peterh wrote:BT has been one of my luckiest investments (I say luck, because skill didn't come into it!).
I inherited some shares from my dad in 2003, who must have got them when they were nationalised. I then got interested in HYP largely through MF in 2008 and bought more BT late in that year based on their lowish price and rising dividend ...
...
Eventually, the SP got to a level where the yield was getting pretty low so I sold the 2008 tranche in three chunks between 2013 and 2015 to finance other purchases.
Hmm... I'd say you're being too modest. You bought late in 2008, near the end of the share price decline, with the yield high and the share price low, and you sold between 2013 and 2015, with the yield low and the share price high.
If you're going to tinker, buy-low-and-sell-high is definitely a good way to go, and the fact that you got both the buying decision and the selling decision right (*) and give "lowish price" and "yield ... pretty low" as your reasons for those decisions does suggest quite strongly to me that there was skill involved, not just luck!
(*) Not perfect, of course - buying at the absolute bottom and selling at the absolute top really would require a major amount of luck!
Gengulphus