Interactive Investor Regular investment £1.50

IronWolf

So I set up a one off 'regular' investment to take advantage of the £1.50 commission, but imagine my disappointment that the price I got is pretty much the high of the day.

Call me paranoid, but maybe their bulk buying is the reason WHY it was near the highs of the day.

So is it pretty pointless to use this service when I would have saved way more than £10 for a normal transaction if Id just bought on my lunch break?

dunstonh

What investment did you buy and what is the time in the day it deals (if it has a fixed time)?

IronWolf

It was Cranswick, at about 10am I think but just going by the share price.

Lokolo

Yep but if you want £1.50 commission... as they say... you get what you pay for.

IronWolf

Last time I do that then, serves me right for being a cheap skate and trying to save £8.50 lol.

The cynic in me wonders if they even paid that for it, they may have bought it at any old time and just charged me near the highs of the day for it

Ifts

£1.50 commission ok for very small trades, or for small amounts regularly invested. For larger trades I prefer to pay full commission, a fiver or so more and be able to buy at the fixed price I get quoted at the time of the trade.
Otherwise its a case of - Save a little, spend a lot!

sabretoothtigger

The idea is to do 1.50 x 12 so you get a more varied price.
If you had bought every month since Jan you'd be better off then just buying at the start of the year and watching this bad market just go lower

They dont always give the highest price but often its not ideal hence it is best for small amounts like 150 upwards. I wouldnt bother for 1k or so as that is going to be close to 1% cost for a real time deal anyway, it would be a false economy.

Some share prices do stay flat, its quite ideal for the tiny shares sometimes where nobody is buying because the company doesnt even produce anything yet or maybe a foreign investment trust where that market is closed in ftse hours

JII varied 1% today thats an acceptable cost in comparison

I did HYC today

Transaction Date: 30 August 2011
Transaction Time: 10:12

Price varied about 2.8% and apparently it rose after I bought


I think they hand these trades to a prop trader and he gambles where the market goes and you are buyer when he is wrong.
Something like that, they are getting some benefit but I wouldnt say its a scam

gadgetmind

I've actually done well by setting limit orders that are 2% to 5% below the current price (depending on volatility of the share) and I find most of them go through at some point during the day as the price jiggles around. Hargreaves Lansdown are quite expensive for trades, but I think it's worth the little extra to eke out that few percent on price.

IronWolf

gadgetmind wrote: »

I've actually done well by setting limit orders that are 2% to 5% below the current price (depending on volatility of the share) and I find most of them go through at some point during the day as the price jiggles around. Hargreaves Lansdown are quite expensive for trades, but I think it's worth the little extra to eke out that few percent on price.

Yeh I've considered doing that, but I thought I'd probably lose as much as I made by missing opportunities like that. i generally try not to time my purchases, but it seems better than getting the highs of the day guaranteed!

gadgetmind

IronWolf wrote: »

i generally try not to time my purchases

Ordinarily I'd agree with you, but I've had a watch list for a few months, and the FTSE was riding too high for me to contemplate purchasing, but when you wake up and first Asian and then the US market have had huge losses, you know it's going to be a bloody day for the FTSE. I place some limit orders over breakfast, and then get emails at work as they are hit.

I don't have a great record for timing, but I picked up a whole load of shares during the two really bad days this August.

sabretoothtigger

better than getting the highs of the day guaranteed!

Ivv used the scheme for two years, I check the times and dates each time, in 2009 it was free so I used it every week.

Its not always the highest price, I think its almost never the lowest but usually between the two. It really is for small amounts, close to 500 I'd say dont bother just bump up the amount and use real time as real time will give you a live deal from the markets order book which usually means a good spread.

In that respect selftrade might be the best or maybe jpjshare

during the two really bad days this August.

I remember there was about 30 :laugh: