FTSE100 or AIM? Which is better?

[Erics]

I am going to invest £2000 to stock market. If things are OK, I may invest more, but up to £10,000.

I find out the company in FTSE100 grow very slow. Some of their share price may only rise 10%-20% a month, but in AIM you can always find some shares grow 30% or even 50% in just a day. Their price may be doubled or even tripled in one or two weeks, it is so attractive!

I am wondering other investors like me, which market you prefer?

I know the companies listed in AIM are all small companies, so their share may have something called " low liquidity". But if I am not going to invest very much( just £10,000), do I face difficulty of buying and selling shares?

Can anyone give me a suggestion?

Thank you very much.

Eric

 

[Strategic Trader]

if you are not an experienced professional trader - keep your money in cash and just get the best interest rate you can get - stocks on AIM will seem to go up, until you try to sell them- and then you will probably find the price for selling them is a lot less than you bought them for, or they are you cannot sell them at all !

 

[Racer]

I trade AIM and FTSE100, on different time scales.
All investing is risky.
AIM shares often go up lots and lots in a day.. but the spread can be 30% or more. Add that to commission and the share has to go up a lot for you just to be able to break even!
AIM shares have a habit of coming out with warnings out of the blue and the share price can fall 30 or 60% in a flash.
Getting out of small companies can be difficult, often the MMs will not give you the price that is quoted, so you need to sell into strength.
With the small ones you have to be prepared to write your money off completely! If you can afford to do that then invest in AIM, if not, don't.

 

[Money_magnet1]

Erics,

Be careful, just as AIM stocks can rise quickly so they can fall even quicker and anyway it's not so easy to pick the ones that are going up 30% in a day !!! If your cautious and research the company properly first (essential with AIM stocks particularly) then theres no need to worry about investing in AIM. Another important thing is to have time on your side, if say a stock moves against you quickly, you could be looking at a substantial paper loss, if you know the company is fundamentally sound then you can wait it out until things turn around providing you don't need the cash.

 

[Erics]

Thanks every one here.

I won't put my money in AIM unless I feel confident to do. To find a "good" AIM company is to look at its spead or liquidity. I will never invest a company with low spread no matter how fast it grows.

I am glad to have all of your reply here. Thank again.