Few questions from beginner.

[Linas1976]

Hello everyone.
1. I'm very new to this thing. I opened HL share trading account and bought 500 Bellway (building company)shares at £20.14 that cost me over £10K, they charged me £11.95 for trade and £50 for stamp tax transfer When I asked them is this normal, they said yes, companies incorporated in UK are eligible for 0.5% stamp tax. DO you guys also buying shares from UK and paying 0.5% tax? Or is there a list of some kind offshore companies where you can avoid that tax? Or you don't bother about that?
2. What websites do you trade? I see LSE charges £9.95 per trade and Hargreaves & Lansdown - £11.95, I wish I could have seen LSE first
3. Do you trade on the brokers website or there's some kind of trading platforms/programs where you can monitor your shares processes/diagrams?
Appreciate if you take your time and answer to some of my questions, Thank you very much in advance

 

[timsk]

Hi Linas1976,
Welcome to T2W,

. . . 1. DO you guys also buying shares from UK and paying 0.5% tax? Or is there a list of some kind offshore companies where you can avoid that tax? Or you don't bother about that?

This is perfectly correct and is a legal requirement when trading U.K. equities. If you want to avoid paying the tax, you can do so by trading a derivative product such as Contracts for Difference (CFD's). Alternatively, you could trade U.S. equities as there's no stamp duty to pay.

2. What websites do you trade? I see LSE charges £9.95 per trade and Hargreaves & Lansdown - £11.95, I wish I could have seen LSE first

I'm not sure what you mean by 'websites' - are you referring to brokers? If so, your choice of broker is likely to be governed by your trading / investing style and the type of trading vehicle you use. In other words, if you want a broker that offers derivatives such as CFDs mentioned above, your choice of broker might be different to those that just offer dealing in actual shares. The point being that when you trade derivatives (or use a spread betting broker), you're not buying actual shares - just a financial product that's 'derived' from the equity - Bellway for example.

3. Do you trade on the brokers website or there's some kind of trading platforms/programs where you can monitor your shares processes/diagrams?

The options available are numerous. Many T2W members trade forex and use a trading platform called MetaTrader which is supported by most - if not all - brokers offering forex. I'm afraid I can't say what the most common brokers/platforms are for trading U.K. equities as I've never done it. Perhaps other members will offer suggestions.

If you want further details / clarification on any of the above - just ask.
Tim.

 

[Linas1976]

Thanks Tim for reply As I'm new to this game, your mentioned derivatives sounds too complicated to me so I stick with actual shares for now. You said U.S. shares wouldn't have stamp duty tax, but they trade in usd ($) I assume, so they probably have some sort of currency conversion fees or something?
Is that metatrader not suitable for trading shares?

 

[tomorton]

Still popular for share traders / investors is Sharescope Gold - see www.sharescope.co.uk. £20 a month but lots of flexible price charting capabilities, plus power to filter UK shares according to lots of fundamental data. Also covers forex, commodities etc.

 

[NVP]

Hello everyone.
1. I'm very new to this thing. I opened HL share trading account and bought 500 Bellway (building company)shares at £20.14 that cost me over £10K, they charged me £11.95 for trade and £50 for stamp tax transfer When I asked them is this normal, they said yes, companies incorporated in UK are eligible for 0.5% stamp tax. DO you guys also buying shares from UK and paying 0.5% tax? Or is there a list of some kind offshore companies where you can avoid that tax? Or you don't bother about that?
2. What websites do you trade? I see LSE charges £9.95 per trade and Hargreaves & Lansdown - £11.95, I wish I could have seen LSE first
3. Do you trade on the brokers website or there's some kind of trading platforms/programs where you can monitor your shares processes/diagrams?
Appreciate if you take your time and answer to some of my questions, Thank you very much in advance

hey L

so you went out and bought £10,000 of shares with no research or experience of share dealing ?

dude - with respect - would suggest you do a little more research across the board before putting money into anything further


T2win is a great starting price ...........spend weeks /months / years learning your art ........its the profitable route to trading and investing


N

 

[Linas1976]

hey L

so you went out and bought £10,000 of shares with no research or experience of share dealing ?

dude - with respect - would suggest you do a little more research across the board before putting money into anything further


T2win is a great starting price ...........spend weeks /months / years learning your art ........its the profitable route to trading and investing


N

Hi. I just spent £10K without any knowledge and experience and now regretting as my shares went down by £200 already. I just came across to the article in financial time paper, that it's good time to buy building company shares. That's what I've done, silly me hope they rise back up again so I can sell them without losing. ..

