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Beginning to Invest - All questions go here please

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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,661 ✭✭✭mickman


    the drop by 100 is the spread (fee) that paddy power will take for this trade

    why would you have to hope that its 1 euro per tick, every security will tell you how much per tick


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,214 ✭✭✭wylo


    Cheers for the reply, this is the bit thats getting me (I obviously know alot less about spread betting than I thought I did), I thought the spread was the difference between the buying price and selling, like in the example above:
    Its trading at 1375.2, so I must sell at 1374.7 or buy at 1375.7 , I thought that difference was the spread. I dont really know where the 100 came from.

    Also regarding your second comment, I dont really understand it tbh. Is it something like for every 1 euro im putting on its actually 10 euro or something?
    Sorry I know this is very basic stuff but I guess this is the thread for it, cheers


  • Registered Users Posts: 525 ✭✭✭betonit


    Try and get in to one of the free seminars. They hold them no and again around the country, its probably on their site.


    General question.. are all those fx trading sites spreadbetting sites.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,661 ✭✭✭mickman


    wylo wrote: »
    Cheers for the reply, this is the bit thats getting me (I obviously know alot less about spread betting than I thought I did), I thought the spread was the difference between the buying price and selling, like in the example above:
    Its trading at 1375.2, so I must sell at 1374.7 or buy at 1375.7 , I thought that difference was the spread. I dont really know where the 100 came from.

    Also regarding your second comment, I dont really understand it tbh. Is it something like for every 1 euro im putting on its actually 10 euro or something?
    Sorry I know this is very basic stuff but I guess this is the thread for it, cheers

    the spread is the difference between the buy and sell points but it gets multiplied but the ammount you trade. for examply gold sell at 1400 buy at 10

    the spread is 10 - if you trade 10 euro per tick then your account is down 100 once you make the trade


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,214 ✭✭✭wylo


    mickman wrote: »
    the spread is the difference between the buy and sell points but it gets multiplied but the ammount you trade. for examply gold sell at 1400 buy at 10

    the spread is 10 - if you trade 10 euro per tick then your account is down 100 once you make the trade
    But heres where Im getting confused, I was only trading at 1 euro per tick so shouldnt that mean my account is down 10 not 100?

    EDIT: ok , I finally understand it now, the margin requirement is the bit I was missing. On Paddy Powers site the margin requirement for Gold is 100, meaning its keeping 100 aside for that trade alone.

    Thanks for the help.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 2,214 ✭✭✭wylo


    betonit wrote: »
    Try and get in to one of the free seminars. They hold them no and again around the country, its probably on their site.
    any idea where Id find info on any of these coming up, and also what benefit are they to the person holding the seminar , are they an online broker or something selling their product? Just curious


  • Registered Users Posts: 525 ✭✭✭betonit


    wylo wrote: »
    any idea where Id find info on any of these coming up, and also what benefit are they to the person holding the seminar , are they an online broker or something selling their product? Just curious


    Paddypower hold them. Its a marketing tool for them but its free there's also webinars as well as the seminars below is a link with a schedule. There's not much on it but its updated regularily or just email them and ask about one nearest to you comming up.

    I cant get this to appear as a link just copy and paste to browser.




  • Registered Users Posts: 1,206 ✭✭✭zig


    Sorry if this is a vague question, but just wondering what kind of sample size should you consider when paper trading a system to see if it is profitable or not?
    Would you need to have 1000s to know its a good system, 100s?, 10s?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 337 ✭✭WildBoots


    zig wrote: »
    Sorry if this is a vague question, but just wondering what kind of sample size should you consider when paper trading a system to see if it is profitable or not?
    Would you need to have 1000s to know its a good system, 100s?, 10s?

