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The top 10 Star Wars collectibles

It's 30 years since the first Star Wars action figures were released – a staple of any happy 1980s childhood. To celebrate, here is our list of the top ten Star Wars collectibles, from the vintage and rare to new items that should climb in value.

Prices are approximate sale values for new or mint objects in their original packaging – "carded" in the case of action figures.

[Pictured is a Lego Darth Vader, see No. 5 below]

The 20 Golden Rules of Investment

Investing your own money is a complicated and potentially dangerous business. One slip in the tricky world of stocks and shares can prove very costly. So Times Money offers a guide on how to survive and profit in the investment jungle.

The Ten Biggest Stock Market Crashes of All Time

Some investors might think they have had a rough ride on the stock market over the past seven or eight months. But the recent share price gyrations pale into insignificance when compared with the biggest stock market falls of all time.

Ten collectibles of 2030

Alternative investments are especially attractive when stock markets are in turmoil. So Times Money asked five antiques experts to name their best bets for collectibles of the future. We wanted contemporary items that could be bought online or in mainstream shops for £100 or less and should increase in value – hopefully significantly – by 2030. Their tips are supplemented by our own choice and by two suggestions from Christie's for bigger spenders. To realise the best price in a future sale, all items should be kept in original condition, with all packaging. Note that predicted prices are in today's terms and do not take inflation into account.

Ten Lessons from war that apply to investing

According to popular myth, today’s band of share investors contains a high proportion of retired colonels from places like Tunbridge Wells and Budleigh Salterton.
But does their service background help them when it comes to making decisions about their shareholdings? Does military history have any lessons for the stock market?
We look at 10 military maxims to see whether they have any relevance for today’s private investor.
1) Never march on Moscow.
The modern-day equivalent of this would be: never invest in Japan. Since the Nikkei index of Japanese shares peaked at 39,000 17 years ago, it has been pretty much downhill all the way. Short-lived recoveries have failed to reverse the general downward trend and Japan remains the land of the false dawn rather than the rising sun.
2) Reinforce success.
A good principle for stock market investors to follow. Building up a stake in a successful company or fund - and holding it - makes a lot of financial sense.
3) Punish failure.
Another good maxim which many investors fail to follow. They often get emotionally attached to shares and are not ruthless enough about ditching poor performers.
When Georgy Zhukov, the great Soviet World War Two commander, spoke of punishing failure, he usually meant shooting officers who had not come up to scratch. Investors in poorly performing funds might think a similar punishment for failing fund managers would be an excellent idea but nowadays they are obliged to confine themselves to putting out a sell order.
4) Don’t be overwhelmed by information.
Easier said than done, but it remains a sound investment principle. Just as poor generals have become paralysed in their decision-making by the sheer weight of reports flowing into their HQ, so investors can sometimes suffer from information overload.
5) No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.
Napoleon’s famous dictum holds true for investment as well as battles. There’s nothing wrong with having a plan, but investors need to be flexible and be capable of reacting to a changing situation.
6) Be prepared for the ‘fog of war’.
A useful warning which applies equally to crises in battle and in stock markets. In both cases accurate information tends to be in short supply, rumours abound and a calm head is needed to keep hold of the ‘big picture’ and not be distracted by the ‘white noise’.
7) Learn from previous battles, but don’t be mesmerised by them.
Just as military top brass are often accused of preparing to fight the last war again, so investors sometimes assume, wrongly, that the next stock market boom and bust will be a re-run of the previous one.
8) Distil complicated ideas into a simple formula.
Field Marshal Montgomery’s approach is a useful guideline for investors trying to make sense of a mass of conflicting theories, though it is arguably even more important for financial advisers trying to explain to their clients how products work.
9) Concentrate your forces rather than spreading them out.
This maxim might appeal to out and out risk takers but it would certainly not meet the approval of most financial experts, who would argue that diversification, not concentration, is the best bet.
10) Too much spade work is better than too little.
Field Marshal Rommel’s phrase is just as applicable to the world of investment as it is to infantry fighting. Highly successful fund managers, such as Anthony Bolton, of Fidelity, are not just talented, they also work very hard at their job.

