Starting from scratch

[TheUnknownWolf]

Hi everyone,

Great to be here and I was recommended by a friend that received amazing help and support on here.

I have a disability consequently making me Electric wheelchair-bound due to a muscle weakness and reliant on 24 seven care. I studied a marketing quite a few years back before ill-health and I am now looking at getting into investments.

I am here to have a look around, pick up some tips, and help to understand stocks, shares and investing.

I have done some online investing in CFD but I have not had any online stocks and shares and I would like to start from scratch.

Where do you think the best place would be to post?

Pumped to be speaking to you soon,

Joe

 

[tomorton]

CFD trading and share trading are very different in two major respects - you can normally only own shares that you have paid the full purchase price for and you can only profit from the shares you own if they go up. CFD's allow you to profit when a particular instrument goes up or when it goes down. So the potential for trading derivatives like CFD's, spreadbetting and traded options is significantly greater. Add to this the leverage available so that your derivatives account of £1000 could be used to trade in and out of a position leveraged up by the account provider to the value of, say, £20,000, and the notion of buying and selling shares becomes hard to sustain.

Then again, trading is not for everyone. So this is a major decision point as to which to go for. However, there's loads of resources and experience on this site so start digging and fire away with any queries.

 

[TheUnknownWolf]

Hi Tomorton,

Many thanks for your response and warm welcoming!

A simple question really I definitely want to start trading do I have to have a special computer with special software? Or perhaps you think web-based is preferable?

Kind regards,

Joe

 

[tomorton]

Hi Joe -

Anything from a tablet up would let you see charts in as much detail as you need. Broker trading platforms will nearly always have far more indicators and tools and adjustable settings than are necessary but they're obviously catering for every foreseeable trading need.

I do subscribe to the Sharescope EOD TA database which lets me play around with chart designs and portfolios and indicators and stuff. A nice extra to use but certainly not absolutely necessary beyond what a broker would offer free to clients, even demo account holders.