    Are you talking about spread betting? If so, you could always try the demo account with paddy power to test your system/strategy.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,206 ✭✭✭zig


    Sorry yea, im talking spread betting, Im using a demo account at the moment, but im also going back through the graphs to check systems quickly ( relatively) but im just wondering when do you think its 'safe' to know a system is working.
    Don't get me wrong, Ive a long way to go to learn anything as im just starting out , having a look at a few different indicators , macd and rsi at the moment.
    edit, found a nice answer : http://www.tradejuice.com/system-trading/back-testing-trading-system.htm


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,381 ✭✭✭Br4tPr1nc3


    hey guys.
    sorry for the really stupid question,

    but ive been thinkin to meself the last few days about shares,
    but i dont know much about it,
    as in buy and selling them.

    what i wana know is, how do ya buy and sell them,

    where do ya go to or call.
    is there limits, or minimuns to how much you can buy?


  • Registered Users Posts: 108 ✭✭hession.law


    Just registered for this anyone with experience of this website?


  • Registered Users Posts: 66 ✭✭Tonto67


    Br4tPr1nc3 wrote: »
    hey guys.
    sorry for the really stupid question,

    but ive been thinkin to meself the last few days about shares,
    but i dont know much about it,
    as in buy and selling them.

    what i wana know is, how do ya buy and sell them,

    where do ya go to or call.
    is there limits, or minimuns to how much you can buy?

    I am by no means an expert and am in the process of setting up 2 accounts at the moment. Firstly you need an account with a broker I have heard good and bad things about most of the irish brokers. To get you started have a look at Sharewatch, AIB share dealing and National irish bank share dealing Im sure others will have recommendations, you'll get a feel for whats involved in the account opening process. AIB have a demo that runs you through the share dealing process albeit very thin on detail.

    If you decide to open an account obviously you'll need cash to trade with. While I'm not aware of any lower limit required anything less than 2/3k will mean your profits will be eaten up by commission/stamp duty/capital gains tax.

    One thing I have learned in preparation is that research is key to standing a chance of turning a profit long term. I'm 3 months checking this stuff out and have only just decided to take the plunge. I've researched a few companies here and abroad and have tracked their performance in that time.

    I have been advised also that trading US stocks with irish brokers is bonkers. After doing some research I agree. I am waiting on my Zecco account to be activated. @ $4.50 a trade it hammers the irish brokers for price.

    If your serious about doing it prepare to do your homework. Its not as easy as it may sound "buy low sell high" but there are profits to be had.

    Best of luck.


  • Registered Users Posts: 256 ✭✭hoff1


    What tax is paid on dividends and waht stamp duty paid on? Thanls


  • Registered Users Posts: 735 ✭✭✭hblock21


    Tonto67 wrote: »
    I am by no means an expert and am in the process of setting up 2 accounts at the moment. Firstly you need an account with a broker I have heard good and bad things about most of the irish brokers. To get you started have a look at Sharewatch, AIB share dealing and National irish bank share dealing Im sure others will have recommendations, you'll get a feel for whats involved in the account opening process. AIB have a demo that runs you through the share dealing process albeit very thin on detail.

    If you decide to open an account obviously you'll need cash to trade with. While I'm not aware of any lower limit required anything less than 2/3k will mean your profits will be eaten up by commission/stamp duty/capital gains tax.

    One thing I have learned in preparation is that research is key to standing a chance of turning a profit long term. I'm 3 months checking this stuff out and have only just decided to take the plunge. I've researched a few companies here and abroad and have tracked their performance in that time.

    I have been advised also that trading US stocks with irish brokers is bonkers. After doing some research I agree. I am waiting on my Zecco account to be activated. @ $4.50 a trade it hammers the irish brokers for price.

    If your serious about doing it prepare to do your homework. Its not as easy as it may sound "buy low sell high" but there are profits to be had.

    Best of luck.

    Hi,

    I used to deal with sharewatch. I bought into a few companies last year, it was very easy using them and only cost €50 per transaction. But now they don't provide this service anymore. So, I'm wondering could people tell me what brokers out there I can use to buy / sell my shares, that don't have very high commission rates.
    I'm a small fish, only want to buy stock once or twice a year and not looking to sell for years!