 

[tomorton]

Hi Linas - Keep calm and...... And you know the rest...

You only start to really learn how to trade when you put real money in. A £200 loss is only 2% so not a disaster.

Longer-term share-buyers will often set a maximum 10% fall in the price of their share as the stop-loss - the level at which you must sell to protect the remainder of your capital. The idea is, it is feasible to trade back up to 100% starting at 90% of your capital on the next few trades - that's just a gain of just over 11% to get back to break-even again and it doesn't even need to be in one single trade. After all, why risk the 90% for the sake of the 10%?

However, say you let your Bellway shares fall by 50% and then sell? - to get back to break-even you would have to double your money, and I don't know what the hell strategy would do that at this stage.

Hopefully, selecting the entry price will simultaneously show you a stop-loss level - where the "story" in the chart or the fundamentals or both has changed and people are not now going to be flocking to this share to buy it. If nobody in the market wishes to buy, the price will not rise so why hold it? When you have the stop level you can size your position so that the money risked is no more than your greatest % loss you can bear on one trade. Some people say this shouild be way below 10%, and as low as 2% is often recommended until you're consistent.

Don't forget to plan a price to exit to get the profits, when they start to show, into the bank. The charts will also hopefully show the target, e.g. (just below) prior resistance.

Don't get discouraged. Not yet anyway. Good luck.

 

[Linas1976]

Thanks Tom for reply Yes, I need a lot to learn. I'll go through this forum as much as I can Can't wait for Monday with a hope my shares comes back on track

 

[timsk]

Hi Linas1976,

. . . You said U.S. shares wouldn't have stamp duty tax, but they trade in usd ($) I assume, so they probably have some sort of currency conversion fees or something?
Is that metatrader not suitable for trading shares?

Yes, if you're going to trade actual shares (as opposed to derivatives), U.S. equities are priced in dollars obviously, so you'll need an account in that currency. MetaTrader isn't - to the best of my knowledge anyway - ever used for trading equities. It's designed principally to trade forex, although you can also trade a few equity indices such as the Dow, Dax and FTSE.

. . . I just came across to the article in financial time paper, that it's good time to buy building company shares. That's what I've done, silly me hope they rise back up again so I can sell them without losing. ..

Generally speaking, by the time articles like the one you read appear in newspapers, you're waaaaay too late to the party. The price of Bellway's stock will have factored in the growth in house building and construction weeks or even months ago. Novice traders/investors pile in when such stories become mainstream, enabling the savvy investor to get out at the highest price, knowing they've got someone to sell to. If Bellway's price is supported by a strong fundamental picture, you may get lucky and the price may continue to rise. You've betted on it doing that - I certainly wouldn't!

If you want to play the news story game, you'll have to be much more cunning in your approach. Here's a very crude example. Suppose you're watching the news on TV one day, it's Mid March and there's an item about an impending spell of unusually hot weather for the time of year. Spring is coming early this year and it's going to feel like mid August. Based on that, you buy shares in a company that makes barbecues, outdoor stoves and other such equipment. In theory, their sales will go through the roof over the next few months and their share price will rise accordingly. (Note the use of the word theory!) Let's say the hot spell happens as predicted and at the end of April an article appears in the paper saying that shares in companies that manufacture BBQ's are set to rise following the exceptionally warm spring and with summer just around the corner. You're sitting pretty, with a big smile on your face having bought the shares in mid March when the initial story first appeared. Your shares are well in profit already; you're only problem now is working out when to sell them to exit the trade for the most amount of profit.

If this style of trading / investing appeals to you, this book is worth a read: It’s Raining in Brazil, Buy Starbucks by Peter Navarro. Enjoy!
Tim.

 

[verial]

I was going to type something up, but I already made a couple videos that say everything I'd want to say:

 

[Linas1976]

Oh, thanks for replies and explanation Timsk! I got your point And thanks for your videos Verial, enjoyed watching them. I'm glad I found this forum

 

[Atilla]

Hi. I just spent £10K without any knowledge and experience and now regretting as my shares went down by £200 already. I just came across to the article in financial time paper, that it's good time to buy building company shares. That's what I've done, silly me hope they rise back up again so I can sell them without losing. ..

Linas mate, forgive me but it seems you are worried about transaction costs of paying stamp duty ie £50 on £10K and have not considered losing money???

