Understanding returns for a beginner

[Jonak1979]

Hello,

I am very new to this I'm struggling to understand how my return was about breaking even, even though I bought the share at £10 lower than the price per share was trading at,

Example - yesterday I bought shares in boeing when the price was £169 per share, today when I looked the share price had increased to £176 per share but my returns were showing breaking even at zero, I can't u derstand why this is so, does anyone have a simple answer please?

 

[tomorton]

What comes to mind right away is you need to allow for the spread. This is the difference between what you have to pay the broker to buy the share and what the broker will offer you if you want to sell it back: shares are always quoted at two prices.

Check with different brokers to see how wide their spreads normally are on this share and similar sized companies' shares. Brokers are in competition so some will offer a better deal than others.

The spread your figures suggest is very wide. What the hell is that?