What are the best resources for stock picking?

Eyeful

wmb194 said:

Eyeful said:

1. Warren Buffett, who many believe is the most successful investor of all time, basically said that
"You can pick the most famous and successful company there has ever been.
But if you buy it at the wrong price you will still end up losing money"

2. Warren Buffett determines the price he should pay for a share by calculating its intrinsic value, primarily using discounted cash flow analysis and applying the margin of safety principle. Then he waits until that price occurs.

I some how do not think that the average investor will do that, or they will be willing to wait as long as he does.

3.  People have short memories:
If we stick just to the USA and see why picking well known names is not much help.

Enron - Failed in 2001. Once a blue "chip share"  but became a symbol of corporate fraud.
WorldCom (telecom): Failed in 2002 after one of the largest accounting frauds in USA history
Lehman Brothers (investment bank): Collapsed in 2008 

And  list goes on Kodak, Woolworths, etc

4. As for brokers recommendations and share tipping sites, their pay depends on getting people to churn shares.
If they where really that good at it, they would not be telling us which share to buy and sell. 
They would be making millions for themselves and not need to work for a living.

On point four, that’s where your own intelligence comes in: don’t follow tips blindly but they can be useful to bring opportunities to your attention that you might have missed otherwise.

1.As I understand it, citizens in the USA have an investment culture which is absent in the UK.

2. Once the company has been brought to the attention of the newbie or average UK citizen, what do they do next?

How many of them know how to read a balance sheet or have knowledge and understanding of company fundamentals?

 How many of them have the time or even want to learn about these things?

Without doing the above research into the company, they will just be taking a guess.

3. Much easier & simpler to stick to "simple investing" and just use either 
(a) A low cost Multi-Asset Fund with a share/bond split that is at their risk level
(b) A low cost  Major World Index Fund or ETF if they are adventurous or will invest for a very long time frame 

4. Even using index funds or ETF's to build a "Lazy Man Portfolio" would be easier & less time consuming than
following broker recommendations &  share tipping sites.  

wmb194

Eyeful said:

wmb194 said:

Eyeful said:

1. Warren Buffett, who many believe is the most successful investor of all time, basically said that
"You can pick the most famous and successful company there has ever been.
But if you buy it at the wrong price you will still end up losing money"

2. Warren Buffett determines the price he should pay for a share by calculating its intrinsic value, primarily using discounted cash flow analysis and applying the margin of safety principle. Then he waits until that price occurs.

I some how do not think that the average investor will do that, or they will be willing to wait as long as he does.

3.  People have short memories:
If we stick just to the USA and see why picking well known names is not much help.

Enron - Failed in 2001. Once a blue "chip share"  but became a symbol of corporate fraud.
WorldCom (telecom): Failed in 2002 after one of the largest accounting frauds in USA history
Lehman Brothers (investment bank): Collapsed in 2008 

And  list goes on Kodak, Woolworths, etc

4. As for brokers recommendations and share tipping sites, their pay depends on getting people to churn shares.
If they where really that good at it, they would not be telling us which share to buy and sell. 
They would be making millions for themselves and not need to work for a living.

On point four, that’s where your own intelligence comes in: don’t follow tips blindly but they can be useful to bring opportunities to your attention that you might have missed otherwise.

1.As I understand it, citizens in the USA have an investment culture which is absent in the UK.

2. Once the company has been brought to the attention of the newbie or average UK citizen, what do they do next?

How many of them know how to read a balance sheet or have knowledge and understanding of company fundamentals?

 How many of them have the time or even want to learn about these things?

Without doing the above research into the company, they will just be taking a guess.

3. Much easier & simpler to stick to "simple investing" and just use either 
(a) A low cost Multi-Asset Fund with a share/bond split that is at their risk level
(b) A low cost  Major World Index Fund or ETF if they are adventurous or will invest for a very long time frame 

4. Even using index funds or ETF's to build a "Lazy Man Portfolio" would be easier & less time consuming than
following broker recommendations &  share tipping sites.  

 There is an investment culture in the UK and we all have to start somewhere. People know they shouldn't smoke but millions upon millions of people do. The OP's asking for some resources and I've given him a few places to look. I'm not sure why people are losing their minds over this; sure, buy an index tracker. Buy individual shares. Do both. Do neither. Do what you like.

eskbanker

wmb194 said:
There is an investment culture in the UK and we all have to start somewhere. People know they shouldn't smoke but millions upon millions of people do. The OP's asking for some resources and I've given him a few places to look. I'm not sure why people are losing their minds over this; sure, buy an index tracker. Buy individual shares. Do both. Do neither. Do what you like.

