Looking to take the plunge into more risky investments

tradetime

Kua wrote: »

In that case, why on earth do you do it?? :rotfl:

At the outset it does seem a little daft, not good odds at all, however I'd say it's the risk : reward that swings it when you are part of the 1 in those odds it is very lucrative, and if you are part of the 4, well then you go out of business and get on with doing something else. Iiterally it's a great example of natural selection, the 1 take the money from the 4 and as traders they are then extinct.

tradetime

Kua wrote: »

Using Selftrade as an example again. Presumably I'd be after a "Dealing Account".

Also it says in that link: "Standard dealing fee £12.50 and no account charge." If that is a per transaction fee, that's pretty good....

Yes looking at that the £12.50 is per transaction, so total cost to buy and sell an ETF will be £25, if you were to buy and sell an individual company share there would also be 0.5% stamp duty on the purchase

Kua

tradetime wrote: »

At the outset it does seem a little daft, not good odds at all, however I'd say it's the risk : reward that swings it when you are part of the 1 in those odds it is very lucrative, and if you are part of the 4, well then you go out of business and get on with doing something else. Iiterally it's a great example of natural selection, the 1 take the money from the 4 and as traders they are then extinct.

Hehe. I like it.

Kua

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

A small private investor might like halifax sharebuilder where the price to buy a share (or etf ) scheduled in advance is only £1.50 and £3 to sell upto £250 of shares (afaik)

Sounds good, I'll look into it.

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

Your uncle might be a clever bloke but you need to understand things for yourself

You cant invest with someone elses understanding any more then you can drive a car while sitting as a passenger in the back.
You might be able to set the car in motion but it'll end in a crash most likely

Don't worry, I'm well aware of this . But still its worth repeating.

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

Anything less then 10k a trade makes you a small private investor imo and as you are new to it all I think regular investment into unit trusts is better for you and maybe also cheaper.

Clearly I have more research to do. But at least I now have a better idea of where to focus my thoughts.

Thanks for the links. I've found Investopedia really useful but Investwords looks equally good, if not better.