Anyone made money from shares?

DH has a few...but these are funds ( recognised grouping of companies) not single companies. However he followed them for at least 12 months by investing theoretically and watched their performance. He has a financial brain and does a lot of research and watches everything very carefully and on the whole it is a bit of a long game.
I think the mantra to those new to it is never invest anything you cannot afford to loose.

Just make sure you avoid a certain Neil Woodford!

I bought shares in the bank where I worked. These were offered to staff at a reduced rate and I did very well out of them. People seem to panic when the value of a share goes down and sell them. That's not the way to do it!

Investing in shares should be a long term project. Shares go up and down depending on sentiment, the economic news and most recent results. You need to be able to sit out short term drops in value and be able to judge when a short term drop is a sign of underlying problems.

Invest in companies whose business you understand. I do not invest in high tech companies because I do not know enough about their technology and markets to understand them. I have got investments in ordinary industrial companies because my work experience gives me an understanding of how these companies work and respond to economic conditions. I do not have any money in High Street retailers.

Dh has always dabbled when funds allowed. He has had varying degrees of success.

I'm no good at it, I suggested buying Northern Rock when it was really struggling on the basis that it was so low it could only go up!

Well done Monica you made a good decision and you now know the way it works.

Wether you make money depends on a lot of stock market information, when to buy and when to sell. For the vast majority of us, leave it to the experts, invest in an ISA or Pension, or Life insurance if you are young enough.

A month or so ago you might have bought Netflix shares but yesterday they lost half their value, just because of 25% growth instead of 50%, not all shares are volatile but profits are far from certain.

Yes, I started with shares I was given/offered at a discount when my employer was nationalised. I made a fortune on them.

I have since bought shares in other companies. Some have done well some have bombed. I bought shares in my then bank - Royal Bank of Scotland - and also I kept some shares in BT that I inherited, these both sank like a lead balloons. But others have been taken over and I have been bought out at a profit.

DH has invested in penny shares for several decades now, inspired by an aunt who turned £11,000 in 1975 into £500,000 by the time she died 20 years later. He too has had successes and failures, but overall has done better than inflation.