  • Registered Users Posts: 735 ✭✭✭hblock21


    hoff1 wrote: »
    What tax is paid on dividends and waht stamp duty paid on? Thanls

    I'm pretty sure tax (dirt) is 25% on your profits at the moment.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,206 ✭✭✭zig


    hi, just a question about spreads. Its probably a really obvious one but here goes:
    i have a demo acc with market spreads, and for example im looking at S&P 500 and the quote says 1337.4 - 1337.8 ,and it says the spread is 4, so I took that meaning the spread from the sell price to the buy price is 4 points(i.e. .4 to .8 = 4 points)

    That left me thinking that its 2 points on either side of the real price? Is this correct or not? So why is it then that when I place a trade Im instantly down 4 points and not 2 points? My reasoning was that as soon I trade the price would be at 1337.6 in this case, but instead it says the current price is 1337.4(which is the sell price in the quote, not the real price)

    Sorry if im after confusing you, im probably confusing myself.

    Also on another note, are the spreads on marketspreads way too high? For instance, on US LIGHT CRUDE - MAR, the spread is 5 , is this standard?
    Its just im used to FX on alpari using MT4 which seems to have much tighter spreads. In fairness Market Spreads have tight spreads for FX too I just noticed.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 29 Noel 006


    T Corolla wrote: »
    Land and property have not been as good value as they are now but there is an abundance of it at the moment and if you were to go down the rental route you would be make a low return but you would still have the property that will rise in value You are correct in saying that money does loose value due to inflation. I think if you were to invest into. I myself would go for the national solidarty bond for the 10yr term or Intel shares. I bought some at $11 in Jan 2009 and there are at 19:20 today.

    I happened to be browsing this today, Feb 18th 2011, and saw this post. Just to throw my 2 cents in, Intel are now trading at $22.19, they have just gapped into a level of supply, if I owned them I'd be dumping them now, in fact I'd consider shorting them from this price! Only my opinion mind you, I could be wrong!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 29 Noel 006


    zig wrote: »
    hi, just a question about spreads. Its probably a really obvious one but here goes:
    i have a demo acc with market spreads, and for example im looking at S&P 500 and the quote says 1337.4 - 1337.8 ,and it says the spread is 4, so I took that meaning the spread from the sell price to the buy price is 4 points(i.e. .4 to .8 = 4 points)

    That left me thinking that its 2 points on either side of the real price? Is this correct or not? So why is it then that when I place a trade Im instantly down 4 points and not 2 points? My reasoning was that as soon I trade the price would be at 1337.6 in this case, but instead it says the current price is 1337.4(which is the sell price in the quote, not the real price)

    Sorry if im after confusing you, im probably confusing myself.

    Also on another note, are the spreads on marketspreads way too high? For instance, on US LIGHT CRUDE - MAR, the spread is 5 , is this standard?
    Its just im used to FX on alpari using MT4 which seems to have much tighter spreads. In fairness Market Spreads have tight spreads for FX too I just noticed.

    High Price = They Sell / You Buy
    Low Price = You Sell/ They Buy

    That's how they make money, they keep the full spread!


  • Registered Users Posts: 369 ✭✭jellybeans


    Tonto67 wrote: »
    I am by no means an expert and am in the process of setting up 2 accounts at the moment. Firstly you need an account with a broker I have heard good and bad things about most of the irish brokers. To get you started have a look at Sharewatch, AIB share dealing and National irish bank share dealing Im sure others will have recommendations, you'll get a feel for whats involved in the account opening process. AIB have a demo that runs you through the share dealing process albeit very thin on detail.

    If you decide to open an account obviously you'll need cash to trade with. While I'm not aware of any lower limit required anything less than 2/3k will mean your profits will be eaten up by commission/stamp duty/capital gains tax.

