Buy Shares Before They Hit the Market?

There seems to be a bit of an uplift in the number of IP0s becoming available.

Ok, I know that sounds like jargon - Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) are shares you can buy before the shares themselves are launched on the market.

Normally only institutions can get their hands on shares before they are traded; often getting decent pre-trade prices.

But poor old us - the general public - often can't get any… or not easily.

However websites are beginning to spring up that allow us to get some of the action.

A sister site to ADVFN - www.allipo.com seems pretty impressive to me (by the way ADVFN haven't slipped me a fiver for saying this) and I've signed up (it's free!)

You can have a look at forthcoming floats, download prospectuses and even pay for the shares online.

For example, you could have taken part in the Aer Lingus float via the site.

The site also lists all recent floats, which is pretty handy as you can came across some interesting new companies worth having a look at.

And there's a decent new issues news service too which you can also get sent direct to your e-mail address.

Of course getting in on one of these floats does not guarantee a profit - some end up being worth buying and some not. It is really up to you to carefully read a prospectus and weigh up whether it's worth buying into something or not.

The last one or two floats I bought into have done pretty well. Oil service company Sondex launched at 120p and now sits at around 290p. And funeral parlour chain Dignity, where I got in at 226p, has more than doubled to over 500p.

So these floats are worth a look - just make sure you do some decent research before being tempted to buy.

A lot of doom merchants are out there right now predicting terrible happenings in the market - but actually September has been pretty good so far (ok cue the crash tomorrow!)

In particular a couple of smaller companies are doing well for me including flour producer Carrs Milling, up nearly 100p since I bought recently and retailers Halford and Jessops.

Of course we are about to enter October, known as the worst month for stock market investing. I'm sure if we can get through it without any big down moves we shall all breathe a sign of relief and look forwards to the usual pre-Christmas rally!