How to Trade Smith & Nephew shares (SN)

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 SN

*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 Smith & Nephew shares (SN) 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 Smith & Nephew shares. This means that at the current price of £1,324.91 per share, to buy 50Smith & Nephew shares with no leverage, it would cost a total of £66,245.50 £66,246. However, using leverage of 1:33, a trader would only require an account size of £4,278.36 £2,007 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 £4.95 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.

Smith & Nephew: Key Stats & Background Information

Smith & Nephewshares are currently priced at £1,324.91, after opening the day at £1,335.00. As of 22/07/2017, Smith & Nephew have 878 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 £11,636 million.

This market cap makes Smith & Nephew the 41st largest stock on the FTSE 100 index by market capitalisation. In the past 30 days, the Smith & Nephew share price has decreased by -4.13%, from £1,382.00. In the past 90 days, it has ' ; increased by 5.07%, from £1,261.00 to the current price of £1,324.91.

In terms of trading activity Smith & Nephew is the 65th most actively traded stock in the FTSE100, with an average of 1,492,409 shares being traded per day.

Smith & Nephew had a profitafter tax for the financial year ending 31/12/2015of £581 million, an increase from £268 million for the financial year ending 31/12/2014, an overall 116% change in profit after tax.

Smith & Nephew was listed on the London Stock Exchange on August 13, 1951, and can be traded on Monday-Friday between 8am and 4.30pm GMT (UK time).

Smith & Nephew paid a dividend of 23.08p in 2016, an increase from 20.02p in 2015.

Top 10 FTSE 100 Companies by Trading Volume

Company	Trading Volume
Lloyds Banking Group PLC	87,565,656
Vodafone Group plc	68,391,293
Glencore PLC	26,230,679
Barclays PLC	24,468,784
BP plc	20,838,689
HSBC Holdings plc	19,370,865
Legal & General Group Plc	14,483,065
Tesco PLC	13,404,791
BT Group plc	13,205,559
Centrica PLC	12,996,820

Top 10 FTSE 100 Companies by Market Cap

Company	Market Cap
Royal Dutch Shell Plc	£201,596,406,919
HSBC Holdings plc	£148,630,276,269
Unilever plc	£131,739,303,844
British American Tobacco plc	£101,859,158,195
BP plc	£88,234,906,387
GlaxoSmithKline plc	£80,075,562,989
BHP Billiton plc	£76,977,004,644
AstraZeneca plc	£65,423,012,084
Rio Tinto plc	£63,617,726,226
Vodafone Group plc	£61,883,015,890

Technical Analysis

In the past 52 weeks, Smith & Nephew's shares hit a low of £1,064.91 and a high of £1,390.00. This means that their current share price is 24.42% above the 52-week low and 4.68% below the 52-week high.

Comparison of Smith & Nephew's EPS & P/E Ratio with other Health Care Equipment & Service companies

Smith & Nephew has a price/earnings ratio of 19.95. For comparison, Mediclinic International's P/E ratio is 24.41 and ConvaTec Group's P/E ratio is n/a. Smith & Nephew's basic earning per share from continuing operations for the 31/12/2015 financial year was 65.26p, which was a decrease from the previous financial year of 79.08p.

Company	Basic - EPS	P/E Ratio	Market Cap (Million)
Smith & Nephew ( LON:SN)	65.26p	19.95	£11,636
Mediclinic International ( LON:MDC)	29.60	24.41	£5,470
ConvaTec Group ( LON:CTEC)		n/a	£6,154

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