    One thing I have learned in preparation is that research is key to standing a chance of turning a profit long term. I'm 3 months checking this stuff out and have only just decided to take the plunge. I've researched a few companies here and abroad and have tracked their performance in that time.

    I have been advised also that trading US stocks with irish brokers is bonkers. After doing some research I agree. I am waiting on my Zecco account to be activated. @ $4.50 a trade it hammers the irish brokers for price.

    If your serious about doing it prepare to do your homework. Its not as easy as it may sound "buy low sell high" but there are profits to be had.

    Best of luck.


    Hey there just wondering how you got on with everything and what have you learned a few months down the road? any tips?


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  • Registered Users Posts: 66 ✭✭Tonto67


    jellybeans wrote: »
    Hey there just wondering how you got on with everything and what have you learned a few months down the road? any tips?

    Well I've not done too badly. I'm playing it very cautious for the time being especially now with this Japanese situation, it's making the markets very volatile. I've made a couple of big gains but have also made several small losses. All in all my $11000 initial investment has become $11850 in 6 weeks had I maintained discipline it could have been into the 12k mark now but I got greedy and lost almost $300 in one day.

    With my zecco account I have been trading aapl, ge, utog and a few others. Aapl is playing a blinder for me. My big loss was on general electric. They designed all the reactors that are in trouble in Japan I panicked and dumped them at a low. They have now recovered somewhat and I have learned a valuable lesson. Utog is a small gas and oil exploration company I was put onto last week. I took a gamble with $500 got in at $1.10 they are now $1.81 that's 65% in 3 trading days. I'm waiting on another $1000 to settle to get in there deeper. This one was a total fluke worth a look though for anyone looking to get into this area.

    Its not all good though. My first trade was $100 in gnta, it was more a test trade than anything else. It is currently worth $9 so you can see how bad it can get if your not careful. I intend to leave that ride as it's no good to me now. That company is in pharmaceuticals and have a testicular cancer drug in trials so if that goes well who knows.

    As for tips all I can say is do your research on a particular company before you buy. Start small, diversify, don't be afraid to sell at a loss oh and use stops I learned that the hard way. Also watch the currency exchange rate if your trading in another currency. I converted my euros to usd at 0.74eur to 1.00usd it is now running at 0.705eur to 1.00usd meaning most of my gains have been wiped out by currency rates. This is only important if I have to cash in now. I'm in this for the long haul so it's not an issue but just be wary keep some cash to hand for emergencies you don't wanna have to convert at a loss potentially on top of a trading loss that would be a kick in the nuts.

    I have an account with NIB. Compared with zecco it's very poor it was a nightmare to set up took the guts of a month I have only done 1 trade 7701 shares in BOI at .325 currently trading at .31 When I can get my initial investment back I'm closing the account. It's just not viable. That 2500 euro trade will have cost me over 60euro in charges by the time I sell. The same trade with zecco $9. Also uncle sam doesn't share info with revenue.


  • Registered Users Posts: 369 ✭✭jellybeans


    Tonto67 wrote: »
    Well I've not done too badly. I'm playing it very cautious for the time being especially now with this Japanese situation, it's making the markets very volatile. I've made a couple of big gains but have also made several small losses. All in all my $11000 initial investment has become $11850 in 6 weeks had I maintained discipline it could have been into the 12k mark now but I got greedy and lost almost $300 in one day.

    With my zecco account I have been trading aapl, ge, utog and a few others. Aapl is playing a blinder for me. My big loss was on general electric. They designed all the reactors that are in trouble in Japan I panicked and dumped them at a low. They have now recovered somewhat and I have learned a valuable lesson. Utog is a small gas and oil exploration company I was put onto last week. I took a gamble with $500 got in at $1.10 they are now $1.81 that's 65% in 3 trading days. I'm waiting on another $1000 to settle to get in there deeper. This one was a total fluke worth a look though for anyone looking to get into this area.