(Picture from a fascinating story on Foreign Policy)

How are you coping with the stock market turmoil?

What a summer it’s been for investors: shares have plunged nearly 10 per cent over the past month (although the markets are thankfully up again today); popular property funds have been forced to impose exit charges to stem a wave of selling by disappointed investors; even supposedly “safe” bonds have been losing money.

Market's bungee-jumping spree

The UK stock market has been on a summer bungee-jumping spree in recent weeks. Since the start of July it has rocketed to a seven-year high of 6716, and then plunged 10 per cent to today’s closing level of 6038.

The silver lining in the stock market cloud

This has been a grim week for the UK stock market. On Thursday the FTSE 100 index of leading shares fell by 200 points - its biggest one-day points drop for five years.

Market running on air

A glance at today's business pages reminds me of those cartoons where Tom or Jerry or Bugs Bunny runs straight off a cliff and stops in mid-air before crashing to his fate below. While Rio Tinto, the mining group, launches a massive $44 billion takover offer for Alcan, the Canadian aluminium producer, oil soars to an 11-month high and interest rates creep up to their highest level for six years. Yet the stock market sails on serenely.

Financial advice remains woefully inadequate

The Financial Services Agency is much maligned. Our chief financial watchdog is often castigated by the Fourth Estate for failing to act, while being simultaneously dragged over the coals in the City for its heavy-handedness. It is true that it does not always get the balance right, but in the case of correcting the desperate failings of the UK's "system" of retail financial advice it has taken the right steps this week.

The Commission Conundrum

John Howard of the Financial Services Consumer Panel, the body which advises the city watchdog, the Financial Services Authority, has no doubt caused some grumbling within the financial adviser community after calling for a ban on commission payments.

Time to break the bond?

Before property took hold of investors' affections, bonds were riding high in the investment universe. Fixed-interest issues, where the price rises as prevailing money costs fall, were a one-way bet in the aftermath of the tech boom.

Don't neglect your Isas

This is traditionally the ‘fallow’ time for investors in Individual Savings Accounts (Isas). After the rush to buy an Isa before the end of the tax year in April they tend to fold their arms and forget about these tax-efficient investments until the season starts again next January.

Is the market too hot or too cold?

Anthony Bolton, the venerated manager of Fidelity's Special Situations Fund, has once more taken the role of gloom and doom merchant. In the midst of the hyperbole over the appointment of Sanjeev Shah as his successor as navigator of the UK's most successful retail equity fund, Mr Bolton has voiced another warning over the parlous state of the four-year-old bull market.

Go West young man?

The pound's strength may be prompting some investors to think about shifting some of their portfolio overseas. After all, just like tourists in New York these days, anyone thinking of buying shares in the US stock market should see their pound go further than it did a year ago. But before you leap offshore, consider that all may not be what it seems in foreign parts.

Poor service Plc

Do you ever inwardly seethe when you read of some company flying high on the stock market? Good luck to those daring entrepreneurs who spot a gap in the market, risk health, wealth and family to back their hunch and see their ship come in when their company floats. But sometimes you are painfully aware that the slick and expensively-crafted operation to sell a business to stock market investors does not match the underlying reality of rip-off prices and lamentable customer service.

Buy and hold?

Those of us lucky enough to have been dabbling in the stock market during the 1980s and 1990s grew up on the "buy and hold" school of investment. Consciously - or more likely through inertia - we discovered that holding just about any share made you richer because most shares tended to rise in value over time.

Are you stuck in one of Britain's worst investments?

Imagine paying diligently into an endowment or a pension for nearly ten years. The stock market is up about 20% over the same period, so you expect your policy to provide healthy returns. Instead, you discover that on maturity your plan will be, at worst, worth less than your contributions and, at best, worth less than if you had stuck it in cash.

