What shares?

peterc2609

Just opened a self select thing on Barclays....

Put £500 in and now need to decide what shares to buy....

Scanned the net a bit...

Sites mention Barclays, Sainsburys, Thorntons and Unilever....

Should I go for these or are there better ones to go for?

How should I choose?

dunstonh

What are you looking for from the shares? What sort of risks do you want? What sort of asset allocation are you looking for? Are you looking for high or low yield? What do you feel offers the potential for the future for the level of risk you are taking?

tom188

If you dont know what to do i suggest you shouldnt be doing it.

cheerfulcat

The Motley Fool has a series of articles on investment - start here. If you have any questions, ask on the beginners' board.

Is £500 the full extent of your investment, or do you plan to add to it every month? £500 on its own is not a large enough sum to start with as, by the time you have bought 4 shares ( the very minimum for purposes of spreading risk ) and paid commission,tax and annual admin fees you will have lost a hefty proportion of your capital to charges.

It's probably a better idea to start with either a managed fund like a unit trust, an investment company or investment trust, or a mechanical fund - tracker or ETF. Add to the investment regularly and do your research and when you have built up your capital and your knowledge you will have a good base to start from. Just IMHO, you understand.

HTH

Cheerfulcat

peterc2609

What I wanted to do was put some moeny away into an ISA but hopefully make some as well.

The usual everyday ISAs dont seem to offer much interest etc...

I'm not bothered about risking this money... and will probably add more into it.

gazhawkins

There is a fair degree of turmoil in the markets at the moment.

At such times prudent folks keep their money in things like cash (eg bank deposits, cash ISAs etc), gold or very good quality, low risk, reasonable yield (dividend) blue chip shares.

From your list, Barclays is probably the only one that fits this last description, in my humble opinion.

Some others might be Royal Bank of Scotland, Halifax-Bank of Scotland, British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco, National Grid, Scottish & Southern Electric, Pennon, United Utilities, Severn Trent, Northumbrian Water.

Caveat emptor - buyer beware and do your own research. Markets can go down as well as up.

dominicharvey

I have recently been approached by an american broker wanting to buy some shares I have on behalf of a client of theirs, they are offering way over the market value of the shares AND also asking for a bond upfront before they'll release the money.............I'm suspicious, is it normal practise to ask for a bond (supposedly refunded to me after the sale has gone through), this what the insurance company requires as a guarantee to cover the transcation. Someone please help as I have been sent a conract to sign.
cheers dom

Cornishsaver_3

dominicharvey wrote: »

I have recently been approached by an american broker wanting to buy some shares I have on behalf of a client of theirs, they are offering way over the market value of the shares AND also asking for a bond upfront before they'll release the money.............I'm suspicious, is it normal practise to ask for a bond (supposedly refunded to me after the sale has gone through), this what the insurance company requires as a guarantee to cover the transcation. Someone please help as I have been sent a conract to sign.
cheers dom

I have been buying and selling shares for many years and have never been approached by anybody to buy my shares for a client, and with the requirement to buy a bond upfront this has a very strong whiff to it. I personally wouldn't touch it with a barge pole, but I am always suspicious of deals which seem too good to be true. Also American brokers are quite able to buy shares on the stock market at the market price, so why would they need to buy from private individuals way over the market value?
The word scam comes to mind.