Trading 212 and buying shares

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StuffyClaret
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Trading 212 and buying shares

Post by StuffyClaret » Sun Jun 07, 2020 12:24 pm

I know that there is quite a few on here that like to dabble on the stock market.

I have recently decided to try my luck with a bit of my 'play money' and have had some pretty good returns so far (although it could be argued that in the current climate it is almost impossible to lose out on new investments!)

I'm using the Trading 212 platform which seems to be a fantastic proposition being that you get unlimited free trades. Am i missing something here? I read that they have decided to do this due to the minimal cost of trades and plan to offer other propositions in the future, such as 'robotic advice' that will be charged for.

Is anybody else doing this?

Also, I'd love to hear anyones tips and advice for potential future investment. I'm currently averaging about 20% growth per shareholding which is nice :-)

kaptin1
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Re: Trading 212 and buying shares

Post by kaptin1 » Sun Jun 07, 2020 1:57 pm

If you are going to invest in individual stocks and shares then you need to have some fundamental understanding of how to value them and hence be able to determine whether they are being mis valued by the market and therefore provide an attractive investment opportunity. This involves a lot of fundamental analysis around what the company does, its competitive position, it’s key value drivers, how these translate into future cash flows and ultimately what those cash flows are worth. Professional fund managers and analysts get paid big money to do this and still struggle to beat the market, which highlights how difficult it is to do consistently well. Anything other than this approach is pure speculation. You might get lucky or you might not, but don’t kid yourself that the outcome is anything other than luck. Put a group of chimpanzees in a room and ask them to pick stocks and some will deliver good performance and some will deliver bad performance, but it’s just random chance. So, point being that you need to be clear about exactly what you are doing and why. If you are happy just to speculate and take a chance then go ahead and have some fun, but just make sure you don’t put your finances at risk. Probably best to make sure you have a bit of diversification too so that if any of your holdings do go badly wrong, they hopefully won’t hurt you too much. Hope that helps.
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StuffyClaret
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Re: Trading 212 and buying shares

Post by StuffyClaret » Sun Jun 07, 2020 2:30 pm

Cheers Kaptin. Having worked in financial services for over twenty years, I can understand your warnings. Like I said, I'm using my 'play money', that which I have saved while the pubs have been shut so I can't really lose. Likewise, as I am building up my portfolio, I am trying to diversify in order to spread my risk.

pompeyclaret
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Re: Trading 212 and buying shares

Post by pompeyclaret » Sun Jun 07, 2020 2:40 pm

Am using 212 too. Free trades, have made some money but also currently have some paper losses. Long term investment for me so confident will be a win.
Have got pension with trackers elsewhere, 212 is a side investment which is more fun than a very low interest rate elsewhere.
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CombatClaret
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Re: Trading 212 and buying shares

Post by CombatClaret » Sun Jun 07, 2020 3:42 pm

Funny this pops up not long after big 212 Youtube ad push.

StuffyClaret
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Re: Trading 212 and buying shares

Post by StuffyClaret » Sun Jun 07, 2020 3:58 pm

CombatClaret wrote:
Sun Jun 07, 2020 3:42 pm
Funny this pops up not long after big 212 Youtube ad push.
Not sure how I discovered it Combat Claret.... Maybe it was due to subliminal advertising. But if it is free to use, I'm happy to have bought into their proposition 😎

dsr
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Re: Trading 212 and buying shares

Post by dsr » Sun Jun 07, 2020 4:30 pm

I use Hargreaves Lansdown. They charge for trades, but not that much, and I don't intend anything fancy like dealing. Buy the shares and leave them, that's my approach. The only real decision is which ones to buy. When I retire, the decision will be which ones to sell.