Crash-wise small investors

Are private investors becoming more canny? The latest findings from Capita Registrars' regular survey of small shareholders' activity seem to suggest they are. According to the people who look after the share registers of huge swathes of UK quoted companies, the retail sector sold £10.9 billion more shares than it bought in the 12 months to the end of January.

Life of a landlord

Are the lives of landlords really as rosey as we are led to believe?

Be pension wise with your property

This week brought news that buy-to-let lending is continuing to boom, despite signs of a slight cooling in the general housing market. With yields, the amount of rent divided by the property price, falling below the cost of borrowing, this continued strength should be ringing alarm bells. And those alarms should be particularly loud for people hoping their property portfolio will bail them out in retirement.

The January effect

There's nothing like an investment formula to get the juices flowing amongst amateur investors. Many have heard the old saw "sell in May, go away; return again on Leger Day". Fewer on this side of the Atlantic will be aware of the "January effect".

'Tis the season to be saving

The latest sales figures from the Investment Management Association, the trade body for the fund management industry, are a bit of a puzzle. Up until the end of September, sales of individual savings accounts (Isas) had been showing a strong rebound, after grinding down relentlessly from their peak of £10.9 billion in 2000.

An ‘Ethical’ New Year’s Resolution

Thinking of turning over a new leaf for 2007? Striving for a clear conscious is a popular pledge for those not content with giving up fags or cutting their cake intake. Fifteen million of us planned to buy ethical Christmas presents this year, according to Friends Provident. So why not join the crowd and give ethical finance a go for this annum’s oath?

Fishing for investment wisdom

There is nothing more annoying than a rich, smug, American telling you how you can become as rich as them. Few Americans can be as rich and smug as Ken Fisher, the chief executive of Fisher Investments, whose success has been built advising the wealthy on how to become even wealthier. The first few pages of his new book, The Only Three Questions that Count: Investing by Knowing What Others Don't, due to be published next month, sent my hackles skywards.

Splits roll back to their roots

If investment trusts are the Cinderellas of the investment world, split capital trusts are the ugly sisters. Ever since thousands of people lost money on these exotic beasts, they have been treated with disdain by most investors. But, as is often the case with investment, when something is shunned, the brave few prepared to embrace the pariah can find themselves enriching themselves handsomely.

Big Bang for British industry

Twenty years ago today an ugly modern tower in the middle of the City of London said goodbye to a trading system only one stage removed from the street market up the road in Petticoat Lane. Big Bang swept away the stock market's jobbers who used to stand at their "stalls" on the floor of the Stock Exchange displaying the price of their wares, be they Turner & Newall shares or Consols, to tempt brokers to buy. Very quickly the Big Bang reforms saw the floor being dumped and business switching to anonymous men trading with each other by computer.

Irrational exuberance?

Shares on both sides of the Atlantic have put the woes of May behind them this week. Both Wall Street's Dow Jones and our own FTSE 100 indices have been hitting new five-year highs. Even if the follow through has been a bit weak, there is no doubt investors have got back into their stride. But is this just hubris before the next stomach-churning slide in prices?

How to book a tidy profit

I discovered this week that a book I bought new in 1998 for £10.99 is selling for £324.50 at Biblion Mayfair, a respected West End bookseller. It is a signed first edition of Spike Milligan’s Robin Hood, bought on impulse as a could-be investment. I wish I had bought ten.

Indexed growth

There's been much talk about new stock market indices this week. FTSE, the company which acts as custodian of the well-known FTSE 100 index of Britain's leading shares, is working on a new index which will weight its constituents not by market value but by their "fundamental" characteristics.

Return to zero

Remembrance of losses past lives on a painfully long time in the memories of investors. A bad smell continues to hang around zero dividend preference shares, despite the fact that the worst of the losses incurred by investors in these slightly exotic beasts happened several years ago. So is it in poor taste to rehabilitate zeros? I don't think so.

Time to be contrarian?

