Think about what you want to pay

Tuesday, 29th June 2010 09:12 - by Boredmum

I read a couple of interesting newspaper articles recently. They have focused on a couple of products purchased in a ‘pound’ store, where labels have been peeled back only to reveal much more expensive items. One of these was a Boots Botanics brand face cream that was currently for sale in Boots at around £8 or £9. The other was a Next item, selling for £7 in Next stores. Well, I am a fan of getting a bargain. If I am in town, I usually cannot resist a look around PoundLand to see what bargains can be had. I am also a fan of Next clearance stores where, if you catch them at the right sale time, you can pick up clothing items with rrp's of around £40 and £50 selling for only £1 and £2. I have also recently learnt that many of the 'Basic' brand foods are made in the same place as many well-known brand names, and the only thing that is different is the packaging and the people they supply to. So what does this tell us? Those that are savvy shoppers can be saving quite a bit of money by shopping around, and then there are others who just pay what they believe to be the price that others are paying. You can apply this logic to the stockmarket. I have some shares that I actively trade as long as I can get them for the right price; a number of shares on my Watchlist that tend to be in a trading range. If I happen to have available funds and the price is low enough, I will buy and hold for a few points. I guess this tends to be my bread & butter in the stockmarket. If they break out of a trading range and I am not in, then it is wise to let them go. I see many people follow the opposite pattern; they dive in on a rising share price as they see everyone else jump in. I have certainly been guilty of this many times before. It pays to be a savvy shopper. Just make sure that you get the entry price you want on your shares and don’t pay too much. Many times, if you miss your entry it will come back and, if not, then there will be plenty of other ‘bargains’ to be had in the stockmarket.