Mercman, I was a little harsh there alright, my apologies. I was looking for similar advice not so long ago and found that I got a lot of posts in reply which seemed to say that unless I knew what I was doing I shouldn't even consider buying shares. There are a lot of people out there in the same position, i.e. with a small amount of money, just a few grand, that are looking at the markets and thinking that they'd like to take a punt. Don't get me wrong, I haven't got a clue what I'm doing, haven't a notion of how the markets work and I don't think that just because I've made a few quid on my one and only punt that I'm now a successful investor. I took a gamble with a small amount of money and it paid off. Sometimes these threads seem to descend (or ascend!!) into a load of confusing stockmarket jargon that goes completely over the head of the OP. That said, there is a lot of good advice on AA too and have learned a lot from it.
You're dead right though, the OP has had a lot of replies and none of them disparaging, at least after my post! Would they all have been as simple and as supportive had I not posted?
Excellent site though and great information to be found in general.