    Its not all good though. My first trade was $100 in gnta, it was more a test trade than anything else. It is currently worth $9 so you can see how bad it can get if your not careful. I intend to leave that ride as it's no good to me now. That company is in pharmaceuticals and have a testicular cancer drug in trials so if that goes well who knows.

    As for tips all I can say is do your research on a particular company before you buy. Start small, diversify, don't be afraid to sell at a loss oh and use stops I learned that the hard way. Also watch the currency exchange rate if your trading in another currency. I converted my euros to usd at 0.74eur to 1.00usd it is now running at 0.705eur to 1.00usd meaning most of my gains have been wiped out by currency rates. This is only important if I have to cash in now. I'm in this for the long haul so it's not an issue but just be wary keep some cash to hand for emergencies you don't wanna have to convert at a loss potentially on top of a trading loss that would be a kick in the nuts.

    I have an account with NIB. Compared with zecco it's very poor it was a nightmare to set up took the guts of a month I have only done 1 trade 7701 shares in BOI at .325 currently trading at .31 When I can get my initial investment back I'm closing the account. It's just not viable. That 2500 euro trade will have cost me over 60euro in charges by the time I sell. The same trade with zecco $9. Also uncle sam doesn't share info with revenue.

    ok that's it I'm in!!!! I've heard enough, I am rearing to go...congratulations on the success, where do you find the info on companies, is it just reading around forums etc??? what do you think of sharewatch? they seem to get good reviews on here?


  • Registered Users Posts: 66 ✭✭Tonto67


    I have heard good things about sharewatch but i have no experience with them so I cannot advise you on them. I can however recommend Zecco. The setup process is a doddle the trading interface is equally easy to manipulate customer support is excellent. I have had cause to contact them 4 times and each time I had a reply back within a few hours. $4.50 a trade is the cheapest out there AFAIK.

    Before you put any money down research a few companies. How you pick them is down to you. Subscribe to breaking news feeds. I have literally dozens of emails every day from google alerts with news on the companies im watching. Look for patterns in the company charts and try buy at a low point when the outlook from your news feeds looks good. Now obviously you are gonna get caught out by uncontrollable events for example my two big ones were steve jobs taking medical leave and the revelation general electric designed the troubled nuclear reactors in japan. The old saying knowledge is power is appropriate here, take for example this UTOG company I mentioned earlier. Late last year during my research stage I subscribed to loads of newsletters to get as much info as possible. Last week I got an email from one of them with a tip for UTOG I had no real cash available to put on it but today i had $10k settle so went for it, got in with an average price of $2.05 it closed today at $2.50. Because I laid the groundwork months ago I got that tip in time and made almost $2.5k today. So get all the info you can lay your hands on. Better too much than too little.

    As always take what you read on forums with a pinch of salt. Do your own research its your money after all. Familiarize yourself with good faith violations and the T+3 rule they get in the way if you dont understand them. Euro to dollar is at a good price at the moment €0.70-$1.00 way better than when i exchanged.

    Best of luck
    Tony


  • Registered Users Posts: 369 ✭✭jellybeans


    Tonto67 wrote: »
    but today i had $10k settle

    Hey Tony thanks for your reply, by the above did you mean you made 10k on the sale of shares and got that money today??

    also was wondering did you sell today to make that 2.5k?? how long typically would you hold onto shares for?


  • Registered Users Posts: 66 ✭✭Tonto67


    jellybeans wrote: »
    Hey Tony thanks for your reply, by the above did you mean you made 10k on the sale of shares and got that money today??

    also was wondering did you sell today to make that 2.5k?? how long typically would you hold onto shares for?

