Equities - where to start?

A

Ardpatrick

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Hi I'm new to equities, and after reading lots on here and elsewhere I'm eager to cautiously invest in ETF funds, starting out with basic indexes like the S&P, Eurostoxx 50, etc, with a view to long term. As my knowledge increases I may pick sector indexes or individual stocks, but I don't see myself as a particularly active investor down the line - my hands are already full between running my own business and parenting. But I do realise I have far too much of what I own languishing in various low interest bank accounts, and I need to invest in equities to have a more balanced investment portfolio. My question is that I can't seem to figure out the most straight-forward way of buying stock without being fleeced! It seems to be a given with many of the cheaper online brokers recommended by other posters that subscribers are regularly trading, but I also don't want to walk into a Dublin stockbroker who will take me for the greenhorn I am. I think I want to hold share certificates electronically in a crest account, and to be able to invest on a staggered basis in the major global indexes with at most 5-6 trades a year, so what's the most practical way to buy?
 
I would check out Quinn Investments - they seem to fulfill a lot of your requirements without being too expensive.



BB
DoI. I have some funds with Quinn
 
Thanks for the reply Breffni Boy 2. However I'm not interested in managed funds. Maybe I didn't pose my question clearly enough, so I will rephrase:

I'm looking for suggestions for a cheap and convenient broker to buy shares from, when I don't want to become the next Warren Buffet i.e. I just want to do about half a dozen trades a year, not fifty, or five hundred trades, just a few! I'm Irish based, I want to buy a range of international ETF indexes, and I would prefer to hold the shares in a Crest account.
 
Thanks Heno. They are suggestions that do recur on this forum, and might be bang on, but I'm just wondering if there is an online option that doesn't involve paying an annual fee, or requiring a minimum number of trades. The figures I'm considering investing are not small, but the ambition and number of trades is modest / conservative.
 
I went recently to ILTB’s training, they are Stock Market Training Co... Rory Gillen is a contributor to this forum and is the owner of www.iltb.ie... Rory is an ex- Stockbroker and now has a Independent Training Co...They specialise in ETFs and Investment strategies... I found it unusual for an ex- Irish Stockbroker to profile Online Discount Brokers, but they did!! Now I Buy ETFs with ease and I do it as cheaply as possible.. My suggestion to you is to go to one of their Free Workshop’s as I did and yes they will be promoting their training, but you will find the Free Workshop very informative even if you don’t subscribe to their training. I have looked up their site and they have a free workshop in The Stillorgan Park Hotel at 7pm this Thursday on the 17th of Sept and one in Galway on the 1st October. Costs nothing to have a look.
 
Ard.....warren Buffett makes very few trades a year.....buying and selling costs A LOT of money.


I do very few trades. I use Sharewatch (€60 annual fee) and for US companies i use first-trade...no annual fee there and very low charges for trades..$6
 
still lost, smiley, thanks for your suggestions. I will try to get to Stillorgan on Thursday. It seems sharewatch seems practical and a decent place to start, even if some posters in other forums were a bit negative about it.
 
NIB have a share trading account that is more or less as competitive as TD Waterhouse and they usually wave the annual fee if you open an account with them. Even then the TD Waterhouse annual fee is hardly high, brokers have to make money somehow!

Forget the trading classes, A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton G. Malkiel and The Long and Short of it by John Kay will tell you all you need to know. In addition they also cost a lot less than trading classes (I'm aware the first one is free, but I imagine it will be a sales pitch to get you to pay for future installments).
 
defiantshrim said:
NIB have a share trading account that is more or less as competitive as TD Waterhouse and they usually wave the annual fee if you open an account with them. Even then the TD Waterhouse annual fee is hardly high, brokers have to make money somehow!

Forget the trading classes, A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton G. Malkiel and The Long and Short of it by John Kay will tell you all you need to know. In addition they also cost a lot less than trading classes (I'm aware the first one is free, but I imagine it will be a sales pitch to get you to pay for future installments).
Click to expand...

My own belief is that training is important and there are many false paths that one can take before finding answers. If it was as easy as finding it all in a book(s) then why do we attend school in the first place - why not just stay at home and read it all in the books and then sit the leaving cert?
The reality is that none of us learn in a vacuum and it can be easier for many to learn from others.

Rory
 
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