Scared to go it alone when it comes to stocks and shares? Join the club

JUST like with a book club, the 13 members of Roger Taylor’s social group get together regularly, have a natter and share ideas.

But rather than discussing Jane Austen or the latest bestseller, Mr Taylor and his friends are talking stocks and shares.

His Monny & Cher group in Sheffield is one of hundreds of investment clubs in the UK.

An investment club can be as informal as you like. Some are simply a handful of friends who discuss what moves they are making and how well it is working out.

But there are also more formal arrangements – such as retired teacher Mr Taylor’s club – which allows members to pool money, vote on how it is invested and share in the winnings (and losses).

Share Centre, one of the biggest providers of i nvestment club accounts, has more than 1,400 of

them currently active. Interactive Investor, which bought Share Centre in July, also has around 500 member accounts.

Monny & Cher, whose newest member is Mr Taylor’s 41-year-old daughter Caroline, was formed in 2001. The club likes to buy shares in companies, and its investors buy into funds with exposure to international firms they favour.

Choosing ethical firms is important to the club and members love supporting local businesses. They like to look for companies with a strong track record that are going through a ‘temporary glitch’ but are likely to do well again in the future. The decision to buy is put to the group and a majority vote wins.

Mr Taylor, 73, who is married to Jenny, 67, said: ‘We used to have shares in William Hill and one member raised a discussion about whether we should be supporting gambling, and we decided we shouldn’t.’

The club’s ethical investments include Nordex and Siemens, both makers of wind turbines. Siemens’ manufacturing plant is in nearby Hull, also satisfying the club’s appetite to support local jobs.

Its biggest success story to date is the

Sheffield-based company ITM Power. Mr Taylor explained: ‘We spent around £800 buying the shares and they are now worth over £7,000.’

But he added that the club has also suffered plenty of misfortune. He said: ‘If you nominate a turkey you expect to take some flak, but in nearly 20 years we have never had any animosity.

‘We smile about our losses possibly more than we do about gains.’

But the number of formal investment clubs such as Monny & Cher is in decline. Share Centre and Interactive Investor have stopped offering the accounts, while Hargreaves Lansdown has stopped accepting applications during the pandemic. However, stockbroker Redmayne Bentley still offers investment club accounts.

Pooling your money is not the only way to enjoy investing as a group, though. Online hobby platform Meetup hosts close to 1,000 investment groups around the UK with more than 150,000 members.

Meetup is an internet platform you sign up to and use to find clubs in your area that match your interests such as hiking, reading or investing.