How should I start investing?

innovate

thegrind wrote: »

OP,

You say you are risk averse yet you want to buy banking shares?

why not for example GSK, VOD, RDS-?)

also £100 drip feed a month you'd probably be losing 2% of that in commission and stamp duty before you've even started making a profit.

Staggering that a newbie to investing should be given a number of stock market symbols. It's like giving a toddler the keys to a number of cars and telling them to go for a test drive.

I think nobody should be allowed a DIY investment until they have passed an investor's test that should be offered as a regulated offering free of charge by anyone licensed to offer DIY investing.

iAMaLONDONER

thegrind wrote: »

OP,

You say you are risk averse yet you want to buy banking shares?

why not for example GSK, VOD, RDS-?)

also £100 drip feed a month you'd probably be losing 2% of that in commission and stamp duty before you've even started making a profit.

I agree there's irony there!

Wasn't Vodafone in trouble recently in India over a £1bn tax bill?

I'm weary of RDS after what happened to BP during the Gulf oil spillage!

jimjames

iAMaLONDONER wrote: »

I agree there's irony there!

Wasn't Vodafone in trouble recently in India over a £1bn tax bill?

I'm weary of RDS after what happened to BP during the Gulf oil spillage!

Why are you going straight in at the deep end?

You are choosing investments that have the possibility of 100% loss. That doesn't sound risk averse to me. The only thing more risky would be trading such as spread betting that could cost more than your original stake.

iAMaLONDONER

jimjames wrote: »

Why are you going straight in at the deep end?

You are choosing investments that have the possibility of 100% loss. That doesn't sound risk averse to me. The only thing more risky would be trading such as spread betting that could cost more than your original stake.

All share dealings have a risk of 100% loss !
However I guess supermarket shares are a safer bet- after all i can't see Tesco going bankrupt anytime soon!

jimjames

iAMaLONDONER wrote: »

All share dealings have a risk of 100% loss !

That's not totally true, investment trusts and funds don't! If the FTSE is worth nothing then we've got more problems than worrying about investment performance but a share can easily drop - even one as big as RBS or Lloyds or BP or Tesco!

robatwork

Cheapest tracker you can find.

On a platform like Charles Stanley which will take the least %age from your contributions.

innovate

iAMaLONDONER wrote: »

All share dealings have a risk of 100% loss !
However I guess supermarket shares are a safer bet- after all i can't see Tesco going bankrupt anytime soon!

Not too long ago, nobody could see banks going bankrupt anytime soon. After all, they were safe as houses. Ha bloody ha.

MABLE

iAMaLONDONER wrote: »

All share dealings have a risk of 100% loss !
However I guess supermarket shares are a safer bet- after all i can't see Tesco going bankrupt anytime soon!

Well I bought Sainsburys at £4.20 before Christmas and now down to £3.20. Even then some experts are saying they should be half that price.

Remember all shares are risky but some a lot riskier than than others.

Also who would have thought Lloyds would end up being a penny stock. At one time they were over £12.00.

iAMaLONDONER

innovate wrote: »

Not too long ago, nobody could see banks going bankrupt anytime soon. After all, they were safe as houses. Ha bloody ha.

Hmm but food selling is the one business that won't go completely bankrupt as we all have to eat!

iAMaLONDONER

jimjames wrote: »

That's not totally true, investment trusts and funds don't! If the FTSE is worth nothing then we've got more problems than worrying about investment performance but a share can easily drop - even one as big as RBS or Lloyds or BP or Tesco!

I'm sure people who bought Greek bonds and funds pre-2008 would disagree!