The bears' picnic I was talking about last month looks like becoming a feast.  Many people seem to have given up on the stock market. Sales of investment funds slumped by a quarter in July, while private investors are said to have sold nearly £10 billion-worth of shares in the first six months of the year. More worryingly, this bearishness amongst the share-buying public is now spreading to the professionals.

Bears picnic across the water

Stock markets on both sides of the Atlantic may be recovering some of their poise after the turbulence of spring, but there seems to be no shortage of American bears ready to talk down share prices. A couple of commentaries featured on MarketWatch, the US financial web site, caught my eye this week.

A long-term view on funds

They say that distance lends perspective and it’s certainly true that a look at the five and ten year fund performance tables throws up some interesting comparisons between different sectors

Undiscovered stars

What do the following people have in common: Rob Burnett, Bill Barker, Stuart Harris and Jamie Allsopp?
They are all very talented fund managers who have not yet appeared on the buy lists of most independent financial advisers. And, with the exception of New Star’s Allsopp, who has appeared on billboards up and down the country, you have almost certainly never heard of them either.
Why is this?

Commodities set to make a come-back?

It may have passed you by, but the nickel price quietly hit a new high yesterday. At $23,650 a tonne, the metal is now changing hands for four or five times its value of nearly five years ago. Other metals, like copper and gold, have also recovered. And yet was it not the “bubble” in commodities prices that was blamed for bringing down the stock market in May?

Bernanke: saviour, shark or just irrelevant?

The Fed-watching industry is having a field day predicting the next move of the new chairman of the world's most powerful central bank, America's Federal Reserve. Ben Bernanke appears to speak a different type of economese to his predecessor, the veteran Alan Greenspan, who retired earlier this year. Thus it was not yesterday's quarter point rise in US interest rates to 5.25 per cent that caused so much euphoria in world stock markets, but hopes that the words of Mr Bernanke and his fellow rate-setters were signalling that this 17th consecutive rise in rates may be the last for now.

Rosneft float full of risks

State-owned Russian oil giant Rosneft has this week published the prospectus for its forthcoming float on the London and  Moscow stock exchanges. But investors who sign up to the deal face a raft of potential pitfalls.

Will private equity boil over?

There were some apocalyptic warnings this week from the some of the biggest names in private equity about the mountainous levels of debt being built up in the industry. Sir Ronald Cohen, the Labour-supporting founder of leading private equity group Apax, and Jon Moulton, head of the rival group Alchemy, publicly expressed concerns that the industry was over-paying for its investments, backed by huge amounts of borrowings. Mr Moulton went so far as to warn that a “correction” would happen.

Bolton backlash

It was never going to be easy dealing with the departure of one of the country’s best performing managers, but Fidelity has succeeded in irritating – if not angering – thousands of investors with its plans for Anthony Bolton’s Special Situations fund.

Why the big crash may be just around the corner

Stock markets opened buoyantly this morning, after more than six weeks of hopping about which have been matched by fluctuating comments and prognostications from everyone and their uncle, aunt and tabby cat trying to tell us what it all means. I put my hand up: I have been as guilty as anyone of trying to make sense of what is going on, an almost impossible task when all those directly concerned – investors, traders, hedge funds, fund managers, banks and governments – are trying to make their own minds up. But a worrying whisper reached me the other day suggesting that all this chatter may be ignoring the possibility that we are merely sheltering under the biggest financial tsunami of all time.

A new way to look at funds

Recent research by Rowan & Co, the independent financial adviser, offers a fresh look at the way funds are rated.
All too often people concentrate exclusively on fund performance, without asking how volatile, or risky, the fund has been in achieving that performance.

In simple terms Rowan argues that it may be worth taking a lot of risk to produce high performance but a fund that takes a lot of risks to achieve only modest performance is selling investors short.

Has the bear returned to stalk the Japanese market?

The memory of Japan’s 15-year bear market is proving difficult to erase. Overnight, the Tokyo stock market slumped by 4.1 per cent, taking the key Nikkei 225 stock index back to levels last seen in mid-November.

