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The Secret Diaries
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Stocks & Shares - Bulls and Bears - What the hell are they? Why it sounds so ridiculous for the man (or woman) on the street to entertain such thoughts - or not! British Web Shop - I shop here because I'm always sure of picking up a bargain. And let's face it - living on £4000 for a full year means I NEED BARGAINS Shona Prophett - My website, this one, has been set up by NYK Media as part of their Scottish web project. If you would like to set up your own website, have a quick look at DOMAIN NAMES The average house -hold could save up to £325 off their energy bills if they changed supplier. Click here to find out how much you could save. Uswitch - Click here to compare prices on UK telephone suppliers and save up to £140 on your phone bill. Tesco is currently ranking #1 in my book for groceries & general household bargains! |
THE MONEY ZOO FAIRYTALE (cont.) WHAT ABOUT GOLD? “Throughout history, gold has held its value against inflation. The same quantity of gold is needed to buy a loaf of bread today as in 16th Century Britain.” - The Gold Report Gold is good, so is silver and platinum and diamonds and coal and oil... but GOLD IS SO BORING unless you can play with it and build houses in the livingroom with your bullion bars but then, of course, the insurance people won't entertain you.I thought about painting them all shades of red & brown and storing them in my back yard, but apparently there are petty thieves out there who might mistake them for common brick and pinch them! If it's fun you are after with your spare cash then gold isn't for you. And another word of caution - You even get in trouble for playing 'tiddly winks' with your Krugerrands! See what Cyberdosh has to say on the subject HERE I suppose, now that we have covered the basics of bears, bulls and money fools, we should take a look at how to actually go about PURCHASING shares. I'm no expert here but online trading does me fine. It's cheap, it's easy, it's virtual, it's working your money, it really is a classic example of what Cyberdosh is all about and last, but not least, it is FUN! I started out with a company called IMIWEB, that later became Iwebsharedealing. As far as I am aware, this company is backed by the Halifax, who also offer very cheap methods of trading shares but at a cost - you can only trade on certain days of the month, which is no good for avid dealers looking to turn their money over fast and work it hard. Trades on Iwebsharedealing cost £10 per UK trade and £15 per overseas trade. I know this sounds a fair whack of your cash if you are venturing onto this playing field with the barest minimum but once in a blue moon, the company opens the floodgates to FREE TRADING, allowing you to make as many purchases as you want within that day. If you read the Shona Prophett diaries or subscribe to the Cyberdosh Saver bulletins then you'll know I took advantage of this offer just a few weeks ago. But the offer has since gone and I'm back to facing dealing fees. FEAR NOT! There's a company called Hoodless Brennan who offers a flat rate of only £7.00 per trade AND FREE TRADING for A FULL MONTH from the day you register with them. I haven't found anything, anywhere that can beat a month's free trading. So, what have I retained in the Shona Prophett portfolio? ARE - Arena Leisure - Obvious choice, as previous readers will know, was Arena Leisure, which I have bought and sold successfully since venturing into their shares back in 2003 at around 24p per share. I initially sold out at 45p, buying back in with the profits in March 2005 at 42p. Current value per share is around 60p Why obvious? The horseracing connections, of course! TFC - Trafficmaster - Another fantastic buy at only 18p per share in 2003. Again, I held these for some time, before selling out at around £1 per share and then buying back in at 49.5 at the start of March 2005. These are currently worth around 70p per share. Reasons? I'm a believer in the fact that 'big brother is getting bigger all the time'. SHONA PROPHETT TAD
- Tadpole Technology - My biggest tale of woe ever, the cat amongst
my glorious pigeons. Bought in at an average cost of 3.872p per share
and the little so-and-sos have more than HALVED their value! Reasons
for buying? Stupid ones - I thought my tadpoles would lose their tails,
grow legs, climb out of the mud and go jumping off my chart! So much
for mapping out that plan of action... so far! SHONA LOSS! UPDATE...
share prices doubled between 2nd & 9th March 2007 and are still
on the up... do I sell now I'm 12% up or do I hold for greed? I still
think they have the ability to grow legs and jump out the mudpit. IDD - ID Data - One of my more recent acquisitions, started buying in small time (as part of the 2007 Cyberdosh Challenge) at 0.76p per share with an overall average share price reaching .816 My reasons were the same as used for Trafficmaster - Big brother can only get bigger. SNR - Senior PLC - These are sitting fairly dormant at the moment, increasing only 1.27% over the past month to date but I have high hopes of a surge. SHONA PROPHETT EBAY - EBay online auctions - My most expensive 'per share' acquisition to date and bought during a rare 'free trading' day, so no dealer fees were lumped on top of the share price and the lucrative exchange rate meant getting almost $2 to the £1. Cost price in UK was £16.04 per share, current value hit by the March blip! WNG - Worthington Nicholls - My newest acquisition and, although a little late off the mark in acquiring a few of these, I'm still hopefull of a steep climb in their value, especially after news of a new contract that looks worth at least 1.5million Euros. Things can only get better here. Comparing this with the bank interest rate, which is about 5%, my portfolio is ahead at 6.69% and I'm seriously considering cutting my losses with the Tadpoles as their 53.51% loss is having a detrimental effect on the overall performance of my entire portfolio. Fortunately, I only bought a few thousand shares, so my losses are more than adequately covered by my gains in all the others. As added bonus, there are also the dividend payments paid out by Arena Leisure. Every penny counts when you are Shona Prophett! SHARES CRASH LOSING ME HUNDREDS! Still I wait. I read the words of a supposedly wise person and was informed NEVER to carry all my eggs in the one basket, divide them into at least a half dozen baskets... This I have done. Another equally wise person alleges that you CAN carry all your eggs in the same basket so long as you CARRY YOUR BASKET VERY CAREFULLY. The choice is yours. The latter, I would say, represents the hazards and care that must be taken if investing in YOURSELF by starting a business, but this is often the way to riches for many. Self employment Vs guaranteed income. It's all down to how you think and how big a risk you are prepared to take at any given time. In for a penny, in for a pound, it's money that makes the world go round. when the money is good, it's all sugar and honey, when the money is gone, it's The Big Bad Bunny. Which reminds me - Mothers Day and Easter coming up, Valentines Day just gone. How are the share prices looking in confectionery or flower growing? I'm off to look! Copyright Shona Prophett Shona Prophett writes for pleasure, entertainment value and payment only. Nothing within her writing should be taken as financial advice and she removes herself from any responsibility whatsoever for anything. This is NOT financial advice, it is simple reading material. |
Cyberdosh, to whom I am grateful, is sponsoring this year long financial experiment to the tune of £4000.00 Click here for info. Don't be a wimp - Because if I can do it, then anyone can! Follow my progress HERE MY FAVE LINKS
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