Its been about 3 months now since I first opened my Standard Bank trading account and bought my first shares. What a glorious sunny day that was. Unfortunately the track record of my chosen shares has been more doom and gloom. The economic downturn of late has had its effect and so my trading account dashboard shows alot of red arrows pointing downwards as opposed to the more favourable green ones in the other direction. Maybe this is the best way to learn though. This makes me feel better.
I haven’t looked much further than what Standard Bank had to offer in terms of trading accounts for the simple reason that I already have my accounts setup with this institution. I must say though, although I generally don’t have many good things to say about banks I am impressed with their offering here. Once you have your trading account they also offer various tuttorials that you can attend at no charge at all. I plan to attend my first one next week.
Bought some Grindrod shares today – after reviewing some of the comments coming from the chat feature. Maybe somewhat blind purchase sure. But so far marginal growth of 1.7%…
Need to know more about “shorting”!
March 10th, 2009 at 11:23 am
hi – do youself a favour and don’t use SB’s site for ‘trading’ – it’s good for investors who buy and hold shares.
Don’t be tempted by warrants. They are very poor trading instruments.
If you want to trade you must:
1. Know what you are doing – the professionals will fleece you all day every day until you get on top of the game
2. Have live reliable charts. Right down to the ticks.
3. Have live insight into market depth
I recommend getting in touch with Cortex or IdealCFDs and using them for CFD or futures trading. You can’t effectively trade with shares because the transaction costs are too high and there is no gearing.
Also, you are in a bear market – you better find out about shorting pretty quickly. If you’re buying (going long) in this market you are going to lose all your money. In bear markets you should be short or neutral. In bull markets long or neutral. Any other position is looking for disaster.
March 10th, 2009 at 11:25 am
And learn a LOT about technical analysis or the sharks (aka pigmen) will eat you alive. Go hang out at page88.co.za and listen to the chatter of some active traders. Trade2Win boards are also good.