Beginning investor

Student_of_£

Hi! I want to start investing. I've been looking at the Natwest Monthly Portfolio builder and their FTSE 100 tracker?
Can anyone give me any advice on what I should do?
Thanks

dunstonh

Bank products are typically poor quality and expensive. There are exceptions but its a good rule of thumb to use as a starting point.

The use of a single sector fund (the FTSE 100 tracker) in a portfolio without any other single sector funds is typically bad quality investing. What is it about the FTSE100 that appeals to you? It has been one of the worst investment sectors for the last 20 years.

Which FTSE 100 fund were you looking at as the Natwest Monthly Portfolio builder allows you to pick from their fund supermarket

sabretoothtigger

Its the brand names people like as its familar. Asia pacific has a couple and is another viable unit trust to consider. Its a better path then single shares but there are cheaper providers then Natwest, lots of them will handle monthly payments

jimjames

Student_of_£ wrote: »

Hi! I want to start investing. I've been looking at the Natwest Monthly Portfolio builder and their FTSE 100 tracker?
Can anyone give me any advice on what I should do?
Thanks

Have a look here

http://www.cavendishonline.co.uk/

or here http://www.hl.co.uk/

HL have lots of advice but not cheapest for trackers

100saving

I am currently using the practice account on share.com this is what i have at the moment:



I don't think its a bad start. I have never done this type of thing before so just tying to get the feel for it before using my real money.

what do you think? i am trying to stick to what i know that the reason for stock in apple/amazon as these company's do seem like good long term bets??

IronWolf

Amazon and Apple are quite different investments. Apple at the moment is more of a contrarian play, whereas Amazon is 'growth' stock where you are paying a very high P/E ratio for the prospect of some earnings in the future, possibly.

What were your reasons for investing in each of these? We can all comment on your stocks as we all have opinions but more important is your reasoning behind it, if thats sound then its ok to disagree with other people.

Hominu

100saving wrote: »

I am currently using the practice account on share.com this is what i have at the moment:

I don't think its a bad start. I have never done this type of thing before so just tying to get the feel for it before using my real money.

Have you read any books? I'd consider them important before investing real cash.

To me, 'Practice' accounts are only useful as a marketing gimmack. You need to understand each and every investment before committing.

Remember that past performance is no indication of future performance.

sabretoothtigger

Unless amazon is expanding into china I prefer apple longer term. AMZN is more trendy now, AAPL already boomed last year

Both have major problems if consumer spending in indebted western countries slows, I think Apple is cheaper more liquid so the better able to transform to future changes

Like tech but MS is a giant with its shoelaces undone and dont like the CEO chances. Have HOIL and SAN both challenging but with growth possible

After practise finishes you can start to learn, start small is most likely best. Use UT for global stocks

100saving

I was going to start buying using HL. Opening up with about £500-£1k at first to get started.

I am looking long turm like 5-10 years depending on how it goes.

jimjames

100saving wrote: »

I was going to start buying using HL. Opening up with about £500-£1k at first to get started.

I am looking long turm like 5-10 years depending on how it goes.

Do you have any other investments? If you don't then these on their own are very high risk.

Also you may find that HL are not the cheapest for small purchases and also levy annual charges for holding the shares.

Student_of_£

I'm now thinking of gettng my graduate account with HSBC, so I can make use of the global invesment centre. I like the idea of funds so I was thinking of holding say for example, 2 bonds, the FTSE Allshare tracker and 7 medium/high risk funds. Obviously I have a lot of learning to do!!