Money: The latest news from the Motley Fool - Make your mark at the meeting

The Motley Fool started as an irreverent investment newsletter and has grown to become one of the most popular personal finance and investment websites. Anyone who follows its philosophy is called a `Foolish investor'.

Early summer is usually a lean time for individual shareholders in search of corporate information. The financial years of most popular companies finish either at the end of December or the end of March. Companies then publish preliminary annual results a few months later. Between then and the time of the interim results, six months later, public companies have no obligation to contact shareholders and update them with current figures.

In America, where shareholders demand timely updates, savvy companies tend to report figures for every quarter. In this way the market is less disturbed when reported figures are different from analysts' expectations. Now this trend is taking off on this side of the pond. Many listed companies are making the most of their annual general meetings (AGMs).

The AGM is a Victorian institution initially set up to allow shareholders to approve the final results. Normally this takes place after the first quarter is completed. Over the years the AGM became a formality, with compliant ranks of Wise financial institutions voting through the figures and the chairman answering a few questions.

But the AGM serves a vital function. Any shareholder can attend, meaning that any one of the millions of Halifax customers who received and held on to "windfall" shares when the building society became a bank can turn up at the Halifax's AGM and, in theory, ask the board a question directly.

Sometimes these questions have an important impact on directors. Fools will recall how environmental activists went to Shell's AGM a few years ago to express their displeasure at the oil company's planned dumping of the Brent Spar oil platform at sea. The subsequent pressure forced the company to move the oil rig to a Norwegian fjord instead and park it there.

The other headline-grabbing AGM of recent years occurred when British Gas employees complained about chairman Cedric Brown's remuneration, which they thought exorbitant. The group bought a pig called Cedric to the AGM. This happened at the height of the "fat cat" dispute about the chiefs of privatised utilities having their snouts in the trough. Poor old Cedric resigned before the next British Gas AGM took place.

Recently, many companies have taken the opportunity at their AGMs to outline trading figures in the first quarter. This should help reassure shareholders. However, many Wise traders in the City instead re-assess their forecast positions ahead of this extra bit of trading information. This explains many share price movements around the time of AGMs.

Thus when retailer Marks & Spencer put out a first-quarter trading statement at last week's AGM, the shares fell promptly as the market reacted savagely to the news that like-for-like sales in the first quarter had fallen 9.6 per cent. M&S is only one of many companies with March financial year- ends that have been holding AGMs over the past month. Fools should look out for trading statements from several other retailers over the next few weeks. Troubled supermarket J Sainsbury holds its meeting on Wednesday. On Thursday, Boots will outline the current year's trading so far.

Other companies whose shares might be worth watching are Railtrack, Vodafone and British Steel. All hold their AGMs on Wednesday.

More importantly, Foolish investors should take the chance to quiz the directors of companies in which they hold shares by attending AGMs. Actually putting a point to an executive and hearing how he deals with it could be more revealing than any other type of research. And the director might just listen: it worked at Shell and British Gas.

One drawback is that AGMs do not accommodate the information age. But soon web-savvy companies could run electronic votes on points raised at the meeting and allow shareholders to attend in cyberspace. Questions could be put to the chairman via e-mail. Now that really would strike a blow for Foolish shareholder rights.

Motley Fool, www.fool.co.uk

ASK THE FOOL

Should a Foolish investor impose a strict stop-loss system? When investing in a company, should I decide at the outset that if the price falls 20 per cent I will jump ship before I risk losing more? Similarly, should I decide to take profits when the price reaches a certain point? I have heard it said that you should sell half of a holding when the price doubles. I can see a certain amount of logic in this as what then remains you have for free.

GH, Taunton

The Fool responds: Foolish in-vestors have to decide for themselves what investment style suits them. Fools research companies carefully and decide what criteria they are looking for. If your reasons change for holding shares in a company then consider selling them. This could be if the shares have moved up or down, regardless of whether you have made a profit or loss.

Noticing this change is important. The best Foolish principle in general is to buy and hold investments for the long term. In this way you avoid paying brokers' charges: frequent trading will soon erode your gains.

If we publish your question, you'll win a Fool baseball cap. E-mail UKColumn@fool.com or post to Motley Fool, 79 Baker Street, London W1M 1AJ.

MY DUMBEST INVESTMENT

I held Dixons for a long time. Initially I bought shares at 400p and watched them edge sideways for a few years. Last year I began to get worried that retailers were in for a tough time, so I decided to sell my shares at 600p. However, a year later Dixons shares now stand at 1,350p following the launch of the group's Freeserve internet access service. I thought I had been Foolish, have I just been silly?

JS, Brighton

The Fool responds: No, you have not been silly, just unlucky. Nobody could have predicted that Dixons was about to launch a service that would transform

internet use in the UK. You followed Foolish fundamentals when buying Dixons originally

and continued to do research.

This left you feeling uneasy with your reasons for holding the shares in early 1998 and you sold accordingly. If you had held on to the shares it would only have been because of luck, not fundamental Foolish research.

Send us your smartest or dumbest investment story. If we publish it, you'll get a free copy of the `Motley Fool UK Investment Guide'. E- mail to UKColumn @fool.com or snail mail to Motley Fool, 79 Baker Street, London W1M 1AJ.

FOOLISH TRIVIA

The first five correct answers out of the hat win a super de luxe, black Fool baseball cap.

What is the largest company listed on the London Stock Exchange?

Answers by e-mail to: UKColumn@ fool.com or Motley Fool, 79 Baker Street, London W1.

Last week we asked for the average return of the FT-SE 100 over the last 20 years. In fact, the FT-SE 100 index was only founded in 1984. Returns since then have been an average 12.05 per cent a year. We apologise for this error and to those who entered the competition, we'll still send out five caps.