Hate to be bearer of bad news but imho markets are at bubble highs. So unless you are in it for dividends and long term growth I'd recommend you reconsider what you are doing and take your loss now before it gets much deeper for you.

Is 10K your total investment?

Have you not considered splitting that 10K up between three companies? The old "don't put all your eggs in one basket"... Diversification is key in investment.

Is that 10K in an ISA or just a regular share trading account would be another question?

Imagine how you might feel and what you would do if you lost 30% of your money.

http://www.lse.co.uk/shareprice.asp?shareprice=BWY&share=bellway_plc_ord_12.5p



fwiw - I think people should be talking you into selling your shares and you should justify growth prospects in Bellway Plc in order for you to keep those shares right now. :!:

 

[Linas1976]

Hi Atilla, unfortunately £10K was all my savings I thought about splitting the money across 2 companies, but that dealing charge scared me off - it's £12 per trade. So to sell and to buy is £24 plus taxes and if splitting between few companies charges multiplies. I believe it's regular share trading acc, it's called 'HL Vantage Fund & Share Account'. I don't know what the difference is between ISA and regular account?

 

[Linas1976]

http://www.lse.co.uk/shareprice.asp?shareprice=BWY&share=bellway_plc_ord_12.5p

I monitor that, it's -£220 atm, hope from tomorrow everything changes for the best

 

[tomorton]

Buying at an all-time high price is always a tough trade to sleep with and a gutsy call, even though it seems intuitively right. All the housebuilders' reports and charts have been bullish for months so they're in strong uptrends, and in an uptrend you should be long.

Short-term, we're certain to see price come back further, hopefully no lower than 1920-1950 - previous congestion here suggests potential support. It wouldn't make much sense to put a stop in above a potential support level. There's been good support lower down too, so no reason to think yet this price will crash. Last time price fell hard was from a double top and it fell 12% - but not as far as that pattern predicted and it didn't touch the 200EMA before re-bounding to a new all-time high.

Looking further ahead, be wary of price forming a head-and-shoulders pattern which would be very vearish.

 

[Linas1976]

Thanks for advice tomorton, of course in the future I'll read much more before acting Just want to ask what website do you use for analysis?

 

[tomorton]

I do my TA from Sharescope Gold daily and weekly charts with just moving averages as indicators.

I watch weekly forex analysis clips from fxempire.com and sometimes dailyfx.com. Occasionally watch Oscar Carboni's clips on YouTube for indices - and for a laugh (try him, you'll see what I mean, though he does know his stuff).

I never open / close trades on other people's TA but I try not to be taking opposite directions on currency pairs to the two forex websites. I'm trend-following so that is rare anyway.

 

[Atilla]

Buying at an all-time high price is always a tough trade to sleep with and a gutsy call, even though it seems intuitively right. All the housebuilders' reports and charts have been bullish for months so they're in strong uptrends, and in an uptrend you should be long.

Short-term, we're certain to see price come back further, hopefully no lower than 1920-1950 - previous congestion here suggests potential support. It wouldn't make much sense to put a stop in above a potential support level. There's been good support lower down too, so no reason to think yet this price will crash. Last time price fell hard was from a double top and it fell 12% - but not as far as that pattern predicted and it didn't touch the 200EMA before re-bounding to a new all-time high.

Looking further ahead, be wary of price forming a head-and-shoulders pattern which would be very vearish.

Having read Gary Norden's books I look at charts with context in mind now. I'm wondering what's around the corner.

Bellway indeed is a good company, well managed paying dividends and in the good old property sector in the UK.

However, with good growth numbers in the US and UK all through out this year and next inflation/deflation and when interest rates will rise be key debate. I fear this will adversely effect property companies.

Personally, I rather miss the growth than buy high after stellar growth we've seen since 2010-11.

Each to their own and wishing you good trading.

 

[breadman]

Linas,
as you have just bought bellway, I guess you have read up on company, if not here's a link http://www.bellwaycorporate.com/summarydetails. next important date is 25th of march half year announcement. they also had a trading update on the 10 of February were you happy with what they said. Is that the reason you bought.

 

[Linas1976]

Linas,
as you have just bought bellway, I guess you have read up on company, if not here's a link http://www.bellwaycorporate.com/summarydetails. next important date is 25th of march half year announcement. they also had a trading update on the 10 of February were you happy with what they said. Is that the reason you bought.

Hi breadman, thanks for the link. But those numbers doesn't say to me much as I'm very new to trading and don't know yet how to analyse things... as I said before I bought Bellway shares just because I've read an article in city and finance paper