How many of you have wanted to engage yourselves in a bit of stock buying and selling but backed due to either thinking that you were too small to participate or not knowing how to go about it?
Comdirect Ltd, give you the opportunity, for the normal person, to do so and also provide you ... Read review
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A review by vinodgm on Comdirect October 16th, 2001
Author's product rating:
Competitiveness of charges
Excellent
Coverage of national/international markets
Good
Online - Content/organization of site
Excellent
Online - Reliability/speed of site
Excellent
Online - Ease of applying for products
Excellent
Online - Investment tracking
Excellent
Advantages:
Financially secure, Opportunity to learn and practice before actually committing, Also you to monitor your interested stocks and shares in one place
Disadvantages:
None that I can think of
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
How many of you have wanted to engage yourselves in a bit of stock buying and selling but backed due to either thinking that you were too small to participate or not knowing how to go about it?
Comdirect Ltd, give you the opportunity, for the normal person, to do so and also provide you with the tools to give you a bit of insight and practice in the stock market business.
They are online stockbrokers and registered in the UK since June 2000. They are 58% owned by Commerzbank who are a very large banking conglomerate and thus the financial integrity is ascertained.
If you are already experienced in the stock market you can proceed to open an account directly with them and immediately begin purchasing stocks and shares. You first need to have the relative amount you want to invest transferred to your account, by using your credit card. You can then begin purchasing and selling immediately and the amounts will be maintained in your account. At any time you can sell and have your account balance transferred back to your credit card account.
The list of charges and other details are clearly mentioned on their site aswell as all the other technicalities of this trade. However one thing that I want to point out is that everything is explained clearly and simply and even if you are new to this, after spending a little time on the site, you will be clearly aware of your position.
If you are a newcomer to this then, as mentioned, Comdirect gives you the opportunity to gain some experience in two ways:
Create a Watchlist ---------------------- This gives you the opportunity to select shares and stocks and put them in your portfolio, without actually buying them. Simply complete the free registration and you will be ready to proceed. You can select as many stocks as you want and then watch the movement on a minute-by-minute basis. What this does is that it puts all the stocks and shares, that you are interested in, into one place thus allowing you to keep track of them quickly and easily. This alleviates the need to search for particular stocks individually and thus saves a great amount of time and energy.
Once you feel comfortable with a particular stock or share you can then make the right decision to actually purchase or not to purchase when you open a real account.
The Game ------------ This is a splendid way to learn quickly by trial and error. First register for the game. The Game is a stock market simulation and is based on the actual stock market and patterns prevailing. You will then be allocated an amount of £100,000 to invest in any shares or stocks you want. Buy, sell, move your stock as you wish and see how you fair. You will be competing against many other members and the top three players are listed on the site everyday i.e. those that have multiplied there initial investment of £100,000 the most. There is a prize available for the winner of this Game. However don’t have any high hopes because there are some real wizards out there as you will see if you visit the site.
So the next time you here the financial news and about the stock market movements, for a change you might know what they are talking about.
By the way I made £277.00 in my first day. Not bad for beginner huh.
Advantages: Free £50 offer, No extra charge for telephone trades, Competitive charges, limit orders and stop losses, Instant funding of account Disadvantages: Need to set-up new passwords to enter research area
I joined Comdirect about six months ago while they had promotion offering free cash when opening an account. My other account is with Selftrade with whom I still hold a majority of my small portfolio. For details of their current special offer see the end of this opinion
They charge £12.50 for all trades and this includes trades placed using the telephone. Most stockbrokers I have come across tend to charge extra if placing trades by telephone. ... ...per trade, but I prefer comdirect because of the stop losses and limit order they offer, which I find very useful when at work and cannot stock watch, giving me more control. Other brokers offer out of hours trading but often that involves the trade being executed as soon as possible in the morning which means you don’t always get the best deal as the spread is often larger in early trading I believe.
They used to make an annual management charge, ...
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Advantages: No frills, but all the thrills. Disadvantages: That is REAL money. Be careful!
...my introduction to the company. comdirect run a monthly share dealing game, where each player is given £100,000 of play-money, and access to almost the full range of trading facilities available to those trading with real money. At the end of the month, the player with the most fake-money wins a prize.
This facility is fantastic, really shows off the site's abilities, and can bring you back to the real world as you compare the few pennies of money ... ...money on the stockmarket :-). Comdirect provide a massive amount of help and advice on setting up such a group, and provide a special account with preferential rates for share trades.
*** The cost?
Each trade costs a flat-rate £12.50 - This compares very well to the percentage based fees charged by many other companies. There are also no annual fees for the basic dealing account, and special order types (Limit orders etc) incurr no extra charges.
...
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Advantages: Set limit orders. Sharedealing game with prizes. Disadvantages: No virtual portfolio
ComDirect has to be the best online stockbroker that I have come across. I found their site by accident and registered for their online "Fantasy Sharedealing" game which was great fun although I didn't win. This is ideal for the novice trader and you are given a fixed amount of virtual money to buy and sell shares. You can view your position in a league table and I believe there are prizes for the top 10 dealers.
