Share Trading

[som nam na]

I think a few BM's are into this ..I am curious and willing to give it a go butII am wary of doing so before I understand what to do and when.

 

What do you do? How does it work out? Any recommedations for reading up / software / training?

[Eneukman]

I'm not into share trading in a big way though I do manage my own investments from LOS. The first thing you need to do is to set up an account with a broker. I have an account with Nationwide Sharedeal, which is actually managed by Brewin Dolphin on their behalf.

 

The stocks are kept in a nominee name so there are no forms to sign when you sell a holding. The fee for this service is nominal. Each deal attracts a charge of £50 with purchases also attracting stamp duty. If I want to deal, I just phone them up and tell them what I want to buy or sell. To buy shares, you need to use a debit card though they will be happy to use the sale proceeds of a stock to buy a different stock. Be warned though - there is a limit set by Visa as to how much you can charge on your debit card in any one day!

 

I took out a subscription to Investors Chronicle magazine, which gives you on line access to a lot of the information in the magazine. The magazine comments on each company's half yearly and full year results and gives their recommendation on the company. This can be - buy, good value, fairly priced, high enough or sell.

 

You can also check the latest price of any UK share on line - there is about a 20 minute delay here.

 

The downside here is that opinions on a company's share price are not really given frequent enough if you want to do some serious share dealing so I'd be interested in what other sites might be helpful.

 

One very important point to bear in mind is NOT to invest more money than you can afford to lose and to spread your funds between a number of different stocks. I suspect that the current tensions in the Middle East and the rising oil price could very well send stock markets lower in the short term.

 

Alan