Trading the stockmarket (NO Referrals)

Is investing in Vanguard Life strategy 60% fund were vise as a first investment? I would like to set up direct debit o £100 a month to invest.
 
Generally though, if you don't have enough capital to make direct investment worthwhile, then you can't afford to be spread betting.

not sure about that, that is one of the few positive things about using a bucket shop, you don't have to take out a big position in order to have a quick punt on something, you can have access to a range of instruments to trade on with just a small account

for example suppose someone wants to short the Dax, well that requires an initial margin of over 20,000 euros to trade 1 lot at 25 euros per point. I guess they've got a mini contract now worth 5 euros per point but still that will tie up 5,000 euros in margin.

Likewise, suppose they also want to take a punt on Brent crude, thats another 4,000 euros tied up, just to trade 1 lot at $10 per point.

With a bucket shop/SB firm you can trade at a smaller size than in the underlying market, you could take the same view and place bets at say £1 a point or 50p a point if you wanted. I believe the brand name you mentioned allows bets as low as 10p a point.
 
Hi. I suppose this isn't 'trading the stockmarket' in the tradiontal sense, but lately I've been looking into my pension, and which funds its invested in.
When i've looked into the funds i'm invested in, my current exposure according to Trustnet, is UK-35% US-29% EU-16% JAP 9% and Asia about 9% (and some smaller things).

Does this seem reasonable?
 
I used finspreads back when I dabbled in it. I don't have the time or discipline to do it properly though.

Generally though, if you don't have enough capital to make direct investment worthwhile, then you can't afford to be spread betting.

Spread betting is the only way to profit in a bear market. That's what I use it for anyway.
 
Is investing in Vanguard Life strategy 60% fund were vise as a first investment? I would like to set up direct debit o £100 a month to invest.
It's OK. The concern is that as interests rates rise, bond yields rise and bond prices fall. So it might even be safer to go with 80% or 100%.

Hi. I suppose this isn't 'trading the stockmarket' in the tradiontal sense, but lately I've been looking into my pension, and which funds its invested in.
When i've looked into the funds i'm invested in, my current exposure according to Trustnet, is UK-35% US-29% EU-16% JAP 9% and Asia about 9% (and some smaller things).

Does this seem reasonable?
Check this out: https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/wiki/globaltracker
 
Bond values in theory should be destroyed over time because their underlying investment is so poor. The bull market for bonds is 30 years old and due a cull really.
However its heavily related to central government and organisation of countries even but just going on the simple principle of the path of least resistance it shouldnt be the easiest, safest most profitable area, I think loss is the most likely overall vs inflation. I would look for the unpopular market not at the tail end of its story, after the tech boom it became viewed overly negative. Thats not the case now but just for context I'd prefer that story with negative views already in the price.
Pensioners are tied to bonds, forced even but also Pensioners are drawing that income near term and its justified in that way. Doesnt exactly have to be an investment for them, I'm apprehensive about bond value over decades for anyone younger.


Dodged a bullet with KAZ selling off on an unpopular move to buy Russian copper assets. I was just moaning to myself about a not perfect sale price but thats my typical mistake, to hesitate to buy into a stock rising or delay selling something going down and often I can be right on that general direction. Might be a buy now not sure but Kazakhstan is quite an extreme situation so the Russian connection is normal probably

Watching EGO which holds Europes largest gold mine, which unfortunately wont likely produce till 2028 so very speculative. But they seem viable.
ACA report I read seemed quite bullish, of course always depends on gold price which is quite negative. Generally a buy probably, judging on ABX in its negotiations also. I wonder if they would just repurchase ACA and lock in a loss for some but not buyers now imo
 
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What websites do people use to buy shares? I am wanting to buy around £2k of US shares (I have previously used X-O but they don't seem to allow to buy US Shares)?

I won't be trading much, pretty much buy and let them sit for a while.
 
So many people don't know this and I was ignorant of this until this year and wondering what people think or if this is totally accurate. I'm in the process of asking my broker if they lend out shares.

Your broker can lend the shares you 'own'. It's just like how you can have money in the bank but it's not really there....that money has been lent out to individuals and businesses. Your shares can get lent out to shorters who use them to hold positions against the very shares you are long on.....using your shares.

Apparently there are two ways to stop this:

1.) Convert your account from a margin account to a cash account. NOTE: Even if you used cash to buy your shares it is likely still a margin account - I use cash but still have margin.
2.) Place a sell order on the shares you own for a price 50x their value. This means they are on order and cannot be lent out - there may be a maximum period this can stay open for so you might need to do this every so often (90 days?)

Sure, there are always arguments about how much impact this could have, you are protecting a minute amount of shares in a big pool but if awareness was raised this could become more common. That and the simple fact that 'your' shares can be used to go short on a position you are long on.
 
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I think you've misunderstood that statement.

They are your shares, if you own them, they are yours. No one can take them away from you. As a client of a firm, your shares cannot be lent out to someone who is looking to short sell. Shares are held in trust for each client and are kept on separate books.

People "leverage" shares/deposits all the time - it's very common but high risk. Spread betting/CFD's etc are all forms of that.
 
I remember the topic of private investors shares being lent out to shorters came up a lot when the QPP shenanigans happened after the Gotham report. Back then, when people checked their brokers' policy on this, the big UK ones DO NOT do this. As booyaka pointed out, they are held in trust for us and the brokers do not lend clients shares out.

In most cases what private investors hold isn't enough to bother with anyway - even when added up over lots of them. The shorters are getting their stock from the big players, pension funds, IB's etc.
 
What websites do people use to buy shares? I am wanting to buy around £2k of US shares (I have previously used X-O but they don't seem to allow to buy US Shares)?

I won't be trading much, pretty much buy and let them sit for a while.

Hargreaves Lansdown
 
That shorting issue is going to be more of an issue with US brokers where you have a margin account, you're essentially borrowing money in order to buy the shares and so they need to be used as collateral, when you agree to this you're also basically agreeing for them to be loaned out too. It is a bit dodgy that you're not necessarily compensated for this as technically you are taking on some additional risk.

The other slight dodgy issue concerns voting rights, especially if you're unaware of your shares being lent out, the buyer of the sold shares obviously has the shares/has the voting rights. I'm not actually sure how some of the big US brokers deal with this form a back office perspective, are all the holdings for margin accounts essentially pooled? If so they could just wing it a bit and hope that apathy among the shareholders means there will always more people not bothering to vote than the % of that stock lent out.
 
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