Im new to it but want to have a dabble, whats the best way to buy, sell, keep track etc, any tips appreciated in simple terms!

google finance is a good way of keeping a track of your portfolios and checking on relevant corporate/market news.

I use share.com and am happy with it, although its not necc the cheapest. There are others that will appear below

Just curious, and not trying to be an arse, but if you’re not sure of how to simply buy or sell a share, do you think that your dabble is likely to end profitably?

And if you’re not looking for profitability, then there is no reason to dabble.

To give yourself a decent chance of not spanking your hard earned, read read read read and then read again about the very basic mechanics of trading. It won’t teach you how to make a successful trade, but it will at least give you the knowledge of how to go about setting up your trades/portfolio.

If you just want to trade very small amounts for a hobby, rather than for investment purposes, why not try spread betting instead?

Is share.com an online broker? I would like to dabble but it is all too much for my small brain. My friend says you want a minimum of £500 ideally a £1000 and the quick money is still in “surprise surprise” oil.

Can you recommend a good website that explains shares in layman’s terms peterfile?

have a look at iii.co.uk

Don`t !!!!! you will end up buying as everyone who knows the game is selling, you will see a small rise and get greedy waiting fore a bit more, seen it loads of times with mates, its a bit of fun for a while, good luck!!!

I only trade forex, tails. But there are some good “dummies guide to…” books on all forms of trading, which will give you a good idea of how to get started.

There are, from an amateur traders perspective, two main camps in terms of trading – technical analysis and fundamentals.

technical analysis is basically looking at price pattens (i.e. those pretty charts you see) on the basis that price does form recognisable patterns to some extent. (JJ Murphy’s book on Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets is a great intro to the world of TA)

fundamental analysis is looking at what is actually driving the price, (i.e is Apple’s stock about to skyrocket upon rumours of a new bit of kit?) The fundamentals can be picked up from every bit of information you can get your hands on, from the FT to trade journals and news.

Most traders, whether they are aware of it or not, will probably use a bit of both, but with a lean towards one or the other.

Both are quite enjoyable to study, but are an art rather than a science.

If you are intent on trading shares, avoid the intially appealing quick money world of “penny shares”. It’s gambling, plain and simple.

Stick to companies which you have an interest in, which are heavily traded and where there is a lot of info freely available (i.e. the FTSE 100). There is less risk of you losing all your hard earned and it’s more “predictable” (although not quite as exciting, however if trading is exciting you’re probably gambling!).

Be prepared to lose all of your initial deposits. You will make many mistakes and make many bad trades. Start off really small.

If you’ve money to play with try online poker instead. At least that way you’ll have fun whilst you’re losing money, or who knows, this time next year you could be in Vegas!!

May I suggest you have a good read of this site:
Motley Fool

In essence their recommendation is if you are going to invest, then be prepared to put the legwork into research, research and more research and possibly more importantly, the stock market is best viewed as a long term investment – minimum 5 years, ideally 10 – 20+yrs.

Hope this helps

I have also just started to buy some shares. Took advise from people who have some experience. I think it will be a steep ( and expensive ?) Learning curve.

as already mentioned iii.co.uk has been very useful.

For my first trades, I have used X-O.co.uk, they are cheap, ( what they charge you for buying and selling) and money transfers were easy. You can keep track of your “portfolio” on there site as well.

Lots of talk about exciting shares, and watching prices fluctuate. But for my first buys stuck to some boring FTSE 100 stalwarts.

It is gambling, and I would not use any money, that you could not afford lose.

Lots of talk about exciting shares, and watching prices fluctuate. But for my first buys stuck to some boring FTSE 100 stalwarts.

If a non-professional trader has heard the talk, then you’re already way too late 🙂

You can’t beat the big boys, only ride on their coat tails.

Profitable trading is supposed to be boring 😉

+1 Peterfile re beating the full-time pro’s

Index Tracking Funds can be spread about from domestic to global investments and are also ISA-able.

So the FTSE is companies like Tesco, Vodafone, Rolls Royce. My friend has shares in Rockhopper exploration which he has made some okay money on. If they are not FTSE what are they?

Ooops, pressed the ‘send’ button too soon – possibly story of my life thus far… 😕

Anyhow, I was going to ask if anyone has any experience/knowledge of the Index Trackers?

Thanking you….

Tails, check for info about the AIM.

High risk but high rewards if you get it right (which normally means you get lucky!)

It’s like the FTSE 100 on crack 🙂

It’s difficult to outperform the market but you can guarantee you’ll underperform it by running up a lot of trading charges, hence you should trade very infrequently. The best strategy is to buy an index tracker with no upfront charge and an annual management charge of 0.5% or less and then forget about it, and make sure as much of it is in an ISA as possible.

