Anyone made money from shares?

Yes, I started with shares I was given/offered at a discount when my employer was nationalised. I made a fortune on them.

I have since bought shares in other companies. Some have done well some have bombed. I bought shares in my then bank - Royal Bank of Scotland - and also I kept some shares in BT that I inherited, these both sank like a lead balloons. But others have been taken over and I have been bought out at a profit.

DH has invested in penny shares for several decades now, inspired by an aunt who turned £11,000 in 1975 into £500,000 by the time she died 20 years later. He too has had successes and failures, but overall has done better than inflation.

Well done Monica you made a good decision and you now know the way it works.

Wether you make money depends on a lot of stock market information, when to buy and when to sell. For the vast majority of us, leave it to the experts, invest in an ISA or Pension, or Life insurance if you are young enough.

A month or so ago you might have bought Netflix shares but yesterday they lost half their value, just because of 25% growth instead of 50%, not all shares are volatile but profits are far from certain.

Dh has always dabbled when funds allowed. He has had varying degrees of success.

I'm no good at it, I suggested buying Northern Rock when it was really struggling on the basis that it was so low it could only go up!

Investing in shares should be a long term project. Shares go up and down depending on sentiment, the economic news and most recent results. You need to be able to sit out short term drops in value and be able to judge when a short term drop is a sign of underlying problems.

Invest in companies whose business you understand. I do not invest in high tech companies because I do not know enough about their technology and markets to understand them. I have got investments in ordinary industrial companies because my work experience gives me an understanding of how these companies work and respond to economic conditions. I do not have any money in High Street retailers.

I bought shares in the bank where I worked. These were offered to staff at a reduced rate and I did very well out of them. People seem to panic when the value of a share goes down and sell them. That's not the way to do it!

Just make sure you avoid a certain Neil Woodford!

DH has a few...but these are funds ( recognised grouping of companies) not single companies. However he followed them for at least 12 months by investing theoretically and watched their performance. He has a financial brain and does a lot of research and watches everything very carefully and on the whole it is a bit of a long game.
I think the mantra to those new to it is never invest anything you cannot afford to loose.

DH invests in funds too but he is very interested in innovation and has done well out of new technologies.

P.S. this is not an activity that should ever involve a cold caller who offers you any type of service....its a matter for independent research and recognised well respected services. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

I wish I’d bought into ‘FeverTree’ 10 years ago when it was a new company! When I first bought it no one I knew had heard of it - it was all ‘Schweppes ‘!

I only used managed funds. The temptation is to hang onto them when they are doing well, but then you risk a sudden collapse. Sell when they are likely to continue on rising, you will still make a profit and be safer. Reinvest when you think they have sunk about as far as they are going to go and are turning a corner. Seems to work for me!

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ReportedEmmaHarmon - wasting your (and our) time

This is a very uncertain time, the markets could do anything but are probably going to go down. We may be on the verge of a recession so I would be very cautious.

Urmston I regret not having any fever tree too.
When I sold my business 10 years ago I gave the money to a financial advisor to deal with. She came well recommended.

I (or she) have done very well with an average of about 11%.
I didn’t want to do it myself as I’m not very interested in the markets. I was in a medium to high risk so didn’t want to know when I was suddenly poorer by £40,000.
As has been said I am in it for the long run. I don’t think that I will need the money out in a lump sum or in a hurry so I can afford to ride the storms.
I use it as an addition to my state pension.

It can be a bit of fun, but as others have said, it needs to be long term to ride out the inevitable rough patches.

We have a few shares, some have done better than others but overall we have done ok.

I have only invested relatively small small amounts, though as the golden rule is only invest what you can afford to lose.

Our biggest gains though over the years have been from property, dating back from when we started buying buy to lets about 30 years ago.

If you don’t know much about investing in shares try Investment Trusts. Do a bit of research on income and growth and choose what suits your current needs.

Once I made £1,000 in a short time on Charles Church shares. It was floated and OH and children sold theirs I kept mine and they zoomed up.
What to buy now? Apparently Ocado was the best performing share last year.

we have invested in green energy, solar panels and wind Turbines and this has brought us in a steady income over the last few years. We even have share in the solar panels on M&S in some part of the country.

I would always have plenty of money in other savings and investments, from building societies before I started investing in individual shares.

Don't mention technology shares kitty!

I wouldn't ask a bank financial consultant for advice; if you can do your own research from various sources, only dabble what you can afford to lose and keep your main savings elsewhere in a safe place, then it could be interesting.
You could look at the AIM for inspiration.

If the markets plummet then that could be the time to invest but who knows when the bottom is reached? Tracker funds are boring but safer but if you want some excitement then picking your own would be better.

Even the sainted Hargreaves Lansdown have been known to get it wrong!

It 's all a gamble.

When my husband retired he completed the training , and exams , to become an Independent Financial Adviser . The idea was not to work as an IFA but to gain knowledge about , and manage, our own finances. He has been successful in managing our own portfolio with an overall gain.

My advice to anyone contemplating dipping their toes into stocks and shares would be to read as much as you can about the companies you are thinking of investing in and be prepared to lose money as well as gain it.

My son buys and sells shares and there is money to be made but he studies the market.
You need to spend time managing whatever shares you have for it to be a success.

We've had the usual shares like the gas ones which we made money on over the years, have units in a bond which we still make about 3% on under an ISA umbrella.
I received ones from John Lewis when I worked for them but made no money on them at all when I sold them.
Some years ago hubby and I took advice on investing into shares, bought into different companies his as done well, mine I lost half my money.
Don't invest anything you can't afford to loose if you are not prepared to manage them yourself because management companies charge fees and these can be high.

My pension has done very well over the last few years by being invested in a FTSE 100 tracker fund. I'm not brave enough to go for "emerging markets" etc. but having this degree of risk means I will be on target to retire in 2 years time.