Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

UR wellcome......

http://twittertraders.forumotion.co.uk/.......... say Mick Kipper invited you on board.

As a total failure,part time investor. I am amazed that anybody makes any money at all and certainly not enough to pay TAX!! I have to date invested in no fewer than 12 companies.My score to date is a cracking 30% book loss !! I tend to read up on the companies then act on my gut feeling. I have now realised that my gut feeling is probably indigestion !! Thank god I did not convince my dear sweet partner to invest or life would truly be not worth living !!! Russel Crowe made it look so easy, you keep your cool while others shout and scream in the market place. Then at that precise moment of optimum gain sell. Simple! Gains a house in Provence and the undying hatred of the rest of the beaten traders. If only life was that simple folks. But hi! ho! it is a lot of fun.

Hi Beebusy

What a change to see a post that does not contain the usual, making thousands with several multi baggers, although those sort of posts are regular on other sites, they are very rare on here.
How long have you been investing. I only ask because I have been a fairly serious investor for about 10 years, and for the first 6 had similar experiences to yourself. It is only over the past 4 years (mainly the last 2) that I have managed to make decent profit.
The main change I made was looking at balance sheets and cash flow, something I took very little notice of in my early investing years. During those first years, I took far more notice of 'Hype', a big mistake.
Not saying I am anything but an amateur, but at least I feel I have turned the investing corner.
Mind you the way the markets ave behaved over the last 2 to 3 years, who knows what will happen. Any gains could quickly melt away.

BB,


Stick to the FTSE 350 for a while, before increase you risks with the smaller companies and AIM stock.

Then read the postings of various threads about the wonder companies of 2-3 years ago and look at their charts.

Check your spreads and recalculate your stop losses.

The latter is probably the most difficult to get right.

Good luck, but travel slowly and enjoy the scenery.

PS.

Perhaps, also invest on a longer time period and tolerate economic swings,

Greek,

They are melting at the moment.

bbusy,good point,outside of an ISA i try to trade up to the max nyself and let the rest run.By the wayif you notify th TMan, your losses are carried forward.

Windy here in yorkshire, very windy.

http://twittertraders.forumotion.co.uk/

Seaquake.....Tsunami...in Japan....no need for words...pictures say it all....

I suppose I first started about six or seven years ago. I followed the investments of RAB capital, which at the time was very very successful. To be fair I watched one 80 pence share climb to the giddy heights of 9 which I was desperate to sell but on advice held. The population rioted and the company shares plummeted, I got out, the company had a name change and has since had a rise but without me. Rab, is resorting to buying back their own shares after a crash worthy of Icarus.Oxs has a bad attack of underhand attempts to aquire the business. The list goes on. I decided that Banks were very cheap, and after all logic says that high street names that were trading at 8-9 and now could be snapped up at 1 ish was a good buy ?? Result Lloyds now 60p. So my friend I now play the waiting game. Topping up on shares I still have confidence in when they look cheap. I dont invest anymore than I can afford to lose although winning would be very nice!! And as you say if all these people out there are making such grand gains there must be an equal amount of loosers, here is one wheres the rest?? The biggest winner on my side is TD Waterhouse !!! With all my pointless buying and selling they sit back putting my pennies into their well filled purse. Dont even ask about my venture into the Canadian Mining sector !!! Regards a not so Busybee.

BB,

When you are in "good" profit, why not put a trailing stop loss. (5-10%) and accept it. Sometimes you dam the stop loss and other times you will be very content with your profit.

At least you have a profit and you can reinvest in the same share at a small cost

I wish I had stuck to the above many times and resisted lowering the B . Stop loss.

Also, spread you money around a larger bundle of shares.

anybody watching this speculation about HTT??

Some spectacular pictures from Japan - here.

Poor souls, we should count our blessings.

#Cooling systems inside several reactors at the plants stopped working after Friday's earthquake cut the power supply.
0755: AFP says an explosion has been heard at the Fukushima-Daiichi plant, and says
Japanese TV is showing a white cloud above the plant.

And our government says nuclear power is safe , these plants in Japan were fairly new yet the safety cooling system lost power and the back up diesel generators also didn't work. These were designed to be safe in a earth quake zone .

It makes you wonder how often they ran fail safe emergency drills.

The earthquake appears to have moved the main island of Japan by 8 feet (2.4 meters) and shifted the Earth on its axis by nearly 4 inches (10 centimeters).

Beebusy

I read somewhere that most investors (or traders) navigate through certain stages:

Initially lose money, then lose less money, then break even and eventually make profits.

I suppose depending on the individual, time between each stage is variable and some will never get past just losing money or make the next step.

Obviously the trick is to chose the right stocks to invest in, in the first place, but many having succeeded there, fail to bank profits. Probably more importantly, fail to take losses (no one gets it right all the time).

Does that mean I have planted my beans in the wrong place.

Bit early to plant beans , if you mean runners

Seems like as per usual I have it back to front, First I made a little, then lost a ;ittle, then lost a lot more!!!Mmmmm!! Coffee beans, good commodity to be in !!