While I understand the overall concept of trading shares, there are a few finer points that I don't know and was wondering if anyone could offer their expertise?

After buying some shares (I'm talking FTSE, online dealing), how long do you have to wait until you sell? Share prices fluctuate so much during a day, so could you buy them at what you think is a lowpoint and them sell them in the same day when you feel they have peaked? If so, would it be worth doing this anyway or would fees cancel out any gains for a private individual? Also, when it comes to selling the shares, who actually buys them and do they sell as soon as you opt to sell? Do you get the money instantly?

Hiya

Look here for some useful links :

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9602&highlight=stocks

Love the Orange quote by the way :P

You need a broker account with day trading facilities.

Thsi is one of the best ways invented of losing pots and pots of money! Good luck - you will need it. :thumbsup:

there are online brokers these days as well.
You get charged a % of the transaction value in fee's with some sort of minimum charge.
So if you'd be buying and selling later with only a few pence change in value you'd need to have put a lot of money into the shares for the few pence to exceed the transaction fee.

Originally posted by t020
While I understand the overall concept of trading shares, there are a few finer points that I don't know and was wondering if anyone could offer their expertise?

After buying some shares (I'm talking FTSE, online dealing), how long do you have to wait until you sell? Share prices fluctuate so much during a day, so could you buy them at what you think is a lowpoint and them sell them in the same day when you feel they have peaked? If so, would it be worth doing this anyway or would fees cancel out any gains for a private individual? Also, when it comes to selling the shares, who actually buys them and do they sell as soon as you opt to sell? Do you get the money instantly?

Depends how much money you invest and wether you can afford to lose it, shares go down as well as up,also, there are brokers fees to pay. to make money from shares you have to invest a lot and be prepared to lose it. Put it in buiding society or buy an I.S.A.

Also remember that the price you normally see quoted for shares is the "mean". The actual price you "buy" at is always higher and the actual "sell" price is lower. Take this into account, plus broker fees, and you probably need at least a 10% increase to see any profit.

There are people (market makers) who make a good living out of buying and selling shares. They tend to deal in large quantities where transaction costs are pretty marginal.

They also have a very rapid turnover of shares. I suspect it would be very hard for a private individual to do this. They also need a lot of knowledge of what they are doing (not to mention a lot of nerve as losses can be great.)

Experts say that for private investors you really need to keep your shares for at least five years in order for them to out perform a building society account. That said however, some share can do considerably better than a building society account with interest rates so low.However, chose which companies you invest in carefully as some shares will loose their value.

Interests rates are pretty low, and I can't put any more into an ISA until next April. I was thinking dipping into share investments with a few hundred to a grand at first, in a "safe" company like a bank. But I saw Telewest shares down at 1p or something so thought any slight 0.25p swing would be a huge % fluctuation. Is Telewest going to go bust?

Try Ample.com thats what I use anyway

Originally posted by t020
Is Telewest going to go bust?

I hope not ... they're my ISP ... and a first rate one at that ... a very good standard of service they provide.

its much maligned but the motley fool is a very good place to get your head round things.

http://www.fool.com/

Originally posted by t020
Is Telewest going to go bust?

They are currently restructuring their huge debts. So they are virtually bust already,

http://www.telewest.com/ourcompany/investor-restructuring.html
The current shares will be wiped out and they will relist at a higher price.
Buy them once they come out of that, before they merge with NTL.

Beware of bulletin boards ramping shares, get a virtual portfolio and play around a bit until you see what you are doing. Dont forget to spread your shares over various sectors.

This year has been good for Telecomms shares but the previous 2 have been rubbish.

Check the performance of these over the last year

Cisco (http://quotes.nasdaq.com/quote.dll?page=charting&mode=basics&intraday=off&timeframe=1y&charttype=line&splits=off&movingaverage=none&lowerstudy=volume&comparison=off&index=&drilldown=off&symbol=CSCO&symbol=NT&symbol=NTLI&symbol=LU&selected=CSCO)

NTL (http://quotes.nasdaq.com/quote.dll?page=charting&mode=basics&intraday=off&timeframe=1y&charttype=line&splits=off&movingaverage=none&lowerstudy=volume&comparison=off&index=&drilldown=off&symbol=CSCO&symbol=NT&symbol=NTLI&symbol=LU&selected=NTLI)

Lucent (http://quotes.nasdaq.com/quote.dll?page=charting&mode=basics&intraday=off&timeframe=1y&charttype=line&splits=off&movingaverage=none&lowerstudy=volume&comparison=off&index=&drilldown=off&symbol=CSCO&symbol=NT&symbol=NTLI&symbol=LU&selected=LU)

Sprint (http://quotes.nasdaq.com/quote.dll?page=charting&mode=basics&intraday=off&timeframe=1y&charttype=line&splits=off&movingaverage=none&lowerstudy=volume&comparison=off&index=&drilldown=off&symbol=CSCO&symbol=NT&symbol=NTLI&symbol=LU&symbol=COMS&symbol=T&symbol=FON&selected=FON)

Wish I had bought a few bobs worth!

Originally posted by t020
Interests rates are pretty low, and I can't put any more into an ISA until next April. I was thinking dipping into share investments with a few hundred to a grand at first, in a "safe" company like a bank. But I saw Telewest shares down at 1p or something so thought any slight 0.25p swing would be a huge % fluctuation. Is Telewest going to go bust?

It's a big gamble. I was thinking about 'dabbling' with a few hundred quid , but not knowing anything about this massive subject, I'll keep my stuff safe for now in cash ISAs.

Thanks for all the help everyone. :thumbsup:

I'll definitely be keeping an eye on the Telewest situation.