Stockmarket newbie

Ifts

kayfaz wrote: »

So I figured the only way to get a good feel of the stockmarket and understand it better is to buy some shares. I understand the risks involved and ready to take the gamble with £500.

You could try it using 'fantasy money' by using a practice account first:

https://www.share.com/accounts/other...ount-overview/

do remember that the practice account is free of dealing charges so make sure you account for dealing costs of buying and selling (*£6 to buy & £6 to sell, plus stamp duty is payable at 0.5% of the value of the shares purchased) when doing your sums.
Using a practice account will give you some idea in what is involved but it will differ when using real money, emotions etc.

After talking to a few friends, they suggested I look into Hargreaves and Landsdowne and Barclays Stockbrokers. Are there any better alternatives for a newbie with relatively low fees for smaller transactions?

*I use X-O.co.uk to buy/sell at £5.95 flat rate per trade.

brasso

gkerr4 wrote: »

its not gung-ho - its about being mildly adventurous - he/she (the OP) has expressed an interest in share trading - i say go for it. Ive done very well over the past 17 years on individual shares. I started with a £500 investment - me and a mate went £500 each and bought a £1000 holding. I'll admit i can't remember how it went, but we good profits over the years before "going it alone".......

Ive never had a 100% loss - there are ways to investigate debt that allow you to manage the risk of a total, sudden loss - it still happens, and maybe I've been 'lucky' - but to me there s too much negativity on individual shares. i don't think its "that" difficult - i think people who are interested can learn to make money on the markets. Not every time, not every share you pick will 'win', but overall, its possible to make good gains on individual shares.

I could have written a similar post about 2 years ago (in fact I probably did!).

Maybe I've finally had the bad luck that had eluded me for 10 years or so (apart from 2008 when some of my "safe" banking share did vanish totally, while others dwindled by 90%+), but the last 2 years or so has been torrid for my single share holdings. Everything from Tesco to Majestic to Quindell to ASOS to Petrofac to Afren (and another half dozen at least) have been total disasters. I seem to have bought all at just the wrong moment. Some have been nearly wiped out, some have plunged a more modest 40% or so.

It's been a good reminder, so I've gone back to passive funds, ETFs, indexes etc plus 1 or 2 well-regarded active fund managers like Woodford and Terry Smith etc. What a relief! Everything I've bought in the last year is showing a healthy, steady profit. Yes, I know that funds can drift downwards too but with enough diversification across sectors and geographies I'm not likely to see the sort of stressful volatility I had got used to. The best thing is that I now check my portfolio just once every week or two rather than several times a day!

To the OP, if you want to invest in technology I would suggest buying a low-cost technology fund or ETF. With charges, 500 quid is useless for buying more than one individual share, perhaps 2. The shares would have to rise a lot to just cover the costs of buying and selling.

apollo_

What do you plan on doing with the shares you buy - are you planning to trade on the stock market or hold on to them? If you're willing to put £500 because that's the best way you learn then I applaud your conviction. Bear in mind, investors typically have to put in a lot of research into companies they're planning on buying shares in. Please don't just buy shares in companies on a whim. I'm just getting into passive investing myself, I feel that it will give me a greater understand of the 'big picture' before getting into the world of stock picking.

techno12

I use SVS Securities - £5.75 per trade.

I opened a self-select ISA a couple of ago and pick the occasional share (basically anything that's tumbled 20%+ in a few days that catches my eye).

I filled it with Foxtons and Serco for a few months but got out of both this week (as I want to be fully liquid for a while just in case the Greece thing goes pear-shaped and affects the markets). Made +30% on Foxtons, -5% on Serco.

Swings and roundabouts...

I treat it as a bit of fun, but naturally I'd be annoyed if I lost my original stake. Plan is to take that out once (if) I double my money - then whatever's left is 'free'. I need to get there first of course

PS Definitely have a bash with practice money first to see if it's for you!

AyeWin

Read The Naked Trader book and start listening to the ADVFN podcast. Don't by any means think either will have all the answers but the podcast in particular will start getting you used to the terminology and what to try and look out for.

puk999

brasso wrote: »

I could have written a similar post about 2 years ago (in fact I probably did!).

Maybe I've finally had the bad luck that had eluded me for 10 years or so (apart from 2008 when some of my "safe" banking share did vanish totally, while others dwindled by 90%+), but the last 2 years or so has been torrid for my single share holdings. Everything from Tesco to Majestic to Quindell to ASOS to Petrofac to Afren (and another half dozen at least) have been total disasters. I seem to have bought all at just the wrong moment. Some have been nearly wiped out, some have plunged a more modest 40% or so.

It's been a good reminder, so I've gone back to passive funds...

Much respect for posting about your poor experience with individual shares. I've been in funds up until now and keep thinking about having a punt into individual shares, so it's useful to be reminded about the big risks.