Hello All,

I just thought I would introduce myself, my name is John and I live north of Nottingham. I subsribed to "Shares magazine" 3 weeks ago and have lurked on this board since then in a attempt to educate myself and hopefully, pick up some tips.

Except for a very short foray into world of share trading 13 or 14 years ago, I really am a begginer. Back then, I started with a copy of the "Investors Cronicle" a free trial of "Penny Share Focus" and 2000, I dipped my toes and quickly burnt my fingers. With the help of "Medeva" (I think it was called, does anyone know what happened to them?) I doubled my money in a matter of weeks, "WoW! I'm good at this", I thought, "this is easy money", my next killing, I decided, was going to be "Farranti International", new management had been appointed and ... well.. the name had a nice ring to it! -:) so I sunk the whole 4000 into the shares which immediately bombed!!! 4000 was alot of money to me then (as it is now), untill recently I was unable to look at a share mag, financial page, or hear the state of the footsie without a shiver of dread (literally!) running through my body.

I now seem to be over my mental dread of shares, so with a pitiful amount of capital, I have just started trading again, any advice, recomendations (even to sell up and put it back in the post office) will be appreciated. In the words of Bilbow Baggins "like to little butter, spread over to much bread" here is my portfolio

Share Amount

ACV 214,827
COST 1,757
ETQ 12,852
FUL 4,790
GLD 2,851
KTS 5,027
OBS 5,615
OXS 2,250

I sold NBT at a small profit to buy ETQ on friday morning at 13p and generally feel quite happy about my selections, I realise (I think) OBS is for the long term and ACV is a total punt. I will have 5000 next month to invest but can't decide wether to add to what I have already bought or go with the other shares I want to invest in. OH! I almost forgot, from the Farannti days I bought 2170 ARE shares but lost the certificate, I just paid 43 to have it replaced, I also missed the 1999 high -:((

My long term goal is to provide a pension for myself, I'm 48 and the only pension I have is the one I transfered from the NCB to one based on U.K. equities after the last gulf war and that's not looking great at the moment.

Anyway, please don't reach for the squelch button, I won't be posting very often I don't suppose, bye for now and good luck to you all.

"life is a lesson, you learn it when your through"

John

oooooh

i have a stalker

:o))

cant see whats wrong with giving the only sound bit of advice you will ever see on a bb.