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Buying shares (for the first time)

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Comments

  • jimjames
    jimjames Posts: 19,317 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    theianfox wrote: »
    If you're not planning on moving the shares around much, then see if your bank does internet share trading.

    I have that facility with HSBC and they charge around 11.95 for a trade with no annual fees.

    Worth checking if this is inside an ISA or not. Most don't charge fees outside ISA but do when inside it.
    Remember the saying: if it looks too good to be true it almost certainly is.
  • IronWolf
    IronWolf Posts: 6,469 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    0.5% p.a. charge on holding shares is ludicrous. There are plenty of brokers that will charge nothing for holding shares.
    Faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
  • theianfox
    theianfox Posts: 45 Forumite
    jimjames wrote: »
    Worth checking if this is inside an ISA or not. Most don't charge fees outside ISA but do when inside it.

    Mine's not in an ISA.
  • dllive
    dllive Posts: 1,389 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper I've been Money Tipped!
    Thanks guys, some useful comments here, especially those concerning monkeys and pins! :-)

    Just out of interest, here are the shares Im currently thinking of purchasing.

    Bristish americam tobaaco (bats)
    Glaxo (gsk)
    Imperial tobacco (IMT)
    Astrazenika (azn)

    My above choices are heavily influenced by what Neil Woodford is invested with. So I guess Im asking: Do I increase my payment into Invesco Perpetual High Income fund (I already have most of my money in this fund) OR try and cut out the middle man (Neil Woodford!) and invest directly into the above shares.

    I have looked at his top 10 holdings, and it seems the above have performed fairly reliably and he is confident about the future performance of tobacco and pharmaceuticals.
  • MoneySaverLog
    MoneySaverLog Posts: 3,232 Forumite
    Yes I'd increase the payments into the fund as its heavily weighted to those individual shares
  • Doshwaster
    Doshwaster Posts: 6,409 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Depends on why you are buying those shares. Do you expect/hope they will increase in value significantly over the next few years or is dividend income a higher priority?

    From the stocks listed they aren't the short of companies which are going to double in value overnight but they are all good at generating cash so they would be better choices if you are looking for income. If you can get 4-5% then that's better than you are going to get in any cash savings account.
  • gkerr4
    gkerr4 Posts: 495 Forumite
    you shouldn't be paying any fees on holding shares - plenty of brokers who don't and have lower dealing costs also - so consider moving broker first would be my first comment.

    also - this board is notoriously (imo) risk averse and very few will recommend buying individual shares - hence all the doom and gloom and monkey with a pin stories above.

    Ive done well on individual shares over the years - i trade frequently, rarely hold a share longer than 9 or 10 months - the longest i've ever held a share is a currently holding in citigroup which i've had a couple of years and yes, its doing very well for me. I find it fun, challenging, intellectually stimulating and it brings additional income for me. If you have the interest and the motivation and the time to research then go for it. I'd recommend reading a lot of books on the subject - you will get a lot of conflicting advice there to, but try things and see how it works out. For a first book i strongly recommend "the naked trader" by robbie burns - and excellent read and quite a good audiobook also.

    best of luck.
  • DUS
    DUS Posts: 184 Forumite
    I can see that you are currently planning to buy shares of companies listed on the LSE only. Then, I think, HL is a decent platform.

    Just a word of caution though. If you are considering to buy shares abroad, say Frankfurt, you´d better think twice. It might be the case for all the providers out there, but HL will charge you a lot for this (via their fx charges). Just to give you an example that I "enjoyed" having with Hargreaves this month:

    Purchased 1,000 shares of a company listed on XETRA in Germany. Purchase price in Euros was 13,38 and I sold 2 weeks later for roughly 14,90. The total gain in Euro terms of roughly € 1,500 translated into a profit in GBP of 722 with HL. :eek:

    So for me, trading on foreign bourses is now a definite no-go unless I can find a broker/service that doesn´t cut my Euro gains by almost 50%. :(

    DUS
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