[john kane]

thanks for the reply kimchi and apologies for my delay in replying.

im with ig index who seem a solid and safe company. given no tax and commissions, i think the wider spread is definitely better (for example on tdwaterhouse i was paying £12.50 per trade, if i was investing £1K per stock, as i am here, then im paying 1.25% to buy and again to sell).

the spread is 0.35% but as ive gone for the guarenteed stop loss account it means i have an extra .30% spread or so. this is well worth it imo, as say a stock plummets overnight. normal stop losses means you would just get the best price when trading opens. this guarentee means no matter what you are getting that price. if you have a stop loss at 5%, and it drops 20% on opening, you only loss the 5%. i thinks it worth the 0.3% extra for the peace of mind, as well as helping to lower variance.

plus if there is a big flip decision on a stock with will affect it by + or - 50% on the next day, with a guarenteed stop loss you can make that -10% or +49.4% [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

The hardest part is definitely find stocks and a strategy which prevents regular (as in no more than every few days, preferable a couple of weeks) changing position.

my dilemma right now is that my money has hit my current account. part of me wants to put it into my savings account, but then i cant withdraw it till the end of the month.

i think ill leave it in my current account.

also im erring on to begin with just going long on stocks, but then with the market not set to do too well (maybe pretty badly) over the coming x months (maybe x year(s) then maybe doing both long and short is wiser.

definitely some thoughts to mull over.

thanks again for reply, really does help.