help me with account

[lawless23456]

hi all

im just getting into the market and just wondering i have heard people mention an account on here, i presume when they say account they are referring to a sharedealing account? or am i completly off the mark? my aim is to start small with somewhere in the region of £200-£500

lawless

 

[rithmomachia]

Here is the help you requested regarding Account.

Hello lawless23456, My name is Barrington, and although I am new to this site, I am an "old dog" when it comes to Trading, so I will endeavour to answer your question. I am assuming that you are NOT asking for advice as to where you can open an account with a Broker, but need to know more about the "term" account as used in trading.

There are various definitions of the term "account" used in trading:-
(1) The Deposit Account that you open with your Broker and in which you place a sum of money with which to trade. As you trade, each buy or sell transaction is initially covered by the required amount taken from this account. When you make a profitable (win) transaction, the profit that you make is added to this Broker account (minus any brokerage fees/commissions where applicable). Any transactions that do not get filled (loss) is of course deducted. You can of course take profits from this account by instructing your Broker to issue payment to you---this is usually done automatically each month---and is called drawdown or taking profits.

(2) Transaction Account. This is where YOU keep track of each and every trade you enter into. Every Buy (long) or Sell (short) for each individual transaction is recorded (or logged, as some refer to it) in this account. It is a detailed statement in which the name of the Stock, Equity or Currency is recorded along with the date, the Bid/Ask price, Trading Costs, amount of Profit(+) or Loss(-) etc. From this account you can generate your consolidated Profit & Loss Account.

(3) Most On-Line Brokers provide you with access to your own Transaction Logging and P&L accounts; these are sometimes referred to as your Back Office Facilities.

(4) Some good (and free of charge) Open Source trading software also provides these facilities, including on-line ordering direct to your Brokerage Account. Go to the Web, and check out the Open Source "Eclipse Trader" which gives you all the above features, plus live quote feeds, a Charting Package and Market News Feeds. This software runs under MS_Windows and comes with easy "self-install". If you are using LINUX and need help with account, just let me know and I will respond accordingly. Here is the URL:

EclipseTrader

Hope this helps. Best regards,
Barrington ( rithmomachia)

 

[dr.blix]

lawless, hopefully an experienced member will give some input on my post here...just thinking out loud.

is there an optimum figure to start a small dealing account with?

i've read many posts where people have the idea to start trading with a small amount of money, but, and this all depends what you trade of course, won't the level of stamp duty (for sharedealing) and broker fees swamp any gains you may produce giving you a negative spin on how well you may be able to trade?

obviously a successful trade is a successful trade, and i'm in no doubt starting small is sensible.

 

[gamma]

Open a account with some one of the spreadbetting offers you a introductory bonus, One of them not sure which one gives you a 250 pound bons if you open with 250. Interactive investor give you a 100 pound bonus and you can trade micro lots. no reason why with good money management you could not take it to a decent size.And forget trading shares too difficult and controlled by the market makers etc. Trade forex.

 

[lawless23456]

my bank offers a sharedealing account from which i can carry out transactions etc is this the same as a brokerage account? or am i way off the mark here?

 

[dr.blix]

not wanting to sound funny, but if you're unsure of such basics i wouldn't open an account with real money.

spend some time reading books, forums, familiarise yourself with different forms of trading (so much info online) and then maybe open a practice acc (lots of online brokers offer them) trading with pretend money.

i started day trading uk shares 3 months ago completely green. i'm thinking it's not a bad way to familiarise yourself with markets, and sticking to FTSE100 makes it simpler, and maybe losing all your capital will happen more slowly (the longer your account lasts the more time you have to try and learn how to trade/trade better)...but to actually make a profit is incredibly difficult and i, for one, may not continue.

i think people outside of markets think that by default everyone involved in trading is like gordon geko. the reality may probably be more like a large percentage of people losing their money to a very small percentage of professionals.

best of luck.

 

[lawless23456]

i have done a business studies a level course and we did a couple of modules about trading but unfortunately they did not cover the different types of accounts so this is mainly where im struggling as there are so many different types, just wanna know a sharedealing account with my bank is the same as a brokerage account? i've sent of for information from jd waterhouse

 

[gamma]

Its T.D WATERHOUSE
not JD
JD are the Pub people a different kind of house
One where you trade your money for drink.
but here is a website that should help you get started

Forex Trading: Online Currency Trading in the Foreign Exchange Market