[1781cc]

Yes, and have been for a few years now.

Firstly you need to decide if you are trading or investing, because the difference is huge, if you are investing, which is to say, looking for longer term growth and gains then I suggest you do everything inside a stocks and shares isa to avoid any capital gains tax. If you are dabbling smaller amounts here and there then you might be ok outside of it but keep records for the tax man.

I invest, I don't trade, I also have made some mistakes when I started and fell in love with a certain oil sector, which reduced my holdings quite drastically at one point, but it was a good lesson.

I'd recommend getting the book "Naked Trader" as an introductory guide to the market, terms, etc... but don't follow it to a tee. I'd also start playing with a virtual portfolio on something like citywire.co.uk or lse.co.uk before dropping any real money in. Also, for live pricing tracking (not level 2 tho) google.com/finance is a good place to look as other sites are usually 15mins behind unless you pay for the service.

When you do start looking at real money investments, look at asset allocation to spread the risk, dont just chuck it all in at once, investing isn't about timing the market, it's about time in the market.

One thing I wish I'd known more about when I started was investment trusts, things like FGT, SMT, etc

It's a minefield, dont trust any tips online from anyone, stick to your research and don't stress every time you have a red day, because there will be blue days, if you've invested rather than traded in a good company it should even out over time.

For example, BAE systems was down for a long time, I bought them when they were low, with quite a decent a chunk of change, they went lower still, I held, they are now a long was up on what I put in, I'm still holding for the long term and reinvesting all the dividends along the way for compound intestest.

BAE is an example by the way, not a tip, Do your own research!

Hope this helps