stocks and shares advice (novice)

destramic

With low isa interest rates I've been thinking of putting some of my savings into shares. I found a company called plus500 to buy shares through but was I'm seeking advice on if they are any good or not?...plus any websites I can refer to for advice please.

Thank you.

brendon

It appears that Plus 500 is set-up to trade CFDs. If you don't know what a CFD is, you'll want to be steering well clear of that. You could easily lose everything. And not just what you put in.

You can buy shares through standard brokers. I use iWeb Share Dealing myself, which is run by the Halifax. If you do decide to buy shares, do not play with CFDs or leverage -- you will get burned. Do your homework, and take things slowly.

It might be wise to invest in a tracker fund if you don't want a hands-on approach. I'll leave others to make suggestions, as I'm still learning myself...

Linton

plus500 are a "contract for difference" CFD website rather than shares. CFDs are essentially bets on share price movements. The plus500 website says:

"Remember that CFDs are a leveraged product and can result in the loss of your entire deposit. Trading CFDs may not be suitable for you. Please ensure you fully understand the risks involved."

I suggest this may not be the best place for novices to place their savings.

You should only be thinking of share investing with money that you can afford to put away for at least 5 years. Share prices frequently move up and down and so if you need to sell in the short term there is a good chance that you will make a loss.

You would be best advised to invest in funds rather than individual shares. Funds hold very large numbers of shares and so would be only slightly affected if one of those should fail.

If you still want to go ahead look around this forum for "platforms". H-L (Hargreaves Lansdowne), Interactive Investors, YouInvest, iWeb are just a few. There are many others.

destramic

Investing in funds?...maybe I need to read up that
...but isn't that when you allow someone to invest your money for you?...thanks for your help

Linton

destramic wrote: »

Investing in funds?...maybe I need to read up that
...but isn't that when you allow someone to invest your money for you?...thanks for your help

A fund will be worth maybe £n00M and so can easily invest in a very wide range of shares. You can buy units in the fund, so yes someone is investing yours and thousands of other people's money. Different funds invest in different areas - eg countries and industries. Some funds invest generally and globally, they perhaps are best for a novice investor.

Investing in individual shares is risky for small investors as they will not be able to afford holding sensible amounts of very many shares. So any one share failing could have a large impact on the portfolio.