Trading the stockmarket (NO Referrals)

Soldato
Joined
17 Oct 2002
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London
so what are peoples thoughts on the market now?

I am going to sell my Holdings in Rio again today, I'm another 4.9% up now and to be honest I really think there is some sort of correction due soon.
 
Soldato
Joined
28 Sep 2004
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8,540
Fingers crossed for the Part-nationalised banks this year. Their stocks have taken an immense dive, not doing too badly thanks to a few buy/sells but I'm hoping RBS will be back up to 50p by the summer.

Wish they'd head on up to the 100p mark instead though :p
 
Soldato
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London
Fingers crossed for the Part-nationalised banks this year. Their stocks have taken an immense dive, not doing too badly thanks to a few buy/sells but I'm hoping RBS will be back up to 50p by the summer.

Wish they'd head on up to the 100p mark instead though :p

I thinking of taking a punt on RBS again, but this time I will hold it for a little longer.
 
Associate
OP
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Slightly unrelated here - but maybe someone can advise

Is there any benefit of keeping money on offshore account? I have offshore accounts for GBP, EUR and USD for less currency hassle when travelling - is there any benefit in keeping money on offshore accounts?

I assume you mean "offshore" as in tax avoidance? In relation to stock trading the answer is no. Switzerland/Cayman/Bermuda brokers within these tax havens charge insane trading fees. "offshore" these days isn't a good idea, almost all UK "offshore" accounts are now monitored by the UK gov. So you can forget RBS/Barclays/etc offshore accounts.
 
Soldato
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London
Ok, thats it I am out of the market now and do not plan get back in. I feel I have pushed my luck a little too far now, I was down 77% at one point last year, I have managed to make everything back plus a very healthy profit so its time to get out.

Plus I am actually investing money that I can no longer afford to lose.

So good luck everyone, keep an eye on Yell and RBS. Rio is also worth buying if it dips to under 3000 again.
 
Soldato
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10 May 2004
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East Yorkshire, UK
Just wondering, what software do people you to help analyse stocks, finding it difficult to activly monitor stock prices throughout the day, is there a piece of software that can alert you of any major fluctuations between points and lets you analyse the prices, or market trends?
 
Associate
Joined
14 Nov 2002
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798
I'm interested in looking at some FTSE trackers for investing - what is the best way of finding out about these? Any specific websites detailing/comparing the available funds would be appreciated.
 
Associate
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14 Nov 2002
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798
Google HL

If you meant for me to find the site http://www.h-l.co.uk, then I already knew about the site, but thanks anyway.

I was looking for something more like this, which I found shortly after my earlier post:

http://www.fool.co.uk/news/investing/investing-strategy/2007/08/10/the-top-ten-trackers.aspx

If anyone else has any similar info, perhaps more up to date then please post it.

Looking at the funds in the list it states that most of the funds are 'open ended investment companies' which require a minimum of £500 initially along with a recurring monthly investment of £50+, does this mean that I would essentially have to pay a trading fee each month when putting in the £50? This does not sound appealing.

It also states that iShare FTSE 100 does not have the £50 per month stipulation, but the catch with it is that they "are registered in Dublin so their dividends do not receive tax credits. This means that if you hold them outside of an ISA or PEP, you'll have additional tax to pay, compared to unit and investment trusts. Therefore unless you're planning to buy and sell your iShares on a fairly regular basis, it makes much more sense to put them in an ISA. "

This is all great and everything, but I already have an 'ISA Plus' through my bank (RBS) - does this mean that I have used up my one ISA for this year and will have to wait until next year to invest iShare shares in an ISA?
 
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Soldato
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Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
I assume your ISA Plus is a cash ISA so you would have only used up up to £3.6k of your allowance.

The total allowance is £7200 either all in shares or cash+shares with cash being limited to £3.6k

You can have a cash ISA and also open a share ISA with a different provider in the same year, no problem.

I personally have a Legal + General UK Index tracker (got £85 cash back at the time through Quidco :D) although I'm not sure if you have to add monthly if you don't add up to the limit straight away.
 
Associate
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798
I assume your ISA Plus is a cash ISA so you would have only used up up to £3.6k of your allowance.

The total allowance is £7200 either all in shares or cash+shares with cash being limited to £3.6k

You can have a cash ISA and also open a share ISA with a different provider in the same year, no problem.

I personally have a Legal + General UK Index tracker (got £85 cash back at the time through Quidco :D) although I'm not sure if you have to add monthly if you don't add up to the limit straight away.

Cheers, didn't know that I could use a different provider.

I'm in the market for a provider then, RBS (my bank) provide the service, but it is separate from my online banking (-1 point), it seems to cost money for them to administrate the account (-1 point, but they admit it is capped at £25 per year + VAT), it costs £15 per trade (-1 point) and when I tried to sign up online they can't find my address based on my postcode (-10 points, they already have my address from my bank account for christ sake).

So I'm pretty adamant at researching another provider since RBS seem to be determined to make themselves look unappealing.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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7,039
Location
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Cheers, didn't know that I could use a different provider.

I'm in the market for a provider then, RBS (my bank) provide the service, but it is separate from my online banking (-1 point), it seems to cost money for them to administrate the account (-1 point, but they admit it is capped at £25 per year + VAT), it costs £15 per trade (-1 point) and when I tried to sign up online they can't find my address based on my postcode (-10 points, they already have my address from my bank account for christ sake).

So I'm pretty adamant at researching another provider since RBS seem to be determined to make themselves look unappealing.

For funds I use http://www.h-l.co.uk and http://www.fidelity.co.uk

There aren't any charges for trades , although there is usually a percentage charged which is different for each one - but most the initial charges aren't actually charged as H-L or Fidelity give a discount , eg. :

http://www.h-l.co.uk/funds/fund-dis...-results/a/aberdeen-asia-pacific-accumulation

No initial charge and 1.375% annual charge , but there is usually a minimum of £1000 investment , H-L charge £9.95 per trade for shares but I've never actually bought single shares with them so can't comment on their service on that side
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
9,169
Currently I hold Barclays (was down for a while but they have done fantastically as of late, why didn't I top up I will never know) and today bought some Provexis and Gulf Keystone Petroleum.

I'm hoping GKP will do well over the coming weeks/months and Provexis is a bit of a gamble really :)
 
Caporegime
Joined
29 Jan 2008
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58,920
I'm looking into stock market investment and I was hoping you could answer a quick question. I'm not looking to day-trade, I'd just like to purchase 10 stocks I've selected all at once and hold them for a year. The amount I have to invest is small (£1,000) but since I'm only planning on buying and selling once a year I did not think I would be swallowed by commissions as I would if I was actively trading.

I've applied to selftrade.co.uk, but my concern is that I'm not sure what they mean with regards to commission "per trade." I have the sinking feeling that it means if I buy my £1,000 of stocks in ten companies all in one go, they will count that as 10 different trades and charge me £100. Then if i sell them in a year that will be another £100, meaning I'd have to beat the market just to break even... I can't find a definition of what constitutes a "trade" - is it per company or the whole thing at once?

You should probably look into something like Halifax share builder or whatever its called - basically its useful if you're investing small amounts as you are - think they charge something like £1.50 commission and rather than execute your order instantly they'll pool it together with a load of other orders for small amounts from other retail customers and thus the commission is lower. Not much use if you're actively trading but if you've found some companies you want to invest in now for say a year or so then it doesn't really make much difference if your shares get purchased instantly or in a few days.
 
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