Share dealing.. is it for you?
After dabbling in the share markets for several months, i’m coming to learn a thing or two, be it the hard way. So you want to try share dealing?
Ask yourself one simple question, am I prepared to loose this money? If you trade sensibly you won’t loose it all, but it’s tough times at the moment and trends in the market can happen quick and fast.
Now if the answer’s yes, i’m prepared to loose some/all of this cash, where do I start? Here is a quick guide to starting out, there’s lots to add, but i’ll leave this for another time.
Here are some websites that will help you navigate and get a feel for the markets.
By registering with Share.co.uk you can trade on the stock market, allowing you to buy and sell shares. You put money into your account using a debit card, which you can then use to purchase the stocks of your choice.
You pay £2.50 per quarter to have the account and you can set-up practice trading accounts here also. Roughly it costs around 1% plus 0.5% stamp duty to buy and 1% to sell shares.
Generally I’ve found them quite good, but when the market is in turmoil, such as when HBOS price collapsed you may experience problems getting into your account to trade, but this goes for most online trading accounts.
It gives you the ability to set a stop loss limit, buy/sell limits and many more triggers for when your away from the computer for peace of mind.
This website gives you bundles of good information and also has real time streaming prices. However, unless you pay for the service you will only get a brief period, 5-60 seconds to look at live share prices.
It has some great tools though, letting you put in your stock portfolio to see how your shares are performing each day, company profits/losses, dividend payments and when they will be paid. This is a great place to start your homework on a particular share/company.
I’ve recently stumbled onto this little gem, it gives you live streaming share prices, however you can only watch one share price at a time, still good if your interested in watching the activities of a recent hot stock you’ve bought and not wanting to fork out cash for ADVFN.
Free website letting you watch share prices, which are usually about 5-15 minutes behind actual real prices. It’s usually quite good for displaying news on the businesses you’ve an interest in.
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I firmly believe this is a great time to invest in the future (3-5 years time), if you can find good strong companies with good growth and a solid financial footing which can last through the recession, you will be do well for the future. No-one knows where the bottom will be, spread your bets, invest wisely and hang in there, the markets will rally and you will have picked up some good deals. Traditonally, companies share prices that fall last, will be the first to rally.
The above will give you a basic footing and arm with you enough tools to get you started trading.
Thanks for the advice – will give it a go!