UK Landlord Forum / Life

Dudes & dudettes,

My mind wandered on to stocks and shares earlier and got me wondering if anyone else here has a little dabble from time to time, or makes any serious money at it. I've been tempted for a few years now to take a serious look at CFDs, and have had a few thoughts about ways to hedge investments so you profit from volatility with minimal risk ... but haven't had the spare cash to try them yet.

Anyone else dreaming of being mega-rich by trading online for an hour each morning then settling down to an afternoon of shopping/socialising/golf/tv/sleep/delete-as-appropriate.


V

I've always been interested in stocks. 3 months ago the accountant at my work left to be a full-time trader. I spoke to him last week, and he said it's so difficult to make money with stocks as a full-time career.

I bought some stocks a few years ago- 1k's worth. Last time I checked it had been reduced to something like £300. The stock plummeted after that huge terror attack in Madrid; i think a train got derailed or something. I don't think it's recovered yet. I should check it out actually.

I wish I bought shares in Google a while back. But anyhow, I think Google and Ebay are always good bets!

I don't really understand stocks beyond high/low. I know there's an immense amount of skill involved, but it's just a game of luck to me. Ignorance is bliss.

I saw a really good tip on Bloomberg once. If you graph the exponential moving average over a longer and shorter period (say 50 days vs 20 days) then you can spot the "golden point" where the shorter period trend crosses the longer period trend upwards (time to buy) and then crosses it downwards (time to sell), and its quite a good indicator. I used it with BT shares a few years ago and made quite a good profit but had invested so little it all went on commission - it was a very risk averse experiment! but the percentage return on investment was good.

It gets tough to figure out how to factor in all the different things you're supposed to be looking out for, and I don't really know as much about fundamental analysis as I would like. It'd be nice to do it as a side line and see if it was worthwhile that way. Wonder what was holding back the profitability of your accountant.


V

Ok, what's the minimum amount I can invest? I want to play with a few hundred pounds. I have no idea where to start! HELP!

You can play with a few hundred pounds. I invested £100 in BT and sold them at £120 ... of course with £10 trade charges for the buy and the sell  I made no profit, but it was definitely a very worthwhile experience and got me started. I graduated to £200 with Morrissons a while later but misjudged the time to sell and didn't make much out of that either - but I did get my money back.

I use IWebShareDealing.co.uk who are now owned by HBOS. Have had to phone them a couple of times and they've been helpful (not quite as quick at answering as I'd like but given how much money they've had off me its not bad!).

All you do is open the account, you'll probably have to post something to them as I think they need paper, but then everything after is online. Bear in mind that with most online trading accounts your shares will be "yours" but will be held in the name of the online provider, so you won't necessarily be able to get goodies like special sale days at Harrods if you have Harrods shares. You will get the dividends though, of course.

Wouldn't recommend CFDs for someone completely new to it as you can lose more than you put in - with some trades you can in theory lose infinitely more. But with a bog standard share purchase you buy it, it moves, and you make money if its gone up and lose money if its gone down. You can't lose more than you put in.

Hope that helps get you started


V

Ahh perfect. Thanks a lot for that. I'll sign up tonight!

No probs

Signed up for a CFD trading simulator today where they give you a virtual £10,000 and you get to invest it and basically play around with it. Wasn't impressed with their tool - not sure whether some features were limited in the trial but if that's the case what's the point - I'll just end up thinking their tool is cack.

Anyway, managed to lose myself a virtual £110!!

Not sure this is for me!


V

Did you invest in one particular stock or spread it out?

I was just messing about with Vodafone tbh. Hadn't really done my homework though. The graphs were very limited too.

It probably warrants more focus on a day when I'm feeling less demoralised. Monday = reporting day = hell.


V

Are you going to be ok, V?

I survived, and my Estimated Actuals at Completion were closer to target than last week. Not a bad end to a long day (but aren't Mondays always long?)

Have been chilling out with photoshopping some photos (which is always a bit of a "flow" activity for me) ... a couple from my mate's wedding and a couple from the recent Diwali celebrations in Brum. More practice and possibly better lenses required, but some pics always come out well despite these factors Satisfying.


V

You went to a Diwali celebration?

I certainly did. It was 45% curiosity/experiencing the cultural diversity of this wonderful city, and 55% photography trip.

Was pretty cool. I've always liked Indian dance too so it was great to see some of that live (they must've been bl00dy frozen). Used to watch the Mahabharata on TV when I was a kid, and the dancing that used to be on "Pebble Mill".


V

You're an oddball, V.

V, how's your htaccess coding?

I have afew KGF ( Kingfisher ) shares .... they arent doing that well atm ...... but I'll still make abit of profit .

I was tied in for afew years ... and I can sell them on the open market at the end of this month, if I choose .. but Im thinking of leaving them abit longer and see if they improve .

Sell, it's going to be a cold winter

I keep umming and arring about it . Would be nice to have lotsa money for christmas .

I only bought shares really , just as a way of saving up and thought it would be a plus if I made money.

They have only gone up by about 40p each ...... but thats good enough for me

.htaccess ... haven't done that for a while. should be fairly straightforward, though. depends if you want encrypted passwords and all that jazz.


V

301 redirects!

Hmmmm.

http://www.stevenhargrove.com/redirect-web-pages/
http://www.isitebuild.com/301-redirect.htm
http://www.webweaver.nu/html-tips/web-redirection.shtml

Having problems?


V

Redirect example.com/index.php to example.com/

That's the one I needed. Thanks