Investing in shares for the first time

linda13

Hi there

I would like to try and make some money and invest in shares. I have around £500 to invest but I don't know how to start. What companies should I invest in and how do I go about 'safely' choosing.

Thanks.:j

wriggly

WIth £500, to do both (invest in shares and make money), you need to consider funds (unit trusts, OEICs, or possibly an investment trust savings plan).

knicol46

linda13 wrote: »

Hi there

I would like to try and make some money and invest in shares. I have around £500 to invest but I don't know how to start. What companies should I invest in and how do I go about 'safely' choosing.

Thanks.:j

A cheap sharedealing company with lowest dealing fee and no activity fee is best for you. Decide on a stock you happy to invest in. All share prices are displayed in pence. When buying shares mind that the government takes 0.5% stamp duty added to the cost of your share purchase + your dealing fee and when selling theres only the dealing fee to pay (deducted from your sell proceeds).

jimjames

Investing that kind of money in a single share is very risky or very expensive if you want to spread risk across several shares. Imagine if your £500 was in RBS or BP and the share price crashed leaving your investment massively down in value. While the whole market can go up & down the chances of the FTSE100 dropping by 99% are very very small.

As mentioned above your best bet would be a Stock & Shares ISA with someone like HL.co.uk where you can invest in funds that will spread the risk across many companies.

blinko

Linda very sorry but the brokerage fees are average £10 in and out, +stamp duty so you would need 5% increase just to break even.

its good to start off with a small amount, or £500 is usually what i put in high risk AIM stocks

iii.co.uk is a good source of info

cashbackproblems

I agree an AIM stock is the only thing which will make you any money over short/medium term.

But iii.co.uk only charge £1.50 for trades set in advance and they r part of Halifax.

CLAPTON

500 is too small to invest

best to learn about investing by building a fantasy portfolio and wait until you have more money before investing for real

gadgetmind

I concur with everyone else. Buying shares directly makes no sense unless you buy in chunks of at least £1000 and ideally £2000-£5000, and NO WAY do you want the whole lot in one share.

For £500 you need collective investments, such as Investment Trusts and OEICs, but £500 is below the minimum even for those. And for such a small sum, and need to be buying small amount regularly rather than all in one lump.

Tell us your goals and we can maybe advise.

fozzeh

HMV...s*** or bust

Toby1990

Definitely! Alot of money could of been made shorting that 2 years ago... The music industries going to down the drain in the whole! If you could afford to loose it ( I am planning the same thing making money from little money £1000) then I'd put it in something high risk. I would buy a book aswell to get some understanding, it really helps

fozzeh

Haha.

If you had got HMV when I said (8.428p) you'd be laughing now (9.74p) 1528

15.567% since then mainly on the back of some good news on a loan.

Edit : Laughing more so at 1600. 10.75p...27.551%

Edit : sigh...12.68p! £1,000 would have been £1,467.17 after commission and SDRT.