Stock Market advice

[mountainmachine]

Where can I trade options on such a small scale? I'm up for it (put options obviously, seeing as I'm a bear and all).

The problem with such small amounts as that is there is normally a minimum commission, i dont know what it is in the options market, but say its £10 thats £20 (buy then sell) so 10% of your investment, so you have to make more than 10% to break even.

[TheAnimus]

The problem with such small amounts as that is there is normally a minimum commission, i dont know what it is in the options market, but say its £10 thats £20 (buy then sell) so 10% of your investment, so you have to make more than 10% to break even.

and bingo was his naaame o.

not used them myself, but self trade and ilk will do this for you (ST charging a flat £12.50) fee, but some CFD (contract for difference, a dumbed down name for a vanilla option, that does away with the many expiry types (american, europian, bamuda etc.)) are more of a spread (a dumb'd down butterfly or straddle at their most complex) which the commision is effecivly built into the quote price.

Also you should only have one commision on a CFD from ST (haven't checked this) anything else would be a con, as you a buying a contract that expires, you have no choice to exercise.

I would only recomend buying £150 of options as a gamble thats a punt, that you can completely afford to loose, but aim to learn a LOT, spend a lot of hopefully enjoyable time researching the share. If you loose it, lesson learnt, if not you can make quite a bit of wonga with very little.