How do I find out about Stocks and Shares?

Question

I want to get into investing and have no experience. Are there any books/websites you can recommend? I'm only planning on investing a relatively small amount of money about £5k but want to do my homework first.

Wendy
x

Answer 1

I would definately recommend speaking to an Independent Financial Adviser. I work in an Independent Financial Advisers and we do not charge people to help them invest, instead we get paid by the company we recommend you to invest with. A good Adviser will talk to you and assess what you are saving the money for and in how many years you are likely to need. They will asses your attitude to savings risks and recommend where to save it. Make sure your Financial Adviser is independent which means they will recommend the whole market to you, and not a tied agent such as you will get through banks who will only recommend certain products that their company sell. For a small amount such as £5,000 a Maxi ISA would probably be best, but an adviser will go through your personal circumstances with you and recommend a product best suited to your needs. Look up www.fsa.gov.uk who will give you a list of advisers in your area. Please ensure they are FSA regulated as they have to follow guidelines and will work in your best interest. There are some dodgy companies who will place your money according to how much they get paid for it! To avoid this please ensure they are FSA regulated and Independent. I don't recommend researching anything yourself as it is very complicated and Advisers are specially trained in this area. Hope this helped. Good luck!

Answer 2

I was in the same state a couple of years back, we had just moved house and I had a few K left over. I played a little game using Yahoo. I set myself a goal of making some money, I charged myself £15 for every deal I made both selling and buying and I kept all the results in a spreadsheet. After 6 months I had lost about £30 despite some very clever investing.... I did manage to convince myself that I wasn't a share trader, and so put the money into premium bonds and an ISA (at least I am now earning money)....

Good luck with your investment

Answer 3

If you make informed decisions and approach your penny stock investments with the same thoroughness that you’d use in your other investments, you too can unlock a whole lot of profit potential. Learn here https://tr.im/wswo5

It’s absolutely true that penny stock investors can make very quick gains. Synutra International, Inc. (NASDAQ: SYUT) is a great example of a penny stock. This dairy-based, nutritional-products company has jumped from a little Bulletin Board operation to a billion dollar corporation. The company finally graduated from Over-the-Counter status to the NASDAQ Stock Market bringing with it 113% gains in less than two months.

This happens all the time and it’s how some of the best investors in the world became the richest investors in the world. Buying some shares for pennies on the dollar and selling at $10 or $20 is possibly the fastest way from being a hobby investor to a super investor

Answer 4

Wendy,

Publications such as the Investors Cronicle have some good tips, but should not be followed blindly (as it tends to generally be a bit over optimistic). Subscibe to the economist every Friday, its a very good read and will give a a decent foundation into the Macro fundamentals effecting the stock markets at the moment (which can sometimes be more important than specific company news).

Set up an online brokerage account (Barclays is very good) which can be kept open with no minimum trading limit. You can get some good free research once your set up, b4 you even start trading (in a sense it is like a savings account; you dont HAVE to save / trade). These account also let you run a "theoretical portfolio", so you can practice. Again as mentioned, Yahoo Finance is quite good. Information releases such as results etc for UK companies can be sourced for free on ukwire.co.uk. Have a good read of the company's annual report and trading statements b4 delving into a share. And be careful in todays current environment....

Answer 5

Business focused newspaper, the writings and information about the companies helps.
Invest in larger well known corporations, .... banks and technology, IBM, microsoft, also invest in government supported public companies when it is good to buy, like airlines
diversify.....spread your money out, ie: invest in a mutual fund, this keeps you safe when some of the investment stocks drop a bit.
There is no over night successes unless you know the market well, even then it is high risk, so expect to let your money some time to grow.
Look for companies that are ready to merge or possible to merge, that makes stock prices rise and split....good for your shares.

I am not certain of European sites to keep track of stocks, but in the north american market, try typing in a search under NYSE

Answer 6

Hi,
I've been trading the market for just a few months. My cousin actually told me about this website ( http://pennystocks.toptips.org ) and I signed up immediately after. This is my honest review about their method. I'm not someone who has a lot of time to be researching for ideas because I work many hours. they made it incredibly easy for me to make money in the market. Their reports are easy to read and follow. I've tracked most of the stock ideas that I've received in my e-mail from them and MANY have seen some nice gains after their announcements. I've made a nice profit (55% return on my investment on one, and 112% on the other!) on a couple of suggestions he's given and plan to start trading his ideas a lot more.

For more info: http://pennystocks.toptips.org
Regards

Answer 7

Make sure you always have access to enough cash for emergencies before investing in stocks and shares
Use your annual allowance of £7000 to put your money in ann ISA - monthly payments of say £700 would be sensible
or more information try the Stock Exchange who will provide free guidance for beginners

Answer 8

There are loads of books on this - try your local library first but stick to your "homework" intention, this is a minefield for the uninitiated. Probably the best start for you would be a Unit Trust, of which there are many. The hot tip just now is Trusts specialising in the Far East.

Answer 9

I would advise you do a lot of homework.

It is best for you to spend several months doing what is called "Paper trading". That's trading with pretend money. If you do well on that then start investing your own money.
There are loads of web sites. Yahoo have share prices that are delayed by 20 minutes.
Just search for "Share dealing"

Answer 10

First tip, never take tips off people, an oxymoron I know .... well do if they're friends or family, but ignore the "experts", if ten years of working in the City has taught me anything, it's that the experts are idiots..... so ignore tips you read about in the paper.

Good books, I like Warren Buffet Portfolio and the zulu principle, Jim slater