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Investment guides: Shares

Created:
2 May 2007
Updated:
30 May 2007
Written by:
IC personal finance team

Investing in the stock market has never been easier, and there have never been more reasons to do it. Although shares are more volatile investments than bank savings accounts, and prices may fall as well as rise, history shows that over the longer term, they have consistently outperformed most other asset classes.

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The reason for this is simple – better returns are simply a reward for taking more risk. But you can reduce the level of risk by choosing your shares carefully, and you can increase your profits by keeping other costs, things like dealing charges and taxes, to a minimum.

The following articles are designed to get you started. Remember that they are only a selection of the huge amount of educational content available on the IC website; if you want more articles, or a subject not covered below, then use the search box at the top of the page.

Before you can start buying shares, you need to get yourself a stock broker. You can either pay higher commission and get advice, or choose to trade online with no advice for rock-bottom prices. Either way, you’ll find all the information you need in our annual stock broker survey.

Once you’re set up with a broker, how do you decide which stocks to buy? There are hundreds of different techniques, but for starters try How to research a stock and How to use a stock screen.

Some of the time, your shares will fall as well as rise. To really understand what causes such fluctuations, read Looking at the bigger picture?

The best investors never stop learning, so even if you’re an experienced stock market investor, have a look at Taking it further.

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