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Shares

Hi all,

Know nothing about stocks and shares, but want to buy some. Looked online, and out of the big confusing words it appears I need to open a seperate account....starting with a £1000.00 deposit and an ongoing quarterly fee! I want to start off with half of that!

Where do I begin?

Comments

  • There is a thread on here regarding shares.
    If you took my advice some months ago you would now probably want to shoot me.
    Talk to the experts mate
  • Not sure where you are looking, but that sounds like you're looking at an ISA Shares account option.

    I set up a Marketmaster account, free of charge, with Barclays Stockbokers some time back. No ongoing costs. I just pay for any dealing that I do on the account and no minimum.
  • Halifax Online Share Dealing. Easy to use and costs are per deal no annual charge unless it is an ISA. Plus once per month they have a cheap dealing period, like this Wednesday when you can buy/sell shares for £3.95 per deal.
  • Buy high, sell low!

    No...

    Sell high, buy low!

  • Hi all,

    Know nothing about stocks and shares, but want to buy some. Looked online, and out of the big confusing words it appears I need to open a seperate account....starting with a £1000.00 deposit and an ongoing quarterly fee! I want to start off with half of that!

    Where do I begin?

    Okay, I'll have a go at being sensible and answering your questions. These days in the main share holdings​ are paperless: you don't get a certificate. Instead your broker holds the shares for you in a nominee account. They collect and look after any dividend payments, add them to your account or pay away into your bank account. They can and do make a charge for this. Maybe £20 every six months plus VAT, something on those lines. They will also charge a fee for buying or selling the shares. This varies depending upon how regularly you deal. Have a look at say, TD Direct Investing, to get a flavour. In addition, for purchases only there is a govt. tax called stamp duty.
    This is I think 0.5% but only on transactions over £1k. There is also a "spread". The buy price is higher than the sell price. But for popular shares this is small, maybe 0.25%?
    Some brokers see TD Direct will waive the regular maintenance fee if you deal regularly or hold a certain value of shares with them.
    If you literally know nothing about share dealing my advice would be to learn something before you start. Look at some share research on sites like Hargreaves Lansdown, Edison Research and Morningstar. Choose some shares and set yourself up a virtual account. You can do this for free on some sites usual log in/password arrangements (Morningstar?). But some like you to open an account with them first (Hargreaves Lansdown).
    Enjoy.
  • Halifax Online Share Dealing. Easy to use and costs are per deal no annual charge unless it is an ISA. Plus once per month they have a cheap dealing period, like this Wednesday when you can buy/sell shares for £3.95 per deal.

    Seconded, cheapest & simple. I'll leave it to you re your share choices. Remember share trading is high risk and extremely high risk if you don't know what you're doing.

    If you wish to reduce the risk level slightly you can look at unit trusts, which buy shares in lots of companies, rather than just one or two. Tracker funds are cheaper than managed funds. I use Legal & General.
  • If you've never bought or sold shares in the past I have one word of advice..........DON'T.

    Open up a stocks & shares ISA and invest in that. You can invest £20k & the dividends & any gains made are tax free.

    No-one on here (unless they are a market trader & then they could get it wrong) can tell you which shares are the best ones to buy - might as well stick a pin in a list of shares..

    If you don't want to take professional advice then at least chose either a managed fund or a mixed asset fund so that your "eggs" aren't all in the same basket.


  • Open up a stocks & shares ISA and invest in that. You can invest £20k & the dividends & any gains made are tax free.

    Agreed
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