How am i doing?

So i started at the beginning of October with no previous experience with a sum of £2200 . I have a few shares that i bought in the hope of a profit in a years time but as it stands now if i was to sell everything id make £317 … i know thats more then id get back if id left it in the bank , so just wanted opinions on how im fairing!? Beginners luck maybe???

It’s been easy to make money recently, stocks have just been going up. You could have done anything and made money really. You’ll only know if you’ve done well if you look back in hindsight and compare your returns agains those of a major index (S&P 500, all world etc.) but by then it’s obviously too late, so if you’re not confident then buy the indexes, because then you’ll guarantee those returns. If you have some high conviction add those in to your portfolio, and if you’re right you should outperform the entire market. How much you do index to conviction is down to a variety of factors such as your expertise, investment length, capital, goals etc.

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To be honest no one really knows how markets will react week to week. Anyone that tells you they know is lying. You have got to have a plan in terms of research and what you want to achieve moving forward. Their is no real one plan fits all. You just got to do what feels right to you. I’d listen to pod casts like “Money to the Masses” and “Meaningful Money”. It will give you a few different way to invest.

You need a performance baseline in my opinion.

Your return: +14.4%
BoE base rate return: 0.014% approx
FTSE All World Index Tracker: + 6.6%

6-8 weeks is quite a short term to compare your personal stock pick performance, but I would say you are doing well(or lucky). Myself, I rate my returns against the FTSE All World Index as a baseline.

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All varies, my personal goal is go make a anual return of 25-30% for the (Long term). For some this is impossible, but so far for me it’s working out. Obv prepends on what you invest and how you spread out you’re capital.

True, funny when people “think” they know what’s about to happen in the commig week’s.

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You’ll be retired in no time on that rate of return!

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Very true a good base rate will keep you on track for the future but don’t beat yourself up to much if you under perform. Best advice I’ve heard is give your investments a chance, don’t sell anything stock in the first 1 years, because your “losses are not realised until you sell that stock”. You keep them you haven’t loss anything. Doesn’t alway apply but it good to keep in mind.

My baseline rule is that I never sell a stock for a loss, and never place short term trades. I think the shortest period I have ever held a stock is 3 months, and that was only due to buying what I saw as value in the dips this year that recovered much quicker than I expected, so didn’t have so much growth runway left in my view.

Good view to have Douglas, keep going that way and I’m sure we’ll both be done well. My returns are 8% but I’m just starting out. Given time in the game and I’m sure I’ll improve. Maybe even reach 14+% like yourself.

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I’m not sure its fair to say you could have made money buying anything at the moment, a lot of stocks have taken a second battering so the fact your still showing heavy profits is very good.
It can always be beginners luck but keep doing what your doing as its currently working.
A plan for your next wave needs to be separated from your current working stocks and see if you can repeat it, if you can then your plans are working

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I certainly won’t knock you for crapping out gold bars :rofl::rofl::rofl:

Never sell at lost as it will mean constantly gambling.

But You are not going to beat the Market by don’t sell anything. If this is what you are planning to do then why not just buy a well perfoming index fund.

You beat the market by “buy low sell high” all the time.

many of succesful fund manager are following a contrarian investing strategy :

Baron Rothschild " the time to buy is when there’s blood in the streets "

John D. Rockefeller “The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets”***

*Warren Buffett “Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful”

Im always interested to hear the side of traders on here that actively trade.
I know a lot of people on here follow the strategy of buy and hold, which suits up nicely along with dividend payments and often times does ride the storm out.

But I do wonder if people have had greater / worse returns this year, actively trading - buying and selling, versus the traditional buy’n’hold strategy.

Thoughts anyone ?

This is something I can’t bring myself to do at the moment but my interests lie solely with learning this in the long term