MSN Virtual Trader Help & Advice

trippled

I have recently signed up to MSN's virtual trader with aim to gain knowledge on how the markets work and how investments are traded etc.

I invested in a company that had a rise that day of around 13.6%, i invested 8.30am tht morning and the fee was £15 + 0.5% stamp duty. However as soon as i put my £5000 in it shows a loss of £400 for my £5000 investment. Altho no drop in share value??

Why is this please? is it to do with the Qty of shares they hold maybe?

I have also seen this with a few of my trades, altho the market price has increased, i show a loss initally....

Thanks in advance.

dunstonh

Almost certainly the difference in the bid and offer prices on the share.

trippled

Thanks, thats interesting.

So i see the price of the shares is currently 12p each, for example, i go in to buy £5000 worth, do i not get them at the 12p current price? is it the price they offer it at?

DO i have any control over this? meaning, can i reject there offer price?

Also, what is the differenct between the share price, and the market price. I assume the share price is the value of the share with the company, and the market price is the current price you could sell it at? I recently bought shares at £5.50, and instantly the market price is showing half that.

Thank you for your help!

debbie42

You'll normally see the price of a share with a bid/offer spread. e.g. RBS 372 - 372.25. Some have larger spreads, e.g. EO. 47.5 - 48.5

So you pay 372.25 to Buy RBS and you get 372 if you sell. It's a bit like changing foreign currency rates.

You can sometimes get fractions off when dealing within the bands from your stockbroker, but it's very marginal, as a small trader. You don't set this anyway. You can have limit bids whereby you say you'll buy if the share reaches a certain price, with some brokers.

SpinnerB

bid/offer it is part of the investment game that you have to realise RISK is involved, if you are going for shares I have realised that you need lots of capital & time to play that game (IMHO) and also, pardon the alpha male term, BIG balls ... some S&S ISA Funds have same bid/offer prices some don't ... I found it a shock to see 1k invested become £950 on purchase ... but I am a novice and am learning slowly and overall the portfolio is now up ...

Investment is not a safe place to play, and virtual play grounds are not a real reflection of the roller coster that you will have to deal with if you put real money in ...

I'd say try it for real if you have some spare cash, but start with funds with somebody like h-l rather than shares ...

Loads of good information on here ... Good luck