Double post !

If a non-professional trader has heard the talk, then you’re already way too late ..

yeah that’s what I thought..V.Tempted all the same.

The first question that my old man (a now retired stockbroker) used to ask my mates when they approached him with a quesion like “I’ve had a bonus/windfall and I’m thinking of buying some shares” was:

“How much of it can you afford, or be happy, to lose?”

It was, generally, none, so he told them not to buy shares.

Not saying that you shouldn’t have a dabble, but you have to understnad that at its core it’s a gamble.

would also chip in with a cautionary note about the spread betting mentioned above – that (to borrow a phrase) is like the AIM on crystal meth 🙂

on the basis of (usually) open-ended exposure, unless you’re very competent.

How happy are you to gain 50%? and 50% of your cash? both can and do happen, individual shares can plummet (or drift) based on rumour and sentiment. possibly invest in a segment instead?

would also chip in with a cautionary note about the spread betting mentioned above – that (to borrow a phrase) is like the AIM on crystal meth

Spread betting is more accessible/appropriate to those who would prefer to use minimal funds and just have a play around in (i.e. gamble) the markets.

The transactional costs of regular share trading make it completely prohibitive to someone wanting to trade with small amounts of money, this is not true with spread betting, and minimum deposits can be low enough that you don’t cry yourself to sleep at night.

That said, I agree with the point in principle, if you are going to lose money trading shares, you’ll lose it even quicker spread betting 🙂

I’ve traded forex for a number of years. The most liquid “market” in the world by a huge margin (about $4 trillion every day?). I love when I advise my friends NOT to get into forex when they see what they think is an easy way to make money, they place their first trade and watch price action move just a few pips in the wrong direction and wipe their account (in less than 5 minutes) 🙂

I rarely trade anything lower than the 4 hour, or even daily, time frames. I just can’t get my head around the nutters who are trading £10 a pip on the M1 or even tick by tick charts. Insane. It’s just noise. Maxed out at 500:1 leverage and poised to blow their account every time a pair moves $0.001 in real money. 😯

That. Definitely comes under the banner of “for experienced / tutored” investor (but the same is true of shares, to actually make cash, too).

I’ve a very experienced mate who certainly used to do the spread betting stuff, sometimes to hedge items he was buying or selling, and I think he was quite successful. At one point he was quite well up and phoned them up to ask for some cash out of his account (then in surplus to some considerable degree). They were quite surprised to be asked this, as it didn’t happen very often. There’s a lesson there..

Equally on the AIM front, my mum has a handful of AIM shares for financial planning reasons. They don’t actually have to increase in value by anything at all to be worth holding – but somehow (presumably well-managed) they’ve shown a respectable 50% return over the last couple years..

Shares as a means to hopefully hold onto your cash and earn above average returns, looking at Investment Trusts or Trackers (and not even a tracker, you want out if the market falls).

Don’t buy Frozen Orange Juice.

As mentioned, the cost of buying/selling shares can mean it is just not worth doing it if you are only looking to invest small amounts – the share price has to move enough in your favour to cover the dealing costs before you are making a (theoretical) profit.

If you just want to dabble with no risk there are plenty of ‘fantasy share dealing’ sites to try your hand at…

In regards to costs. What costs are there? This place has loads of different fees http://www.share.com/a/share-account-costs.html

Does anyone just offer one standard fee?

How about Pork Bellies, worth a poke ?

Think I’ll have a look at the fantasy share game as I enjoy fantasy football!!

I am never too concerned about the trading costs as these are normally more than covered on the 1st year dividends – depending on the company of course!

Costs for a typical share deal are the trading fee and stamp duty. Trading fees vary depending on the number of transactions you make and how much the company charges.

Motley Fool, as advised earlier is a good source of news along with Bloomberg and iii.

Cheers guys, some good info.

I dont really want to divulge why or where i was going to buy but cheers for the heads up

iii is what i use. I only buy shares that i can buy in my stocks isa and i stick to the ftse 100-250- because they fluctuate a whole hell of a lot less.
If your buying aim shares you really should be watching them as often as possible.

5 minute binaries ftw 🙂

iii offers flat fee dealing. To compensate, they are slower at handing over the cash than others. They have a reasonable portfolio view where you can track your losses or gains. Part of the ‘highly successful’ Halifax group IIRC.

All I know about shares is that my late uncle who died in January had a few. He used a company called Brewin Dolphin to look after them & I think he used to get a regular income of about £1600 ish a month from them.
After he died & they were all sold off/valued, his shares were worth 1.3 million. 😯

google for an online book called “monkey with a pin”. Read it very carefully before you commit. Not saying don’t share deal, but know some of the pitfalls first.