Please Read All My ShareProphets Articles Before The End of January!

CLICK NOW TO DISCOVER A HOT TIP FOR 2015... GIANT GSK!

Read this NEW ARTICLE WHICH IS SPARKING STRONG OPINIONS...

Call Yourself A Share Investor

New Supermarkets Shakeup

New What I’ve Learnt From Saying ‘Share Are Real, not An Imaginary Game’

New British American Tobacco article on ShareProphets

Oil Collapse Leads to Market Plunge

My Life Is Surreal

My life is surreal.

I'm thinking about applying for jobs. Companies have already tried to ring me up today.

The reality is any job I could realistically get... my shares will be worth more or less than I could earn in that job per day in about 15 seconds.

Hmm.

I still would do an interesting job... but makes me realise more that I need to find even more ways to 'make my money work' for me... that could get me even more money!

Should Fool Promote Quindell?

Time to blast this one out...

Should Fool promote Quindell?

Fool have a writer called Prabhat Sakya. From his LinkedIn, he looks like he should be quite intelligent. This is however what he says about Quindell:

"Let's take the example of Quindell (LSE: QPP). This was a share that just kept on falling, even though the fundamentals said that the value of the company should be rising.

Early last year the share price peaked at 660p. I was thinking about taking profits, when the share price started falling. And falling. And falling. It eventually reached a low of 24p around December 2014.

Yet, and this is the bizarre thing: at no point was I ever considering selling. After all, this was a cheap company which had just got cheaper. Instead, when Quindell's share price reached its low, I sort of knew that this was the time to buy.

Investing is much more difficult than it seems

I suspect many of the company's shareholders were more likely to be panic selling than buying. But then this is why, in essence, investing is much more difficult than it seems.

As it happened, I hesitated about buying Quindell. During that moment's hesitation, the share price rose to 80p. But I knew this was still dirt cheap. Although I still believe in the recovery story of the banks, I figured it might be time to take profits on some of my holding in Barclays (LSE: BARC). With this cash, I bought some Quindell shares."

Now I am not an expert on Quindell... but I’ve read all of Tom Winnifirth’s articles on the company. Let’s just say that... there is a chance it could be a fraud.

Now is that the kind of company you should be promoting to possibly impressionable readers... who might actually follow that advice?

Let’s look at the advice. Sell Barclays and buy Quindell. So already going against the time honoured Fool advice of buy a good company... and hold. But here you’re selling a company which can deliver solid dividends and grow in the future... and buying Quindell.

There is a realistic chance you could lose all your money here.

Now I’ve been a Fool for ten years now. I can JUST TELL this article will probably LESSEN MY CHANCES of actually writing for them and getting paid again. But seriously... this article is not good. I think it’s quite surreal that this article will get published, when other articles by successful long term buy and hold investors don’t.

Interested to hear your thoughts!

Energy BILLS

Even on my best tariff that I got last year I'm still going to be able to save myself HUNDREDS of pounds on gas and electricity when it comes up renewal. Savings for AVERAGE person would be EVEN BIGGER... could be close to a THOUSAND POUNDS EVERY YEAR for some people...

If you want to take advantage of my YEARS OF EXPERIENCE IN THE ENERGY INDUSTRY and be one of OVER ONE THOUSAND people I've saved money on energy FEEL FREE TO GET IN TOUCH.

Shares are UP AGAIN

Shares are UP AGAIN :) So much easier being a share investor than this WRITING DRAMA :) ££££

That's my latest status. And it's true. Over time even JUST WITH THE SHARES I HAVE RIGHT NOW I will at least gradually make money. It's VERY HARD to make money writing... but easy to make it with shares :).

Annabel Scholey

This is a different article than usual.

You don’t know this, but I knew Annabel Scholey before she got famous. Greenhead College, I sat next to her for two years in English Lit.

At the start of the first two years, I thought there were more attractive girls in class. She had braces.

My usual seat got changed though, and I ended up sat next to her. The more I looked at her, the more attractive she became. She was different to other girls. Deep brown eyes and chestnut hair, she was actually gorgeous.

