Be a Gekko in the making (Shares)

Member Name: aitchison21

Product:	Shares
Date:	06/02/01 (71 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Wealth of information

Disadvantages: none

Name: Shares magazine
Price: £2.30 weekly (or £99 per year subscription)
Publication: Every Thursday

Shares magazine has become one of the first things I look at when waking up on a Thursday morning and I can't wait until I hear the letterbox rattling and the thud as it falls onto the floor.

It won the award of 'magazine launch of the year' in 2000 and looks set to continue its success in 2001.

It has six main sections to it: (1) The edge (2) The news (3) News features (4) The regulars (5) The tables (6) The features.

(1) The edge -

This gives you the shares that are on the move, either up or down. It does this in the form of looking for breakout patterns, looking at unusually high volumes, overbought/oversold indicators, new all time lows, new all time highs and a whole host of other indicators which might suggest if a share is on the move.
It also gives you the plays of the week, recommendations to buy or sell and gives a reasoning behind the decision.
There is also a readers letter, director dealings and 2 or three brokers tips section. Very comprehensive.

(2) The news

This gives you general news pertaining to industry, individual companies, and the market.

(3) Feature news

This will give you an in depth look at particular news stories that are of interest to shareholders. For example one of this weeks articles was headed 'A slow start for European exchange' and looks at high cost of cross border trading and how Jiway (new online pan European exchange) might change the way we trade European shares.

(4)The regulars

This includes the regular features in the magazine. They include Trading post: the best small plays of the week; Small company prospects; the shares to watch on AIM, OFEX and Easdaq; Global view: A look at a global company; Fundwatch: The hottest tips from fund managers, investment trusts recommendations a
nd the best UK funds; The chartist: trends in the key markets and shares; Top down: Looks at a particular story in the finance world; Options: Opportunities for speculators and hedgers; and Observation: a look at a particular financial theme in the world.

(5) The tables

Looks at all the info on the top 350 companies as well as any publicly listed company that has reported a profit in the week previous to publication. This table is extremely comprehensive and will give you info such as Market capitalisation, dividend yield, P/E ratio, Price (obviously), earnings per share etc.

(6) The features

This will cover stories that are of interest to shareholders e.g. why invest in IPOs this year. The articles are very well written, very informative and objective.

As well as all of this Shares magazine often give you a separate booklet on a topic which everybody is talking about e.g. this week they gave a booklet about Contract for differences (CFDs) and it delves deep into the ins and outs of this type of trading and where it can be done. Excellent.

I love the fact that all the companies that will be spoken about that week are listed on the front page, which means I can see straight away if the company I own shares is getting a mention or not.

All in all this magazine is comprehensive, pertains to all different types of traders, easy to read, very well formatted and I cannot think of one bad word to say about it.

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