Now the fun bit is over, here is ... ...a real sharedealing account with ComDirect as they offered me £150 cash after my first trade. I had nothing to lose so I registered and gave it a go. Was I impressed or what? Let's go through all the features available in ComDirect sharedealing.
(1) Low rates of commission - only £12.50 per trade which is the lowest I have come across.
(2) Portfolio service giving you an indication of the current prices of your shares and how much you are in profit/loss
...
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Advantages: Just about all the data/tools you'll ever need and childsplay to navigate Disadvantages: Lack of debit/credit card funding facility and therefore very slow to set up first trade. Interest payable is a paltry 2.5%
...cleared to trade initially - comdirect blames bank clearance rules for direct debit arrangements, while in reality the villain is their failure to accept debit or credit card funding of dealing a/cs. They do offer, if pressed, to accept the cost of a CHAPS bank-to-bank transfer which will reduce this timescale by more than half. After the initial pain you will need to keep a contingency cash deposit in their coffers if you want to be able to act ... ...interest they pay is a paltry 2.5 per cent (Selftrade offers 5% currently).
On the plus side, customer service - by e-mail , phone or site message is swift, friendly and attentive. And you can't complain about a flat rate transaction charge of £12.50 or £14.50 if trade is over £5000. Sign-up is easy too - complete an on-line form, print sign and freepost it off. I got a no-small-print and lucid information pack back in the post within 48 hours.
...
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Advantages: What better than £50 for free ? (Or £150 if you are lucky !!) Disadvantages: None
...on ....
What is Comdirect ?
Plain and simple, an online stockbroker.
What are they offering ?
Well £50 free for opening an account (more of that later). A fixed dealing fee of £12.50 per deal, online trading and the ability to use their site for research into 'unmissable' investment opportunities that you think you have spotted. For those not used to dealing there is a chance to 'play' with a pretend portfolio - and 'invest' your way to pretend ... ...then off they go to comdirect and recommend you.
You will then receive an email invitation, if you respond by email or by phone quoting the code sent to you they will forward an application pack.
Complete the application pack.
Then you have to do ONE of 3 things -
1) Transfer in an existing share dealing account from another dealer.
2) Make a purchase through your account.
or
3) Transfer in some shares you already hold - now many of you may ...
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Advantages: self select gives you maximum flexibility, free government money Disadvantages: shares prices may go down as well as up, child gets money at 18
...The government has introduced a tax-free Child Trust Fund savings scheme for children born after september 2002 and even gives free money (in the form of vouchers) to start it off.
One of ComDirects CTF offerings allows you to invest in the stock market by managing your own portfolio. Applying for the CTF is very easy. Forms are downloadable from their website or available by post. After the application is accepted there is a 14 day cooling off period. After this time the account is set up. You may deposit up to £1200pa (excluding government contribution) and can invest in a wide range of tradeables...shares/gilts/funds/trackers/cash etc.
Charges are similar to a standard ComDirect trading account so are reasonable. The account is free from income tax and capital gains tax so is a very tax efficient way of saving...
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Advantages: Cheap dealing costs Disadvantages: You are tied to fixed days for dealing
...OK, so you may consider that this is the wrong time to even think about buying shares since the stockmarket has dropd by about 30% in the last few months. Well, if you are an optimist and think that we may be at the start of a market recovery then you might be interested in opening an account with Halifax Sharebuilder.
The Sharebuilder is new concept tht allows you to buy or sell shares for only £1.50 per deal which is considerably cheaper than anybody else offering such sharedealing facilities. I should say that I have accounts with TD Waterhouse, Comdirect and Selftrade and these costs range from £9 to £15 per deal.
All you have to do to set up an account is go to www.halifax.co.uk/online and go to the Sharedealing/Sharebuilder homepage, choose the Sharebuilder tab and then open and fund your new account.
You can fund your...
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Advantages: Childsplay to navigate and a mine of essential info Disadvantages: Don't accept debit or credit card funding and low interest on dealing cash a/c
...Sorry, while this comment mentions SelfTrade, it has been posted here in error, and belongs properly to COMDIRECT. I am not deleting it at this stage as it will be relevant if you are seeking opinion on on-line brokers.
Safe, comprehensive and childsplay to navigate, comdirect.com is a MUST for your bookmarks, whether or not you choose to use the company for on-line share dealing.
I've tried much advertised share tracking software, costing up to £250. Now I've got FREE all the analysis tools, data, charts, up-to-date news I've ever wished for - all on a single click on my "favourites" list, with enabling downloads taking up a paltry 2kb of my Disk space! With every world market covered you can cancel your subscription to the FT.
Without becoming a client, you can set up and track your own real or notional portfolio of shares...
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23.04.2005
08.09.2002
