Investments:can they really keep going up?

Alexland

dunstonh said:

So, in 1999, the FTSE100 was higher than it was today.(6758 at this moment)

Looking at the UK market without considering the high dividend yield is like considering the US market without considering the high capital growth - both would be an unsound basis for decision making. Some of the higher return we have seen in the US over the past decade has been from accelerating valuations rather than the companies real world performance so my view is the UK listed companies don't do as badly as people like to suggest and for where we are now it might even be a more appealing investment than putting new money into the US.

maxsteam

C_Mababejive said:

I first bought into this in feb 2019 at 182p

I made several further lump sum investments over following years ,at slightly increased prices each time.

The price today is 217

That's a gain of about 19%. If you had been unlucky enough to buy at a peak, you might be sitting on a loss. It's not difficult to find large companies whose shares have risen or fallen by 19% in a week. It's quite possible that your gain might be doubled or wiped out in six months' time.

Having said that, I look at it like this: A large company might employ 100000 people and every working day those people go to work and one of their objectives while they are at work is to increase the value of the company. Few people can control the day-to-day fluctuations in the stock markets but there are very many people working hard to increase the value of your investments and, yes, in the long term I believe that they will be successful.

sairy.gamp

masonic said:

sevenhills said:

dunstonh said:

Ignoring dividends, the FTSE100 is lower than it was 20 odd years ago.

The FTSE 20 years ago was 6,400 at its highest, today its 6,700

If you look at the FTSE 40 years ago to today values, you can see the gradual increase, taking out the highs and lows.

1985 = 1300

1990 = 2250

2000 = 6,400

2010 = 5,870

2022 = 6,700

Where did you get the 2022 figure from?

I'm guessing Doctor Who

george4064

In short, yes, markets can keep on rising. Even just by small amounts with inflation.

With regards to trying to only buy on the dips, I try manage this by taking a hybrid approach to new contributions where I make regular monthly contributions but also hold a bit of cash back ready to deploy if the market does dip. Once that ‘reserve’ cash is deployed, I reduce my monthly contributions slightly to replenish it. That’s probably not much different to just sticking to standard (slightly higher) monthly contributions, but at least I know I’m trying something!

C_Mababejive

maxsteam said:

C_Mababejive said:

I first bought into this in feb 2019 at 182p

I made several further lump sum investments over following years ,at slightly increased prices each time.

The price today is 217

That's a gain of about 19%. If you had been unlucky enough to buy at a peak, you might be sitting on a loss. It's not difficult to find large companies whose shares have risen or fallen by 19% in a week. It's quite possible that your gain might be doubled or wiped out in six months' time.

Having said that, I look at it like this: A large company might employ 100000 people and every working day those people go to work and one of their objectives while they are at work is to increase the value of the company. Few people can control the day-to-day fluctuations in the stock markets but there are very many people working hard to increase the value of your investments and, yes, in the long term I believe that they will be successful.

Yes thats what im thinking. The notes in my hand are essentially intrinsically worthless unless they are swapped for goods,services or deployed as an investment. 
If i dont need goods or services and/or there are excess bits of paper then its best invested. I se it this way, all those people in all those companies worldwide are all working for me. They have themselves,families and lifestyles to fund. The prices of the goods and services they produce is linked to inflation.