First steps - Recommendations.

[melsen]

I've read the first steps guides more than once now... and have got a little insight.

Now.. aside from paper trading.. I'm starting small... I got 500£ stacked away which I plan on trying to dabble a bit with once I get the basic hang of this... but what should I dive into.

I first thought about doing stocks... yet, how far will 500£ bring me there.. I mean.. with the fee's for the purchases of the stocks and so on..

Or should I drop the stocks and then go for spreadbetting instead?

Where would you recommend I do my business from. Etrade is a place I got recommended, what else can you recommend?

I see alot of mentioning of esignal... is that the software you would recommend I use, and do they have feed as well or do I need that from a completely different place.

.... still confused.

 

[RunRyder]

Its not worth the software and subscription (esignal) price if you are going to use that little to trade with. Use free programs that are available on the internet.

 

[ewilcox]

I think to put it into a slightly nicer way what runryder is trying to say is that the price of the software and subscription is probably more (or at the least a significant percentage) of £500 - hence you would do better to find cheaper sources of information. Try finance.yahoo.co.uk - excellent starting point and their technical anlysis is pretty good for nothing. Until you are dealing with amounts significantly bigger expensive software should not be considered - careful thought, a few books and some time reading here will pay bigger dividends.

 

[FTSE Beater]

Hi Melsen

I agree with the above comments. For now stay with the free charting packages.
I would start with spreadbetting, especially if you are trading with £500.

However, before spreadbetting I would try the Trade2win Share Competition and see how you trade with that. If you can't make money in the competition, then your highly unlikely to do so in the "real world"

HTH and a PM coming your way