Buying & Selling Shares

Buying & Selling Shares

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Discussion

Quinny

Original Poster:

15,816 posts

273 months

Friday 13th August 2004
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The initial message was deleted from this topic on 16 October 2011 at 20:00

simpo two

87,088 posts

272 months

Saturday 14th August 2004
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I used Sharepeople but found it so complicated I gave up. The shares lost shedloads anyway so they just sit there, no point in selling at a loss. Quite frankly with the markets as they are, you might just as well throw darts at the FT. IMHO of course.

fid

2,431 posts

247 months

Sunday 15th August 2004
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If you want to have fun loosing money...spend it on petrol!

agent006

12,058 posts

271 months

Sunday 15th August 2004
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www.iii.co.uk has a good portfolio tracking service.

I'm up 143% at the moment, not everythign moves with the market.

shadowninja

77,495 posts

289 months

Sunday 15th August 2004
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I've used Halifax.co.uk for last 3 or 4 years without problems.

cirks

2,485 posts

290 months

Monday 16th August 2004
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Sharepeope I actually find easy to use and their customer service (particuarly if using their nominee service) is excellent.

If you want loads of opinions as to which companies to look at and how to measure whether you should buy etc then look at The Motley Fool

Horse_Apple

3,795 posts

249 months

Monday 23rd August 2004
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Hi,

The key is to not go down the route that everyone seems to when getting into equity trading.

People had for the 'sexy' small caps. And bang, money gone. It may not hapen today or tomoorow but it is the best recipe for binning cash.

Stick to the really boring big equities, learn their patterns and trends, follow their basic market (whih everyone does in day to day life as a natural way of life) and just gently trade in and out when the timing looks right.

It's not sexy but it is big and it is clever and it won't make you go blind.

Leave penny share punting to the losers who like to brag in the pub. They'll bin their cash as certainly as they'll buy a big bore exhaust for their Sierra.

It's a good way to top up your savings but you just need to be smart and forget the 'get rich quick' stories. They are all cr4p and designed to get you to pass your money over to someone else. That end of the market is a complete sham.

Largest 7 UK companies:

Vodafone
Shell
Bp
Astra Zeneca
Glaxo
Lloyds TSB
Royal Bank of Scotland (forget HSBC as it has too high o/s exposure).

Very tight spreads so you aren't putting yourself 10% offsid the moment you buy. Plenty of liquidity so you can sell when you want. Plenty of research so very few nasty surprises. No charlatans selling you stock to talk their own book up.

Find a cheap broker and don't pay more than £10 a deal when starting out.

Start small and don't rush to go big even when you start making money.

Easiest way to lose money is to listen to braggers (they are nearly allways losers trying to convince themselves they are winners by shouting about how good they are). Second easiest way is to risk more on a trade than you can afford.

You should never risk more than 10% of your capital on a single trade, however good it looks.

And never wait for that extra penny. Take profit. Get rid of your losing trades as well. Don't sit them out as Murphy's Law dictates that they will be worth less tomorrow.

Ride trends, never fight them.

Look at the oil price. It looks too high, everyone is selling it at the moment as they think it has to come back down. Take a squizz at the 12 month chart and it is in such a strong bull climb that only a fool would sell short in anything other than a very short term trade.

Good luck.

Horse_Apple

3,795 posts

249 months

Tuesday 24th August 2004
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Hi Quinney,

AIM is made up of companies that have potential to become the next big thing and companies that will amount to nothing for shareholders. As is the way of the junior market, obviously.

You need to look at the spread on the bid/offer. It is so wide, due to low vols, that you instantly lose 10% of your money the moment you buy. You cannot short either so are strictly limited to a rising market. data is week and regulation is less stringent. As the market offers fabulous riches the waters are shark infested. Some of these sharks are fellow shareholders, others are brokers and analysts and others are the companies' directors.

The real problem is that there is no real money to be made covering these stocks in the conventional way, so the good analysts cannot work the market so it is left to the City leftovers to cover these stocks.

Along side the leftovers and also rans you get the shysters and fools.

So much of what is written about the junior market is rubbsih and hype just designed to sell leftover stock and advertising space in magazines.

As you can probably guess I am very down on this area. This is not because I do not invest in it, as I do, but because my clients never listen and end up losing their hard earned money. You really need to be clued up and in the market to reduce the risk of this area.

I cannot stress enough just how riddled with perveyors of bullsh1t this arena is.

Go to ggogle and type in 'penny shares' and just see the rubbish promoting massive returns. It's all cr4p and deception.

Phone up a couple of 'penny share' brokers and listen to their speil. It is unbelieveable.

Most new people to the market get sucked into trading penny shares as it looks glamourous and everyone is shouting about huge returns. Go to www.advfn.co.uk and look at the bulletin board to see this in action. These people are not telling the truth. Most of the time they are long stock and are desperate to ramp it up and get other buyers in to keep them company and self-convince them of their investment or to just get the price up to allow them to get out for a profit.

If you are serious then try www.citybull.com as they are a lot more sensible on that forum and smarter with their ideas.

There are shysters and idiots accross the whole market but the small cap sector is the most prolific. Failed graduates, dodgy salesmen. If these guys weren't peddling stocks the would be flogging old Granadas or will extension kits.

I guess I am just trying to say be careful in what you do with your hard earned money and never believe anyone who says they can make you rich. It is always, always the case that they are the only ones who are going to get rich.

D-Angle

4,468 posts

249 months

Tuesday 24th August 2004
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This is something I keep looking at now and again myself, does anyone know if any of the online share dealing services(Barclays stockbrokers etc) are worth using?

Horse_Apple

3,795 posts

249 months

Friday 27th August 2004
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D-Angle said:
This is something I keep looking at now and again myself, does anyone know if any of the online share dealing services(Barclays stockbrokers etc) are worth using?


Hi,

You get what you pay for.

The cheapo services are absolutely spot on if you just want to make occasional purchases and sales via the web.

Just like with your current account, once you attempt to do admin by phone it will become a little frustrating but c'est la vie.

The one that I point my client sto is ComDirect. A good outfit and part of Commerzbank so they have a touch of ruthless Hun efficiency.

If you like a better kind of compromise and want to use the phone then Jarvis Investment Management is probably the best place to go. They are good lads and a nice little company.