**** Official UK investors thread ****

[iSTRONG]

I tried searching for some info specific to investors living in the UK but there didn't seem to be much around on these forums. I thought maybe a special thread just for UK discussions might be helpful.

A few topics of discussion to start us off;
1. What online Brokers do you use?
2. Any good e-saving accounts?
3. If you had £5K to invest right now where would you put it assuming that you won't touch it for the next 10-15 years and that you don't mind a bit of risk.

[john kane]

excellent idea. ive had enough of people banging on about vanguard - us UKers can use it unless we have vast sums of money.

as for your questions, these are my answers with a bit of background fwiw.

1. i initially opened a tdwaterhouse for my trading ISA. I put £4K into it (most i could with a miniISA). In december 06 i set it up and I bought SAB Miller and Partygaming. It went up to £4,400 then i sold them and invested in their JP Morgan Emerging Markets fund.
I decided i wanted to do more stock buying so i set up their Trading Plus account. I bought £1.5K each in playtech, partygaming, sporting bet and 888. I'm down about £700 at the moment. I should put it all in playtech as it was the only dead cert which would increase (and has been the only one to increase), but i only have a net total of £29K in terms of savings, bankroll, spending money etc and wanted to spread the risk a little.

I have recently set up a www.iii.co.uk account. I have set this up becuase I have been looking into investing in funds which are outside my ISA bracket. tdwaterhouse only allow me to buy funds if it is through an ISA, and given i've used up this years ISA allowance I looked elsewhere and stumbled across iii.co.uk.

2. I use Nationwide e-savings account becuase they always are very competitive and i have a nationwide credit card and flexaccount (cash account) and a savings ISA.

3. As you won't touch it for the next 10-15 years i'd put it in a fund. If you haven't used your ISA allowance this year then use it and put £5K in a maxi trading ISA and then buy a couple of different funds. I'd go for emerging markets and global growth or maybe global property.
I'm tempted to do these other funds as well but i may need the money in the next couple of years for a deposit on a place of my own so im not sure.

hope that is of some interest, im a relative noob, i only started looking at all this a couple of months ago.

[iSTRONG]

John,

Is there any point to an ISA if you play poker for a living and have no other source of income?

[john kane]

in the long term i'd imagine so, becuase you'd hope that the interest or capital gains you'd make would be high enough at some stage that you would otherwise have to pay tax above the limit.

say you had £100K in poker winnings in a non-ISA trading account and you made 10%. with your £10K profit, wouldnt you have to pay capital gains tax on the £1.2K amount above your capital gains allowance (£8.8K)

same as for if you put it in a Cash ISA, i think (may be wrong) interest on your savings counts as income and so would be subject to income tax. if you put your poker winnings into e-savings rather than an ISA, and you got above £5225 (income allowance) in interest then you'd get taxed on that.

Yes this all takes time to get that level of interest but best to look long term.

Admittedly this would take a number of years to avoid via an ISA given you can only put in £7K a year, but still, no matter what happens down the line in terms of poker or getting a job, im sure there are no downsides to putting it an ISA and only potential upsides. Also w

[iSTRONG]

John,

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. I'm a complete n00b at this. What do you think of the iii.co.uk self-select ISA service?

[iSTRONG]

Also another random question;

What the point of a mini-ISA if you can put cash as well as stocks in a maxi-ISA?

[john kane]

i have had problems setting up my iii.co.uk account but i should be get my password tomorrow then ill let you know how it goes.

as for max vs mini, i had these problem for quite a while trying to figure out what the point of going for a mini-ISA was. i manage to figure it out, i think, but i have now forgotten and cant remember.

they are changing the ISA system soon (not sure how soon).

i agree though, from what they say, with mini its limited at £3K cash ISA and £4K stocks and shares whereas maxi you can have up to £7K stocks and shares and with whatever you have left you can put into a cash ISA (up to £3K)

i agree i dont understand why this is the case. I think my with the maxi ISA you HAVE to invest in stocks and shares but also can have a cash element, whereas with a mini ISA you can just invest in a cash element.

but i really aint sure.

[iSTRONG]

Anyone use http://www.hoodlessbrennan.com/ ?

[philnewall]

Can anyone suggest a good tracker for the FTSE with low fees?

[kimchi]

[ QUOTE ]
Can anyone suggest a good tracker for the FTSE with low fees?

[/ QUOTE ]

Foreign and Colonial FTSE all-share tracker and Fidelity Moneybuilder UK Index tracker are the cheapest I think, with TER of less than 0.5%.

I wouldn't bother with a stock trading ISA unless you can merge several years' of ISA allowance into the one ISA wrapper. Brokers charge an annual ISA fee and then there are trading costs and stamp duty to pay.

I don't think ETF are subject to stamp duty and their lower TER make them attractive for a long term diversified prtfolio.

Anybody here have a spreadbetting account? They're tax free in the UK, the dealing commission is within the tight spreads, and you can go long and short just as easily. They're only suited to short term trading though, as the financing costs will kill you if you hold a position for more than a month or so.