15 Year Old Looking To Start Trading

TJux

Hi there,

I have always had a fantasy of trading stocks and thought that now might be a good time to start, I have around £500 free at the minute but ideally only want to let around £1-200 go to start with. Is this enough capital to start trading with? Are there any specific online brokers that re best for small trades like these? Are there any industries that I should stay away from investing in for a small trade? What is the best way of learning about investing?

thanks for your time,
Tom

ChesterDog

Tom,

First of all, how fabulous that someone so young has such a focus on investment. As you will see repeated many, many times, the biggest factor in investment returns is to start early.

Now, there is a big difference between what you might call conventional investment and trading. The former involves buying things that are likely to increase in value over time and which might pay you an income as they go along - that income is best reinvested rather than taken and spent: that factor alone can boost your returns by a huge amount.

Trading, on the other hand, is generally about buying things that you think will rise in value pretty quickly, and then selling them for a profit. It is a guess, a gamble, a bet or a punt. Sometimes you might win, sometimes you might lose. Over time - unless you have the ability, time and experience to do a lot of research, and the money to ride out the inevitable losses - the winner will be the broker that you pay to hold your investments and make your trades.

Edit: For conventional investing, you could do a lot worse than looking at Monevator.com

lawriejones1

Hi Tom, I have no professional expertise in the field, but I'd advise you to hold on to your money! Stock trading costs money to buy them and sell them, sometimes at £10 each times, meaning on a single stock you'd invested £200 in you'd need to make a 10% rise in value before you even made a profit.

The reality is that you're unlikely to second guess the market. You might get lucky, but you equally might lose a big chunk too, and £500 is a lot of money at whatever age you are.

My suggestion would be to study maths and business and see if you can get some work experience at a trading bank or investment firm.

Hargreaves Lansdown in Bristol do this sort of thing and if you're interested can help you explore whether the business is something you want to go into as a career. The guys on here who trade shares are likely either to be seasoned ex professionals or have some sort of investment/maths/business background that informs their decisions.

ChesterDog

Good investment is boring (to most people) but means you can probably retire early.

Trading is exciting and means you probably cannot.

george4064

At your age and with your capital, I would suggest saving the money in the bank. Have a look at;

Junior ISAs - http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/junior-isa

Children's Savings - http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/child-savings-tax-free

When you get older, and have researched more into really what you want to do with your money. Anytime from 18 upwards you can start seriously looking at investments.

TJux

ChesterDog wrote: »

Tom,

First of all, how fabulous that someone so young has such a focus on investment. As you will see repeated many, many times, the biggest factor in investment returns is to start early.

Now, there is a big difference between what you might call conventional investment and trading. The former involves buying things that are likely to increase in value over time and which might pay you an income as they go along - that income is best reinvested rather than taken and spent: that factor alone can boost your returns by a huge amount.

Trading, on the other hand, is generally about buying things that you think will rise in value pretty quickly, and then selling them for a profit. It is a guess, a gamble, a bet or a punt. Sometimes you might win, sometimes you might lose. Over time - unless you have the ability, time and experience to do a lot of research, and the money to ride out the inevitable losses - the winner will be the broker that you pay to hold your investments and make your trades.

Edit: For conventional investing, you could do a lot worse than looking at Monevator.com

Thanks very much, I will look in to that site

Superscrooge

Why not sign up to one of the fantasy trading accounts such as Halifax

http://www.halifax.co.uk/sharedealing/our-accounts/fantasy-trader/

You can then get the experience of trading without risking any money.

TJux

Superscrooge wrote: »

Why not sign up to one of the fantasy trading accounts such as Halifax

You can then get the experience of trading without risking any money.

I have already signed up to the investopedia one but I would like to learn a bit about the market first

Superscrooge

TJux wrote: »

I have already signed up to the investopedia one but I would like to learn a bit about the market first

In that case it is definitely worth reading a few books on investing to increase your knowledge before you dive in. Monevator as previously mentioned is a good website for general advice on investing.

A site that has lots of good video blogs rather than written blogs is

http://www.sensibleinvesting.tv/

Bazofts_Revenge

TJux wrote: »

I have already signed up to the investopedia one but I would like to learn a bit about the market first

Make a start with the fantasy portfolio ASAP you will be learning from day 1. I would look at how much you expect to start with and only work with the money you expect to use. Then pick a date each month to invest what you would expect to save. You will then over time see how you are doing.

I still run a fantasy portfolio along side my real accounts watching possible purchases.

All the best.

atush

If you want ti invest, invest for now in funds via a Jisa rather than single shares, A childs pension would be another possible wrapper. Not sure you can have a broker acct at your age, but the fantasy portfolio is a great idea.

Good luck, and good on you.