Hi and a Few Questions from a Newbie

Hi, I just joined the Forum, which looks fantastic with a lot of good information for newbie's like me - Thanks for all of this.

I have a lot of money tied up in a Portfolio that is built from mainly PEP's / ISA's etc and like everyone else in the UK (and World) these have taken a hammering since Aug of last year. Anyway, instead of sitting back and hoping these grow long term I want to take control of my Investments and I want to "learn how to trade". I have just finished my Job and I have 3 months on "garden leave" before I start my new job so this is a good a time as any. This site is an excellent starting point.

One question I would like to ask just now are there any websites that stream the major indexes FTSE100 / DOW etc "Realtime" i.e. 1-2 minutes behind. Most sites I have found are anywhere upto 15 minutes behind which is no use.

Any other advice etc etc to point me in the right direction on my journey would be really appreciated.

Thanks
Ajay

Ajay999 said:

Hi, I just joined the Forum, which looks fantastic with a lot of good information for newbie's like me - Thanks for all of this.

I have a lot of money tied up in a Portfolio that is built from mainly PEP's / ISA's etc and like everyone else in the UK (and World) these have taken a hammering since Aug of last year. Anyway, instead of sitting back and hoping these grow long term I want to take control of my Investments and I want to "learn how to trade". I have just finished my Job and I have 3 months on "garden leave" before I start my new job so this is a good a time as any. This site is an excellent starting point.

One question I would like to ask just now are there any websites that stream the major indexes FTSE100 / DOW etc "Realtime" i.e. 1-2 minutes behind. Most sites I have found are anywhere upto 15 minutes behind which is no use.

Any other advice etc etc to point me in the right direction on my journey would be really appreciated.

Thanks
Ajay

Click to expand...

Easy part first: FTSE charges for live information which is why it's difficult to find on the net for free. Either your broker will give you a price feed (which you pay for indirectly through comms or spreads), or you pay for an independent feed, or you could try something like DigitalLook which gives you a time-limited live feed. As a wider point: you are effectively setting up a business, ie using resources to try and earn an income. Trading is already the cheapest business to set up - no premises, staff, stock, advertising, etc is required. So when you do need to pay up for something, just do it and get something of decent quality - it'll be worth it in the long run.

The bigger question can't be answered until you've worked out exactly what your objectives are. At one end it could be simply to better manage the investment funds you already have using a resource like Trustnet. Not all fund managers are duffers. In the middle, it might be to build your own portfolio of stocks using TA or FA to replicate the sort of thing a fund manager might do. At the other end it might be frantically trading intra-day forex or the indices. Once you've decided there are plenty of resources on here and in print to help you on your journey.

Hi Ajay999,
Welcome to T2W,
Solid advice IMO from Bagehot, but would emphasize one or two details. In your post you said that you start a new job in 3 months or so and wish to use the interim period 'to learn how to trade'. As Bagehot outlines, the type of trader you become depends upon a number of different factors. Your personality, your views about risk and the amount of time you can devote to the subject - all have to be considered. And it's a VERY big subject! I imagine that when you start your job, you'll have little time or energy to devote to trading, regardless of how enthusiastic you become over the course of the coming months. Therefore, day trading is probably going to be out of the question. Not impossible - hence the 'probably'. (I used to day trade U.S. equities myself between 7-9pm on top of a normal 9-5 job.) That said, it sounds to me as if you might fair better by directing your attention to a longer term horizon - swing or position trading. For this, you wouldn't need real time streaming data, end of day (E.o.D) would be fine. If you intend to trade U.K. equities, you might want to have a gander at ShareScope. If you decide that you don't have the time or inclination to really get to grips with trading to any great extent, you could open a spread betting account and hedge your portfolio to help protect you from the sort of turmoil the markets are experiencing now. There are people on here who are very good at implementing strategies of this sort and would, I'm sure, be able to help if this idea appealed to you.
Good luck with whatever you do,
Tim.

Hi Ajay

If you need real time indices/individual share prices, there are a number of providers, try advfn.com, will cost about 30 per month

Thanks Guys. Some good info to get me started.

Hi guys

just join this forum and started being welcomed by the members would like to know much about the day trading and would like to share my knowledge about it

Thanks

i don't know much knowledge about trade,indeed,i'm a green hand at trade and join this forum want to get some useful information about trade ,meet other people.