Buying shares

[Hobo]

Something like this is good for searching for funds;

https://www.ii.co.uk/funds/top-investment-funds

[sfella]

Thanks again for all.your input. To be totally honest there are a lot of phrases in your replies I didnt know existed so am unsure how to answer but will try my best.

An example of what interests me is reading on here Merc Amg have taken a 20% slice of Aston martin to team up and make lots of cars. I'm sure the stock went up on that announcement but I'm not reading enough to have had any prior knowledge. All I think is that Merc won't want to loose 20% so Aston should now have a future with a good backer. If I bought £500 now maybe in 10 years will be worth more than £500 sat in the bank or premium bonds etc.

Now I realise this may be a very dull.and boring way of doing things and some of you may think I'm a bit thick! I'm certainly not looking for 'quick flips' watching my phone 24/7 to see if my £500 is now £550 and cash out. Wold be happy to have a facility where a few times a year I could put £500 ish into a company I feel is relatively safe but slow burn.

I've also noticed RR aero shares drop massively but doubt they will go bust (again maybe wrong) so would be happy this winter to have £500 for the long term.

[Nano2nd]

another vote for T212, if you're regularly trading small amounts then it can't be beaten with zero trading fees - interesting to see if that lasts though!

if you get a referral, make sure you keep hold of the link though, i joined via a referral, didn't get my free shares when i queried it months later they couldn't do anything as I'd bloody lost the referral link!

[xeny]

sfella said:

An example of what interests me is reading on here Merc Amg have taken a 20% slice of Aston martin to team up and make lots of cars. I'm sure the stock went up on that announcement but I'm not reading enough to have had any prior knowledge. All I think is that Merc won't want to loose 20% so Aston should now have a future with a good backer. If I bought £500 now maybe in 10 years will be worth more than £500 sat in the bank or premium bonds etc.

Now I realise this may be a very dull.and boring way of doing things and some of you may think I'm a bit thick!

That's a perfectly reasonable way of looking at things. Remember there's also what is called "opportunity cost" - i.e. could you have done something more profitable for the same risk with that money.

Merc won't want to lost that 20%. However, if you feed aml onto finance.google.co.uk, and change the timescale to max, you'll see a pretty steady fall in price from when they were originally offered for sale in October 2018.

Every one of those days, some people decided the price for shares they owned was too high, and sold, and others decided the price was good value, and so bought. Looking at the graph, all of those buyers have been wrong so far. What makes it good value now, especially compared to some of the other companys out there?

[eltawater]

sfella said:

An example of what interests me is reading on here Merc Amg have taken a 20% slice of Aston martin to team up and make lots of cars. I'm sure the stock went up on that announcement but I'm not reading enough to have had any prior knowledge. All I think is that Merc won't want to loose 20% so Aston should now have a future with a good backer. If I bought £500 now maybe in 10 years will be worth more than £500 sat in the bank or premium bonds etc.

Don't count on it.

If Aston shares slide in the future, Mercedes could then potentially trigger a takeover at a much discounted share price. Good business for Mercedes, trade a bit of loss on their initial investment against getting the whole company at a severely discounted share price. Sucks for you as an ordinary shareholder as your shares will be compulsory purchased from you at the discounted future offer price, not what you bought in at today.

[vulture1]

sfella said:

Thanks again for all.your input. To be totally honest there are a lot of phrases in your replies I didnt know existed so am unsure how to answer but will try my best.

An example of what interests me is reading on here Merc Amg have taken a 20% slice of Aston martin to team up and make lots of cars. I'm sure the stock went up on that announcement but I'm not reading enough to have had any prior knowledge. All I think is that Merc won't want to loose 20% so Aston should now have a future with a good backer. If I bought £500 now maybe in 10 years will be worth more than £500 sat in the bank or premium bonds etc.

Now I realise this may be a very dull.and boring way of doing things and some of you may think I'm a bit thick! I'm certainly not looking for 'quick flips' watching my phone 24/7 to see if my £500 is now £550 and cash out. Wold be happy to have a facility where a few times a year I could put £500 ish into a company I feel is relatively safe but slow burn.

I've also noticed RR aero shares drop massively but doubt they will go bust (again maybe wrong) so would be happy this winter to have £500 for the long term.

RR share has a very good chance of going down to 32p at least can you stomach that buying in now and seeing it like that in a months time?
Aston is another share I wouldn't touch with a barge pole. Personally I think you need some better financial advice than most of us can give on here. Have a look at the thread with Julian. I think it is stickied above.

Edited to add.
it is the top sticky thread in the finance forum

[anonymous-user]

sfella said:

there are a lot of phrases in your replies I didn't know existed

Somewhere in Internetland there's a thing called "Investopedia". It's great for cutting though the jargon. Just stick any phrase into google together with the word Investopedia.
Example, "A sell-off is a rapid selling of securities, such as stocks and bonds, which leads to a decline in their price."

