I guess I have been a professional analyst and investor for the last twenty-six years, but obviously as a buy side and not a sell side operator. As I may have said before, I learnt early on that the more I could ignore brokers and do my own research, the better I would do. And that still remains my thought today as I still think, a bit like the academic world, the biggest risk is that you end up knowing more and more about less and less. And that brings us to today’s Q3 update from Reckitt Benckiser (RKT).

Hello Share Bashers. This old punter watched a hero of his on tv the other night. Jeremy Paxman has Parkinson’s disease and he was explaining how he coped with this lousy throw of the dice and how it’s being treated. Like quite a few horrible conditions, the number of Parkinson patients is growing. So too are drugs which are holding back illness. That’s why I think we and all investors should have some pharmaceuticals in our portfolios.

Last October I observed that Reckitt Benckiser (RKT) ‘without working hard offers the scope for a £60-70 share price plus picking up a dividend’. In short a holding in the ‘home to the world’s best loved and trusted hygiene, health and nutrition brands’ group theoretically for FY22 is probably over ten times more interesting than government bonds or money in the bank. How many times a month do you – or someone in your household – use Finish, Dettol, Air Wick, Nurofen, Vanish, Harpic, Calgon or Durex products? My guess is more than once. So what about the shares today post the group’s full year numbers publication?

This morning Johnson Matthey (JMAT) issued just the sort of news that investors will not have wanted to see, announcing its intent to exit the battery materials sector and as a result its share price has plummeted.

Hello Share Mixers.  When it first became obvious that the virus would cost the UK a huge amount of money, shares plummeted. But since then, though the death toll has risen, shares have been slowly recovering. Is this rally justified or will another decline come, as more news releases showing the true scale of coronavirus damage?

Hello, Share Changers. I don’t know if you’ve heard of a company called Halma (HLMA). But if you're interested in the health of our planet, you might care to look into it. This firm certainly chimes with the fast-growing movement to give us a healthier planet...

Hello, Share Folks. Allow me to suggest that there’s a compelling case, getting stronger by the week, for investing in pharmaceutical companies. For the more cautious among us, this will be the giants, like GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and AstraZeneca (AZN). Share prices in both are already buoyant and the divis are handy. But the more speculative investor will be trying for the huge rewards that a pharma mini can achieve if it strikes lucky with a drug it’s researching.

Hello, Share Scrimpers. Some of us consider ourselves ethical investors. We do not buy shares in companies with products and services which we think may harm people or the environment. But some of us have different views on what is ‘ethical. Now my colleague on this beautiful site Chris Bailey is an enlightened man. 

Hello, Share Choosers. As we've often said on this glittering website, investing in small drugs companies is fraught with peril. Cures and remedies take ages to develop, and then you have to steer them through a punishing licence minefield. I’m a great believer, though, in this kind of punt, as the world becomes older and less healthy. And investment in the right pharma could reap big rewards for shareholders, but mainly the sick among us. Today’s suggestion seems a more promising pocket pharma than most.

If you look at the AIM market it is full of companies that have been promising the earth for years, but have yet to actually achieve much of any real substance.

Hello Share Trekkies. The health game is a good place to be for winning share seekers like us in 2016. Bio-science firms are set to reap the benefit of an ageing world population with all its attendant health problems. And even younger folk will sadly require more medical care, unless they can do something about their unhealthy diets.