Crisis in the markets - Where to invest now

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For a really long term view buy Lloyds TSB or HBOS stocks (whichever is cheapest given the merger & conversion of HBOS to Lloyds share offer). Once and if the banking sector recovers this bank is going to have an almost monopolistic position in the UK - good for profits.

Anyone else?

 

Yell to fail soon.

 

Invest in yourself!

Spend some hard earned cash in Bond St!

 

GOLD is surely best. I have shares in gold funds and they've done really well compared to everything else and keep on going up. In fact why bother with currency which loses value anyway why not just own GOLD.

Did anyone watch the C4 documentary "trillion pound horror story"?

It warned of the dangers of inflation and printing money (they use fancy names for that these days to deceive the public). But with Gold and precious metals they should do well and hold their own in such an environment... aye? Also how about commodities- with China and India consuming more then the prices of these things go up e.g. cotton.

But many people out there just don't understand or know that cash loses value so much. We learn in CT7 about the dangers of printing money.

Invest in yourself - yes a good idea but is this advice really applicable across the board these days when they're going to charge £9k/year tuition fees?

Finally, does anyone here invest in any kind of derivatives to protect against something? Not sure how feasible that is for the small guy.

 

I find it deeply worrying that anyone thinks CT7 is remotely relevant to the investment world!

When student actuaries start ramping gold, its time to exit

 

This question surely can not be serious. Not only are derivatives expensive, setting up such a position severely limits the return you can make at the expense of greater "protection". Dealing in derivatives can also be disastrous for a non-savvy investor. And by savvy I mean someone who has been investing actively for some time, lost a significant amount of money, and learned the hard way what the markets are all about. Not someone who has done a few courses in finance and thinks they know it all and believe that theory can be safely put into practice.

 

yes investing is gold can be a good idea..the value of gold would rise in near future...

 

Many types of life or general insurance which "the small guy" buys are akin to buying a put option, since the value of insurance is derived from the value of the asset it is held against, so in a way most people probably do. For example, if I buy car insurance, it is worthless (or "out of the money") unless I damage my car or someone elses, when it suddenly has value equal to the damage caused ("in the money") less my initial premium.

Also, investing in Collective Investment Schemes (Unit Trusts, etc) which invest in derivatives will give private investors some exposure to these.

However, direct investment in financial derivatives by private investors is rare.

 

Diversification is key.

Cardano is correct. Be greedy when everyone's scared and be scared when everyone's greedy. When you hear everyone talking about investing in the same thing, you know it's time to leave.

 

I don't think it's as simple as that, people can talk an asset class up for a long period of time before it finally buckles. You might even be better off staying in and withstanding the downside than coming out too early.