The time I really got besotted though was when I heard her sing. She was the lead role in Cabaret. I was coming out of another drama group and saw her standing on a table, singing. I just stood with my mouth wide open. I had never heard anyone sing like that before. I haven’t since.

We actually flirted a bit in English Lit. After I heard her singing I said “You’re a really good singer”. “Anyone can sing like that”. “Yeah right... anyone can sing like that!” “Just... let it drop boy.”

I asked her if she wanted to be a singer. She said she wanted to be an actress.

I’d done some acting, and knew how tough it was to make it. I never thought about being an actor, but knew that just a tiny fraction of people made it.

I wasn’t sure Annabel had it in her to be a successful actress. She didn’t say that much in English. You could describe her as quietly determined, but she also had very good social intelligence.

Anyway, I ‘asked her out’. She said she was “Too busy for boyfriends. No offence.”

I cried and never really got over it for years.

I didn’t realise it until after, but when I finished Playing to Win I saw that the novel was partly about me trying to make things better in my mind. In Playing to Win Natalie and Tom live happily ever after. That never happened with me and Annabel.

Annabel Scholey made it as an actress. She’s been on the BBC and has acted with some of the most famous actors in the world. Google her if you’re interested.

I talk a lot about ‘pushing your comfort zone’. Well Annabel Scholey is a real life example of how much you can achieve when you push your comfort zone and believe in yourself. Just a girl from Ossett, she made it when thousands didn’t.

I’m finding this quite hard to write but sometimes the hardest things to write are the most meaningful.

I actually cried again but I haven’t finished.

For female readers, this is a good example of success because I know I talk quite a lot about ‘male success’ here. The last time I saw Annabel I wrote her a letter saying I hope that she made it.

I don’t know if she even read it.

Taking it Seriously...

Quick post here before I BLAST OUT TO HUDDERSFIELD.

If you're going to do anything for a 'living' or you have a goal you want to achieve, you should take it seriously. Last weekend I actually told someone how much I made on my best share day the following week...

But I wasn't the one buying alcoholic drinks. I ignored the beggars.

That's because I see myself at least partly as a SHARE INVESTOR. That means my role is to get more money to invest in shares, and then make the best decisions that I can with that money. I'm already making quite a lot of money from being a share investor, and the more I think about it PURELY FROM A MONEY POINT OF VIEW I should spend even more time researching and understanding shares more... AND LESS TIME WRITING.

LATER EDIT... I still need to do better getting more money for my time apart from shares... working on this. I'm naturally good at things like poker or using money to get more money, so may look at 'trading' more in things like commodities.

Still if I've got something on my mind that's interesting... I will write quickly. There's still more to come in terms of HIGH QUALITY WRITING...

After I finished writing my novel in 2004 I published it as an ebook in 2005.

Since then there have only been two 'paper books' that I have bought (one was with a book token I got from doing sales). If some people aren't going to buy my novel, there's no reason why I should buy other books. It's given me an 'ice cold' mentality when it comes to buying consumerist things in general. I could if I wanted to... just don't feel the need.

Focus on what you want and do what it takes to get there.

What Kind of Writers Do Fool Want?

Good morning all,

Recently I’ve been seeing adverts on LinkedIn for Fool looking for writers. Got me thinking... I wonder what Fool want in a writer?

I’m going to try and make this article interesting while still being objective.

Do Fool want writers who invest in shares themselves (professionally)? Do Fool want writers who have been part of the community for years and contribute on the discussion boards?

Instinctively I am not sure that these factors are too high up the list. I know that Maynard and pyad contributed on the message boards... but they don’t write for Fool any more, sadly.

Seems to me that Fool likes to stick with writers who have been on the site quite a while and who will produce nice articles regularly. But they don’t actively try and court the best writers who post on the message boards. As far I know, most current writers don’t post much on the discussion boards.

Quite a shame really in my view.

You may know that I wrote four articles for Fool. These were my first four articles ever a share writer. Looking back I think they were fairly good (a lot of writers seem to use the phrase ‘Supermarket Price War’ now) but obviously there was room for improvement. Sadly I wasn’t able to continue writing as these articles didn’t capture enough email addresses.

Personally I feel I might be a bit too outspoken for Fool, and there are other areas in which I can improve in share writing.

