Investing whilst at college can be an extremely useful strategy as it can be a great way to not only improve your current income, but earn money to save towards your future, perhaps for a purpose such as paying off your student debts, purchasing your first home after you graduate, or even saving towards your later years and retirement. No matter why you decide to start investing, there are many students who’ve managed to become successful investors whilst still at college. Whether you’re studying for a finance degree or something totally different such as a masters in social work online, starting investing can set you up for lifelong financial security. We’ve put together some top tips to help students get started with investing whilst at college.

Why Invest?

Before you begin investing, it’s important to establish why you want to become an investor and what you would like to get out of the process. Contrary to what popular culture has led many of us to believe, becoming truly successful as an investor often requires a lot of hard work, patience, learning, and risk-taking. You are only in college for a few short years, therefore you will also need to consider whether or not you are willing to divide your time between not only improving your skills as an investor, but also performing as well as possible with your degree.

Understand Yourself

Becoming a successful investor will often require seriously getting to know yourself and your own investor psychology by being frank and honest with yourself. (more…)

By Bill Williams

It is not always easy to get through to EE customer service given the many people who call in every day. To dissuade people from calling (and to encourage emails, online, SMS and other ways of contacting customer service), EE usually tacks customer care numbers in a corner in their site. If you do not have the number or you don’t want to be put on hold (very common in peak hours), you could reach an EE customer care rep through:

1. Email
2. EE’s many social media channels
3. On the company’s website
4. NGT (Next Generation Text) Service and NGT Lite App (http://ngts.org.uk) for those who have a problem hearing
5. Visit to an EE store
6. Mail

Short codes: Short codes are the easiest way to get in touch with BB. Send the code to 150 and you will get almost instant feedback. The different codes include:

• BA: Balance and allowances
• BILL: Recent invoices and payments
• UP: Upgrade eligibility
• HELP: List of BB’s most common services
• USAGE: Unbilled costs
• BUNDLES: Bundles/extras

Writing an email or contacting EE through their website is a good option if you have a generalized query that is not too urgent and if you have a serious issue such as a billing problem and you want a paper trail. (more…)

By Kim Dawkins

There are so many ways of trading that deciding between them can be challenging. CFDs are a popular method of trading.

Contracts for Difference (CFDs) have been in use since the early 1990s. CFD is where two parties (a buyer and a seller) agree to exchange the difference between the opening and closing price of a contract. It isn’t necessarily a prerogative of the trading room floor. Last year the Neart na Gaoithe offshore wind farm struck a deal with the National Grid. They were awarded a 15 year CFD subsidy meaning that their production of electricity had a strike price linked to the rate of inflation.

Considering how political events can affect the commodities on which CFD trading is based is as good a way as any of explaining the concept.

Let us suppose that our trader looking at the US presidential elections exit poll considers that Donald Trump will win. They find a company Acme Products which has 90% of its export trade with the USA. The trader decides that this is going to negatively impact on the share price of the company and so sells 1000 share CFDs at the current price of 1430p.

Three or four things can happen.

1. The exit poll is correct. Trump wins. Our trader buys the shares back at the new buy price which is 60p down with a gain of £600.
2. The exit poll is correct. Trump wins but surprisingly the share price rises to 1440p. The trader opines that the price will continue to rise and so buys back the shares at this price, closing the position. There is a resultant loss of 10p per share and the trader is down £100.
3. The exit poll is wrong and Bill Clinton is the new First Lady, sorry Gentleman. The share price rises to 1500p resulting in a loss of 70p per share. Our trader has just lost £700.
4. The exit poll is wrong and Hillary Clinton becomes the first woman president. The FBI releases some incriminating emails and the share price plummets to 1320p. Victory is grabbed from the jaws of defeat and our trader gains £1,100.

(more…)