as the title suggests, do any of the more enlightened members have any advice for where we should be investing at the moment (not neccessarily long term) laymens terms appreciated!

i'm thinking shorting some of the banks - where to do this, recomended brokers, investment suggestions etc.
is this asking a lot from 1 thread?

Barry Scott - invest in financials

bang!

and the credits gone!



(what i mean to say is that they are volatile...)

Financials - a bit obvious and volatile? I'm shorting US consumer discretionary, retail, etc. There are leveraged inverse ETFs for this. I'm hedging this with miners and energy which I also expect to fall but are a longer term play. I'm also shorting longer-term the main averages and currencies, especially the UK, with covered warrants. However, not a good time to trade unless you're pretty good, nimble and don't have much else to do.

thanks for replys so far.
unfortunately i'm a complete amateur at investments, so laymans terms appreciated.
As an earlier post has suggested, now could be a once in a lifetime opportunity for investments. i just want to make sure i don't miss another boat!
i've set up a self select maxi isa to take advantage of the tax free allowance and wanted any advice which sectors are likely to benefit from a downturn.

Short term buying and selling of stock is working well for me at the current time, my SIPP is up 20% against the FTSE since I opened it last November. I can't see much reason for buying and holding stuff for the long term any more.

I'm long on banks (Lloyds especially) - 8% dividend, plenty of upside.

Similar situation. My approach is to focus on unit trusts in general areas that I'm bullish on. I don't have the knowledge or time to get into individual stocks. However, with unit trusts in commodities, Russia and gold the last week or two haven't been good!

Im spreadbetting gold - buying at big dips like we saw towards the end of last week ...... my most recent bet ..... £5 a poiint at $918 ...... my account is currently +£1180. Im gonna keep holding this bet ..... raise the stop loss up behind the spot price.

Here are some tips that I have learnt from one of the roughest schools in life. What school would that be? Why that would be from the school of hard knocks. Yup, the lessons learned were very painful and expensive but the lesson got across very well. So hopefully, this few tips will save you the pain and financial lessons I had to endure.

If you come into trading with the idea of making "big money overnight," you're better wake up and smell the coffee. Most accounts have been blown because of this "account killer" mindset.

Beware of your number one enemy, yourself, If you start to get too excited, beware! As excitement clouds your judgment, it starts to increases your risk, keep your stops. Don't scream and shout.

Happy Hunting

Here are some tips that I have learnt from one of the roughest schools in life. What school would that be? Why that would be from the school of hard knocks. Yup, the lessons learned were very painful and expensive but the lesson got across very well. So hopefully, this few tips will save you the pain and financial lessons I had to endure.

If you come into trading with the idea of making "big money overnight," you're better wake up and smell the coffee. Most accounts have been blown because of this "account killer" mindset.

Beware of your number one enemy, yourself, If you start to get too excited, beware! As excitement clouds your judgment, it starts to increases your risk, keep your stops. Don't scream and shout.

Happy Hunting

I've learnt some good stuff over the years:

Your investments should have a % of bonds equivalent to your age.
Individual stocks are more risky than funds.
Buying and holding for the long term doesn't seem to work any more.
Drip feeding money into funds on a monthly basis works well.

At the moment I'm trading bank shares (especially Lloyds), and trading in and out of commodites where I can see a good chance of a steep rise or fall.

Buying and selling the FTSE during the peaks and troughs would probably work out well for a pension as well.

ETFs are also good for short term trading as there isn't any stamp duty on purchases.

I'm liquidating my other personal pension to add to my SIPP - it's slumped 10-20% this year, my SIPP is up 10%.

I don't plan on trading very often - in this game you are playing against some of the brainiest people on the planet and they will gladly take your money (as I've found out in the past).