But anyway, I’m writing this partly because I’m actually curious in what Fool are looking for. They pay some of the best rates in the industry, so should be able to obtain the best writers. I still read the articles every day and it’d be interesting to see how the writing develops in future.


NEW REPLY

Quick post here...

I was told I might get 'off the board help'... well I just have a few things to say. I don't know if this well lessen my 'chances of help' or reduce my chances of writing for Fool again but I always believe in speaking my mind.

I'm glad this thread got started. I've read all the replies with interest.

Plenty of people know that some of my articles on ShareProphets were written partly for DRAMATIC EFFECT. But they were pretty popular too- my articles just from December received over 10,000 unique views, just counting December viewings.

The one which made the BIG IMPACT is "Why Do Some Share Writers Constantly Praise Shares They Don’t Own? Shares are Real, not An Imaginary Game"

I don't know how many views that got yet... will know end of January. Guessing quite a lot though.

I've had a chance to reflect on that article for a while, and it wasn't made as an 'attack' on anyone. But I do find it... curious if a share writer will write a lot about a share saying how good it is... and not own it.

Of course you don't have to own shares in a company to write about it, but personally I am MORE INTERESTED in reading articles by people who own shares in a company. You can bet they have down A LOT OF RESEARCH on it... and are putting their HARD EARNT MONEY WHERE THEIR MOUTH IS.

On the subject of Fool 'adverts'... I really don't have a problem at all with them. All companies have to make money to survive. You look at FTSE 100 companies... all of them can be pretty ruthless when they want to be about making money. All UK Fool is doing to make money at the moment is offering people the chance to read a FREE article. If you don't like that fine, but it's pointless to complain about it.

I speak to a lot of people in the 'share game'... and one editor thinks that the amount Fool pays its writers is TOO HIGH... he said he would NEVER MAKE A PROFIT like that. I think it's clear to see many other sites have many more adverts than Fool- and I wouldn't have a problem with them using ads either really.

Anyway.. back to researching my shares... aka watching them go up :)!

NEW REPLY

And on the 'success' part... the BIG GAINS can come from getting a share at a GREAT PRICE... then holding.

Years ago Fool was about this more with the pyad articles etc.

If you want to go WAY BACK The Motley Fool UK Investment Guide was ALL ABOUT THIS. That book got me started in shares is one of the main reasons I have a SIX FIGURE share portfolio now.

I am quite open with people that I am a LONG TERM BUY AND HOLD investor.

No share sales in over 8 years.

Some of my best buys including buying LGEN at less than 37p on 20 February 2009 and BT.A at less than 89p on 29 April 2009. Saying 'less than' because Halifax Sharebuilder have rounded prices up recently!

Buy and hold is easy and anyone can do this :)

Link to Fool Thread with Interesting Replies

Ad Companies Are Welcome To Contact Me

Good morning all. 4:15am here and the start of a new goal day.

Ad companies are welcome to contact me. I've tried a few recently and searching for the best kind. I want the ads to be fairly subtle if possible. I'm currently getting around 1500 visitors to this blog every month, and there's the potential for much more- one month already has been over 2000.

I'm in the position now where I want to create a lot of new interesting content. I've already spent quite a bit of time researching Ad Companies but obviously I am not an expert. So if you know more than me and know of a good campaign for this site please contact me.

What's Happening Next With My Share Writing?

Fun night out in Huddersfield last night... made me realise it's very important to get the money and fun balance right...

Anyway... what's happening next with my share writing? I'm always direct and honest with you, so here it is. I've had a contract offer from another site to write share articles for them... and I've written two pretty good share articles that may well appear there soon. I'm in negotiations with two other sites about writing articles there too.

I've cashed out of poker to focus more on share writing. I still have tickets and a few tournaments I want to play but there will be more time spent share writing. I want to write in new ways yet still creating authentic and popular material. I'm actually a bit annoyed with myself that I haven't managed to do this yet... and there is extra 'work' to do and things to learn. But I can do this. Of course I can. It's not like this is HARDER than having a worldwide selling novel at the age of 22. I'm going to create better share writing, and if I don't I'm going to give money to beggars on the street (plenty in Huddersfield) something I never do.

