If I was a gambler....

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In my last post I reported that my investment in a market-tracking fund had done well. The main reason I started this in the first place was that I had no idea how to invest in individual shares. If I did there are certain companies I wish I could have invested in. The first was the Body Shop, which first offered shares for sale in 1984. This was right about the time I first discovered it and loved their products. If I could I would have bought a couple of shares, but I was just a teenager, and to trade in stocks you needed to find and pay a broker. I could hardly have gone to a stockbroker as a schoolgirl and asked to buy two or three shares at the initial offering of 95p, I would have been laughed out of the building! But if I could it would have been worthwhile; according to Wikipedia the stock price increased by 10,000% in the first eight years, which I think means a share bought for 95p would have increased in price 100 times to £95. Another company I would have liked to invest in was Apple. In the 1990s we had an Apple Mac in our workplace and it was so much easier to use than the other machines (we only had a total of three to share between our department). But the shares were available on the American stock exchange Nasdaq and I had no idea how to access any without help from a broker, which I didn’t think I could justify to myself paying for (or embarrass myself by approaching with a small amount). If I had bought shares at that time they would have increased in value more than 700-fold by now. Investing in the stock market is basically a slightly more sophisticated form of gambling, something else I have never done. If I was a gambler I would have bet on Donald Trump becoming US president, because when he was first in the running for Republican party nominee and everyone was laughing and saying what a ridiculous, totally preposterous idea, I just knew he would eventually win. I could have placed a bet at odds of 150 to one and come home with a nice little bit of extra money. Similarly when Boris Johnson declared that he had absolutely no interest in ever running for Prime Minister of the UK…. So many missed opportunities there, because I wasn’t brave enough. Nowadays it’s so much easier to buy stocks (or gamble) online without having to risk being laughed at by a stockbroker or having to walk into an intimidating bookies. And now I have some money I could risk. But for some reason nothing in particular seems to really be grabbing my attention now. If you could invest in, or bet on, something in particular what would it be (or have been)? All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2025.