Tiny investments

[Anonymous No.822910]

I am sorry if this question comes up a lot - I can't find a wiki, and I can't articulate what I mean well enough to get meaningful results on the archives.

Is it possible to put a very small amount of money into the stocks and shares system for the sake of having an attachment to a certain ebb and flow of a stock - not necessarily to make money (either efficiency, or at all).

My naive view imagines being able to invest ~£5 to £25 in some company, for more the reason to have a squiggly line or end-of-day %change to be attached to and interested in (in the same way as an attachment to a football team gives a nice diversion to check scores).

I understand that the change would be small, but it seems like a cool idea to have some stock streaming integration on the computer (rainmeter-y), to check every now and again and go 'ooh, my #### has grown a bit today'.

I fear that this trade would have to go through a third party, though, and so the entry barrier for investing money would be higher than I would be willing to put into. Not doing it for the money seems to be a novel concept for any websites I've tried reading, and I haven't managed to get very far. Any information, advice,where to start or links to resources would be appreciated.

Sorry for what could be an oft-asked and tiresome question, and thanks for your time.

tl;dr: can you invest baby money into stocks to have pretty numbers to watch?

[Anonymous No.822957]

>>822910
>>822910
You don't need huge amounts of money, just buy one share of a well diversified index fund. Your mileage may vary, but you should be able to find one with shares under 50 GBP.

Find a good broker and pull the trigger. I think it's a good idea to get you into investing without committing a large sum ("hey, if I had bought 100 instead of one, that would make X return. Neat...").

For monitoring, I use Conky and some simple python scripts to monitor my portfolio taking into account brokerage fees and so on.

As you see, now it's negative. I started investing a few months ago and has been quite bearish up to now. However, I bought more shares before the Greek referendum and it went up afterwards.

What I try to say is: in the long run it goes up, always. Just don't focus on the short term too much, as it distracts you from the final goal.

Good luck, anon. Don't overthink it. It's piss easy if you don't aim at failing.

[Anonymous No.822969]

>>822910
>Is it possible to put a very small amount of money into the stocks and shares system for the sake of having an attachment to a certain ebb and flow of a stock
The stock market is not a football game, and investors are not cheerleaders. One of the worst mistakes you can make in the markets is to develop emotional ties to an investment, which is exactly what you're talking about.

Don't do that.

[Anonymous No.822976]

>>822969
I think you misinterpret OP's intentions. He wants to monitor numbers for the sake of it and be able to derive pleasure from it.

That being said, OP, it's not a good idea when thought that way. Loss aversion makes the grief of losing and amount bigger than the joy of earning that amount.

However, as an entry point for investing it's perfectly ok. Once you find a good broker (if you're american go directly to Vanguard) put some money and see it grow. Whenever you feel confident, pour more and more for bigger earnings.

>>822969
As s/he said. Emotions are harmful when it comes to investing. That's why people buy high and sell low. Buy and hold. And keep holding.

[Anonymous No.823001]

>>822976
>However, as an entry point for investing it's perfectly ok
No. No its not.

Going into the markets with a stupid mindset re-enforces stupid behaviors and establishes stupid patterns. Until OP develops enough maturity and wisdom to understand that stocks aren't "pretty numbers on a screen" he shouldn't be "playing" around with a trading account.

There are paper accounts for a reason.

[Anonymous No.823012]

>>823001
OP is talking about a small amount. As long as he does some research into what to buy (hint: index funds) s/he'll be ok.

I agree about attaining the right mindset in advance, but don't scare him/her off.

[Anonymous No.823020]

>>822969

Thanks for the advice. I understand where you're coming from. I will try to avoid making it a habit and will try to make sure not to fall into that trap if ever I start to invest notable amounts of money.


>>822976

Understands me perfectly (and was putting together a 'thank you' post and researching UK brokers before this came up) - I am approaching this in the mindset of spending that small amount of money (and no more, regardless) to give a certain index an amount of low-stakes attachment for the pleasure of it, instead of just examining a random index for no apparent reason. It wouldn't be for making money - the possibility of ending up with more money at the end (or even selling that one stock off) was, quite frankly, not something even included in the hypothetical plan.

[Anonymous No.823024]

>>822910
Yes, it is perfectly possible to do this and people sometimes do it for the reasons that you mention. You would probably need to do this as a certificated (paper) share, for two reasons:

- being a shareholder, even of a single share, means that you would have access to the AGM, would receive a copy of the annual accounts, etc but these are not normally available to nominee shareholders (the sort of online account that most people have these days) without getting some kind of documentation from the nominee stockbroker which is a pain.

