Читать книгу Starting With Shares - Roger Kinsky - Страница 34

Once a company has floated and its shares are available through the securities exchange, you can buy shares in it from someone who wants to sell them, using the exchange trading facility. In past times, share trading was like an auction with buyers and sellers making deals directly, but nowadays it's done by a computer.

Now here's the catch: you can't deal directly with the exchange because to do so you need to be approved and licensed by them. So before you can trade shares, you need to find a licensed dealer who'll act on your behalf. These licensed dealers are known as sharebrokers, stockbrokers or simply brokers.

Naturally, brokers charge a fee for service that's known as brokerage, and this fee can vary a fair bit. Because many brokers offer their services, competition is fierce. This competition means lower prices so brokerage isn't a significant cost. Although you needn't worry too much about brokerage, but I do discuss it in more detail in chapter 7, when I explain how you can trade shares.

Buying shares through an exchange is similar to buying a second‐hand commodity, such as a used car or used book. The shares have been pre‐owned and aren't brand new.

Buying used shares and buying any other used commodity differs in one important way. Can you think what it is?

The answer is that with any physical commodity such as cars, books or clothing, the item has been previously used and is likely to show wear and tear. Also the item can become outdated or out of fashion because a new model comes on to the market. For example, with a motor car, the number of kilometres and its age are key factors in determining the car's value. With shares, the age of the shares or the number of previous owners doesn't matter at all because these factors have no influence on the share price. Shares aren't a physical commodity and don't age or become outdated. In fact, with quality shares the price is far more likely to rise with time than to fall.