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