Stock market - How does one get involved?

[GaryJ8]

Hi, going to sound like a real newbie here but if someone wanted to earn a living or become involved in the stock market - How do you do it?

A scenario, a young lad, let's say 18 years old, not really sure on what he wants to do with his life but wants a bit of excitement. No real source of cash to invest thousands into shares so is it possible to earn a living out of this without having any qualifications/experience in this field of business? I've read previously that investing little money such as £100 here and there will never really get you anywhere as fees will play a big part of your profit?

Also, for me and anyone else who may want to know this question in the future, how do you actually go about buying shares?

I'm sure these questions have all been asked before and I don't mean to sound stupid in any questions I've asked, I'm just intrigued to whether this sort of thing is feasable to someone with no qualifications in the subject or experience (or substantial amounts of money)

Thanks!

[LeeThePeople]

You need to be spending a lot more than that to cover costs mate, Motley Fool is £10for a uk trade and £17.50 for an international trade.

http://www.fool.co.uk/share-dealing/share-dealing....

Check there forums for details on whats involved and trading short/long etc its not easy, ive never done it but have bought shares for long term investment through here.

[ShadownINja]

If you only have £100 or so, then spreadbetting is the easiest way to lose your money make riches beyond your wildest dreams.

Seriously, though, if you're a private trader, expect to take about 2-3 years to become consistently profitable. If you're making big bucks within a month, expect to blow out massively within 6 months. You need to develop a trading style that can cope with varying market conditions. Beginner's luck in trading is the worst kind of luck to have. You will get cocky and go big. That's when the market will rape you. I remember back in the dotcom boom, people were buying shares in the most stupid of companies. You could set up Isellmystinabucket.com and everyone would buy shares in your company. Everything soared. Iceland even called themselves Iceland.co.uk. wkers. People went big... it could only go one way, right? And bang! Suddenly, shares plummeted, people who didn't know what they were doing lost thousands and thousands.

Anyway, www.financial-spread-betting.com , www.babypips.com and www.trade2win.com are good places to start. Take your time. And keep your guard up. And don't pick bottoms.

Edited by ShadownINja on Tuesday 5th May 17:42

Edited by ShadownINja on Tuesday 5th May 17:48

[Stu R]

ShadownINja said:

If you only have £100 or so, then spreadbetting is the easiest way to lose your money make riches beyond your wildest dreams.

You still spread betting Darren? Must say I've resisted all temptation to revisit my IG account in recent months, guarenteed if anyone is going to lose their house because they forgot to set the stops, it'll be me

[ShadownINja]

Stu R said:

ShadownINja said:

If you only have £100 or so, then spreadbetting is the easiest way to lose your money make riches beyond your wildest dreams.

You still spread betting Darren? Must say I've resisted all temptation to revisit my IG account in recent months, guarenteed if anyone is going to lose their house because they forgot to set the stops, it'll be me

Am still there! With a Forex broker and trading "properly", not derivatives of underlying markets. I'll leave that to the big boys. I think things like options and binaries are things to play with when you've really got trading nailed on the head. I know a handful of people who actually do make consistent profits but they are also able to trade the normal markets with apparent ease, so I'll leave them to it.

Edited by ShadownINja on Tuesday 5th May 17:45

[JustinP1]

ShadownINja said:

If you only have £100 or so, then spreadbetting is the easiest way to lose your money make riches beyond your wildest dreams.

Indeed, it is a great concept which seems entirely fair, however just like in a casino the games are played to a slight but fundamental disadvantage.

If you buy shares and they go up by £1 each then you make a big profit.

If you spread bet the same deal there is a 'stop' put at when your money runs out.

So, lets say RBS are 50p today, and you splash your dough on them. They go up to £1.50 tomorrow after some volatile betting. You make a killing right!?

Maybe... however if your money ran out at 43p, then if it dips to that then the bet is over. You lose the lot regardless of the score at the end of the day.

IMHO unless you really know what you are doing, you may as well bet on sports.

[GaryJ8]

I wasn't saying that I personally only have £100 to invest, but is that considered no where near enough cash to start with and if so, what is sufficient?

What does spreadbetting mean?

[Stu R]

ShadownINja said:

Stu R said:

ShadownINja said:

If you only have £100 or so, then spreadbetting is the easiest way to lose your money make riches beyond your wildest dreams.

You still spread betting Darren? Must say I've resisted all temptation to revisit my IG account in recent months, guarenteed if anyone is going to lose their house because they forgot to set the stops, it'll be me

Am still there! With a Forex broker and trading "properly", not derivatives of underlying markets. I'll leave that to the big boys.

Braver man than I
I'll make a venture back into the markets soon I expect, I've always lacked will power.
Now, what's gold trading at ....

[GaryJ8]

JustinP1 said:

ShadownINja said:

If you only have £100 or so, then spreadbetting is the easiest way to lose your money make riches beyond your wildest dreams.

Indeed, it is a great concept which seems entirely fair, however just like in a casino the games are played to a slight but fundamental disadvantage.

If you buy shares and they go up by £1 each then you make a big profit.

If you spread bet the same deal there is a 'stop' put at when your money runs out.

So, lets say RBS are 50p today, and you splash your dough on them. They go up to £1.50 tomorrow after some volatile betting. You make a killing right!?

Maybe... however if your money ran out at 43p, then if it dips to that then the bet is over. You lose the lot regardless of the score at the end of the day.

IMHO unless you really know what you are doing, you may as well bet on sports.

"...Maybe... however if your money ran out at 43p" What does this mean exactly? You saying that when buying you set a limit on what the value can go down to, and then if it hits that number...

