The FTSE

[hampshireblue]

I thought the £85k protection was for bank accounts or what have you, it wouldn’t protect against a stock market crash?

That was my understanding too.

 

[west didsblue]

Ha. I did the same with marconi and also lost it all. But it was only about £100.

Also vaguely recall I had shares in GEC at that time and it was acquired by British Aerospace to become BAE Systems. I was given 1 BAE share for every 4 GEC share I owned. The price went up too so it was a nice little earner.

BAE shares have bobbled up and down between £4 and nearly £7 for the last 20 years but the dividend has been steady. One of my recent successes was selling a load at £6.70 towards the end of February last year. They dropped £2.40 over the next month along with the rest of the stock market due to the pandemic, they're still only £4.75 now although they have been a bit higher over the last year.

 

[worsleyweb]

Made 7 percent on Rolls Royce today since this morning. Very volatile.

 

[doots]

Can't remember who gave the tip on Blackberry but thanks, 160% up.

 

[Jordie]

Can't remember who gave the tip on Blackberry but thanks, 160% up.

That would be @Skip Donoghue

 

[AlgarveBlu]

BAE shares have bobbled up and down between £4 and nearly £7 for the last 20 years but the dividend has been steady. One of my recent successes was selling a load at £6.70 towards the end of February last year. They dropped £2.40 over the next month along with the rest of the stock market due to the pandemic, they're still only £4.75 now although they have been a bit higher over the last year.

i'm in at 4.70 on this one a month ago as part of the dividend portfolio - it has very good dividend cover which is important going forward - a very good stock with Glaxo for anyone looking at Div weighted portfolio

 

[west didsblue]

i'm in at 4.70 on this one a month ago as part of the dividend portfolio - it has very good dividend cover which is important going forward - a very good stock with Glaxo for anyone looking at Div weighted portfolio

Definitely a good bet at that price. Not impacted too much by Brexit due to most exports being outside the EU so should recover well and, as you say, dividend is good at around 5% yield. Slight worry bead is that the UK government might cut defence spending in spite of the recent announcement to increase it. U turns seem to be a thing with this government.

 

[I'm no cynic but...]

ouch. I spread my shares across 5 holdings for that reason.

One tactic I would suggest is to install an automated Stop Loss order with each investment you make. It's not compulsory to do so but it can be adjusted, up or down, to suit your temperament. Example: You buy a holding of shares for, say, 100 units per share but you are aware that the market does it's own thing and could go either up or down. You don't want to lose too much if you get it wrong so you could set your stop-loss at around 85 or 90, as an example. If the market goes against you, the holding will be sold off automatically at that price. If the price goes up, you could change the order to suit and hopefully lock in a profit. Example: if the price goes up to, say, 120 then you could re-set the stop order to 110 or whatever you fancy and if the market suddenly goes against you, you will get out with an automated profit. I've done this many times and it's saved me from major losses but allowed me to run my profits without being sat in front of the screen all day!

 

[Cityfan]

Depends on how soon you need the money. In the LONG RUN, markets always go up. In the short term they can be all over the place as we've seen this last 12 months. The FTSE index first opened in 1984 at a level of 1000 and it has gone through all sorts of ups, downs euphoria and panics ever since!

Not completely true . There have been reasonable size stock markets where you lost everything after revolutions such as Russia and China.
It also depends on what you call the LONG RUN The Nikkei in Japan is still well off its peak of 1989 over thirty years ago.
Oh and the FTSE was higher than it is now in 1999

 

[Cityfan]

If I were you I'd go for something different to spread it around a bit. Someone mentioned Baillie Gifford funds on here which seem to be a good bet.

Thinking about it, Vanguard funds are primarily index trackers. I would definitely diversify to some actively managed funds as well. You're relying more on the skill of the fund manager but there's a better chance of doing well when the markets as a whole are doing badly.

Vanguard do active funds as well, one is managed by Baillie Gifford I believe.
The evidence for what it is worth actually points to active funds on average underperforming indices in down markets as well as up, though obviously some actives always beat the index.