Hello everyone, i'm new to the board here. I've been reading through the threads and decided to join straight away because it looks like a nice bunch inhabit this community (not like other childish forums).

I quite young but started trading a few years back, the cost of being a student however has meant that I had to leave the market for a while (around the time of the .com bubble burst!). Any experience I had I was extremely lucky with and I must say that I'm both daunted and excited by eventually investing again.

Any help on the below queries would be great help;

(Note: I'll most probably be able to search for answers to these questions on this site, so appreciate if you can't be bothered repeating previous answers!)

1) I'm looking for a broker, I joined barclays a couple of years ago simply because of it's commercial status but comparing to other brokers they are bloody expensive! I pay 17.50 a transaction plus inactivity fees per Q!!

I have signed up to ample (IMIWEB I believe) because a 10 flat rate looks good. But if anyone has any recommendations then great. I won't be investing a huge amount of money but quality is quality as long as it's cheap!

2) Any other major financial boards I can use? I will be signing up to moneyam through the mag soon but rather delay it until i've learned a few basics!

3) I purchased this book;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471412929/026-4438151-1842867

because I wanted to educate myself on the technical side of charting which I find very interesting. I won't be relying on charting but instead use it as an aid for backing up buy and sell points. Does anyone else recommend other books?

4) Spread betting - Something I'm totally new to. What I'm wondering is...the spreads that they quote for "bets" are they quite accurate - hence reducing your odds. that is, do these spread betters have a bunch on city analysts producing these figures in respect to current market conditions.

Sorry for obvious questions and look forward to any further advice that you guys can give.

Cheers

Robby

Robby
Have a look at http://www.deal4free.co.uk/
They have no charges at all but a slightly wider spread than the market on all but the top shares. Very good to start with as you can go long & short and also trade
the indices.
Look on www.ftsedow.com for a
special offer so you can try MoneyAM Trader BB for free!
 

Thanks for the response crocodile. I take it thats your site???

I've seen deal 4 free before but was never to keen on using larger spreads. I think that a flat rate commission fee would probably equate to the value lost on spread - but i'm just guessing.

Do you invest in international markets such as the US? if so what sort of tax is payable on trades?

So much info, it's hard to know where to start!

Thanks Robby

Robby yep its my site. Re spreads on Deal4Free if you deal with the larger FTSE Trackers such as Lloyds, Barclays & Vodaphone the spreads often match the market so offer excellent value. Also you can trade even very small quantities as there are no charges.
Well worth looking at.
I use GNI & Deal4Free and yes I deal US stocks, you can phone me if you want any details

Hi again Crocodile, I may take you up on that offer.

Just another quickie, Do these brokers offer Automatic execution services where I can place an order on the weekend say to purchase stock first thing Monday?

Cheers

oops wrong button

snr gallery
Never do that
You will get stung with the spreads!
But Deal4free have certain major stocks you can trade outside market hours
D.

snr_gallery,

If you're looking for a broker to buy real shares then http://www.comdirect.co.uk is one of the best as far as "cheap quality" goes. There are cheaper and more annoying brokers/sites out there, but ComDirect have been my first choice for a number of years now.

Headline trading prices are only half the story though - ability to trade within the yellow strip can be important - some brokers are not very competitive in this respect - even if trading charges are a couple of quid cheaper.

Do these brokers offer Automatic execution services where I can place an order on the weekend say to purchase stock first thing Monday?

Like some other brokers ComDirect have 'limit' orders so you can put something in place at the weekend if you want to buy or sell at a certain price on the Monday - but I'd caution against leaving limit buys in place; you never know what's going to happen in your absence (you wouldn't want to be the first buy post a profits warning I presume!)

Hi, A good On-line broker I've been using is American Express Sharepeople at http://www.sharepeople.com/. I can't fault the service for trading during or after normal working hours and at weekends as they will purchase at best market prices on opening of the next trading day. Fees aren't too bad either depending upon how frequently you trade.

As for books on charting, how about tooling yourself up with an EOD data stream and charting & technical analysis software. The best tool I bought which paid me back for itself on the first trade once I really got the hang of it is Metastock. Plus a bit of further DYOR in news and fundamentals but now it's paid me back at least half way up the 3 figure scale and rising as it has disciplined me to loose all sentiment in any particular company with making the Buy & Sell decisions and with fairly accurate timing.

Hi kyoto98, I was looking into them - I may take up your recommendation. They seem to offer a lot of features.

Legins - How much would I roughly be looking at for charting software? I'm presuming a monthly fee in order to access constant data?