I want to invest in some stocks and shares however I wouldn't have a clue can someone help?

Answer 1

Investing in "individual" stocks takes a lot of knowledge and practice; so I would not suggest doing this until you understand completely how the stock markets work.

Instead visit Vanguard.com and learn about mutual funds, index funds, and exchange-traded-funds (ETFs). Trading funds is less risky than trying to trade "individual" stocks.

The websites below all contain plenty of FREE information to get you started in the right direction.

Answer 2

Until you really know what you are doing, stick with mutual funds for your stock and bond investing. And, before you do that, you will need at least a basic understanding of them

www.investopedia.com provides some good, free tutorials.

You'll need to break down and get a few books first. I know this takes time, but it will save you so much money in the long run.

- Mutual Funds for Dummies or Investing for Dummies, both by Eric Tyson, are the essential beginner's books

- The Little Book on Common Sense Investing, by John Bogle

However, if you are brave and really want to learn about stocks, check out the Morningstar book, "The 5 Rules for Successful Stock Investing, by Pat Dorsey. This is an awesome book.

Answer 3

I suggest :-
1) Put it into a Cash ISA or High Interest Savings Account
2) Learn about the Stock Market (start with "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert T Kiyosaki and then "The Informed Investor" by Frank Armstrong III - both should be available from your local Library)
3) Open a Stocks&Shares ISA (or better, a Self Invested Pension Plan)

DON'T start before reading "The Informed Investor" ... if you insist on 'investing' when you know nothing, you will soon be parted from your money ...


Of course if you have a few million you can hire a Financial Advisor to "invest" it for you (he will charge you an arm & a leg and his investment performance will be less than the FTSE average, but you will have some fun and who cares about paying fees of a few 10's of thousand ££'s a year when you have millions ?)

Answer 4

Practise dealing by running five fantasy trader portfolios. In the first, invest only FTSE 100 Stocks; in the second only FTSE 250 stocks ; third,only small caps ; in the fourth, FTSE All Share stocks ,BUT you must sell if the gain is 2% or above in this portfolio. The fifth portfolio is different.You must try to lose capital and can only sell stock below purchase price. Why? Because if you can`t spot a cowpat ,how will you avoid it? In 3 to 6 months, you should be a sharp stock picker.

Answer 5

Investing on the stock market is risky. The best answer will depend your age, how much money you have and how much safety you want.

However, in most cases the best thing is to invest in a low cost a index tracking unit trust.

Unless your financial affairs are very complicated, avoid financial advisers and wealth managers like the plague. They can easily take half of your assets and you will not even know it happened.

Answer 6

Penny stocks are loosely categorized companies with share prices of below $5 and with market caps of under $200 million. They are sometimes referred to as "the slot machines of the equity market" because of the money involved. There may be a good place for penny stocks in the portfolio of an experienced, advanced investor, however, if you follow this guide you will learn the most efficient strategies https://tr.im/c8109

Answer 7

The easiest way to invest in the stock market is to buy unit trusts or certain kinds of bonds that invest in equities. Go into your local bank or building society and inquire. Another way is to join an investment club that pools together the monies of members and decide on what to invest in. To go alone, you could try doing it on-line or see your friendly stockbroker. See
http://www.about-online-trading.co.uk/share-dealing.htm?source=ggst&cat=Share+Dealing|697030658&tpage=share-dealing&tkeyword=share+dealing&s_kwcid=share%20dealing|697030658
Disclaimer: value of shares can go up or down and you may lose your capital.

Answer 8

To do this in the UK, the first step you need to take is check out this article on MOTLEY FOOL UK
http://www.fool.co.uk/school/2006/sch060130.htm
There's also one or two extra bits of good advice to get your head round it to be found at the original US version of MOTLEY FOOL - http://www.fool.com + also @ http://www.investopedia.com

The next step I suggest is to practise using the fantasy stockmarket game @ http://www.bullbearings.co.uk which allows you to do it as if you were doing it for real, only with fantasy money so you don't end up losing your real money through "beginners errors" (and trust me, you'll make plenty of them to start off with).

Once you're feeling confident enough to do it for real, you need to set up an account with a broker which allows you to buy & trade shares on the stockmarket. The SHAREBUILDER account operated by The Halifax is probably the most beginner friendly for UK investors.
http://www.halifax.co.uk/sharedealing/sharebuilder.asp

While all the paperwork is being processed, start researching some companies to buy shares in, using the tools @ http://quote.fool.co.uk
To get the ball rolling, try sticking these 3/4 letter EPIC stock ticker codes in the search box there:
- HBOS (Halifax Bank of Scotland)
- SVT (Severn-Trent Water)
- SNCL (W. Sinclair holdings - make stuff like garden compost)
- KEL (Kelda - owners of Yorkshire Water)
- RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland)
- VOD (Vodafone)

Answer 9

go and see an independent financial advisor, and watch the share prices in the papers, keep track of the ones you fancy to see if they are going up or down. maybe a savings scheme where its invested in shares. i had some shares from work and was going to sell them back to the company but an independent advisor found me a place to sell them and i made an extra grand! good luck

Answer 10

the best trading software http://tradingsolution.info
i have attended a lot of seminars, read counless books on forex trading and it all cost me thousands of dollars. the worst thing was i blew up my first account. after that i opened another account and the same thing happened again. i started to wonder why i couldn,t make any money in forex trading. at first i thought i knew everything about trading. finally i found that the main problem i have was i did not have the right mental in trading. as we know that psychology has great impact on our trading result. apart from psychology issue, there is another problem that we have to address. they are money management, market analysis, and entry/exit rules. to me money management is important in trading. i opened another account and start to trade profitably after i learnt from my past mistake. i don't trade emotionally anymore.
if you are serious about trading you need to address your weakness and try to fix it. no forex guru can make you Professional trader unless you want to learn from your mistake.