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bildonone

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hello everyone.

I have just joined today and i have no knowledge at all about share dealing. I look afer my wife at home now and find myself with time on my hands and need to earn some money, i have tried all the work from home sites to no avail and someone suggested going into shares so here i am. All i know about shares is that i have 500 in Alliance & leicester that i received when they converted. If anyone could give me a kick in the right direction i would appreciate it.

Bill
 
hi newbie

welcome to t2w!

first of all, i would suggest you look around this site thoroughly... there are plenty of posts already made that would be of use to peeps at every level, from raw beginnner to experienced expert.... fortunately, in my opinion you've come to one of the best web sites on the net for what you would like to do....
 
newbie

that's really great you would like to be a trader however please let me ask one quest:

if you had enough money what would you do? (trading or something else )

Good luck
Genti
 
excellent question genti! ;)

However, IMHO, i reckon he would be better placed to answer this question once he has looked in to trading a lot more. at the moment, he doesn't know what its all about, which doesn't mean he wouldn't want to do it passionately anwyay....
 
Last edited:
Hi bildonone - and welcome to the wonderful world of trading.

I've just written a long post for someone else who is just starting out, so to save me duplicating myself, the post is here:
http://www.trade2win.co.uk/boards/showthread.php?s=&postid=35366#post35366

I would suggest that you learn all about trading with a spreadbetting account, which you'll need £250 or so to set up. Please take the time to learn properly by betting just 1p or 2p per point - there are lots of things to learn, and you'll probably find that trading turns into the most fascinating hobby that you've ever had.

The vast majority lose, so take your time, start small, and ask questions all the way - everyone here will, I'm sure, be happy to answer them. The most interesting answers often come from other newbies because they have first hand experience of what you're about to go through.
 
many thanks for all the replies, i will certainly give spreadbetting a go as you suggest Skimbleshanks as i am willing to learn from all of your experiences and with all your help who knows, and if i do make any money i am certain that i would carry on trying to improve my self. Looking forward to talking again.

Bill
 
hi bildonone

if yuo lose that initial $250 - and yuo probably will - yuo should also still carry on trying to improve yuor skills/discipline/strategy/blah

if/when yuo wipe out that opening account, don't be deterred from trading. It's normal. Think of it as a business start up cost

a lot of newbies think that trading is an easy way to make a fast buck. I'm afraid it just doesn't work like that. Yuo're at the beginning of a very steep learning curve and it's gonna cost yuo some bucks to learn the business

welcome to the board and i wish yuo the best

- Car Key Boi
 
Great to hear Bill. Just make sure that you go into trading with an open mind and with the objective of learning a new profession, and to converse with like-minded people, and generally have a nice time. Please don't go into trading expecting to make money - you've got a long way to go before you can hope to do that.

Do make sure you open a cash account with a spreadbetting company, such as www.finspreads.co.uk not a margin account. A cash account is one where you are limited to trading within the funds you have available in your account. If you do not have the funds, you cannot open a trade. A margin account is one where you put up a very small percentage of the cost of the trade, and the spreadbetting company or broker lends you the rest. The downside is that when you lose your losses can be HUGE. So when you are learning, never ever put yourself into that situation. So go for a cash account with £250 in it, and if you blow the lot (although if you follow the guidance on these boards and use money management strategies, then there's no reason for you to blow your account), then you sleep soundly in your bed.

There are nightmare stories about newbies who have traded on margin, lost heavily, and then have not been able to sleep soundly at night for fear of how they are going to meet their margin calls (where you have to stump up the cash to meet your debts).

When you get further experience, and hundreds of 1p and 50p per point trades under your belt, you will understand the dangers of using margin, but be in a position to safeguard yourself by sticking to a pre-determined risk on each trade you enter.

But before you get to open an account, you will need to read these boards, particularly the newbie threads, and decide what sort of trading will suit you best.

In the UK the London Stock Exchange trades between 8am and 4pm (or is it 4:30, I've forgotten!), and the US markets trade between 2:30pm and 9:00pm UK time. So depending on your wife's needs, you can fit trading in. There's intraday trading where you are in and out in a day and don't hold any positions open overnight, or EOD (end of day) trading.

You'll need to use some software to look at charts - you can start by using some free ones on the Internet, BUT it is always better to go for proper software with a paid datafeed for numerous reasons. You can set them up how you want, personalise the settings, flip through them off-line, make notes on the charts, etc. If you want to do the job properly, you need proper tools.

You will naturally want to trade UK, because you probably feel that it is safer, and you will feel comfy trading London quoted stocks and indices. However, US stocks are much easier to trade, so don't ignore them just because there's a whopping expanse of sea between us and them!

Have a root around for the links to software and Internet charting sites - they're all on the threads and in the knowledge section of this BB.

Phew! That's given you a lot of things to do before you open a trading account, and you've got a lot of reading to do as well!
 
Have ordered a free cd from click events re spreadbetting anyone know of any other free software, also cannot connect with finspreads site.

