mega_stream

Can anyone advise me how to go about buying shares?
All I know is they go up and down and some bloke talks about prices on BBC breakfast TV


What I was thinking was, say BA shares for example are low at the moment, where and how can I say buy some, watch the market and sell them at a profit?

Is it as easy as is sounds?, I'm not looking a chucking loads of cash in, maybe a couple of hundred here and there.

Oh, while I'm here, heard people say they are into stocks and shares, whats the difference between a stock and a share?

Cheers

John (Knew I should have listened more at school)

Matt Churchill

You can buy them thru loads of places - try an internet search on Stockbrokers.

You want to use a large firm, as they "can" sometimes improve the price slightly thru group buying -at least I know Barclays Stockbrokers can.

You'd need to be careful in buying and selling fast, as if you sell without the certificate and can't supply it before the settlement date, the stockbroker will do a "buy back" - where they re-buy the shares at the prevailing rate - normally losing you money.

A share is a share in the company - hence you own part of it, whereas a stock is normally "loan" stock - you lend the company money and they agree to pay you interest thereon - In very simple terms.

Oh, and look at it like gambling - don't do it if you ned the money

Shares are cyclical, look at the company you want to buy into it and look at highs and lows - should always be a long term investment.

Matt

[Edited by Matt Churchill - 9/24/2002 7:09:48 AM]

TelBoy

John, try TD Waterhouse - they're as good as any, and i've never had any problems with them.

As with all firms of this nature, however, there will be a minimum transaction charge, typically £15/£20. If you do a big trade, this won't be a significant %, but if you do lots of small ones, it soon adds up.

Don't forget you'll pay stamp duty on every buy transaction too.

But at the moment, buying shares is a risky business, with FTSE rooted well below 4000 again. As Matt said, only invest what you can afford to lose. A cash ISA, Egg online account or similar might be a better alternative for the short term.

Terry

P20SPD

iTrader: (1)

Biggest tip i can give is make sure you can aford to loose all the money you invest, because it can happen. If you cant then dont invest in risky stuff.

Back in nov/dec 99 when they wer going through the roof i made £2000 turn into £12000 in the space of 3 days, but i never came off the bloody internet watching prices jittering, sold my last ones the day before the market started to drop.

I did this to see if i could make my house depsit grow, which it did, but another day and i could have lost alot of it. On the moring of my final sale i was actually loosing, fortunatley my sage shares turned around for 2 hours.

Not done it since as i can not afford to loose the money.

merkin

As Telboy said, some of the online brokers are probably your best bet (td waterhouse, Charles Schwab etc)
BUT and more importantly, please dont be suckered into buying a household name company just because it is "cheap" at the moment.
If i offered you my car and said buy it cos its cheap, you would want to look at the engine and maybe have a test drive first, before chucking your hard earned at it, right?
Same principle applies. A lot of these stocks are cheap for a very good reason atm.

One option if you arent confident about which stocks would be an isa/unit trust, but again be very wary about what you buy, the market is EXTREMELY volatile at the moment.

As previously said, only invest what you can afford to lose.

A good tip would be to buy a magazine like Investors chronicle, which will give you the performance history of various trusts/funds/isas as well as information on companies prospects.

hth

scoob_babe

If you took out a stocks and share isa, you could do it through a fund-manager. this could also give you the chance to spread your money across different markets and different types of company. I've avoided heavy losses atm due to drip feeding the isa monthly instead of one big bang at the beginning of the fiscal year.
Speak to an IFA, I'm sure there's one or two floating around SN

Dave P

A share is an equity, as said you own a part of the company. A stock is a fixed income instrument and is as has already been said a loan to the company. Stocks can also be "Treasury Stock" which in general terms is the safest sort of investment as Treasuries are effectively loans to the Government.

DLJ Direct, Barclays Stockbrokers, Charles Schwab, and a whole host of others offer an execusion only service.

Do not "expect" to make money. This is not a bull market and prices are very volatile, on one day alone last week the FTSE swung 400 points in an hour.

You should be able to buy and sell at any time as nearly all UK trading is dematerialised these days. I would be surprised if you saw sight of a certificate as your broker will probably hold them in a nominee to avoid settlement problems.

A search around the internet will probably find you a whole host of usefull information.

Dave

TelBoy

But be aware, if you hold shares in nominee form, you will pay custody charges per quarter.

Out of principle i think this is a liberty, hence i request certificates, as there is no significant downside except the responsibility for their security.

CLANDER

John,

I logged on with sharepeople .com and you can purchase 'dummy' shares, with a virtual portfolio. I 'purchased' £1500 worth of various shares (most recommended by the Daily Mail etc.) and I have stock now worth £1000. A loss of £500 in almost a year.

Only buy them for real if you can afford to throw the money away. Alternatively I would gladly take your excess cash off your hands and put it to good use !

Chris.

Timbo33

LOng term, shares are bound to outperform any deposit or guaranteed investment such as Gilts but as TelBoy says, the stockmarket is a risky place right now.

At the moment we have had a protracted 'Bear' market (bears don't like risks apparently) meaning that loads of investors have sold their shares and don't want to buy back in.

I've been advising clients the past two years that 'now is a great time to invest' as the markets are at all time lows - only for them to go lower!!!

Until the Bulls come out to play again it's very uncertain when's a good time to buy back in. In any event, I wouldn't bother with BA right now as they have drastically underperformed the Airlines sector - try EasyJet, RyanAir or Lehman Brothers' tip on Bloomberg today - Air France!!!

normarker

If you really want to trade on line E Trade is pretty good.