Day by day transactions are for the experts. If mine broadly follow the FTSE, then that's fine by me.
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CombatClaret
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Re: Trading 212 and buying shares

Post by CombatClaret » Sun Jun 07, 2020 4:52 pm

StuffyClaret wrote:
Sun Jun 07, 2020 3:58 pm
Not sure how I discovered it Combat Claret.... Maybe it was due to subliminal advertising. But if it is free to use, I'm happy to have bought into their proposition 😎
I tried EToro for a while with a play money account, but it was obvious I was just investing in companies I liked or just had a hunch on so never went to to proper money.

I'm always wary of these kind of apps after reading up on first wave which tried to make it sound like you were investing but actually they were selling CFD and the spreads were so large it was very hard to make any any money even if you nailed it. The advertising too didn't fill me with confidence, reminded me too much of gambling, cash out now type things, betting on higher/lower over very short periods with little or no expertise or insight.

Bfcboyo
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Re: Trading 212 and buying shares

Post by Bfcboyo » Sun Jun 07, 2020 5:12 pm

StuffyClaret wrote:
Sun Jun 07, 2020 12:24 pm
I know that there is quite a few on here that like to dabble on the stock market.

I have recently decided to try my luck with a bit of my 'play money' and have had some pretty good returns so far (although it could be argued that in the current climate it is almost impossible to lose out on new investments!)

I'm using the Trading 212 platform which seems to be a fantastic proposition being that you get unlimited free trades. Am i missing something here? I read that they have decided to do this due to the minimal cost of trades and plan to offer other propositions in the future, such as 'robotic advice' that will be charged for.

Is anybody else doing this?

Also, I'd love to hear anyones tips and advice for potential future investment. I'm currently averaging about 20% growth per shareholding which is nice :-)
Lost 20k when virus struck.


Thank God it was practice mode .


Put me off the shares game .

daveyclaret
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Re: Trading 212 and buying shares

Post by daveyclaret » Sun Jun 07, 2020 5:16 pm

I use Investec. They are good but what I pay monthly for having my portfolio managed is not cheap as I not only have to pay Investec but also the Financial Advisor who introduced me to Investec, in addition to a lump sum payment of around £2.5K paid to the Financial Advisor. The Financial Advisor informed me that the minimum investment with Investec is £75K and I've since added more to that amount for the portfolio.

At the start of the pandemic when markets were dramatically slumping, my portfolio dropped by £40K. The markets have recently shown upturn and up to yesterday, £24K has been recovered for the portfolio. I'm very hopeful of Investec getting the portfolio back to the amount it was before the pandemic in a few months time. If I had been managing the portfolio myself, I wouldn't have known where to start to try to recover the £40K.

kaptin1
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Re: Trading 212 and buying shares

Post by kaptin1 » Sun Jun 07, 2020 5:20 pm

dsr wrote:
Sun Jun 07, 2020 4:30 pm
I use Hargreaves Lansdown. They charge for trades, but not that much, and I don't intend anything fancy like dealing. Buy the shares and leave them, that's my approach. The only real decision is which ones to buy. When I retire, the decision will be which ones to sell.

Day by day transactions are for the experts. If mine broadly follow the FTSE, then that's fine by me.
Why don’t you just buy a FTSE tracker? Not having a dig, just curious.

dsr
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Re: Trading 212 and buying shares

Post by dsr » Sun Jun 07, 2020 5:44 pm

kaptin1 wrote:
Sun Jun 07, 2020 5:20 pm
Why don’t you just buy a FTSE tracker? Not having a dig, just curious.
Good question. Probably because it didn't occur to me when I started. Or perhaps because I like to make a decision occasionally, even if it's very occasionally!

kaptin1
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Re: Trading 212 and buying shares

Post by kaptin1 » Sun Jun 07, 2020 6:11 pm

dsr wrote:
Sun Jun 07, 2020 5:44 pm
Good question. Probably because it didn't occur to me when I started. Or perhaps because I like to make a decision occasionally, even if it's very occasionally!
Fair enough, each to their own. I work in investments but only hold funds on my own account. I know first hand how difficult it is to consistently pick stocks, plus it would be akin to taking my work home if I invested directly. There are a few of my colleagues who like to trade quite a bit though.

