My First Share Purchase - Good or Bad?

meester

Wouldn't touch them with a bargepole myself.

Risks are very high, and what basis is there for a recovery? More people are shopping online with every year, the economy looks very bad for consumer discretionary purchases at the moment.

The 'they've gone down a lot, look they used to be worth £2 a share approach, if they get back there I will have made loads of money' approach doesn't really work.

You need to understand the company before you buy, what they do, and what their prospects are. There's not much point in looking at historical numbers. To me they seem a fairly easy company to understand - familiar to everyone, on the high street, not engaged in financial trickery, etc..

And their prospects in terms of margins for their goods, number of cusotmers through the tills, even their overpriced warranties, really don't inspire any confidence.

purch

Wouldn't touch them with a bargepole myself.

:rotfl:

...that's funny...:rotfl: ....I was thinking of using that phrase myself, but resisted the urge !!!!!!!!!!

Up_the_Creek_4

Interesting as I am playing a ghost game of share trading this week, and am a complete newbie, but I will say at 12.30 today (prime lunchtime break) 5,111 people are on this site and only 80 are looking at techie stuff and 42 - I want to buy. The remaining population of the lunchtime surfers are looking how to save money and I guess may not be popping out to Currys. I looked at the HBOS situation after it was suggested to me in a thread, and could only have made really small gains (about £100) on £1,000, so yes I concur with most posts, spread the risk if you are looking for a 12month investment.

debbie42

Up_the_Creek wrote: »

I looked at the HBOS situation after it was suggested to me in a thread, and could only have made really small gains (about £100) on £1,000

I wouldn't call 10% "small gains", especially given the timescale involved (less than a week?). Hindsight is a wonderful thing, though!

JDinho

TWR88 wrote: »

So as a long term investment (12 months+) should be okay? At some point in the future things are going to get a lot better for the company no?

Everything is relative, but 12 months is not long term for equity investment!

Imagine if you made your 'long-term' investment 11 months ago would you be happy?

Have you given consideration to the effect of an economic slowdown on consumer spending especially as credit is becoming as easy to come by as Dodo eggs?

JDinho

debbie42 wrote: »

I wouldn't call 10% "small gains", especially given the timescale involved (less than a week?). Hindsight is a wonderful thing, though!

I wonder if this chap had the same thought when he was surfing the web on his lunch hour and thought Bear Stearns' shares looked cheap

The Worst Trade Of All Time

:rolleyes:

TRUSt_NO_1_2

TWR88 wrote: »

749 shares in DSGI (Dixons Group, owns PC WORLD, Currys) @ 64.50, a £500 investment. Need a second opinion, how do you rate this purchase? The share price has been falling for months from around 170 12 months ago. But things seem to be on the up. As I see it things can get much worse, and fingers crossed the chances of an established company like this going into liquidation is pretty low. So as a long term investment (12 months+) should be okay? At some point in the future things are going to get a lot better for the company no?

In a word
SELL

eggedd2k

not a company i'd personally invest in for various reasons. did you do your research? do all the usual bits look good (net profits, annual report etc etc)??

iffy investing in a retailer like PC World because like someone else said above more and more people are buying online nowadays and PC World aren't the cheapest by a long shot.

Over a number of years in my opinion you might be ok but 12 months I'm not sure.

Bazn

hmm.. there is a rich and famous investor who once said that the time to buy was when everyone else is giving the bargepole treatment (well not an exact quote, but that was the gist of it...)

just playing devils advocate!

jaxxbizkit

I remember reading recently that Dixons announced a slow trading year ahead.

This may actually be good though because you may have purchased shares at a slightly lower price (because they would have fell after this announement) then if the slow year doesnt materialise their value will shoot up again

on the other hand if they do have a slow year you will have to hold your shares until the value builds back up (or cut your losses and run)