Share tip services

[PugwasHDJ80]

Starting to invest into shares, and would really appreciate some ideas on where to find tips.

DOn't have the time to collate all the research to really look at potential opportunities, so i'm happy to pay a service for tips, advice, research etc

Have come across Money week, Motley Fool etc etc

Does anyone have any particularly good or bad experiences of these or any other?

[putonghua73]

PugwasHDJ80 said:

Starting to invest into shares, and would really appreciate some ideas on where to find tips.

DOn't have the time to collate all the research to really look at potential opportunities, so i'm happy to pay a service for tips, advice, research etc

Have come across Money week, Motley Fool etc etc

Does anyone have any particularly good or bad experiences of these or any other?

DANGER! WILL ROBINSON! DANGER!

My advice would be to immediately stop! - for the very simple reason that if you had an investment strategy, your strategy would provide a guide on:
- search criteria (identify and shortlist shares)
- entry point
- exit point

The positives of a tipping service is that they allow you - to a certain extent - to shortcut the identification process, on the proviso that your investment strategy tallies up with the tipping service, and that you do some research. The con with a tipping service is that they rarely inform you of when it's time to sell (exit a position).

If you genuinely do not have time to research, then either stick with a fund or tracker (decide if you want active or passive management).

I orginally started investing due to the MF back in the days of the dot com boom (following and reading, rather than investing - that came in 2006/07). Then the MF promoted DYOR [Do Your Own Research] and was against active fund management. Sadly, the original ethos has all but disappeared and it now exists to promote its own share tipping service. All the forums and years and years of posts wiped out of existence.

No experience with any share tipping service, but I would strongly advise you that if you do not have time or inclination to research, then stick to either an active or passive fund / tracker investment vehicle than individual share / stock selection.

Edited by putonghua73 on Friday 12th April 10:51

[xx99xx]

Tend to agree with all of the above.

If you're just investing pocket money, i.e. can afford to lose it, then taking advice from forums may bring some success but it's still a gamble. Motley Fool can be misleading as it publishes articles from various contributors and one day it could be singing the praises of a certain company and the next day it will say they're the worst company ever, because someone else has a different view.

I'm not aware of any paid tipping services as I'd never use them but they may exist if you search.

[DonkeyApple]

What you are actually looking to do is to gamble not invest to be honest. There is absolutely no problem or issue with that but I think it’s important to appreciate the potential difference.

[PugwasHDJ80]

Thanks for all your replies people/

As i'm specifically not looking to gamble (cause if you're oging to do that, you might as well do it properly and Binary trade.....lol) I'll have a rethink.

I'll have a think about how much time i can really put aside to investment research and analysis

[aquarianone]

Don't do it...it's quicker to just set fire to it in the garden.

If you really need to..then I hear Oil, gas and mineral companies on Aim are going to the moon this year.

Edited by aquarianone on Friday 12th April 16:08

[emicen]

xx99xx said:

Tend to agree with all of the above.

If you're just investing pocket money, i.e. can afford to lose it, then taking advice from forums may bring some success but it's still a gamble. Motley Fool can be misleading as it publishes articles from various contributors and one day it could be singing the praises of a certain company and the next day it will say they're the worst company ever, because someone else has a different view.

I'm not aware of any paid tipping services as I'd never use them but they may exist if you search.

MF are horrendous for this, you used to see it all the time on the Apple stocks feed. 3 articles over 10 days would typically take them full circle from best buy available, through massively overpriced, back to its got miles left to grow.

[NickCQ]

PugwasHDJ80 said:

I'll have a think about how much time i can really put aside to investment research and analysis

If you enjoy reading up about companies and building models for its own sake then go ahead.

Otherwise I really would suggest just buying an existing fund either paying a small % of assets for someone else to do it or choosing passive and just taking the market return.

It is highly unlikely you will realise excess returns as a retail investor given your trading costs and informational disadvantage.

[NickCQ]

emicen said:

MF are horrendous for this, you used to see it all the time on the Apple stocks feed. 3 articles over 10 days would typically take them full circle from best buy available, through massively overpriced, back to its got miles left to grow.

MF just want you to churn through stocks, frequent traders are much more likely to subscribe to their services.

[DonkeyApple]

PugwasHDJ80 said:

Thanks for all your replies people/

As i'm specifically not looking to gamble (cause if you're oging to do that, you might as well do it properly and Binary trade.....lol) I'll have a rethink.

I'll have a think about how much time i can really put aside to investment research and analysis

Something that was shown to me a few weeks back was a website called saltydog investor. It seemed to have a much more kosher investment intent than share tipsters and was a much more structured approach to genuine investment.

[anonymous-user]

DonkeyApple said:

What you are actually looking to do is to gamble not invest to be honest.

^^^ This.

"Investment" ain't sexy, but it works.

[w1bbles]

As stated above, share ‘tips’ are a mugs’ game. If you want to get into the fundamentals of P&Ls, balance sheets and the meaning of RNS updates you could do worse than subscribing to Stockopedia. It has facts, metrics and discussion and is particularly helpful if you’re interested in less well-known companies.

There’s a great small caps report every day that makes you challenge your assessments as an amateur investor.

No connection, just a happy (and interested) customer.

However if you want to reduce your risk and leave it to the professionals you’d be better off finding a decent platform and investing in funds.

[DonkeyApple]

The risk of Stockopedia is that it does take you into the world of penny shares and the risk that the investor will get caught up in a ‘story’ and lose all objective reasoning and the gambling world of the ten bagge. It’s a great site but one that requires the self control that very few people have.