Investment Clubs

I decided as a sort of new-year resolution that I'd join an investment club. I know a few people who trade shares and other securities but I do not belong to any organisation dedicated to securities investing. I am a member of a few groups that discuss (real) property investment, but usually the propery people do not have an interest in or experience of stock (or bond, futures, options, FX, contract for difference etc. etc.) market investments.

I know a bit about this topic, but I'm always interested in hearing other's opinions on this, not least because the a pure rational approach to investing is not a sure-fire way to riches, as I know to my own cost.

Investing in the UK is very frustrating. The whole industry is regulation-driven model, with investors directed into collective investments with high fees and poor performance. Individual investors are terrified of investing directly in the stockmarket even though all the evidence suggests that they are likely to do just as well as highly-paid fund managers, even if they choose stocks at random.

Proshares used to offer some support for investment clubs but, as you will see from their own bulletin board, their service is practically moribund. Time To Trade has a better-looking website, but as you will see from their Herts Directory they don't exactly have a lot of clubs listed.

I have been contacted by someone in Herts who is interested in setting up a club. I'll probably post a few things on Facebook, but if you are interested in joining a club to discuss investing then get in touch. I'm not convinced about setting up an actual legal entity which will do investing, as it seems to me that unless we get a lot of interest (and a lot of capital to invest) the hassles with accounting and tax statements will exceed the benefit of simply discussing market trends, etc. and investing in our own portfolios.

There are some wonderful sites out there for tracking investments. I just signed up to Wikinvest. I'm not sure how well this copes with UK-listed stocks but it does a brilliant job with US listed equities.

If you live within easy reach of the Stevenage area, and would be interested in joining a club to meet, say, once a month, please drop me a line to steve.hemingway@gmail.com.