How to start buying shares???

dandare

Hey folks i'm looking to invest a few quid in shares to see how they perform and get a little bit of understanding of how it works.
it's not going to be a great deal of money and i pretty much know whom i'd like to spend them on, so i'd like to keep down the costs as best as possible. whats the most straightforward/cheapest way to buy some.
can i fund it from isa saving and if so will any gains made from the shares be tax free.

EdInvestor

Try the Halifax Sharebuilder account, where you can buy shares for 1.50 a trade, using their "bulkbuy" system

The Motley Fool is now promoting an ISA which uses the same idea, that might be the best.

http://www.fool.co.uk/share-dealing/share-dealing.htm?source=ishshdban0050008

cheerfulcat

dandare wrote:

whats the most straightforward/cheapest way to buy some.

A discount broker is your best bet. Which one is best for you will depend, among other things, on how often you trade, what markets you deal in and how much money is involved.

can i fund it from isa saving and if so will any gains made from the shares be tax free.

You can't fund it from cash ISAs and still have the ISA wrapper, if that's what you mean. But you can certainly open a broker's ISA and buy shares within that and yes, the capital gains will be tax free. I would second Ed's suggestion of the Motley Fool ISA with the sharebuilder tariff, with a couple of caveats: if you are intending to deal in small and/or illiquid shares then the batch trading model is not for you, nor is it if you are using TA or any other method which relies on more or less exact pricing.

gt94sss2

While all the advice you have received so far is good - one thing to bear in mind is that the Motley Fool ISA has an annual fee of just under £30 - in addition to trading costs.

However, you will have a Capital Gains Tax allowance each year (currently over £8,000) - so if you are investing small amounts of money a shares ISA may not be worth it.

In which case, the non ISA Fool Sharebuilder account is good for investing small amounts

If you're just interested in how it works at the moment - you may even want to consider a fantasy portfolio instead.

Regards
Sunil