So thank you for your continuing support! I'm really happy that I achieved over 10,000 unique views for my share writing in December and please continue to view my January articles.

When I was writing my novel I told people that I was going to be a successful writer. One girl said something pretty interesting... "I'm sure you will be a success... but remember that it does depend on other people who read you too". And she was right. Without your support it isn't worth my time writing financially. I still always say what's on mind and never try and pander to anyone... but I create authentic material that way and people seem to like it. Over 10,000 people can't be wrong :).

2015 Goals

So let's get right into the 2015 Goals.

Financial Goal

Get This Figure And More. My share performance was only OK in 2014... but I feel that I've learnt a lot. I want to improve this in 2014... it's a case of trusting my instincts but being patient at the same time. I'm sure my share performance will continue to be positive over time.

When I'm in 'money mode' it has to be all money. It's funny about my age... some people call me an 'old man' at 31 and some think I'm too young. Well I think I've got 31 years of experience. It's an accumulation of knowledge- yet I still have to make sure I am fully present in the moment and can react with high energy when needed.

I'd put money on me getting this again.

Mutual Fulfilment With High Value People

Yet putting even more focus on maintaining and building friendships with high quality people. I'm already doing very well with this overall- it would be 'ok' just to improve the relationships I have yet of course I'm keeping an open mind to getting fulfilment with other high value people. Want to be even more proactive in helping those who already help me reach their goals though.

More High Quality Written Content

My ShareProphets unique views were over 10,000 in December (counting just actual views from Decemeber). I feel that I produce high quality share writing now, yet want to make this even better. 2014 saw MANY more posts than any other year and ideally I want there to be a high number in 2015 as well.

At the same time I Am Not Mother Teresa. May even do a separate post on this. The rest of my family seem to want to do practically everything to help other people. Go to Liberia, spend loads of time and money helping others... etc etc etc. Now I don't do that, but if I'm not valuing my own time enough when share writing (which can certainly help other people) while not being paid enough... I am being like Mother Teresa in a way. And that has to not happen. The world can be a ruthless place and plenty of people are ruthless to me. I will never be ruthless to my friends or anyone without good reason, but at the same time I can be ice cold when I need to be. Companies better find another person to try and con, because it won't work on me and I will get compensation.

Ha... sound a bit angry there, but it's important to have different elements of my personality!

In 2014 I've been paid the most per hour for writing many different types of content (some of which you won't know about)... so that's cool but obviously room for improvement!

I do have to get more technically savy overall too. A mini goal is to post at least five interesting pictures here this year- ideally originally taken by me. Ideally I want to produce video content too- this isn't a firm goal for this year but I would like it to happen.

Better Health And Diet

More exercise and a better diet.

Global Reach

Going to do a monthly 'Global Reach' post to show where my viewers are coming from! Here's the first.

Oil Collapse Leads to Market Plunge

Oil Collapse Leads to Market Plunge

New British American Tobacco

New British American Tobacco article on ShareProphets

New What I’ve Learnt From Saying ‘Share Are Real, not An Imaginary Game

New What I’ve Learnt From Saying ‘Share Are Real, not An Imaginary Game’ article on @ShareProphets

Quick addition...

Since I'm a long term buy and hold share investor, I'm not looking to benefit from a sudden spike in a share and sell it. It's been now over eight years since I've sold a share... perhaps this may change in the future and I'll let everyone know if it does! With massive shares like BP or HSBC, sadly I don't think my articles can send the price rocketing up!

New Supermarkets Shakeup

New Supermarkets Shakeup

Call Yourself A Share Investor

Call Yourself A Share Investor

NEW ARTICLE WHICH IS SPARKING STRONG OPINIONS

Read this NEW ARTICLE WHICH IS SPARKING STRONG OPINIONS...

And here is some exclusive extra content!

Hi Tom,

It definitely wasn't made as an attack on any ShareProphets writers. Being directly honest I was feeling a bit annoyed generally when I wrote that article but I still think it has some interesting points.

I can't think of one instance really where a ShareProphets writer has liked a stock a lot but not owned it- which is good.

