Investing in shares for the first time

Doshwaster

With £500 to play with I would just use it as an initial investment in an stocks and shares index tracker ISA and then plan to add £50 or so each month. There are lots of providers, such as L&G: http://www.legalandgeneral.com/investments/choose-a-fund/index-tracker-funds/

£500 is the absolute minimum for a single share purchase - and £1000-2000 is better. If you pay £10 to buy the shares and £10 to sell that means the value has to go up by 4% before you even get your money back. Buy £100 of shares and you would need them to go up 20%.

Sceptic001

fozzeh wrote: »

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.

Presumably Toby1990 won't be laughing, because his plan was to short HMV...:eek:

northerner77

fozzeh wrote: »

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.

fozzeh

Wish I'd seen your post previously - would have got in at around 8p not 10p lol, question now is how far can they climb on the back of a bit of RBS/LBG support?

blinko

its a shorters market at the moment, too much bad news on the horizon to go long for me, euro debt, poor non farm, problems with US economy, comods in trouble its better to wait on the sides

in saying that lloyds is starting to look attractive

C_Mababejive

I'd hang on to your £500 and not invest directly in shares. Its too small a sum.

If you must, put it in a funds isa. See Hargreaves Landsdown or similar.

ashaput

i completely agree to all members here... i don't say that you only have small money, you have pretty much. but the problem is that if you invest on a share that is small amount of money. do you have a plan to start a business or even invest your money in a gold coin? i think with that money you are good to go with those options. it's just my advice. take it or not you decide.

sabretoothtigger

Lucky son of a gun :laugh:

The Guardian
HMV thrown £220m lifeline by banks http://gu.com/p/2ptbc/tw

Everyone owns a bit of HMV now, if they had saved Woolworths we could have taken the dividends in penny chews

fozzeh

northerner77 wrote: »

fozzeh

Wish I'd seen your post previously - would have got in at around 8p not 10p lol, question now is how far can they climb on the back of a bit of RBS/LBG support?

14p now...that would have been a 65% increase on the originally stated price, and I'd have been laughing all the way to the Bank of Capitals Gains Tax!

I, for one, knew it would go one way or the other and knew it was too risky.
The news from above (Lloyds and RBS lending £220m) has secured their future for 2 years...but that is still a risky 2 years. If the Internet/iPhone/tablets/any other buying platform and everything develops as it has, HMV need to raise their game as they will be in the same position and Lloyds/RBS will have another £220m to repay!

I can't see it TBH; the Internet and low prices of CD's in supermarkets will simply overpower the standalone...and selling T-shirts and other media hasn't worked so far.

As for Lloyds, very mixed responses in the market. A lot of people are buying, a lot more are selling. Think it is on the news of the current over-exposure on the housing and mortgage market. No comment to be made on them...already lost a few hundred there.

FCRangers

After reading this and noticing my ISA is paying 0.1% I'm happy to though a few £100 into an account and see what happens. Am I correct in working out on iii.co.uk they only charge £1.5 for charge and £10 when I sell?

So if I buy £200 of BP shares they need to go up to £211.51 to make a profit?

sabretoothtigger

0.5% stamp duty to her majestys government also

halifax is even cheaper at 5 to sell. The 1.50 applies if you are prepared to schedule a share buy done weekly, you dont get to choose when its just 1 day a week they do this cheapy buy for you

I reckon bp is ok for their dividend and hopefully they dont keep screwing things up so price goes up