Investment Software

CindyC_2

I was at the Ideal Home Show yesterday and a stall there was selling some Investment Software for £750 apparently it usually sales for £950. I thought it was a bit steep so didn't buy it. Anyone got any thoughts on whether these things are any good or tried/use anything similar? I am an absolute beginner and frankly would only have initially £1000 to invest after buying the software, but the claimed returns were good, possibly too good to be credible. I think they were called the London Investment Company, but the rep said that most of the staff were french or south african.

cheerfulcat

I thought it was a bit steep so didn't buy it.

That was very wise of you.

You could spend £50 or so on books - good, basic ones - and use the other £700 to invest. That would be a far more sensible course of action than buying someone's system ( after all, if it really worked would they want to share it? ).

liamsquire

Exactly! If it really worked, they wouldn't need to sell it. Plus to make gains, I'd assume someone along the line would lose so if everyone had that magic software then what would happen?

I saw a site before about this type of software. Some people ha tried it and said they made very small profits, others said about evens and quite a few said they lost substantially.

Best avoid this.

Troubleatmill_2

Are you planning on tracking that £1000 every minute of every day?
"Buy low, Sell high" to your broker every 20 mins.

If not... and you just want some software to track your shares etc. ( even daily) then Microsoft Money will do just fine.

That should cost less than £30... and invest the rest.

Best
Troubleatmill

ey_up

I'd save to £30 and use excel (or openoffice.org) spreadsheet. Sign up to advfn.co.uk and get free prices updated live during the day.

With only £2k being invested you cant buy too many different shares or charges and stamp duty will eat into any gain. Max amount of trades I would consider is 4 of £500 each but ideally less. To update these manually would be a 2 minute job each day if required. May as well save £30.

Not to mention if you using an online broker eg selftrade, your portfolio is shown with losses/gains anyway.

cheerfulcat

Er, it's not portfolio tracking software that CindyC is writing about, but some sort of trading system.

ey_up

Cheerful - my reply was mainly aimed at the software troubleatmill suggested, while relevant I think it wasted £30 for her needs.

Cindy - have you checked out motleyfool.co.uk? Name doesnt suggest much but the site is very informative.

wongseefu

Hi Cindy,

I'm not 100% sure, but systems like that in shares,betting,horses,football are just another money making scam. There is def no easy way to succeed in investing apart from good hard work and a good sense of judgement. It would be a very bad move to purchase such a program at £1000

Regards, Wong

CindyC_2

Thank you for the advice. My partner was quite cross when I said no to the software, but I really prefer to do my own research and use something like Excel.

I am a total newbie when it comes to stocks and shares, but he has a couple of shares, but has just let them ride. I was thinking of dabbling on a minor basis just to see how things go, and £1000 is a lot of money to me. I also will not have the time to monitor the markets much as I work full-time 8am - 5pm. I was going to look at past trends and try to use them to forecast future movements.

Thank you for the two sites mentioned, plenty of research there for me!

wongseefu

Hi there,

Glad its been of help, if you have any questions l'm sure the experts here will be able to help you. They have helped me loads of times :P

Regards, Wong

oldredlion

Hi CindyC

That software reminds me of the 'horse racing - pick a winner' software from years back; it was always pretty much guaranteed to win you loads of money but it would cost an arm and a leg to buy, and if memory serves it was a con.

I'd suggest going to a site like digital look. There you can set up a fantasy portfolio and watch what happens to your 'investment' - if your picks go down you haven't lost any money and if they rise, then you may have gained valuable knowledge of why they've risen which can be put to good use when you actually part with money. You also get on the rollercoaster and watch as your shares move up and plummet down, all without losing any money!

There are also tools there to look at different shares and sectors.

You can also set up a seperate portfolio for your partner and track any rise and falls and again find out why such things happen.