What is the bet way to buy shares?

a share dealing account with e.g. the halifax
or a Stocks and Shares ISA with e.g. alliance trust
exchange traded funds are worth a look (low costs, spread the risk)
.
http://www.halifax.co.uk/sharedealing/Product_landing_pages/Buying_Shares_plusSB_Landing_page.asp?source=nethsdlspon
http://www.alliancetrust.co.uk/
http://www.etf.db.com/UK/ENG/Disclaimer?pageid=203&forwardurl=/UK/ENG/Home
http://www.smashiton.com/Main/Shares.htm

cheers stow ill google all.

you any experience of any of them?

read the small print re trading costs--they can vary considerably per trade,depending if you re gonna a regular punter or just an occasional one

Money Supermarket have a tool to compare online brokers.

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/shares/

buy a few trading books before you buy shares, thats the best advise you will ever get

I use halifax & Alliance trust. Alliance trust allow you to hold ETFs in ISAs. The other firms seem to want you to buy managed funds, which carry higher costs. I'd suggest sticking to ETFs unless you have a decent knowledge of an individual company and believe you are going to get a decent return.
The ETFs carry a dealing charge of ca £12, regardless of the size of the trade. There is no stamp duty on ETFs, as it is built into the bid offer spread. The spread for ETFs are normally very tight.
(Share purchases cost a dealing charge plus 0.5% stamp duty, selling just costs the dealing charge (ca £12))
What you actually invest in depends on your time-scale for your investment and your attitude to risk.
I think the Asian ETFs XMAS, XAXJ and XX25 will do well in the long term. The markets are very volatile right now, so be careful.

Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are an index tracking investment solution. ETFs combine the advantages of stocks (tradability and liquidity) and index funds (diversification, low costs and regulated infrastructure) into one product. With ETFs, it is possible to achieve exposure to a diversified portfolio of securities in a single and easy transaction in the same way as trading any other stock exchange traded security.

I don't know why any UK domiciled national does anything other than spreadbetting.  It's the only tax _free_ way of getting exposure.

Spreadbetting---

No dividens
Wider spreads
Time limits
Account restrictions/closures if succesful.

I buy shares through Barclays Stockbrokers and TD Waterhouse. Worth having a few accounts if one site goes down you can still buy.

I have a trading ISA with Hargreaves Lansdowne can buy equities and funds, got to have one of these, tax free profits.

I have a spread betting account with IG index. Tax free profits.

I also have a CFD account with IG markets.

Nobody have trouble getting on at the spread firms ?

JML 01 Jul 10 21:23 

Spreadbetting---

No dividens
Wider spreads
Time limits
Account restrictions/closures if succesful.

This got my attention.

Dividends are included - you either get them credited if you do rolling spot or the expected dividend is in the futures price if you do futures.

Wider Spreads?  Well, you only pay it once for an investment type trade.  For example, Ford is 1020-1035 all the way to next March - almost a year and you pay 0.7%

What does "time limits" mean?  Just the expiry point above?  They're auto-rolled if you set it to auto-roll and you just pay half a spread.

I didn't understand the last point about account closures.  The company hedges any big exposures so they don't lose if you win.  It's not a casino - is that what you meant?


So, in all, I can't see why you'd buy shares.  Even if you could do it for no brokerage at all, there's still a market bid-offer which isn't much narrower than the above and you'll pay 28% tax on any significant winnings.

iii.co.uk is the cheapest site I've found for buying shares. £1.50 per deal if you are only making the occasional trade

£1.50?

rerally?

That's designed for regular small monthly purchases rather than trade sizes of any significance. They charge £10 for normal trades. I could not see ETFs on the iii site, so presume that you can't trade them with iii

Not really. You can trade once a week with no limit on the size of purchase. Ideal if you only make a few trades every now and then.

Not sure you can trade ETFs on there, you can do mutual funds though, with reduced commission etc. Initial charges are 0-1% of your investment.