commander

Meow/Norm or anyone with experience in this sector.

I really want to purchase shares in a company that are on the FTSE250.

What is the best way to do this...any particular website etc..

cheers

Autonomy

I'd definitely wait for more informed responses than mine as you probably know more than I do - though http://www.internaxx.lu/ was recommended to me previously.

commander

cheers auto, did you use them?

Meow

To do that from here you'd need to set up a sharedealing account. If you have an offshore bank account you may find that your bank offers such a service. They won't have cheap dealing fees, but that shouldn't matter for one purchase and it's often the easiest way.

mentalist

Which company's shares do you intend buying...and why?

scrubbedexpat141

I've got a sharedealing account with Lloyds (who I banked with in the UK).

As Meow says, the fees aren't amazing but it's part an parcel...you can get money in and out quite quickly too.

Buy shares in stuff you know, that's my personal advice. I bought in construction as a start and then banks (after lots and lots of research with the old man).

weasel decentral

in the scheme of things, unless you physically want to hold the shares, and bearing in mind its all gambling anyhow. Why not buy through a spread betting site ?

Meow

Why not? The risk and lack of understanding.

Most people do not make money on most shares that they buy as they just don't understand then fully. I strongly advise that individuals only use money that are able to lose when buying individual shares.

weasel decentral

If he wants to buy a particular share, its fairly immaterial who he does it through I would have thought. Set your stop loss as such and leave it; you will either watch it accrue some money or lose what you can afford to lose. (and exit the share trading world suitably chastened lol)

scrubbedexpat141

Very true. Hence why you should stick to things you understand / know.

weasel decentral

you can't ever fully understand or know, most of the successful traders are day traders, so they close their positions every night. None are in for the long haul, they will just as easily short a share rather than go long.

against this kind of speculation , which will have zero to do with the underlying company fundamentals, there is very little a private investor can do except make a best guess (but its still a guess) and your investments will only ever be looking for share price gain not loss.

Look at futures for example the price of oil now has nothing to do with availability or demand, its purely a speculators market. Why is the price of petrol higher now than ever before (aside from excise duties) in a time of low demand and available resource.

I can't imagine your choice of banking or construction have done well? but maybe I am wrong

scrubbedexpat141

OK, maybe it was worded wrong.

I wouldn't invest my money in shares for long term gain in something I knew nothing about, or a market I knew nothing about.

We put in just under 6,000 (50/50 between the old man and I) and at peak we were holding 18,000 worth of banking and construction shares. They took a little hit and we bailed most of them at about 15,000 (just over) value.

weasel decentral

You did well to get out and the performance of the construction shares has probably dropped considerably since.
If you had made more money out of it you would have been hit with capitals gain tax, which is why some people use spread betting on the share price as it is exempt from the tax. (in Ireland anyhow and probably the UK)

However I have been burned and done well in equal measure, even when well placed to know a lot about some companies. Luck and timing play too much of a role in this sort of trading for me to ever believe there is a "science" to it.

And if you really want to lose money forex is a good starting point

scrubbedexpat141

Don't get me wrong, we took some gambles, RBS being one of them but only a few hundred quid doubled for us, Barclays was another great buy and ROK - but that was fortunate because we bought when market was crap, they picked up loads of work, we got a bit of a gain and bailed before they went under (luck over judgement).

We have left some in there to sit and accrue, like BP.

We haven't put any more cash in and are not likely to for a while. Instead he and I have been talking about exchange rates and what we could do with that but it's just as much, if not even more of a gamble I think....and I understand it all far less.

People make fortunes out of it and people lose fortunes, we were happy to lose that money (but were confident if we did research, did lots of digging and worked sensibly and balanced solid, small gains with some risky then we'd have a balance that remained even / positive).

It's gambling, that's all. Sometimes you just keep backing Man Utd at home to get the safe odds, but the odd bit of cash on Wigan away at Arsenal is the one that bumps your takings up. Still got to be prepared to lose it all.

Meow

Very true.