You might think Ive lost my marbles. I sometimes do myself. There have been times gang when Ive invested in the wrong share. So many companies have similar sounding names these days. Especially the ones with no proper name, but a group of initials.

Just one of these initials out and Ive found myself with a load of shares in some company I havent even known about.

This happenstance would, of course, never happen to a precise practitioner like Tom Winnifrith. When you meet him, youll recognise an encyclopaedic knowledge of shares. Its amazing how much useful stuff he fixes in his brain for instant recall.

Im not like that, sadly. I occasionally get the right facts and the wrong company. You probably risk the same danger yourself. Now, there have been times Ive invested in the wrong firm and found it worked to my advantage. The share shot up for reasons completely unknown to me. But I suppose most shares go up or down, rather than sticking, so Ive always had an evens chance of bringing it off.

Its also rather interesting to research a share after youve bought it. And unlike race-horse-betting, say, you can always change your mind and sell em again once the error is realised. It usually doesnt take long. However, I cannot ever advise buying a pig in a poke. Everything should be researched.

But most of us Tom and the other Sharecrazy experts excluded will sometimes get the facts wrong out of carelessness. We might invest in the wrong company altogether I can count the instances on one hand over 20 years, honest or we might mistake the profits by misreading the balance sheet.

Please take care when looking into a share you fancy buying (or selling) You cant rely on good luck in Crazyland. What gives us the edge over common casino play is that that we have loads of information to hand which gives a much better than evens chance of picking a soaring share.

But, on the other hand, if you do make a mistake by misreading the form, it might not be the end of the world. You might accidentally discover a nugget. Rock on.