How can I buy a small amount of shares?

[user1477249785]

This is probably a really basic question. DS is hugely interested in business and for the past two Christmases, he's asked for a small number of shares. He follows the markets closely and I think wants a part of it. I have resisted but not really sure why not least because he's so consistent in his request. If I were to buy him a small quantity of shares (say £50), how on earth would I go about doing this? I literally have no idea where to start and I'd really appreciate any pointers.

Thanks!

It would be a very expensive way to do it, as much of any profit would be taken up with buying and selling fees.

Could you find him a fantasy share league to enter?

Buy premium bonds

These are brilliant -

www.ii.co.uk/

Trading 212 or Freetrade

I can't claim to know what I'm doing at all and couldn't possibly advise, but I use Hargreaves Lansdown. I created an account, went through all the ID and verification stuff and bought 30 shares in two different companies, so 60 in total. They're currently worth about £4,000. It was pretty straightforward and I'm hoping I've not done anything too stupid and can figure out what to do when I come to sell them!

Other than that, I have nothing to share, except that about 20 years ago my brother bought my nephew shares or perhaps one share in Manchester United. He LOVED having his share and it added a different dimension to his interest in the club.

Is that the sort of thing you were thinking? Or do you envisage him trading more rather than holding onto it?

Freetrade, you can invest as little as £1 (and if you know someone who uses it you will get a free share worth £2-200 on signing up). I can share my link but understand if you don't want to use it just let me know!

I'd suggest opening a S&S ISA with someone like Freetrade. Opening one online is easy, they have a simple, user friendly app and it's quick to add/withdraw money.

There’s an app called Free Trade which gives you - you a free share at random and then you can buy whatever else you want. It shows your portfolio and has easy to read guidance. You can buy shares or parts of shares.

I am absolutely no expert on these things but it’s interesting and a way to have some interest in shares with very little investment. Might be worth a look

You can do it through Revolut. I predominantly use the account for travel overseas and transferring money internationally but the trading platform is excellent for small transactions.

It’s really easy to set up an account and then buy small amounts of shares/part shares/crypto/currency.

DS and I do it all the time. I gave him £100 at the beginning of the year and he’s turned that into £500. It’s a lot of fun and saw us through some really boring bits of lockdown.

@PleaseReferToMeAsBritneySpears how much did the shares cost you?

To the op, i've used freetrade for this

When I was doing economics at school we were given a notional amount of money and a term to make it grow as much as possible by researching companies and “buying” and “selling” shares. It was great fun and a useful way to learn about markets and the reasons why shares go up and down. £50 of actual money will get you nowhere unless you invest in penny shares which are by definition very volatile. Perhaps play with Monopoly money first?

Thanks very much for all the replies. I totally get that we won't make money on this and that it'll probably cost us to invest. But I want to nurture his interest given that it's not a passing whim. Ideally I'd like something where he knows where his money has gone and can monitor its performance. Eg to take a totally random example: £50 in Starbucks shares. Not that obviously. But a recognisable thing where he can check the market and see whether his company is doing well or badly.

I totally get that we won't make money on this and that it'll probably cost us to invest

It’s totally possible to make money and with Revolut it won’t cost you as you get a number of free trades per month.

One of the companies I invested in is Novavax. I was in the vaccine trial so was already 'invested' in its performance! As you can imagine with the pandemic, vaccine performances, results being published, countries purchase orders and approvals etc. it has been extremely volatile stock which has made my heart both sing and sink!

My point is that it's been fun to pick a company that I have a vested interest in so it would be cool if you find something like that for your DH.

I’ve attached a screen shot of the Revolut platform.

DC wanted to invest $100 in Roblox. That was 2.2 shares

You can see the plus sign on the graph is when he bought and then you can see his total profit over the year.

There’s a custody fee of a couple of cents a month offset by dividends of a couple of $

@user1477249785

Thanks very much for all the replies. I totally get that we won't make money on this and that it'll probably cost us to invest. But I want to nurture his interest given that it's not a passing whim. Ideally I'd like something where he knows where his money has gone and can monitor its performance. Eg to take a totally random example: £50 in Starbucks shares. Not that obviously. But a recognisable thing where he can check the market and see whether his company is doing well or badly.

I've made about £30 from investing £1 on Freetrade (of which about £5 relates to free shares I received) so you can definitely make a bit of money!

I've done it for similar reasons as your son though, heard it advertised on the radio and thought I would sign up and have a play around as it interests me but I don't have the money to invest 'properly' iyswim.

Trading 212

If you have a subscription to the Telegraph he could take part in their fantasy shares game (like fantasy football but with FTSE 100 stocks)

Stocks and Shares ISA. And buy the shares within the ISA wrapper. If your budget is £50 then HL have a few Emerging Market funds (global equities - which just mean shares) in their top funds that are trading around £1-3 per share.

@MrsMcCluskeysCat - I would be interested in your link please

[quote GiveMummyTheWhizzer]@MrsMcCluskeysCat - I would be interested in your link please [/quote]
Have PM'd you

Well hopefully you get, I use the app normally so I rarely log onto the desktop site or use PM's!

If anyone else is interest I've just realised there is an offer on until the 14th so your free share is guaranteed to be worth at least £10 (it's usually £2).

Another one who uses Freetrade. It's so easy to use. You can see the gains and losses on a daily, monthly, yearly etc basis. You could set up an account for him and buy the shares, then on Xmas day he could download the app and log in.

My understanding is that the stock market as a rule grows over time, so most shares will appreciate in value in the long run, although can fluctuate a lot along the way of course.

I started dabbling just before the pendemic, so the worst time really, 😬 but have still made a 22% return. My biggest gains are from tesla, jd sports, roblox and cloudflare.

Op what I think you should do and again, I'm not an fsa or an expert by any means

However, what I would do is buy him some shares like star bucks or whatever then also buy an index fund like vanguard s and p 500.

So one side you are buying one company's shares.
By buying some of s and p 50o your getting a share of the whole index your buying some apple, tesla., Microsoft... All the companies that make up the s and p 500.

It's self cleansing, if the company starts to fail it falls out of the the index and is replaced.

Tell your son that since 1900 only one or two individual companies are actually still in existence.
Buying index funds isn't making huge instant games it's the long game. As Jack bogle said.. Why try and look for the needle when you can buy the haystack.
Vanguard funds are extremely good and you also own the company when you buy them.

Then he can see how the two compare, individually funds and a fund containing a little of the best companies in the world..