Bill
 
Hi bildonone

I just want to back-up everything that Skim has said.

I believe it is also very useful to look at this thread. http://www.trade2win.co.uk/boards/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4629&highlight=Basi* It's a basic intro to trading, and discusses the core skills, needed in trading.

One thing I think it is important to mention is that it takes roughly 3 years of hard work to become profitable in this game - It obviously varies from person to person, but very few do it in less than 3 years.

HTH :)
 
thanks again for replies. Looked at FTSE Beaters previous thread and if this is basic intro for traders then i need basic intro for 2 year olds into trading. Back in a few years when ive worked it out.
Have joined finspreads Skim. Thanks
 
OK, then here is the only lesson a 2 year old needs to know about trading, in three chapters:

Chapter 1: Don't bother with short time frames, look at, say, a 30 minute chart.

Chapter 2: If the bar is going down you should be short. (Each bar has a lower low and a lower high; forget the open and close.)

Chapter 3: If the bar is going up you should be long. (Each bar has a higher high, and a higher low; forget the open and close.)

Trading really is this simple, just don't get distracted by thinking you can make it any better by adding lots of fancy wiggly lines.
 
Skimbleshanks said:
Great to hear Bill. Just make sure that you go into trading with an open mind and with the objective of learning a new profession, and to converse with like-minded people, and generally have a nice time. Please don't go into trading expecting to make money - you've got a long way to go before you can hope to do that.

Do make sure you open a cash account with a spreadbetting company, such as www.finspreads.co.uk not a margin account. A cash account is one where you are limited to trading within the funds you have available in your account. If you do not have the funds, you cannot open a trade. A margin account is one where you put up a very small percentage of the cost of the trade, and the spreadbetting company or broker lends you the rest. The downside is that when you lose your losses can be HUGE. So when you are learning, never ever put yourself into that situation. So go for a cash account with £250 in it, and if you blow the lot (although if you follow the guidance on these boards and use money management strategies, then there's no reason for you to blow your account), then you sleep soundly in your bed.

There are nightmare stories about newbies who have traded on margin, lost heavily, and then have not been able to sleep soundly at night for fear of how they are going to meet their margin calls (where you have to stump up the cash to meet your debts).

When you get further experience, and hundreds of 1p and 50p per point trades under your belt, you will understand the dangers of using margin, but be in a position to safeguard yourself by sticking to a pre-determined risk on each trade you enter.

But before you get to open an account, you will need to read these boards, particularly the newbie threads, and decide what sort of trading will suit you best.

In the UK the London Stock Exchange trades between 8am and 4pm (or is it 4:30, I've forgotten!), and the US markets trade between 2:30pm and 9:00pm UK time. So depending on your wife's needs, you can fit trading in. There's intraday trading where you are in and out in a day and don't hold any positions open overnight, or EOD (end of day) trading.

You'll need to use some software to look at charts - you can start by using some free ones on the Internet, BUT it is always better to go for proper software with a paid datafeed for numerous reasons. You can set them up how you want, personalise the settings, flip through them off-line, make notes on the charts, etc. If you want to do the job properly, you need proper tools.

You will naturally want to trade UK, because you probably feel that it is safer, and you will feel comfy trading London quoted stocks and indices. However, US stocks are much easier to trade, so don't ignore them just because there's a whopping expanse of sea between us and them!

Have a root around for the links to software and Internet charting sites - they're all on the threads and in the knowledge section of this BB.

Phew! That's given you a lot of things to do before you open a trading account, and you've got a lot of reading to do as well!

honey, this is great advice for a newbie

the only thing i question is the bit about trading US stocks

Paul (Trader333) in another thread to a newbie, also reckoned that US stocks are easier to trade blah

i also agree, but only if yuo are an experienced trader

if yuo're a newbie and especially if yuor trading instrument is a SB account (as being advised in this case) it might be better for Bill to learn the biz on UK stocks simply because the spreads that the SB companies offer on US stocks, is tantamount to theft...

those wide spreads coupled with the volatile nature of US stocks, can easily wipe out a newbie's SB account in no time at all and that can be quite discouraging...
 
NEW TO TRADING

Bildonone

May I suggest you look at http://www.streetauthority.com/

This is a subscription service, but currently you can access all for free, including a 5 part course to print off, which for someone such as yourself, should find of value in understanding some of the terms you will see referred to in many of the posts in T2W.

Take your time, do as advised by some of the replies, ask questions, trade small initially, and above all control your trades - in other word employ a STOP LOSS to ensure you dont get wiped out!!!

I wont wish you LUCK...........CONCENTRATION & EFFORT are more appropriate!!!

John
 
KhakiLad - when I was suggesting trading US, I had in mind the US indices, so perhaps I didn't make that clear enough. :D

My reason for this is that there are lots of discussion on these boards about US indices, ChartMan does his daily review on the Dow every day on these boards, and TA obeys US stocks far better than it does UK stocks just because of the volume. FTSE100 stocks still have less volume than most of the S&P500, give or take.
 
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