How to Trade National Grid shares (NG)

To trade shares you can either use a traditional stock brokerage firm (such as IG) or you can use a CFD service, such as LCG We'll explore the pros and cons of both approaches in a moment.

Currently, IG charge a minimum of £5* per trade for buying and selling shares online, while LCG charge 0.08% above the spreadThe spread is the difference (in pips) between the buy price and the sell price.

Example: If the current buy price of EURUSD is 1.0004 and the sell price is 1.0003, there is a 1 pip spread. for stocks such as NG

*For frequent traders or clients who place at least one CFD trade or Spread bet per month. Applies to UK shares only.

Pros & Cons of Trading National Grid shares (NG) as a CFD

A CFD (or 'contract for difference') is a way of trading instruments like shares without having to own the shares. Here are some of the pros and cons of CFD trading compared to using a traditional stock brokerage.

Advantages:

• The main advantage of a CFD broker is the leverage they offer their clients. This means that a trader would require a much smaller account sizes relative to the size of a trade in comparison to a traditional share dealing broker.
  
  For example, offer leverage of 1:33 on National Grid shares. This means that at the current price of £963.20 per share, to buy 50National Grid shares with no leverage, it would cost a total of £48,160.00 £48,160. However, using leverage of 1:33, a trader would only require an account size of £3,110.33 £1,459 to place the trade with a CFD broker like LCG
  
  
• CFD brokers allow traders to go long or short, which means a trader could benefit from rising and falling markets.
• CFD brokers usually do not charge a commission and instead have their fees included in the spread.
• CFD brokers like AvaTrade that offer the MT4 platform, allow clients to use expert advisors to automate their trading strategies.
• UK shares that are purchased as a CFD are not liable for the usual 0.5% stamp duty payable with a traditional share purchase (please note that tax laws can change and are subject to individual circumstances).
• Unlike traditional brokerages that only offer stock trading, CFD brokers like LCG give access to a wide variety of instruments like stocks, commodities and currencies.

Cons:

• As mentioned, leverage is a double-edged sword that can magnify both gains and losses. And as with all trading, traders are at the risk of the markets moving against them.
• CFD brokers typically charge an overnight fee for holding a long position overnight. This is essentially the cost of borrowing the money from the broker to purchase the shares on margin. There would be no overnight fee if you closed the position on the same trading day. Therefore, this would only be a disadvantage if you are not a day trader or intraday trader.
  
  For example, LCG currently charge an overnight financing fee of 2.73% for individual equities. This means that for the example trade above, it would cost a trader £3.60 every day the position was open.

For further information on trading stocks as a CFD, visit out "trading stocks as a CFD page". It is important to remember leverage can work both ways and magnify gains and losses.

*All information collected from https://www.lcg.com/uk/, see website for full terms and conditions. Your capital is at risk. Last updated on 20th March, 2017.

National Grid: Key Stats & Background Information

National Gridshares are currently priced at £963.20, after opening the day at £968.40. As of 16/08/2017, National Grid have 3,419 million shares available, bringing their market capMarketing capitalisation is the value of a publicly traded company, calculated by multiplying the current share price by the total number of shares available. to £32,935 million.

This market cap makes National Grid the 20th largest stock on the FTSE 100 index by market capitalisation. In the past 30 days, the National Grid share price has increased by 3.31%, from £932.30. In the past 90 days, it has ' ; decreased by -15.87%, from £1,144.90 to the current price of £963.20.

In terms of trading activity National Grid is the 20th most actively traded stock in the FTSE100, with an average of 3,672,931 shares being traded per day.

National Grid had a profitafter tax for the financial year ending 31/03/2016of £2,594 million, an increase from £2,011 million for the financial year ending 31/03/2015, an overall 29% change in profit after tax.

National Grid was listed on the London Stock Exchange on January 31, 2002, and can be traded on Monday-Friday between 8am and 4.30pm GMT (UK time).

National Grid paid a dividend of 43.16p in 2016, an increase from 42.25p in 2015.

Top 10 FTSE 100 Companies by Trading Volume

Company	Trading Volume
Lloyds Banking Group PLC	29,633,566
Glencore PLC	25,480,177
Vodafone Group plc	13,680,209
Barclays PLC	9,522,328
BP plc	9,298,003
Old Mutual plc	8,917,408
Kingfisher plc	8,296,062
Tesco PLC	7,120,747
BHP Billiton plc	7,088,833
HSBC Holdings plc	6,883,122

Top 10 FTSE 100 Companies by Market Cap

Company	Market Cap
Royal Dutch Shell Plc	£203,936,671,782
HSBC Holdings plc	£151,482,984,775
Unilever plc	£134,942,466,038
British American Tobacco plc	£112,998,435,133
BP plc	£88,896,426,223
BHP Billiton plc	£80,172,645,168
GlaxoSmithKline plc	£73,924,730,668
Diageo plc	£65,065,792,486
Rio Tinto plc	£64,553,980,895
Vodafone Group plc	£59,419,780,275

Technical Analysis

In the past 52 weeks, National Grid's shares hit a low of £888.90 and a high of £1,118.60. This means that their current share price is 8.36% above the 52-week low and 13.89% below the 52-week high.

Comparison of National Grid's EPS & P/E Ratio with other Gas, Water & Multi utility companies

National Grid has a price/earnings ratio of 15.55. For comparison, SSE's P/E ratio is 12.49 and Centrica's P/E ratio is 12.68. National Grid's basic earning per share from continuing operations for the 31/03/2016 financial year was 69.00p, which was a decrease from the previous financial year of 147.36p.

Company	Basic - EPS	P/E Ratio	Market Cap (Million)
National Grid ( LON:NG)	69.00p	15.55	£32,935
SSE ( LON:SSE)	46.10	12.49	£14,278
Centrica ( LON:CNA)	-14.90	12.68	£11,442

*Information is provided "as is" and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and may be delayed.