However please understand that share investing is not a hobby for me. I have a six figure share portfolio. I believe that I will be investing all my life and spend hours every day (even Christmas) learning more.

I mean in terms of being a pro writer... I couldn't call myself one really but I have written some worldwide selling books, over 32,000 viewers on my website reading my stuff... and have been paid to write many other different subjects. I love writing and don't really do it for the money. I spent eighteen months writing my novel for below the minimum wage... but I'm still glad I did so. I like creating something original and the flow feeling more than the money... although that is nice too!

2014 Goal Review

2014 Goal Review

Well... let’s get right into the 2014 GOAL REVIEW! My goals for 2014 were written about pretty quickly- but they’re worthwhile goals. Let’s recap:

Clear financial goal- get this figure and more!
Eat more healthily, exercise more and take better care of my body.
Mutual fulfilment with high value people.

Clear financial goal- get this figure and more!10/10

Reached this! At the end of 2012, I came a whisker away from death. If I had just a little more weakness I would have been dead. Almost eighteen months later, after going through a lot with doctors and lawyers, I cashed the biggest cheque I ever have in my life. So that helped a lot.

This year has seen me transfer around 75 percent of my money into shares. My share performance for this year has only been OK really... but I feel that in the long run I have bought part ownership of some businesses which will generate large amounts of wealth for me in the future.

Let’s be real though... there have been plenty of ways I have made ‘financial errors’ this year. I think one of the main ones was not valuing my time enough. There have been times that businesses and people have lied to me. However I’m now in a position where I can spend 24 hours a day making money online if I want.

Like I’ve said before... money is just like a score in a computer game for me. In life you’ve just got to do what you want as much as possible... I like doing shares and poker so it’s not ‘work’ for me. I now have a share portfolio which potentially could make me enough money without having to do conventional ‘work’ for the rest of my life... but obviously there is much more I want to do.

Writing share articles has been really interesting and enjoyable and I will be doing more of this in 2015. I’m going to aim for doing plenty of ‘paid writing’. The main reason I like writing is just the flow... and blasting out great ideas. But if someone or some company won’t pay you for that in this society means that they don’t value it... and in terms of a financial goal I’d better off doing ANYTHING ELSE which earns more money than writing. So I’ll always just write what I want... but aim for PAYMENT and that’s one of the ways I can measure how valued and influential I am becoming.

Mutual fulfillment with high value people 8/10

This has been a very interesting year for ‘mutual fulfillment with high value people’. Still... good score. Let’s crack into why I gave myself 8/10.

All the great people who were my mentors or friends at the start of 2014 are still my mentors or friends. And that’s great. Creating deep and long lasting friendships is key... a lot of smart people consciously try and AVOID making friendships with new people so they can achieve better relationships with the great people that they already know... and there’s a lot of sense with that. There are people who I will just spend hours talking to now where it is a joy... so much I can learn. At the same time I do keep an open mind and let other high quality people into my life... and there have been quite a few of those gained in 2014 too!

I’ve pushed my comfort zones in some ways that I never have before which is another reason why I get 8/10. I will be doing this more in 2015.

At the same time, there have been errors too. I would pinpoint it down to two people who I have cut out of my life now. When I say cut out... people should remember that every action has a consequence and it’s not a good idea to lie or cheat me. So you may be seeing some follow up... I’ll have to decide if it’s worth it for me. In fact, with one person I can say that they caused quite a lot of wasted time and energy... which actually led to me losing money. Sometimes the tears come, and there is just nothing that you can do in that moment. Regardless, I have to take responsibility for this- only positive people should be in my life.

Eat more healthily, exercise more and take better care of my body 6.9/10

This was an interesting goal to blast out... I’ve only done OK in this. I’ve not smoked, drank any alcohol or done any drugs (in fact the last time I had an alcoholic drink was 2004 and I’ve never done the other two in my life) so I get decent credit for that... but there’s room for improvement in other areas. Need to exercise more and eat more healthily still. I’ve taken a certain amount of walks and should do this more... and improve my diet too.

CLICK NOW TO DISCOVER A HOT TIP FOR 2015... GIANT GSK!

CLICK NOW TO DISCOVER A HOT TIP FOR 2015... GIANT GSK!