Ferrovial set to win BAA

The bid battle for BAA looks to be all  over bar the shouting, after Ferrovial, the Spanish consortium, lifted its stake in the airports operator to more than 28 per cent in a dawn raid on Thursday

Market wobbles set to continue in June

Stock markets have shown little sign of settling down this week and there may be more upsets in store, if certain market commentators are to be believed. David Schwartz, the stock market historian, has been looking at past Junes and the results are not reassuring.

Whither the market?

Anthony Bolton’s rare intervention in the debate about where the stock market goes next is not something to be ignored lightly. Mr Bolton not only correctly warned about the market’s current “correction” (if that is what it is), but also acted on his words.

Are smaller companies a safe haven for investors?

Punters perplexed by the stock market’s recent gyrations should look for guidance in how the different indices have reacted over the past week or so. In nearly eight days, the FTSE 100 list of top companies is down around 6 per cent, while the Small Cap index has fallen by nearly 7 per cent. But the big falls have been in the FTSE 250 index of middling companies, off 9 per cent, and on the Alternative Investment Market, which has slumped by more than 10 per cent.

Overwhelmed by choice

Individuals who hold shares in F&C's Emerging Markets investment trust in a private investor plan, personal equity plan (Pep) or individual savings account (Isa) have been inundated with bulky documents requiring their attention in recent weeks.

Is the bull market at an end?

World markets have taken a beating over the past few days and some respected analysts, including Fidelity’s Anthony Bolton, think we could be close to the end of the bull market that has been underway since March 2003.

Making money from stock market indices

Some of you who have invested in index-tracking funds like Virgin's UK Index Tracking Trust may not be aware that you are in the same company as some of our largest pension funds and life insurance companies. On one estimate, at least a fifth of the whole stock market - some £360 billion of assets - is now overtly managed on a similar basis. A lot more investors' money may be run in similar fashion, but just doesn't let on that it is. This has opened up quite an interesting line of profit for the canny investor.

What are private investors up to?

Recent figures seem to be giving conflicting signals about private investors’ attitudes to the stock market. While recent numbers from the Investment Management Association, trade body for the professional fund manager, show quarterly sales of its members’ funds have nearly quadrupled to £4.6 billion in four years, other statistics out this week purport to show that private investors have sold a net £3.1 billion of shares in February and March alone. So, apart from proving that all statistics are damn lies, what is going on?

Singed bear licks his wounds

The news that the FTSE 250 index of the UK's middle-sized quoted companies briefly broke through the 10,000 barrier this week left one bear decidedly singed. In February last year I confidently predicted that the bulls would shortly be switching their attention from the 250 index to its bigger brother, the FTSE 100. How wrong I was.

Debenhams: in need of promotion

Yesterday's announcement that Debenhams is to float on the stock market has set off the usual horse trading in the City. On the one hand, a huge phalanx of expensive advisers is busy promoting the store group's virtues and, naturally, its price. On the other, the would-be buyers amongst the pension funds, insurance companies, hedge funds etc. are wheeling out reasons why the flotation looks expensive.

Venture capital trusts face shake up

The initial relief voiced by Peter Linthwaite, chief executive of the British Venture Capital Association, on Wednesday over Gordon Brown's decision to limit the cut in tax relief on venture capital trusts to 10 percentage points now looks misplaced.

FTSE 100 flirts with 6,000

The FTSE 100 index was tantalising its admirers today by bursting through the psychologically important 6,000 barrier, before dribbling back to end the day just short of the finishing tape at 5,999.4. But, let there be no mistake, there is momentum in this market. I calculate that there were at least £20 billion-worth of bids, mooted bids or corporate deals in the air today.

Where to invest your Isa

It’s make up your mind time. There are only three weeks left to use up your 2005-2006 tax-free Isa allowance.

As my colleague Clare Francis pointed out last week, investing in an Isa is a no-brainer. She went on to explain how Isas work and went through some of the best cash options.

But which stock market funds should you choose?

