Investment & Investing

Totally off topic, but does anybody have any investment in anything interesting/profitable?

I had a few thousand shares in Fortune Oil PLC bought for me which don't seem to be going anywhere, and I'm tempted to sell (for around £1k) and reinvest.

Would be interested to hear if you guys have anything, plus suggestions!

over what length of time you looking at?

Long term is fine, really, considering it's money I never had in the first place.

FTSE tracker?

My old boss made some good money in platinum, and is convinced electric car technology is the future.

VICEX would be reasonable over long term, IMO

I'm still researching using the now defunct tube stations for those japanese style bicycle parking facilities.

Got some promising responses from Boris' office, but they seem to think that anything implemented here will always cost 20 times as much as building it anywhere else.

I recently asked my Father what the best investment was and he advised me to buy an ounce of coke and sell it off gram by gram - there'll be a small but not insignificant profit in there, but it can tend to put your liberty at risk. Then you just have to repeat it several hundred times and remember not to stick the profits up your snot-locker.

ftse has been going up for the last 12 months
analyst on radio 4 this morning predicting it dropping below where it is today by the end of the year
metal indices are at their all time highs could keep going up but it's had a good run now would be a risky time to get involved there is some further upside on those but not huge amounts

alternative investments wine / art / the usd$
something fun and enjoyable like a nice bike with resale value !

I'm not much of a business minded person, but TBH investing in oil and gas might not be the best place for long term investment. If you want to invest in the energy market, renewables have the greatest potential for growth. IMO they are the next big thing, especially as fossil fuel prices continue to rise and rise and we keep hearing about gas shortages etc.

Also the legislation continues to change in favour of energy efficiency and renewables all the time. As an example from July last year the energy companies are now obliged to pay you just for generating your own energy via renewables. Even if you are not actually "selling a surplus" they must pay you for the whole amount you generate despite you potentially using all of the energy you have generated.

My old boss made some good money in platinum, and is convinced electric car technology is the future.

This is all dependant on where the energy is generated for these cars. If it's generated at a coal fired power station then there is literally no point to the whole exercise, you may as well keep driving an old diesel or convert your existing car to lpg when you look at the carbon footprint for a new car.

Fuel cells are probably the best technology out there at the moment.

Gold and silver are pretty good bets at the moment, not always long term though.

Isn't gold at its highest values ever? Buy low, sell high.

I'm not worried about keeping it in energy at all. I was thinking of something illicit, but I don't really want to risk it at the moment. Guaranteed profit though I guess.

Wine/art sounds good, I mentioned in the wine thread that my brother's godfather has a case of 2005 Le Pin that he bouhght for £1000 that is now worth around that per bottle. Seems pretty safe for me, as long as I make the right investment. I could talk to him about that, I guess, as he employs a guy to sort him out with wine so it wouldn't cost him anything to help me out.

if you get any tips
although it's all too easy to drink your profits

i heard stella by the case was a good investment £18.50 in my local office freaking bargain
it's £20 usually

£1.50 saving on £20
thats not a bad turn

if you get any tips
although it's all too easy to drink your profits

i heard stella by the case was a good investment £18.50 in my local office freaking bargain
it's £20 usually

£1.50 saving on £20
thats not a bad turn

Nice, then I could sell by the can at £2 and I'm away!

take a van load to a festie over the summer
sell 'em at £2 per can
100% + profit in 6 mths

For green / energy investments...
Landfills could be good over the next ten years - there's some interesting action going on in plastics recycling that, combined with ever-rising oil prices, are going to make landfills look more like plastic mines.
Anything involving insulation is good too. Big changes are going to come in building regs. External insulation products for houses are going to be very big, as is triple glazing.
There will be big money in oil supply but not in oil-consuming goods, so no car companies or heavily energy-intensive products.
Tidal generation is the big one coming for the UK renewables market. We've got almost the biggest, fastest tides in the world, pushing through endless straits and suchlike, and almost no tidal power generation. Onshore wind - not so much, given the land use issues.

For green / energy investments...
Landfills could be good over the next ten years - there's some interesting action going on in plastics recycling that, combined with ever-rising oil prices, are going to make landfills look more like plastic mines.
Anything involving insulation is good too. Big changes are going to come in building regs. External insulation products for houses are going to be very big, as is triple glazing.
There will be big money in oil supply but not in oil-consuming goods, so no car companies or heavily energy-intensive products.
Tidal generation is the big one coming for the UK renewables market. We've got almost the biggest, fastest tides in the world, pushing through endless straits and suchlike, and almost no tidal power generation. Onshore wind - not so much, given the land use issues.

You say oil supply, so could it be worth just holding it in oil for the time being? It's just been floating around 5 - 8p for the last few months and has only ever hit a high of 14p, so it would appear that they're pretty minor players.

Boring but cash ISA FTW

Buy a shit load of MIAOW. They'll ban it, the price will go through the roof, you'll be the hottest thing in clubland.

I am skint, but a few people at work are going mental over this. Apprently they have first dibs on mining for oil in the Falklands.

http://www.desireplc.co.uk/

Boring but cash ISA FTW

But I'm potentially talking a 5 - 10 year investment, 5% (max) on a £1000 investment doesn't really seem like a great use.

if you got a grand, seriously think about Marlborough High Yield Fixed Interest Fund.. very nice prices and returns from hedeging the pound. nice option

Drugs, lots of them, you can't take it with you when you go. PM Balki.

You say oil supply, so could it be worth just holding it in oil for the time being? It's just been floating around 5 - 8p for the last few months and has only ever hit a high of 14p, so it would appear that they're pretty minor players.

Mmm... I don't know enough about the oil world to comment. I'd guess that lots of money will be made within the oil industry, but exactly who by is harder to say. I'd be wary of any new investment opportunities like the Falklands thing, myself. People always big up the new fields to bring the money in to start drilling. Once they start, things don't always work out quite as profitable as they thought. Offshore drilling in the Southern Oceans must be a pretty costly proposition.