HL £1 per trade ending soon, what are you doing?

antispam246

Open ended question but for those who used the january offer from Hargreaves Lansdown to taste abit of share dealing I'm curious as to what you intend to do before it ends tomorrow.

I myself tested the waters for the first time, with the low fees I used it to make small purchases except for one larger purchase making up 60% of my trades. I've still got alot of to read up on and research but I still can't answer myself as to whether to cash out before the trade prices return to normal or carry on, or perhaps abit of both. Obviously this depends on alot. First and foremost I'm considering my own experience in this area, which is honestly still very much beginnerish.

Regardless, I'm up £100 on my smaller purchases with a near 50% gain on one share. My single large purchase is currently down 0.53%. None of this really means much right now. The way I was looking at it was to hold the 60% stake for the long run, atleast 5 years, I'm fairly certain it will perform well and pay out decent dividends, so I can forgo the increased trade fees that would be applicable to it later on.

My main concern is what to do with the smaller purchases, I have several small investments ranging from £50-£200, all over which are actually up at the moment. I'm debating whether such small amounts would be worth holding onto once the trade fee goes back up, I'm thinking this despite really considering how well I think each investment will continue to perform. I'm confident in them all but with such small investments... this keeps bothering me.

I guess I'm looking for someone with abit more experience to perhaps shed some light on this for me.

Also interested in what otehrs are doing in similar situations or how you got on if you used it as on opportunity to learn more. I'll say this, I'm so glad I took the opportunity and took the plunge, even if only to get a feel. The whole month I've been telling myself why the hell did I not get in on this area of saving earlier. I totally understand and appreciate the ever associated risks with investments, especially share dealing but I can also appreciate the massive potential for financial growth in this area. It feels like it will become very time consuming but I'm really enjoying the research element of it, certainly beats sticking a lump sum in a poxy 3% account and watching a measely return ever month/year.

Linton

IMHO you should be buying shares in at least £500 lots, unless you are a member of a drip feed scheme. So I suggest you sell most of your very small investments before the scheme ends and perhaps use the proceeds to build up the one or two you have most faith in.

I am pleased that you have found your initial dabblings in the stock market both interesting and potentially lucrative for the future. However I would warn you that 2012 so far has been very good for the markets generally, you should not expect this to continue indefinitely.

antispam246

Totally understand and thanks. I sold everything, not that there was alot to begin with. I took a 30% gain overall. I was still toying with what I was going to do whilst at work and I took the simple and seemingly obvious answer. I figured if I'm not entirely sure how to approach this now I'd rather take the gains and knowledge of this, go away, learn everything further whilst monitoring the same stocks in my free shares account (pretend money) and come back when it's time.

There's several books I'd like to read thoroughly as well as 100's of printouts and notes I've made to research, so i'll start with this and most likely come back and start with an S+S ISA, fill up this and next years quote come april then consider dabbling manually in shares again.