Pensions and the gilts bubble

The annual publication of the Barclays Gilt Equity Study is likely to have passed most people by this week. It is, by any standard, a pretty dry document. A chunk of it comprises the sort of triangular tables usually reserved for telling you the shortest distance between Wick and Aberystwyth in road atlases. But hidden within its depths is yet further bad news for Britain's already beleaguered pension savers.

Hardly Hollywood when investing in the movies

After reading the Sunday Times Money section front page story "Time running out to take part in a movie", Phil Smith writes with a warning after a bad experience with a film fund partnership. For Mr Smith, his investment experience was all a long way from Hollywood

How technology can help you

With investors showing some signs of being willing to take more risks, is now a good time to get back into technology stocks?

O2 shareholders angry at wait for money

Thousands of O2 shareholders who have accepted Telefonica’s takeover offer for the mobile phone company are still waiting for their cash nearly two months after sending in their share certificates.  And they complain they have been kept in the dark about what is happening.

QinetiQ: a good deal or overpriced?

If you are thinking of applying for QinetiQ shares, you need to bear in mind a number of things.

QinetiQ gains momentum with small investors

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em seems to be the motto of private investors when it comes to QinetiQ, the former Ministry of Defence research agency, whose flotation was announced this week.

Why you should keep an eye on fund takeovers

One of the reasons for investing in unit trusts or Oeics is laziness. Instead of having to research and keep constantly up to date on thousands of individual companies we simply fill out a form and send a cheque to a handful of fund managers and they do all the hard work for us. But every so often we have to get off the sofa and do some digging for ourselves - and we could be about to hit one of those times.

Don't be fooled by pyramid scheme promises

Would you be able to turn down the chance to make £21,000 on a £3,000 investment – especially if the person offering it to you was your sister or your best friend? Because that’s exactly what could happen if one of your nearest and dearest gets caught up in a pyramid-selling scheme

What will be 'hot' this Isa season?

Investing in an Isa might be the last thing on your mind, but it will be preoccupying fund-management firms

Best to be ethical in the long-run?

Ethical funds may struggle to outperform their mainstream rivals but they are more likely to survive than their non-ethical peers

Has stamp fund got it licked?

I always thought stamp collecting was for nerds. But the launch of an investment fund has forced me to question my prejudices

Whither the market?

The stock market has made a remarkable recovery since the FTSE 100 index hit 5,142 just over a month ago. Since then, the index has put on the best part of 400 points and remains comfortably above 5,500 as I write. Is this a Santa rally or the last gasp of the bull market we have been in since March 2003?

It can be rash to be cautious

The golden rule of making money out of shares is to go against your instincts. This is best shown by contrarian investors and the success of equity income funds, which make a virtue out of investing in shares that are out of favour. But it is hard to make yourself go against the grain, as is borne out by the billions of pounds currently pouring into so-called cautious managed funds

Market wobbles

It's been a wobbly old week in the markets. Many investors will be feeling a sense of deja vu after Wednesday's 96-point slump in the FTSE 100 index. Although it coincided with the 18th anniversary of the worldwide share crash which started on Black Monday in 1987, it is memories of five years ago which are more likely to be revived for investors. Few need to be reminded of that period, when a stock market storm engulfed the hitherto sun-kissed shores of the tech stock boom. But is history about to repeat itself?

Student buy-to-lets

Just as the dread phrase "another chance to see" usually heralds another dog-eared TV repeat, so my sceptical antennae jump to attention when I learn that a fund is graciously opening its doors to new investors. After all, if something is really good those who are already aboard are invariably desperate to keep newcomers at bay.

New Star and Standard go public

This is the week for long-awaited big-time financial flotations. John Duffield’s New Star Asset Management says it is listing its shares on the stock market, and Standard Life has finally set a date for its demutualisation.

Turkish delight for investors?

The European Union's decision to open membership talks with Turkey yesterday was not just an historic political event, it also has big implications for investors.

A house built on sand?

Now might seem like an odd time to launch an investment scheme linked to house prices, as a raft of surveys show that growth is either slowing or that prices are falling, but this has not stopped Norwich Union and Abbey.