Looking to invest 150000 has anyone got any ideas on what to invest in.
looking at Pipex and Healthcare enterprise group

Fred1New

Thanks for that. A really helpful analysis and I suspect all of us see some of ourselves in some of it! There is a personality type system called the Enneagram which this resonates with. If any one is aware of it, or is prepared to investigate it, then it is a great help to understand yourself and to understand others and your relationship with others. I mention it partly because the Number One (of 9 numbers) is the Perfectionist and this is a very good portrayal of the types and attitude. We all need something of the perfectionist because otherwise we can be slap-happy and undisciplined. You know a No. 1 as soon as you go into their house and (feel as if you should) take off your shoes. They are tight-lipped and everything has to be in order. What I hadn't thought about was the attitude to trading. I am a Number Five which is characterised by wisdom, but the failing is a hunger for knowlege, a need to store away lots of knowledge before you act (a number five was reporting earlier, saying not to invest for three monmths before you had enough knowledge!). The key point is to know your type and characteristics and therefore the traps you might fall into. I won't comment further but could give references if anyone wants to follow it up.

One point I don't agree with from the above is in the last section. That is the part that talks about following rules. The person who follows rules is a Number 6 and we have an awful lot of them, particularly in the Civil Service. That is not, for me, the way to tackle investments, but I accept that is a function of my own type. It is not my way! I do the research but I will not set rules. I have just been explaining to the chap from Blue Index that I do not operate stop losses; told him I had just seen a guy having his investment in PET sold just because the price momentarily dipped. But I am able to sell - I sold Medical Solutions a few weeks ago because they missed their forecasts; they have now dropped another 75% on a profit (rather loss) warning; I am weighing them up again to buy. I believe the author confuses impulses with insights. You need to understand the rules, yes. You need to see the logic behind the movements, yes. You need to get the big picture and, in the light of that big picture, you have an insight which then governs the action. He has made the mistake of a dreadfully simplistic approach. Its better to read the guides who talk about such things as contra-cyclical investment - or you work out what the rules say, realise that is what everyone else is doing and THEN DO THE OPPOSITE!

Eric

You could put a few thousand in Antonov PLC.
More than a few thousand and you would likely move the price.
Antonov PLC and Rotrex have designed a two-speed supercharger - when the engine RPM drops, the gearbox automatically changes to a higher gear to ensure pressure is maintained. The market for these could be comparable to the market for turbochargers. They have designed a 4-speed gearbox which might go into production this year and a 6-speed gearbox which may go into production in 2005. With one of the designs, you can shift from any of 6 gears to any other with no torque interuption - this is called powershift. Rival powershift transmissions are the dual clutch transmissions which require gear shifts odd-to-even and even-to-odd, eg the highly praised VW dual clutch trannies. Gearbox length corresponds to car width in most FWD cars. That means thin automatic cars have been difficult to make in the past and so the US has no small cars. All that could be set to change. Antonov has designed a dual clutch transmission too that is shorter than the VW design, allowing thinner cars, and making small cars a viable proposition for the automatic driving US.

The news of the Rotrex partnership becoming official (heads of agreement) is only a couple of days old and the share price hasn't reacted to the possibility of supercharged cars hitting the streets in big numbers. Superchargers have been used for increased power in the past. Superchargers for fuel efficiency (required by 2008) isn't generally understood, but if a six cylinder V6 is replaced by an inline 4, the savings on friction losses and valve operation etc can be imagined.

Far too many people are daydreaming about hydrogen and fuel cells. Practical design solutions for today's problems that can b made with today's technology - that's where I think the money is. Development takes time and investors lose confidence. The turnaround for Antonov has already started. To be honest, you've missed it. But who actually manages to buy at the bottom and sell at the top?

Desire Pet. is still a good buy if you fancy a roller coaster ride! Don't forget to hold on tight.

Two essential investments for everyone:

The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham updated recently by Jason Zweig

A Random Walk Down Wall Street by ??? Malkiel ??? (spelling unsure) now in its eighth edition

Each of these books will cost around 10, possibly including postage. I got the second one from Amazon and the first from a bookseller's on the phone. They're probably both available on Amazon; in addition, Investor's Chronicle seems to be recommending both of them in its "book club" and giving a phone number to order them.

Shares magazine and Investor's Chronicle are for keeping up to date with what's happening week by week; the books are more for strategy and understanding how markets work.

After reading lots of exciting "get rich quick" stuff, these two books were a breath of fresh air. The Intelligent Investor, in particular, contains a large dose of solid common sense. These books are possibly the best investments you will ever make because they will warn you against being silly with your money and throwing it away on wildly speculative shares or losing it gradually on commission charges and share-price spreads.

Azpol