Excellent advice AJ, but his performance may make him steer clear of market, and where would we make our gains if not from novices? IMH (but very greedy)O if you have 5000 to play with, perhaps you could just sign me a cheque payable to CASH!. Good hunting.

I'd put half on ZI Medical (ZIM) results due 5th April & half on CMS Webview (CWV) results due soon (April/May) (IMHO & DYOR)

Ok so am I being silly investing so much.

What are the fundamentals of trading and how do I become a day trader what do i look out for.

should i try spreadbetting

Do paper trading and think of it as "real Money".This way you will know whether your strategies are going right or not.
Aslo identify yourself as what type of trader u want to be.Day,week,mixture.Aslo the risk/money management has to be right.
Before u place a trade u should have worked out your max loss that u are willing to take etc.
Day trading "full time" -DONT GIVE up your JOB as its difficult.
s/betting recent article in sunday times said that approx. 90 odd % lost!!!!

rgds
zarif

thesaurus,

Watch, read, listen, ask questions, paper trade.
Check with Croc for any seminars in your area.

When you get it right paper trading, you'll find that
you have to learn it all again as you will then be fighting
your own psychological profile when you trade with real money.
This will be a totally different experience, believe me.

Melnibone.

what effects a share price.

Thesaurus:
In a nut shell: "if you dont learn the importance of Support and resistance than u dont know the markets at all"
markets are driven by sentiment etc etc.
Fear and greed are the biggest factors that play on emotions.
Cut your losses quick -the best way to survive.
Paper trading will help -BUT remember as soon as You put REAL money the RULES of the game change (as melnibone said)!!!.
IF YOU FAIL TO PLAN THAN YOU PLAN TO FAIL!!!

i hope this helps.
Get some knowledge -attend a few courses eg: crocs and attend any traders meetings in your area.

rgds
zarif

what are crocs?

Sorry Crocs the nick Name of David who does the traders thread and you can also go to his site at:
www.snappytrader.com
you will find a lot of info there including free educational material on tech analysis etc etc. The place is atraders goldmine.try it

rgds
zarif

will give that a go for sure.

thesaurus. You've a chance of ending up a millionaire, without risking your money, by buying premium bonds (you have to wait only a month before they go in the draw). That's your best bet.

If you want to take a chance on the market why not pay to go on one of Croc's day courses - you can ask all the questions you want, and get not only the answers, but also actually see him trading. It was the best 175 I ever spent.

As for buying shares you know little about, you've probably got, at best, a less than 50/50 chance of making any amount of money (after you've paid stamp duty and commission). Frankly to get experience of the market the advice to open a spreadbetting account is good - you can trade a dozen times a day or more; but for heaven's sake keep the bet low - 1 a point - until you're making a regular profit. But be warned - it looks easy but you will almost certainly lose steadily to begin with; to consistently win can take a VERY long time. Years!

One other point. You will probably get free day charts with spreadbetters (check before opening an account) but if you want historical info (like the week, or monthly charts) or Level 2 (the orders being lined up in any share), or up-to-date news on UK shares, or ex-dividend info etc, you will probably have to pay. I pay just under 80 a month to Moneyam for the facilities I use. And in my opinion you would need something like that.

Hope it helps. As Gausie says - if you NEED to make money short-term DON'T play the markets.

We were all wrong.See Fundamentalist wins at Cheltenham
rgds aj

I am tempted by british energy what do you guys think

If u really r this green do as you've been advised and put your money in a high rate savings account till you have some idea of what your doing. No offense meant.

How much will a high rate savings account give me

thesaurus, u should be able to get in excess of 5%. Shop around, use the web there's bags of scope on-line. At least it will be earning something in reality, while u r loosing it on paper. remember even though you are not Investing for real you will have to be strict, keep a book and include all your ex's. There is no point in cheating yourself, you already know how clever you R :-) Good luck. dm.

5% A YEAR?

Suggestions for 5,000 gbp:

(1) Buy something you always wanted and be happy. Better yet, buy someone you love something they always wanted and make them happy. It'll make you feel good.

(2) Spend whatever it takes on yourself to make you feel good. Then go see the boss and ask for a rise. (Even if you only get 500 p.a. and you spend all your money you get you've bought a 10%(ish) investment at ten times face value).

(3) If they fire you you have a 5k cushion while looking for a better job.

(4) Put 500 on the 3.30 at Newmarket. See how you feel at 3.37.

(5) Take the CFA exam. Look after other peoples money.

err, thats it.

Oh, I suppose you could open a cheap dealing account and get 5 x 1,000gbp lines of stock. You get to know how it feels.

Remember:

'Shares go up and down, but not necessarily in that order'. (Who said that ?)

Oh, seriously, everything that everyone here has said is true, and if this is money you can't afford to lose then bank it. If you are serious then you could look at gearing your investment by using extended settlement dates. This means you buy stock now but don't pay for it until later. It's old fashioned and incurs stamp duty etc, but it means you can buy more than 5ks worth of stock. Your broker will want some cash in the account before doing it for to cover the (very likely) chance of a falling share price.

The above is an example of what you may be able to do. It isn't good advice. Good advice is put it in the bank.

Best of luck.

My friend everyone is giving you good advise.You have 5k which you dont want to squader on a venture. Preserve your capital and do some quality researcing and paper trade.Profit or loss even on paper "IS a PROFIT OR LOSS" treat it like that and you are on the right path.

Use this analogy: If you want to DRIVE than you need to get some Lessons,the rules of the Road, the Do and Donts. Also the car size speeds your heart can take and what you can control.

I hope this helps but at the end of the day its your "money and u take your chances" but without sound knowledge you are better off putting it on number seven on the gigis.

rgds
zarif

Hi
Been reading your thread & very interesting. I asked a few questions when I started and certainly didn't get as many replies as you, so well done. I am also a novice so this is not 'advice', just my experience. I invested some small amounts off my own back from newspaper tips & did OK so got a taste....Bought shares mag and then found this site. As regards BGY...I started reading the threads and got carried away and bought these. As they went down I regreted it as everyone had been so positive and one of the comments made me feel a bit silly if I didn't buy. I believe long term still Ok but I want to trade short. So beware...noone seems to fill in their profile so you don't know who they are, keep reading all the threads and you will get to know who is reliable. I started carefully with slow growth, solid companies but decided I wanted to be more daring. As they say, if you want higher gains, take higher risks. I now invest more in riskier co. Petra diamonds and petroceltic, up & down but I've had good profit whilst keeping backup in big companies. (I'm still tempted to take out though as too slow for me!!) Best of luck.