- some stockbrokers charge fees for holding portfolios which would probably exceed the value of the share.

On the other hand, if all you want to do is monitor the share price etc, you can do that with a virtual (pretend) portfolio.

All the crap in this thread about "emotional attachment" etc would be valid if we were talking about a massive investment, but we're not. Also, people do occasionally buy single shares precisely because of emotional attachment- for example football fans sometimes buy a single share in their football team so they can frame the certificate and hang it on the wall.

[Anonymous No.823029]

>>823001

I do understand that it is an immature goal, and certainly nowhere near good form for buying and selling to make profit. I would certainly not go beyond that initial one stock treating the money as irrecoverable - like gambling), and I would keep my experiences separate should I ever ply the stock markets proper.

[Anonymous No.823079]

>>823024
>people do occasionally buy single shares precisely because of emotional attachment
People do this for children, because only a child would have that reaction. My grandparents used to buy me single shares to help me learn about stocks, and that was incredibly cool and fun. I would gleefully check the prices every day, delighting or agonizing in the ups and downs.

Because I was 8 years old.

Then I grew up, and so should you.

[Anonymous No.823089]

>>823024

That sounds really quite interesting, although it seems like directly buying a certified share requires a minimum payment out of my league, and trying to look into obtaining paper shares descended into convolution. I am not too worried about getting related paperwork, but a company is presumably more volatile than an index fund, and so while less conducive to slow growth profiting, it could well be more vivacious to track.

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>>823024
>>822957
I am blown away by how helpful you guys have been. The amount of time you took to research and write your replies has transferred directly my interest and understanding of your world - you have my thanks and my respect.

>>822969
Thanks for your concern, also - I will keep it in the back of my mind, rest assured.


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As a look into viability, therefore, everything seems positive. I realise that I have a long way to go to come to grips with the technicalities of buying stock, and don't want to start asking dumb questions to all those kind enough to help me working it out, so as a final question (if you are still around):

Where would you recommend reading to get an understanding into the world of investing, and what you've introduced me to today?

[Anonymous No.823091]

>>823079

Ah, right. Forgot the negative reaction of another person on the internet is attractive to other people. Sorry if I took your responses too seriously - they may have started with some well-intentioned advice.

[Anonymous No.823092]

>>823089
>Where would you recommend reading to get an understanding into the world of investing
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Getting_started

[Anonymous No.823131]

>>823089
>it seems like directly buying a certified share requires a minimum payment out of my league, and trying to look into obtaining paper shares descended into convolution

It seems there may be a mix up in terms. By paper shares I mean share certificates, i.e. you get a piece of paper (a certificate) that tells you how many shares in a company you own. Online sharedealing - which is more normal these days- is done in a "nominee" account, where you just see how many shares you own as a number on a screen, you don't get any documentation relating to the share except maybe a note to tell you how much you bought/sold.

It is still possible to buy and sell shares as certificates although not all stockbrokers offer this service any more. Hargreaves Lansdown is one- they charge £20 for buying/selling certificates: http://www.hl.co.uk/shares/share-dealing/certificated-share-dealing

Of course you can still go down the nominee holding route but many brokers charge a fee quarterly/six-monthly or whatever that would make the process too costly.

> a company is presumably more volatile than an index fund

That rather depends on the company and the fund

> Where would you recommend reading to get an understanding into the world of investing, and what you've introduced me to today?

As you're in the UK, try The Motley Fool "investing basics" series of articles: http://www.fool.co.uk/investing-basics/

[Anonymous No.823133]

>>823079
yeah now you're 9 and you have TWO shares

do fuck off ya daft noodle

[iHaz !MILLiOnz/Q No.823151]

>>823133
Actually I'm in my 40's and have close to $12 million in market investments. And my advice still stands.

[Anonymous No.823161]

>>823151
It's about time you developed some reading comprehension then. And a sense of humour too, incidentally.

[iHaz !MILLiOnz/Q No.823169]

>>823161
Hehe. Keep moving the goalposts, kid.

[Anonymous No.823476]

>>823092
Tripfag or not, I'm glad there's sensible people in this board. There's still hope.

[Anonymous No.823527]

>>823131

I had a feeling that my understanding was slightly wrong there. I can now do my own reading (Thanks for the link, and >>823092, too) to set it right and gain knowledge about the rest in my own time.

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Thanks again for all the support - I feel like I now have a place to start.