Investment websites??

[patmahe]

Sorry if this has been posted already, search function wasn't working.

Forgive my stupidity but am new to investments etc..

I'm looking for recommendations for websites where you can buy and sell shares, I'm looking to put in about £100 just as a tester to see if I'm any good at this trading before I go and risk a larger amount.

The website ideally needs to be idiot friendly.

Thanks.

[bigbaddom]

the website I used to look at alot was www.fool.co.uk
very informative. lots of helpful people.

Take you time to look at the whole site.

[patmahe]

bigbaddom said:

the website I used to look at alot was www.fool.co.uk
very informative. lots of helpful people.

Take you time to look at the whole site.

Phew thought you were taking the P1ss at first. Cheers

[Speeder]

patmahe said:

Sorry if this has been posted already, search function wasn't working.

Forgive my stupidity but am new to investments etc..

I'm looking for recommendations for websites where you can buy and sell shares, I'm looking to put in about £100 just as a tester to see if I'm any good at this trading before I go and risk a larger amount.

The website ideally needs to be idiot friendly.

Thanks.

Good broker: selftrade.co.uk

Good financial site: moneyweek.co.uk

Deciding to start trading right now. Risky as hell. IMO. If I were you I spend 6m reading the above site first then when you know what your view is and why of the market start to dabble.

[g4ry13]

Good financial sites: ADVFN (good discussion board), iii, DigitalLook, Hemscott, Bloomberg, Reuters, Sharecast, Marketwatch. There's some good publications around - "shares" is the best magazine available in my opinion.

I've had no problems with iii as a broker.

£100 is nothing to start with if you're going to buy shares. ~£10 to buy, £10 to sell + 0.5% stamp duty + spread = one hell of a break-even point.

If you're only willing to do £100, spread betting is going to be the way forward for you.

[shadowninja]

Here we go, again. Usual suspects sign in.

www.tradindex.co.uk gives you £20k play money. If you can turn that into £100k in several trades, then you're ready. (I say several so that you can't get lucky dumping it all on FX and the watching the market plummet like it did today.)

[rpguk]

g4ry13 said:

£100 is nothing to start with if you're going to buy shares. ~£10 to buy, £10 to sell + 0.5% stamp duty + spread = one hell of a break-even point.

If you're only willing to do £100, spread betting is going to be the way forward for you.

Quoted as he got it out better then I was going to! Unless you just want to buy a few shares in a specific company as a long term punt then any profit and some of your initial investment will almost certaintly be eaten by the costs, which as Gary points out will come to at least £20.

What is the purpose of buying the shares? If you don't need voting rights or a tangible asset then spread betting is just as good without attracting all the fees (and indeed taxes!) of regular share trading.

Edited by rpguk on Tuesday 23 October 12:53

[shadowninja]

Prefer spreadbetting to trading shares, meself.

[g4ry13]

shadowninja said:

Prefer spreadbetting to trading shares, meself.

You can trade shares using spreadbetting

[shadowninja]

Go on, then, show me the certificate. :P

[g4ry13]

shadowninja said:

Go on, then, show me the certificate. :P

I hold shares and have never received a share certificate.

Trading doesn't necessarily mean possession, more just short-term deals rather than the longer term "investing". (As far as my understanding goes on the subject).

Edited by g4ry13 on Tuesday 23 October 16:41

[shadowninja]

g4ry13 said:

shadowninja said:

Go on, then, show me the certificate. :P

I hold shares and have never received a share certificate.

Trading doesn't necessarily mean possession, more just short-term deals rather than the longer term "investing". (As far as my understanding goes on the subject).

The reverse is never true, though.