What to do before you buy any stock, part one

In the first of three articles on stock analysis, Bengt Saelensminde looks at what to look out for when picking a company to invest in.

A few weeks into 2012 I was out walking on the South Downs with an old City mate of mine. It was bitterly cold, but Mark said something that warmed my old cockles a little: "Well Bengt, it looks like you were right..."

Sometime before that, Mark had put his money down on supermarket giant Tesco, one of his favourite stocks. And he'd just got his fingers burnt on the deal. And he knew as long-time Right Side readers will know that I was more a fan of one of its main rivals, Sainsbury's. So far, at least, I've chosen the right horse.

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Bengt graduated from Reading University in 1994 and followed up with a master's degree in business economics.

 

He started stock market investing at the age of 13, and this eventually led to a job in the City of London in 1995. He started on a bond desk at Cantor Fitzgerald and ended up running a desk at stockbroker's Cazenove.

 

Bengt left the City in 2000 to start up his own import and beauty products business which he still runs today.