Investment Query

Bugnug

Hi there,

I am intersted in dabbling in stocks and shares. I have absolutely no experience in this area and will be starting of small max €1000. I have been doing a bit of reading about spread betting and have contacted Worldspreads an Irish company who offer a free training session. Has anyone completed this session and what is it like?

What is the story with etf's?

Not looking to make my fortune have a good job with a pension and I have some property investments. But anything has to be better than money sitting in a current account.

Also if anyone has any recommended reading or website, I have been on www.irishinvestor.com and it seems quite good.

Thanks.

Spectrum48k

Bugnug wrote: »

Also if anyone has any recommended reading or website, I have been on www.irishinvestor.com and it seems quite good.

Thanks.

That site you mention (www.irishinvestor.com) is just links. More detail on the site www.theirishinvestor.com.

Bugnug

Thats the one. Any advice?

Regards,

J

Idu

Bugnug wrote: »

Hi there,

I am intersted in dabbling in stocks and shares. I have absolutely no experience in this area and will be starting of small max €1000. I have been doing a bit of reading about spread betting and have contacted Worldspreads an Irish company who offer a free training session. Has anyone completed this session and what is it like?

What is the story with etf's?

Not looking to make my fortune have a good job with a pension and I have some property investments. But anything has to be better than money sitting in a current account.

Also if anyone has any recommended reading or website, I have been on www.irishinvestor.com and it seems quite good.

Thanks.

Seriously, put the money in longer term savings account with higher interest. Do some research, learn your stuff and when the account matures and you have knowledge and some demo trading experience then start to invest if you're still interested

woodseb

janets_on_clubs wrote: »

Seriously, put the money in longer term savings account with higher interest. Do some research, learn your stuff and when the account matures and you have knowledge and some demo trading experience then start to invest if you're still interested

good advice there, also don't restrict yourself to irish stocks, there are thousands of companies to invest in worldwide so shop around, there's even more information and websites on UK and US stocks

although you may feel you know more about irish stocks chances are it won't be the type of knowledge you need and may hinder you - best take an impartial look at an investment

ETFs are a good way to start, they will allow track a broad index, country or sector etc

Spectrum48k

The first step is to do lots of research before making any investments.

Spread betting has more risks than buying shares, make sure you know what you are getting into. Leveraged gains can just as easily be leveraged losses.

When you start out keep the risks to a minimum. High interest bank accounts are a good start until you have an investment strategy. ETF are good tools for spreading your risk. Obama has just put priority on Green technology so an ETF in renewable energy could have potential. But again dont put all you eggs in one basket. Investing in several unrelated ETFs means that your risk is lowered again. Indices like the Dow Industrials and S&P 500 are tracked by certain ETFs. A good book to read on this subject is 'A random walk down Wall Street'

Trading costs. Be careful who you trade with. Fees and commissions can eat up you profits. US brokers like Etrade and Interactive Brokers are considerably cheaper than Irish brokers like Davys. If you go down this route you will need to fill in a statement of US earnings.

Lastly treat everything you read on in online chatrooms with a healthy degree of skepticism. I am not trying to be smart, everyone is an expert online. Do your own research on everything you are told.

Good luck investing.