[ShadownINja]

Have a look at the first of the three sites I quoted above. It'll explain it all in detail.

[ShadownINja]

Stu R said:

ShadownINja said:

Stu R said:

ShadownINja said:

If you only have £100 or so, then spreadbetting is the easiest way to lose your money make riches beyond your wildest dreams.

You still spread betting Darren? Must say I've resisted all temptation to revisit my IG account in recent months, guarenteed if anyone is going to lose their house because they forgot to set the stops, it'll be me

Am still there! With a Forex broker and trading "properly", not derivatives of underlying markets. I'll leave that to the big boys.

Braver man than I
I'll make a venture back into the markets soon I expect, I've always lacked will power.
Now, what's gold trading at ....

It's all about discipline. If you can control yourself and kick your emotions out the door then why not do it?

[GaryJ8]

ShadownINja said:

Have a look at the first of the three sites I quoted above. It'll explain it all in detail.

Shall get reading, thanks.

From a quick look at the first site, I have read it like this, you basically bet on what the FTSE is going to do rather than invest in shares? So basically having no knowledge of the market I am, at this time, better off trying to bet on something I know about, like football.

[Stu R]

Self control isn't my forté, I'm far too impulsive. Hasn't got me into trouble so far (quite the opposite infact, did well last year), but I'm fairly sure if I had a psycho-analysis done the first thing the shrink would tell me would be stay away from the markets

We should form a partnership, I seem to be a kiss of death for markets at the minute, everything I've mused about buying into seems to nosedive. You tell me what you want to buy up, I'll fein interest in buying them, watch them plummet, you get them cheap. I pretend I'm not interested anymore, and they'll reach record breaking highs

[ShadownINja]

Stu R said:

Self control isn't my forté, I'm far too impulsive. Hasn't got me into trouble so far (quite the opposite infact, did well last year), but I'm fairly sure if I had a psycho-analysis done the first thing the shrink would tell me would be stay away from the markets

We should form a partnership, I seem to be a kiss of death for markets at the minute, everything I've mused about buying into seems to nosedive. You tell me what you want to buy up, I'll fein interest in buying them, watch them plummet, you get them cheap. I pretend I'm not interested anymore, and they'll reach record breaking highs

I hope you're not selling signals, mister. There's laws against that if you're not FSA registered.

[ShadownINja]

GaryJ8 said:

ShadownINja said:

Have a look at the first of the three sites I quoted above. It'll explain it all in detail.

Shall get reading, thanks.

From a quick look at the first site, I have read it like this, you basically bet on what the FTSE is going to do rather than invest in shares? So basically having no knowledge of the market I am, at this time, better off trying to bet on something I know about, like football.

Yes.
















As I wrote earlier, it takes a while to study everything you need to, from a basic understanding of what goes on to how to analyse charts.

[Stu R]

ShadownINja said:

Stu R said:

Self control isn't my forté, I'm far too impulsive. Hasn't got me into trouble so far (quite the opposite infact, did well last year), but I'm fairly sure if I had a psycho-analysis done the first thing the shrink would tell me would be stay away from the markets

We should form a partnership, I seem to be a kiss of death for markets at the minute, everything I've mused about buying into seems to nosedive. You tell me what you want to buy up, I'll fein interest in buying them, watch them plummet, you get them cheap. I pretend I'm not interested anymore, and they'll reach record breaking highs

I hope you're not selling signals, mister. There's laws against that if you're not FSA registered.

Nothing of the sort guv!

I'm Warren Buffett's opposite this year I swear. I do seem to carry huge influence on the markets, just in a bad way, kinda like reverse alchemy I'm fully expecting banks to start paying me to STFU, or talk about their competitors before the year is out!

[JustinP1]

GaryJ8 said:

JustinP1 said:

ShadownINja said:

If you only have £100 or so, then spreadbetting is the easiest way to lose your money make riches beyond your wildest dreams.

Indeed, it is a great concept which seems entirely fair, however just like in a casino the games are played to a slight but fundamental disadvantage.

If you buy shares and they go up by £1 each then you make a big profit.

If you spread bet the same deal there is a 'stop' put at when your money runs out.

So, lets say RBS are 50p today, and you splash your dough on them. They go up to £1.50 tomorrow after some volatile betting. You make a killing right!?

Maybe... however if your money ran out at 43p, then if it dips to that then the bet is over. You lose the lot regardless of the score at the end of the day.

IMHO unless you really know what you are doing, you may as well bet on sports.

"...Maybe... however if your money ran out at 43p" What does this mean exactly? You saying that when buying you set a limit on what the value can go down to, and then if it hits that number...

Yes.

If you are playing £100 per penny change, and you are betting the shares will go up, and they go up by 107p you just made ten grand.

However, if you only had £700 in your account to bet with, you would have lost the lot the second they dipped to 43p.

[T5SOR]

I have been playing about with shares for a few months now an I can recommend www.iii.co.uk , there's no fee to pay.

If you are looking to invest £100 you must remember that £10 of that will be taken for carrying out the transaction, so you are realistically looking at an investment of £90. I have a couple of shares at the moment which look very prosperous; UCP and ICX.

UCP- Potential to rise 300% by December 2009
ICX- Potential to rise 50-100% in the near future.

Have a read on the iii bb's.

Mike

[ShadownINja]

Do Your Own Research. I try to avoid listening to tipsters. Have lost money in the past just investing blindly.

[Stu R]

ShadownINja said:

Do Your Own Research. I try to avoid listening to tipsters. Have lost money in the past just investing blindly.

you got suckered into putting it all into Orange Juice too?