How to buy Barclays (BARC) shares

• Interested in buying Barclays shares for exposure to the banking sector?
• We explain where and how to buy.
• Find out what impacts Barclays’ share value.

Barclays (LSE: BARC) is a London-based bank that offers retail, commercial, investment, wholesale, and private banking services in markets across the world.

A FTSE 100 company, Barclays is recognised as a systemically important bank of global significance.

Read on for more about how you can buy Barclays shares.

Step 1: Choose a broker

Barclays is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LON: BARC) and the New York Exchange (NYSE: BCS). If you want to buy their shares, you’ll need a broker with access to one of these stock markets. Fortunately, there are many to choose from. You can refine your choices using Finty’s comparison.

Things to consider before deciding on a broker include their commission on trades, what markets and tradable assets they have available, if they support fractional share investments, what their foreign exchange fee is when buying on overseas markets, and the general usability of their trading platform.

Step 2: Transfer funds to your account

When you’ve chosen a broker and registered your account, you’ll need to transfer funds.

You can fund your account with a bank transfer or a debit card, although some brokers also accept credit cards and PayPal.

Note that It can take some time for funds to clear into your account depending on the method used.

Step 3: Decide the amount you will invest

Only invest what you can afford. Share values can rise and fall. Depending on the broker you use, it may be possible to buy fractional shares of Barclays, meaning you can decide how much you want to invest without being dictated by the market price.

Step 4: Choose between Shares or an ETF?

Rather than buying their shares, you could invest in an ETF with exposure to Barclays. An ETF is a diversified investment, often based around a theme, e.g. banking. Since they are diversified, they tend to experience less price volatility. They are more geared towards the passive investor.

ETFs with exposure to Barclays include iShares Core FTSE 100 UCITS ETF (ISF) and iShares Core MSCI World UCITS ETF (SWDA).

Step 5: Configure an order

Market orders are the easiest since they require practically no configuration: once executed, you’ll get shares at the next available price.

If you would like to be more strategic about your investing, you could configure an order to automatically buy Barclays shares when they reach a specific price. Most brokers also offer the ability to set up a recurring order so you can take advantage of pound cost averaging over time.

Step 6: Place your order

Once you've configured your options, submit your order and buy.

As well as keeping track of the share price, stay abreast of any announcements they make to the market and their company results. Also keep an eye out for press stories about Barclays, their competitors, and the banking industry. These stories can have a significant impact on the price of your shares, for example, changes to interest rates, exposure to financial scandals, impaired loans in economic downturns, new regulations, etc.

For comparison against the broader market, monitor what competitors like NatWest (LON: NWG), Lloyds (LON: LLOY), Banco Santander (BME: SAB), UBS (SWX: UBSG), and HSBC (LON: HSBA), are doing.