There's also another site called Motley Fool. Crazy name but lots of good content.

The key thing to remember is that people who really know what they're doing don't need to hide behind jargon or smoke 'n' mirrors.

[Hobo]

sfella said:

Thanks again for all.your input. To be totally honest there are a lot of phrases in your replies I didnt know existed so am unsure how to answer but will try my best.

An example of what interests me is reading on here Merc Amg have taken a 20% slice of Aston martin to team up and make lots of cars. I'm sure the stock went up on that announcement but I'm not reading enough to have had any prior knowledge. All I think is that Merc won't want to loose 20% so Aston should now have a future with a good backer. If I bought £500 now maybe in 10 years will be worth more than £500 sat in the bank or premium bonds etc.

Now I realise this may be a very dull.and boring way of doing things and some of you may think I'm a bit thick! I'm certainly not looking for 'quick flips' watching my phone 24/7 to see if my £500 is now £550 and cash out. Wold be happy to have a facility where a few times a year I could put £500 ish into a company I feel is relatively safe but slow burn.

I've also noticed RR aero shares drop massively but doubt they will go bust (again maybe wrong) so would be happy this winter to have £500 for the long term.

If your initial £500 investment isn't worth £1000 in 5-7 years then your doing it wrong. Compounded interested is what you need to be looking for, ie steady and constant growth.

[GliderRider]

I would strongly recommend reading 'How to Own the World' by Andrew Craig. I saw it recommended on Pistonheads and am very glad I bought it. I've also given copies to my children and other relatives who've expressed an interest in investing. It gives a very good description of the benefit and pitfalls of different investments in terms the layman can understand.

One thing Andrew Craig points out is that a lot of smaller companies don't have enough shares for sale at any one time to be of much interest to the corporate investor, so the private investor can get some bargains. There is also the possibility of losing the lot with these, usually, AIM shares, so balancing the portfolio with some bigger companies and investment trusts, funds, etc. is advisable.

[chip*]

sfella said:

Thanks again for all.your input. To be totally honest there are a lot of phrases in your replies I didnt know existed so am unsure how to answer but will try my best.

An example of what interests me is reading on here Merc Amg have taken a 20% slice of Aston martin to team up and make lots of cars. I'm sure the stock went up on that announcement but I'm not reading enough to have had any prior knowledge. All I think is that Merc won't want to loose 20% so Aston should now have a future with a good backer. If I bought £500 now maybe in 10 years will be worth more than £500 sat in the bank or premium bonds etc.

Now I realise this may be a very dull.and boring way of doing things and some of you may think I'm a bit thick! I'm certainly not looking for 'quick flips' watching my phone 24/7 to see if my £500 is now £550 and cash out. Wold be happy to have a facility where a few times a year I could put £500 ish into a company I feel is relatively safe but slow burn.

Maybe, maybe not..

In case you are unaware, AM are on a roadshow seeking additional funding. See article below:
https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/new...

To cut to the chase, the credit rating for the current corporate debt are CCC/Caa1 and existing secured bonds are rated CCC/Caa2 i. e. The rating agency classify AM's credit rating as high yield (or junk bond for those who are old enough to remember this term) with repayment deemed 'substantial risk /extremely speculative' . For you reference, I attach the wiki page detailing the credit ratings.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_credit_rating

Any equity stake will be last in the creditor queue if the SHTF, but on the flip side you could make a mint in 10 years time.

To quote an old Clint Eastwood film Dirty Harry,
'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do you, punk?

[underwhelmist]

I use an Interactive Investor (iii.co.uk) shares ISA and I'm very happy with it. There's a monthly fee of £9.99 but this gives you credit for two trades per month. I don't trade that much but the fee seems reasonable, and it allows for dividends to be automatically re-invested.

[Paft Dunk]

Seems like an appropriate place to ask this question - I have a Fidelity, T212 and an HL account, but recently as I read more into markets I come across companies that are't listed in the UK or US - perhaps as an example a company that's on a Canadian exchange.

Is there a platform that will give access to a wider set of exchanges?

thanks

[Mr_Megalomaniac]

sfella said:

Hi, first time poster in here. Would like to buy some shares, nothing huge but have no.idea where to start. Seems extreme to be ringing a broker for a few hundred quid here and there. Can anyone reccomend a safe online platform where I can buy/sell? Thanks

OP I've been managing my own money for just over a decade in much the same manner. I had been using IG but I noted a lot of limitations when stressed scenarios were occuring, so I'm moving over to Interactive Brokers, along with my wife.
So far it seems so good and I cannot complain on the fees, which are reasonable, and the platform which offers up sufficient information and ability to deal on major exchanges with Direct Market Access.