    No I meant I sold 10k worth of my apple shares last week and due to the t+3 rule they only settled on tue i think it was. i then used that money to buy into utog. when i posted here i was up 2.5k. the next day they plummeted and i was down nearly 3k later they regained most of that and i sold at $2.40 i ended up in the black to the tune of nearly 2k. A good few days work but really tested my nerve, the joy of trading penny stocks.


  • Registered Users Posts: 369 ✭✭jellybeans


    Tonto67 wrote: »
    No I meant I sold 10k worth of my apple shares last week and due to the t+3 rule they only settled on tue i think it was. i then used that money to buy into utog. when i posted here i was up 2.5k. the next day they plummeted and i was down nearly 3k later they regained most of that and i sold at $2.40 i ended up in the black to the tune of nearly 2k. A good few days work but really tested my nerve, the joy of trading penny stocks.

    so do you know why they plummeted?? you only held onto them for 3 or 4 days?? so you just watched for the price to rise and then sold asap?


  • Registered Users Posts: 66 ✭✭Tonto67


    jellybeans wrote: »
    so do you know why they plummeted?? you only held onto them for 3 or 4 days?? so you just watched for the price to rise and then sold asap?

    Pretty much just had the big position for 2 days. the reason they plummeted is because the stock rose 9 days straight. The first few days were genuine increases because of good news in the company but as the good news kept coming it enticed more people to take up positions and existing holders like me to increase their position. This had the effect of driving up the price. It got to a stage where a sudden minor drop (probably due to short sellers) triggered a surge of sales which triggered more sales which triggered more sales and so on. This is repeated every day in the stock market which is why you see graphs with regular, almost predictable trends of peaks and valleys. I missed the peak and only caught it when my profits were wiped out but I was pretty confident there would be a bounce which there was the following day. This is caused by people thinking right they were up at 2.60 they are now at 1.75 if i get in now i can ride the wave back up and make a quick buck. I got out at 2.40 which was the high of the day and am now back in, I got in at 1.66 so we'll see where I get on monday. Im only in small so can afford to hold if I have to. This company has now reduced its authorised capital to 300 million shares from 27 billion this is gonna kill short sellers but should minimise the volatility and make going long a little safer.


  • Registered Users Posts: 369 ✭✭jellybeans


    Tonto67 wrote: »
    Pretty much just had the big position for 2 days. the reason they plummeted is because the stock rose 9 days straight. The first few days were genuine increases because of good news in the company but as the good news kept coming it enticed more people to take up positions and existing holders like me to increase their position. This had the effect of driving up the price. It got to a stage where a sudden minor drop (probably due to short sellers) triggered a surge of sales which triggered more sales which triggered more sales and so on. This is repeated every day in the stock market which is why you see graphs with regular, almost predictable trends of peaks and valleys. I missed the peak and only caught it when my profits were wiped out but I was pretty confident there would be a bounce which there was the following day. This is caused by people thinking right they were up at 2.60 they are now at 1.75 if i get in now i can ride the wave back up and make a quick buck. I got out at 2.40 which was the high of the day and am now back in, I got in at 1.66 so we'll see where I get on monday. Im only in small so can afford to hold if I have to. This company has now reduced its authorised capital to 300 million shares from 27 billion this is gonna kill short sellers but should minimise the volatility and make going long a little safer.

    oh right, wow you hacve made a nice tidy sum, r your nerves the better for it???? :) Ive been looking for a proper definition of "the big position" but cant find any lingo on it? is that when you are making a profit?


  • Registered Users Posts: 66 ✭✭Tonto67


    When you buy shares in a company you open a position. For me since i was pretty much all in ie everything i had was in utog it was a big position.
    I don't recommend doing this. It goes against every piece of advice you'll ever get.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 369 ✭✭jellybeans


    Tonto67 wrote: »
    When you buy shares in a company you open a position. For me since i was pretty much all in ie everything i had was in utog it was a big position.
    I don't recommend doing this. It goes against every piece of advice you'll ever get.

    ok ye I wouldn't have the nerve anyways!!


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