Stock/shares ISA - Cash them in?

no

dont sell in a falling market

if you are investing for the long term be patient and dont watch your portfolio every day.

Cheers for that, thats what I was half thinking.

I'm a very long term investor.

Would it be worth cashing in when the market eventually returns to it's high of a few years ago, ie. 6700 FTSE 100?

why not pound/cost average into a monthly low cost ftse-all-share index tracker

you wont be the richest but compounding  over the tears will give you a healthy rewards

tears now years later

Time to invest more??

keep your cash in the ISA wrapper ready to invest again later.

Usually best not to sell in a falling market, especially if you bought good quality stocks which are likely to retain their dividend yield relative to what you paid for them. However if you have a strong view that a particular index affecting the value of your stocks is going to drop (eg the price of oil, or just the FTSE) you could consider going short of that index either using a spread bet or ETF. That way you limit your downside risk while avoiding all the dealing costs etc.

For what its worth I believe gold will resume its uptrend, oil will trend down along with the FTSE for the next few months. But I could be wrong of course.

Dump all your investments and put the lot into one stock.

Don't "sit tight", as my stockbroker advised me in the bear market of late 2007. Since doing nothing is always easiest, I clung on to my varied stocks until January 2008. Every day the value went down, until I "cracked" and sold the lot. You know what happened immediately? Stock Market rally. Short lived. Once the basket of stocks that I sold were worth less than my cash, I put the lot into two stocks that I thought would do well - Intel and Microsoft. I believed the £ would depreciate against the $ and I was happy to invest in two companies of a type not seen in the UK. After I bit, I noticed Apple, split the investment and, as Apple out-performed the other two, shifted most of my money into Apple. I've been very "lucky", but even if my choices had underperformed the market, I would be happier than to be passive and do nothing (and some of the shares I sold have done very well since - like Tullow Oil and BHP Billington)

Maine Road, once I had started checking daily, then hourly, in a falling market, I could not put it aside. But if you decide to stick with what you have, you must STOP checking the value of your portfolio daily. Just check every other year.

Good luck in your choice.

As I asked surely now is a good time to invest in a shares ISA as they (imo) represent value over at least a 2 yr period.
I am far from being an expert in the field but I have read on a few occasions that people who allegedly do know thieir stuff say that a lot of shares represent value and are healthy when looking at the figures in more detail (no idea what detail)

So what do we think on here???

Before I invest 3k of my student loan money never to be seen again.

I am not so sure S&S are cheap based on p/e at the moment. Interesting article in this weeks Money Week mag suggesting that they are overvalued based on other measures.

My approach has been to use an execution only S&S ISA where I can chose what to invest in. Got stung on initial falls on stock prices but since shifting to Gold ETF and a mining company have worked out that the value of my ISA is up 6% against fall in FTSE 100 of 9%.

Other options are to go for defensive stocks such as utilities e.g. National Grid with a good dividend yield.

I did keep a large amount of cash in my S&S ISA ready to invest but received a letter from the company saying I had to invest it or else the HMRC could request that the money is refunded to me, which an accountant friend of mine advises could happen.

Cheers United biscuits;

Maine Road, once I had started checking daily, then hourly, in a falling market, I could not put it aside. But if you decide to stick with what you have, you must STOP checking the value of your portfolio daily. Just check every other year.

Good luck in your choice.

I have an IFA who chose all the ISA investments I will just leave them for now.
I also stick £300 / month in a Aviva (have done for about 16 years)  pension and £70 in an ol

Cheersd Endowment which has 14 yaers to run, what do you reckon to those.

Endowments are incredibly bad value for money. they are basically a way for the financial industry to rip off the financially illiterate. All They do is churn the shares around a bit, taking huge management charges and paying themselves fat bonuses. You would be far better off putting a fixed sum every month into a broad-based investment trust like F & C if you are in for the long term.

Most private pension schemes are likewise a way for the industry to milk the public. I reckon you about lose in management charges what you save in tax, and at the end of the process you are forced to buy an annuity where you get ripped off yet again. At current rates you need about 500K to get an index-linked income which you can live on in retirement.

should be getting a lump sum soon from my house sale (still stc-9 weeks gone so finger crossed) where are the best risk free investments at present %wise. I know house prices are not going up so my cash will do better than property but i know savings rates are behind inflation so i will lose out there. What is inflation at present?

If you get a lump sum right now, you could think about first using up your 15K allowance for NS & I index linked bonds. For the rest I would think about holding a large portion as cash for the short term so you can snap up some equity bargains if the market tanks (which it could well do). Personally I am a gold bug so I would also consider buying some gold sovereigns and hiding them away somewhere in case the worse happens. Inflation is around 5% just now, so waiting up to a year with your cash is not going to do too much harm. Diving into equities right now could lose you a lot more than that, likewise property.

A lot of the big boys have sold down their gold holdings over the past month.

I also got asked by my clueless aunt whether its a good time to put some money into gold (daily mail reader).  A sign of a bubble perhaps?

There is money to be made if your lucky and you have big balls but there is no risk free investment that can beat inflation in the current market.  It simply isn't possible.

Inflation is also a bit of a curve ball as the figures the Gov't use do not tell the full story.

If this is money you will need to buy another house then pick a few secure banks and leave it there within the £85k FSCS deposit level.  If it isnt money you need but want to grow it over time then seek the help of a decent (fee based) IFA.

I personally (although this isn't advice) believe that there is money to be made in the small cap sector.  I have countless shares that are trading just above their cash positions and well below their Core Net Value.  Could do worse than giving yourself a small punting fund and doing some research in this area whilst keeping an eye on boards such as this.

GL

Regarding gold, I can see an argument that if you believe the market is going to crash, then in the short term you would expect gold to drop along with everything else, partly because traders need to sell gold to cover their margin calls. By converting to cash early you have more money to snap up undervalued equities in the carnage.

However, I just have this sneaking feeling that if we get a really serious meltdown, which threatens the whole financial system, there might not be the usual flight to US Treasuries and some of that money might go to gold instead. This is the first time I can remember where the whole paper money system is vulnerable.

It all comes down how much of a doom merchant you are. Personally I would rather be holding a good portion of my wealth in physical assets rather than in bits of paper issued by massively indebted governments.