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Originally Posted by andersonx  They made probably about $200,000+ in those 2 weeks. I could have made $120,000. |
Or the stock could have dropped to $0.50 and you'd be down to £10k. Who knows. Warren Buffet himself recommended that most investors should just go with an index fund. Picking individual stocks is a hard science and the people who do well often just got lucky, like gambling in Vegas.
With that said, I have a coworker and some friends who pick individual stocks, and they have been able to come out ahead a little bit so far. I've also picked some stocks and traded using virtual/fake money. I've been able to do okay as well.
Bank of America was recently low and a lot of people bought in. My friend made some money from them.
To answer your question -- If I had £20k to invest, I'd consider Vanguard's retirement lifecycle funds. Maybe set aside some to play around in the market. It all depends on your mindset. If the risk of losing your cash bothers you and keeps you up at night, then picking individual stocks is not a good idea.