Posts Tagged ‘UK Financial Information’

Renesola and Happenings in Greece

There’s no doubting anyone holding any sort of UK based portfolio over the past week or two has felt the pinch of what’s been happening in Greece. I, like many, are hoping it’s no more than a blip – albeit a pretty big blip for those on the ground – and with solutions being touted as I type, the markets will rebound in the coming days and weeks.

Now hindsight is a wonderful thing, but when Renesola topped out at a little over £2.50 last week, my finger hovered over the sell button. It hovered but nothing more. It was the run-up to results (due out on May 10th if I’m not mistaken) and often that lead up to an expected good set of results sees the price peak. Then, when the results are confirmed the market has already factored in their healthy goodness and share prices can actually retreat a little. Now, Renesola has been bouncing along between 75 and 225 pence for the past 18 months, so when it breaks those levels I tend to take a bit of a closer look. Hence the finger hover.

Enter the Greece situation and markets across the board stall, despite what they were doing two to three weeks back. What was positive sentiment in the lead up to a results date (in the case of Renesola) has been influenced by macro trends where investors are playing a cautious hand and hanging off on further commitments at best and often liquidating some or all of their portfolios at worst.

In the end I held onto my Renesola. I’m still not confident it was the right thing to do but looking at my portfolio as it stands today, Renesola is battling on – it’s the only splash of blue in a sea of red. Time will tell whether that hover should have been hard click.

Stock Tips 2010

Despite the markets taking a well-earned sabbatical, I love this time of year on the investment calendar. It draws a line under the year gone and allows us to take stock of where our investment strategy is at and where it’s heading. In bad times the break can be the catalyst the market needs to regain a little impetus. In good times the break can serve to simply reinforce market direction. But then of course – as always in this game – the exact opposite can and probably will happen (insert evil laugh)…

Whatever the case, even in the worst of times it allows for just a sneaky bit of optimism to return to a few, at least for a day or two.

And early January tends to bring the tipsters out in droves. Some hang it all on the line, letting their hard-earned rep’s swing in the small-cap and emerging market winds, whilst others take a more defensive approach. If nothing else they give you some sweeping views of financial what-ifs for the coming year.

Below is a handful of articles that should get you thinking of some possibles for 2010. Some list equities, some list markets, some offer general market opinion.

If you bare in mind that a stock tip is a mere starting point for some good ol’ fashioned company homework, then who knows…

I wish all those dropping by a jaw-droppingly prosperous 2010. May all your arrows be blue (except when you’re shorting).

Practice Share Portfolio

If you’ve fancied a flutter on the stock market but have never had the bottle or the financial freedom, why not test your skills with a practice portfolio? They’re free, simple to set up and you can be up and running in a matter of minutes.

To get a feel for market machinations and to test your stock picking skills there’s probably no better way than jumping on in. You’ll be using real market data to make your decisions and it will be those same real market forces determining whether or not you’ve made the right ones.

On the plus side any losses you accrue are make-believe. On the negative, your gains possess all the purchasing power of Monopoly money. But if you have a flair for the game then you can turn your pretend portfolio into a real one by choosing an online broker and handing over your hard-earned. You could be knee deep in real bulls and bears within the hour.

If nothing else it’s a great way to group all of those equities you’d like to keep an eye on together in the one place. I’ve got a ton of portfolios set up tracking all manner of equity combinations. “Alt energy”, “on the radar”, “sold but may revisit” and “possible shorts” are just some of the portfolios I currently have on the go.

From a single page I can check out the most up-to-date prices, price movements, and trading volumes for all of the shares in a particular portfolio, I can follow and add to investor discussion on a given share, I can create customisable charts utilising masses of historical data and I can access fundamental data on any of the shares featured in a portfolio.

To get up and running with your own free practice portfolio pay a visit to ADVFN or Interactive Investor and start choosing your shares.

Good luck!

News, News, It’s All About the News

Investing without the most up-to-date news is like eating a kebab without using your hands, it might be fun for a while, but it’s gonna get messy!

Now with a million and one investment news sources on the web, the beginner investor can get lost in a sea of analysis and opinion and fail to see the big picture. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a ton of places I go for my finance news, online, in the papers, on the box, but there’s only one place I go every morning for my financial news overview, and that’s straight to my inbox.

ADVFN have their “Morning Euro Markets Bulletin” that arrives promptly via email in my inbox just as I’m wiping the sleep from my eyes and devouring that first cup of coffee. It gives a great overview of what’s going on in the London Markets; short, sharp, small paragraphs on individual companies that I can take in first thing in the morning. It broadly tells me what’s happening in Europe and on the US markets, just giving me the highlights not drowning me in a sea of facts and figures. It touches lightly on commodities and currencies, again sticking to the big picture.

But my favourite aspect of this wonderful paperless piece of press is their UK Event Calendar for the Day. This baby is gold and basically summarises dividends that are due, economic and trading announcements that will be made and EGMs and AGMs that are taking places. In a nutshell, the sort of data I need so I don’t blindly wander off into yet another field of investment landmines. And it’s all in the one place.

Oh and it’s a freebie. So head on over to ADVFN, sign up for their free service – lots of cool stuff like real-time prices and charts and bulletin boards – but make sure you get your copy of the Morning Euro Markets Bulletin delivered to your inbox.

Day 23 – Portfolio Value £5,040 Down £420 On The Day

Red, red, red, our little green portfolio is redder than a sunburnt communist – finishing the day down £420.

And speaking of sun, it’s ReneSola, our Chinese solar panel manufacturer that is the main protagonist, finishing down a hefty 14.75 pence (11.5%) on the day after releasing it’s first quarter results.

Nothing too startling amongst them and I notice Renesola’s New York Stock Exchange listing is up 7.30% as I type this, so we’ll see what tomorrow brings.

One thing is for certain, it’s never boring when you got a buck or two in alternative energy.


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Disclaimer: Investor Trader is the blog of a single, personal investor. The owner of this blog is not a citizen of the United Kingdom nor is he based in the United Kingdom and the blog is not hosted in the United Kingdom. The owner has never received any form of compensation for providing investment recommendations and has never in the past been employed in any capacity where he has provided investment recommendations. Investor Trader does not make investment recommendations and no information displayed on its pages should be considered as investment advice. Nothing on Investor Trader should be interpreted as a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or investments. All trades are first reported on Investor Trader at least a day or two after the fact (but more often a week or two), never live. Investor Trader is here to journal my attempts to make a few quid from the markets and possibly to entertain you a little into the bargain. Please, please, please, do your own piles of research and if you want good investment advice go out and find someone who does this sort of thing for a living (i.e. not me). Most of my investment decisions are based on gut feelings, hearsay, unfounded rumour and whether or not I like the cut of a company logo. You've been warned!
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