I've also got money in an ethical ISA and more in a ethical fund with another bank, some invested with a local company and some more in a solar bond, so my portfolio's somewhat spread around like some of you rightly advise.
Some ethical funds turn out to put a lot of the money into what I consider unethical banks, and in companies with a long bad track records - some people think "ethical" means no tobacco or gambling but anything else goes!
Thanks again

If your requirements are very specific in terms of what is / is not included in a fund you will have to do plenty of research (annual reports for example). "Ethical" covers a whole range of views - look up "light green funds" versus "dark green funds"

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2008/feb/11/investmentfunds.moneyinvestments

Sebo027

"I've also got money in an ethical ISA and more in a ethical fund with another bank, some invested with a local company and some more in a solar bond, so my portfolio's somewhat spread around like some of you rightly advise." 

An ethical ISA? You can invest in an ethical fund or ethical ETF or ethical company using a "Stocks and Shares ISA..."
Other than that, I echo what others have said. I think you should check out this set of videos to give yourself more perspective:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3psiPdkW_Ao&t=1s