Investment Fundamentals is one way to make your money work harder, helping you get more ‘bang for your buck’ to achieve your financial goals. Whether you’re saving for a home, a holiday or your children’s college education, investing can help you achieve those goals and beyond.

All investments carry a degree of risk, but there are many ways to reduce this risk. By diversifying your portfolio with both defensive and growth investments, you can reduce the risk that you will lose money if markets fall, whilst maximising the chance of achieving long term returns.

Understanding Investment Fundamentals

If you are a new investor, or even an experienced trader, you have likely tried a variety of techniques to try and determine which stocks will be winners. Two of the most common are known as fundamental and technical analysis.

Fundamental analysis involves evaluating a company’s business and financial health, along with broader economic indicators to uncover a stock’s intrinsic value. This approach looks behind investor sentiment and company marketing, to examine things like a business’s competitive advantages within its industry, as well as the effectiveness of its management team.

This type of evaluation can also include calculating ratios, such as the debt-to-equity ratio and cash flow statement. This allows investors and analysts to make apples-to-apples comparisons between companies, and decide whether a share is over, under or fairly valued in the market. This can be a time consuming process, but there are numerous resources to help you along your way. These can include online financial platforms, such as Yahoo! Finance and Google Finance; as well as investment research reports produced by brokerage firms.…

The UK remains Europe s most attractive destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) into financial services, according to a new EY report. Its lead over Paris, Germany and Spain grew even as Brexit uncertainty has dampened investor confidence in Europe.

This article is brought to you by the Association of Investment Companies (AIC).

UK’s trusted investment centre is a trade body representing leading investment trusts in the UK. Its members are trusted by investors to offer them access to a diverse range of investments, with a focus on growth, value and income.

Investing through the AIC is an easy and affordable way to build your portfolio with expert guidance at hand, giving you the power to create the future you want.

AIC carries out rigorous due diligence on each member to ensure that their products are fit for purpose, transparent and fair. You can find more information about each AIC member in our Find a Member directory.

We’ve rated over 200 brokers to help you choose the best one for you. Our independent broker reviews take into account customer service, trading costs, platform features and more. We only recommend brokers that are regulated by a top-tier regulator, like the FCA. Mid-tier regulators are more like the security guards at a county fair: they do their job, but may not catch every problem.

Many platforms, including AJ Bell, Lloyds, Halifax and Hargreaves Lansdown, offer free regular investing, meaning you won’t have to pay dealing charges on the money you invest in shares each month. But other fees will apply, such as fund charges and platform charges.…