Paul Waine
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Re: Trading 212 and buying shares

Post by Paul Waine » Sun Jun 07, 2020 7:14 pm

daveyclaret wrote:
Sun Jun 07, 2020 5:16 pm
I use Investec. They are good but what I pay monthly for having my portfolio managed is not cheap as I not only have to pay Investec but also the Financial Advisor who introduced me to Investec, in addition to a lump sum payment of around £2.5K paid to the Financial Advisor. The Financial Advisor informed me that the minimum investment with Investec is £75K and I've since added more to that amount for the portfolio.

At the start of the pandemic when markets were dramatically slumping, my portfolio dropped by £40K. The markets have recently shown upturn and up to yesterday, £24K has been recovered for the portfolio. I'm very hopeful of Investec getting the portfolio back to the amount it was before the pandemic in a few months time. If I had been managing the portfolio myself, I wouldn't have known where to start to try to recover the £40K.
I retired 31st March, so, of course, looking at my pension funds. I'd estimated 40% down, but I'm getting back to where I was in 2015/16 now. It's wonderful what all the governments "rescue spending" is doing for portfolios.

My little piece of advice, watch the fees you are paying out and if you can keep up with the "benchmarks" before fees you will be doing well medium/longer term.

TommyPicks
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Re: Trading 212 and buying shares

Post by TommyPicks » Mon Jun 08, 2020 12:13 am

I also use Hargreaves and have a chunk of money in a stocks & shares isa. Nothing major at all but just something I can afford to play about with. I was in one of the Lindsell train global equity funds and after 12-18 months I was up around 7%. During the peak of covid I was down about 10% but it quickly recovered.

I’ve recently switched into the baillie Gifford American fund. It’s done great against its benchmark and has some good ratings on both trustnet and FE. 5 year cumulative performance was circa 240%, and it regularly hits top performance quartile. Worth looking into, albeit it is high risk.

atlantalad
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Re: Trading 212 and buying shares

Post by atlantalad » Mon Jun 08, 2020 2:07 am

Problem with funds, especially Baillie Gif American B is it takes a few days to buy and a few days to sell so you are not sure what price you are buying into nor selling at. Not right good under current volatile market conditions. I had Baillie Gif American before crash in March and was up 50% ( over two year holding). Fortunately I manage my own investment in HL ISA and was able to sell well before the stocks hit rock bottom ~ 17 March. Reinvested in shares only since on the way up and to be honest it's like shooting fish in a barrel. We are fast approaching top of the markets again so not much gains to be made ( less Fish left and barrel got much bigger).

I am still awaiting another market correction when reality of job losses, economony, debt ladened companies, govt debts, etc finally hits home.

Be careful out there it's easier to loose a lot than make a little and there are market makers that manipulate the share prices trying to entice people to buy to make a quick killing. Lost a bit on a FTSE 100 company just before the crash when it went into admin.... yes FTSE100..( fraud in the company reporting). If Ftse 100 are supposed to be the credible companies then makes you wonder about the sense in investing in FTSE 250 or even AIM companies.

Platforms: only used HL which can get a bit espensive if you buy/ sell frequently. I tend to do research on companies, look at finances and their usps then buy when the price is right then hold. Not into day trading as there are too many tampers/ derampers in that game. Think A J Bell may be cheaper platform to trade.

skibum84
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Re: Trading 212 and buying shares

Post by skibum84 » Wed Jun 10, 2020 10:20 am

Has anyone used Nutmeg? It seems quite a simple way to save into a stocks and shares ISA without too much risk and decent returns. Wondered peoples opinions before I open an account.

IanMcL
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Re: Trading 212 and buying shares

Post by IanMcL » Wed Jun 10, 2020 3:11 pm

Piggy Bank recommended.

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