Investing small amounts

luckat

I want to invest a small amount (not being a rich milliner), but apparently stockbrokers are snobby about anything less than thirty or forty grand. How does one go about it?

ballooba

http://www.deltaindex.com

Merrion

InterNaxx.com charges about €20 per trade.

Also banks will probably not turn your business away even if you don't have a large amount of money under your hat...

RainyDay

luckat wrote:

I want to invest a small amount (not being a rich milliner), but apparently stockbrokers are snobby about anything less than thirty or forty grand. How does one go about it?

I presume from your mention of brokers that you have already decided on a direct investment in shares. Brokers aren't snobby at all - just expensive. Check out the lowest cost brokers from Askaboutmoney.com. The real problem is that the minimum transaction cost eats into small transactions, so you need a decent jump in the share price to come out on top.

You can buy low cost unit-linked funds (basically a share in a fund that invests in a load of different shares) from Quinn Life or EBS.

werewolf

http://www.interactivebrokers.com/php/main.php

without questions, it is a rip off here in Ireland.

RainyDay

Don't be too quick to rush to off-shore brokers. You are dealing in a whole different regulatory environment and possibly currency risk as well.

Anyway, regular trading is a bit of mugs game. The only person who gets rich trading regularly is the broker. Buy & hold.

silverside

nowt wrong with offshore (I.e. within EU) brokers, if you know what you are doing. They are efficient and cheap. Your money can stay in Euro's. Don't know about any regulatory differecnes but would assume they are regulated by the equivalent of our Central Bank.

If you're happy buying picking a basket of shares to buy and hold, look at the likes of internaxx.lu or keytrade.be . There are irish brokers who are a little bit more expensive (cambell o'connor etc).

Don't just look at the irish market. Spread your risk. And remember you don't have to pay stamp duty on most european markets, unlike shares on the Irish stock exchange.


You might also want to look at ETF's which follow the returns of an index like the Dow Jones or EuroStoxx 50.

I second RainyDay's suggestion - look at the funds from EBS and Quinn Life also.

And regular trading is not a good idea, commissions and stamp duty will eat away at your investment.

silverside

And stay away from spread betting firms, unless you are prepared to treat it purely as gambling.