I agree with what you're saying but just on the point of investing culture, it's often highlighted that it is different on the opposite sides of the pond:

In the UK, only 23% of people have invested in the stock market. In the US, it’s almost two thirds.

But why is there such a difference?

Our latest survey* found that a quarter of people surveyed said it’s because Americans were more comfortable with risk. A quarter said it’s due to cultural differences, and just over a fifth thought the incentives are just better in the US.

Over one in 10 of Brits thought it was a sign of greed. But it makes sense in the US to be more self-sufficient to pay for medical bills or college education, due to a lack of government subsidy. This might be driving more American investors to start investing earlier.

[...]

*Figures from a survey of 2,000 people by Opinium for Hargreaves Lansdown, April 2024.

https://www.hl.co.uk/news/do-people-in-the-us-invest-more-or-less-than-the-uk

wmb194

eskbanker said:

wmb194 said:
There is an investment culture in the UK and we all have to start somewhere. People know they shouldn't smoke but millions upon millions of people do. The OP's asking for some resources and I've given him a few places to look. I'm not sure why people are losing their minds over this; sure, buy an index tracker. Buy individual shares. Do both. Do neither. Do what you like.

I agree with what you're saying but just on the point of investing culture, it's often highlighted that it is different on the opposite sides of the pond:

In the UK, only 23% of people have invested in the stock market. In the US, it’s almost two thirds.

But why is there such a difference?

Our latest survey* found that a quarter of people surveyed said it’s because Americans were more comfortable with risk. A quarter said it’s due to cultural differences, and just over a fifth thought the incentives are just better in the US.

Over one in 10 of Brits thought it was a sign of greed. But it makes sense in the US to be more self-sufficient to pay for medical bills or college education, due to a lack of government subsidy. This might be driving more American investors to start investing earlier.

[...]

*Figures from a survey of 2,000 people by Opinium for Hargreaves Lansdown, April 2024.

https://www.hl.co.uk/news/do-people-in-the-us-invest-more-or-less-than-the-uk

Right, relatively, but that's still nearly a quarter of the (adult?) population so I'd say there's a culture, it's just not the dominant culture. 

I'm guessing it would have been the preserve of wealthy people back then but apparently Investors' Chronicle started out in 1860.

"Investors' Chronicle was first published on June 9, 1860, under the name Money Market Review. The publication eventually merged with other titles, was taken over by Brendan Bracken in 1928, and merged with the Stock Exchange Gazette in 1967, before being acquired by the FT Group."

Eyeful

We do all have to start somewhere.

Why do some persons seem to get upset when its pointed out to newbies that holding single shares is  very risky?

wmb194

Eyeful said:

We do all have to start somewhere.

Why do some persons seem to get upset when its pointed out to newbies that holding single shares is  very risky?

You're referring to me? I'm not upset, other people are. When people on other threads have asked about investing in individual companies I've pointed out that it's relatively high risk, they probably shouldn't and it's usually better to invest in an index or otherwise diversified fund. In fact the last time was this morning re Alphabet - I was worried that someone was FOMOing after a recent huge move higher. I won't say that someone should never, ever invest in individual companies though.

The OP's question is about where to find information and that's what I tried to help him with. If he looks he'll discover that most of IC's 'tips' are "hold" and "sell." There's a lot of, 'it's fully valued.'

Baldytyke88

wmb194 said:

The OP's question is about where to find information and that's what I tried to help him with. If he looks he'll discover that most of IC's 'tips' are "hold" and "sell." There's a lot of, 'it's fully valued.'

I am getting better at using the Investors Chronicle website, I have now found the page where shares are listed as 'strong buy'.

It's like a licence to print money

Arecor Therapeutics PLC is a strong buy, I have not bought any, as it's way outside of my risk profile.

blowzy

Baldytyke88 said:

 wmb194 said:

The OP's question is about where to find information and that's what I tried to help him with. If he looks he'll discover that most of IC's 'tips' are "hold" and "sell." There's a lot of, 'it's fully valued.'

I am getting better at using the Investors Chronicle website, I have now found the page where shares are listed as 'strong buy'.

It's like a licence to print money

Arecor Therapeutics PLC is a strong buy, I have not bought any, as it's way outside of my risk profile.

Where do I find this?

Baldytyke88

blowzy said:

Where do I find this?

Is this what you mean?

https://markets.investorschronicle.co.uk/data/equities/results

gasman1976

I'm all for other people stock picking, it means that there's price discovery and hopefully this keeps the indexes increasing in value. If no-one bought anything and everyone owned the index, then the indexes would stagnate (until some clever people realised that some individual stocks were undervalued and started stock picking).
The system balances itself, however price discovery happens (well researched or pure guesswork), but personally I'll stick to the average return and sleep well at night.