Further share purchases

Welcome back to my investment saga. Can I say "saga", or will I be sued by King, the company behind Candy Crush Saga and similar games? I better write "saga" in lower case just to be on the safe side.

Can you buy shares in King by the way? Turns out you can. The stock symbol is KING. Too volatile for my liking though, and it is possible that they may have peaked. Maybe one to watch for adventurous day traders.

Anyway, following my QQQ purchase, I still had money that I could use to buy other shares, so I bought shares in a couple of companies I think I know well, Tesla Motors (TSLA) (1 share, $263) and Apple (AAPL) (1 share, $112). The transaction fee was just $0.50 for each of them.

Tesla Motors, in case you don't know, makes the Tesla Model S, an EV (electric vehicle) which has won rave reviews and has a fanatical fan base very much like Apple fans. Just a few days ago, they also launched the Model X, an all-electric SUV with a price tag of $132,000 for the top model and a waiting list of approximately one year. Oh, and it does 0-60 in 3.2 seconds. Tesla will be coming to Ireland next year. Next year Tesla will also reveal the Model III, a $35,000 EV for the masses. TSLA may be a risky choice, especially at this price, but it could also pay off handsomely. The 52 week high is 286,65 but Morgan Stanley thinks it may double (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-17/morgan-stanley-massively-hikes-price-target-on-tesla-says-stock-could-almost-double). The price has taken a hit lately, as they probably won't make their delivery target for 2015. Last night TSLA closed at $226.72.

Apple doesn't need an introduction. Suffice to say I myself have bought several Apple products (iPod touch) in the past and would like to replace my constantly crashing first-generation Google Nexus 7 with an iPad. In addition, Apple has recently been poaching Tesla employees, so it looks like they may be building a car. They've certainly got the money to do it and a solid brand image that could make it their next big hit. AAPL closed last night at $109.50.

Another great thing about Apple is dividend payments. It's not a whole lot, and below the industry average, but certainly better than a bank account. The data below come from dividend.com.

It looks like another quarterly dividend payment is due next month. Bring it on!

My overall objective is to grow my money and to beat the savings rates offered by Irish banks.

My initial investment strategy is to hold these and other shares for years unless I totally lose faith in them. I intend to go for a mixture of ETFs, growth shares and dividend shares. I also obviously need to diversify in other ways to reduce risk, but for the time being the US economy seems strong and therefore the dollar may appreciate against the euro so it seems a good choice, but I also want to buy European shares at some stage. The big question is which ones. I honestly can't think of any European companies I'd like to own a part of at present.

As for Irish companies, I think Ryanair will continue to do well in the coming years. However, there is a 1% stamp duty when buying Irish shares and the DeGiro basic fees are €2 or €4 (not sure which; the fee schedule is a bit unclear on this) compared to €0.50 for US shares, which makes a big difference for small trades such as these. Besides, I've got exposure to Ryanair through a couple of funds, primarily the Merrion Irish Opportunities Fund.