The Tools I Use To Invest

I thought it would be useful for readers to understand how I manage my own money, from a practical point of view. All too often one does not know what tools to use to manage one's own money as there are so many to look at, and so many that can confuse.

I outline below some of the low cost tools I use to help me invest and trade. However, it is well worth spending a little bit of money so you have these key tools to make smart and quick decisions. I use these tools regularly and now are integrated into my lifestyle of growing my own wealth.

In no particular order, these are some of the tools you will require:

On line Broker

I use on line broker TD Waterhouse to buy and sell my shares. www.tdwaterhouse.co.uk. They are a pretty large broker (known as a a Ameritrade in the US) and have access to most well known markets including the US. They normally charge £12.50 per trade (buying or selling) irrespective of the size of trade, whether it is £1000 in value or £100000! However, if you trade regularly the charge does fall to £9.95 per trade.

I don't use them for any advice, they are my execution broker online. In addition, i subscribe to their live pricing feed for the London Stock Exchange which costs me around £50 a quarter. If however, you do a lot of trades you can even get this free of charge. Is it worth having live prices? Absolutely, as sometimes on a trade you may get in and out within minutes after taking your profit! There are some other good companies out there too, such as e-trade, self trade etc.

However, for the US markets (which open at 2.30pm UK time at the moment), you do not need to subscribe to live pricing as this is free on sites such as www.google.com/finance (see below), but bear in mind if you want more detailed information about US market trading activity then it maybe best to subscribe accordingly to a site. However, a site like Options Express (see below) will provide usually enough information free.

Although i use TD Waterhouse for most of my trades including US trades, i also have a separate US broker known as Options Express. I have not used them much but they seem pretty good too.


Technology

I have a separate netbook which is just used to getting my live pricing on. I find having a separate PC, with this live data, much easier to us. I have a Dell netbook which costs me around £20 a month (for 2 years) from Vodafone which includes a good 3G allowance too ( you can get them even cheaper now). This can connect to a wi-fi connection too, where i can log on and get my live pricing if necessary.

I have an Iphone too, which has prices of shares that come directly via bloomberg. Pretty good too, but there is a 15 min delay in UK pricing.

Key Websites

Most of my research comes from the web. I use the following free websites:

1. www.google.com/finance - for US and International company information
2. www.google.co.uk/finance - for UK company information and news
3. www.yahoo.com/finance - for US and International company information

The above 3 websites are free and excellent. They act as an aggregator of information which then you can read as you wish. In addition, each stock you maybe following usually has a discussion board....which usually are pretty interesting to read. However beware, some postings are dubious at the best of times!

In particular I use the google sites for charting. They have a great free facility to be able to see the charts of the shares but also allow you to see key technical analysis too.

I also use:

1. www.iii.co.uk - for more information about UK companies and associated discussion boards
2. www.bloomberg.com - for breaking and up to date financial news
3. www.ft.com - for UK and international news

So what next?

Ok you have the account, the technology and know where to find information about companies, then you need to start choosing stocks and shares to invest in!

Most people never get to this stage as they feel that it is too difficult or they think it is easier to get their financial advisor to manage their finances. But my experience has shown that if you can get the above set up for yourself, then you can actively start trading and investing for you! If I can do it, so can you! And i would strongly suggest you take control of your own investment strategy. A good individual investor can usually beat the Professional Fund Manager!