Avoid Funds: The Only Way To Make Money Is To Take Control

I thought I would share my short experience with investing and trading shares.

I thought until last year that funds were a quite safe heaven as they were managed by professionals with good ratings, etc. So over the last 2 years, I built up my ISA (I'm 28 btw) and invested all my money in great funds with lots of long-term potential (Africa, Agriculture, EE, ME, Energy, the lot...). I believed that being professional they could predict the market, take steps to prevent big falls...etc. but I discovered that they were not superheroes nor have super trading powers when they lost me 50-55% of my ISA in few months. Add to that that one of the funds I'm invested in is even going bust; New star Heart of Africa. It was looking like a winner on the long term but once they managed to liquidate the fund, I will get peanuts.

So following the above, I started to do some initial research/reading and it got me to the same thinking that, 'the only way to make money is to take control'.

So since end of November/early December, I started to sell some of my funds to get into shares via spread betting/CFDs. My 3 first share purchases were awful, one with 25% spread but the three were on a Monday morning with a too high limit prices placed on a Sunday afternoon...etc
.
Since then I read a lot more, slept a lot less and spent most of my free time researching/analysing and understanding my initial mistakes. I am also trying to understand how the "best" do to make money and to success. I am not saying that I won't make anymore but at least, I am trying to learn from them, that's already a good step ;)

Don't get me wrong - there is nothing wrong in investing in funds, however there are low-risk funds and others which are high risk. I see funds as very long term and I have researched them all. I have a UK one, a global one, an energy one and soon a financial one that is mostly in bonds etc, all with different weightings. However I also have a mix of other shares. I looked at that Africa fund when it came out and to me it just looked like another glorified boutique fund, like some of the emerging market funds that were all the rage, before the credit crisis.

So where do I stand right now?

Since December, I almost managed to make all my losses (within my ISA) back thanks to one share that had a lucky run and that still have some more gains in the bag (5-10% to go). I also managed to make almost 60% on new investments (outside of my ISA) but this profit is almost gone now, due to two poorly researched and rushed purchases coming back from holiday... I told you that I would still do mistakes!

Anyway, my three short term goals are simple:
- by April 5th, 09 to have made all my ISA losses back.
- by December 09, to double the value of my outside-ISA portfolio.
- by April 5th, 10 to have made at least 50% profit on my ISA.

In fact, I may have a fourth one:

- Find a second income source...

Erm, this article is longer than I expected and not exactly what I was expecting to write when I started it, so let's hope that I won't get kicked out of this forum or ignored for it as it is more a diary post than a pure trading one.