Make Money from Sparkling New Shares

I mentioned IPOs back in September.

Hmm … not exactly the most thrilling opening sentence I've ever written, but bear with me.

IPOs are new issues that come onto the market. Nearly all of them are launched on AIM and sometimes you can buy into a real winner. Some are terrible however - you just have to do your homework.

But the point of this article is to chat about main market issues as over the last few years most of them have done very well indeed.

New main market issues like Sondex, Dignity and Virgin Mobile have all prospered. There aren't many main market new issues these days so when one comes along I always have a good look at them and often buy in. My most recent new issue buy was in BlueBay - a Hedge Fund Manager which is already doing well.

So what's coming up on the main market new issue front? There are four that interest me and all should be due sometime in the first half of the year:

• GV Gold is expected to launch by April, which is one of Russia's top ten gold miners. There is likely to be a fair but of interest and this one could rocket.
• Mediasky looks interesting: this holds a large amount of the newspaper advertising market in Shanghai and could go well.
• African Arabian Petroleum could also be a big winner. This is an oil and gas subsidiary of the Dubai mining and property giant Thani Investments.
• And finally, and possibly the most interesting, is gambling site Betfair which should go straight into the FTSE 250 - its likely value is around the £700m mark. I reckon Betfair could be a great long-term investment, simply because the more people who use it, the more money it'll make. It'll be interesting to see the floatation price.

How can you keep an eye on these four and when other new issues will be launched? The answer is ADVFN's sister site: www.allipo.com

I check in here at least once a week. The site is incredibly useful and free to use - I especially like the calendar which gives the admission dates for each new issue. It's the best site for keeping up to date with new issues and they also provide an e-mail alert service. Sometimes, you can also buy new issues before they are launched onto the market.

If the price is right I hope to be investing in the four I've mentioned. Of course any of these floats could be pulled if the markets get rocky.

Markets seem a little stalled at the moment but there's really no reason to panic.

Shares that have been doing very well for me in the last couple of weeks are: Harvey Nash (decent trading statement), Renold (director buying), MS International (director buying) and Scott Wilson (bullish and strong results).