New, learning, a bit confused

Hello,
I have £50. I want to learn about trading and I am willing to spend that to find out how everything works. I get shorting but don’t see how to do that in the app. I also bought a fair few stocks based on intuition and of course lost so I was looking for some advice on how to plan and more importantly how to make smart investments.
Thank you
Minki

Shorting is available only on CFD part

I would use the ISA/Invest and take long positions if you are new to trading.

You can always open a practice CFD account using imaginary money at first to try out shorting but I wouldn’t start out that way using your own cash.

Without wanting to patronise, you might want to step back and consider what you’re trying to achieve - and whether trading or investing or a combination of both would be appropriate.
Otherwise, before you know it, your portfolio will explode in your hands and you’ll be scrabbling around looking for cash to try to regain losses, adding zeros to that original £50.

3 Likes

I started off for a month or two using the demo platform and learnt loads. That’s a good place to start rather than real money.

First and foremost, we are all learning - so welcome.

Trading strategies will vary wildly, but considering the economic times, your best bet to make money will be a “buy and hold” approach, 1 month or longer.

Don’t worry if you are down one day and up the next. It happens. Just hold your nerve, which is sometimes easier said than done.

ETF’s (Exchange traded funds) hold a bundle of stocks - say the top 500 companies in the US, this is often a nice easy way for people to buy one share and get instant diversification. Checkout the stock symbol VUSA, to see an example of this.


Otherwise you can pick stocks, which you think will come good or benefit from a rising trend. This gets very complex really quick, but just think out a decision through and commit.
Example: You may think that considering the runup to the winter is approaching, albeit a little way off just yet - you could consider buying into a company that’s cheap now but will be in demand come the rough weather. You decide to pick AA Plc, which is one of the biggest recovery firms in the UK and hold it until next year. With luck on your side, you should be up 40%.


Trading isn’t a get rich quick scheme, as you may know.
The only way you make fast cash is by going massively leveraged, but with this can come massive losses.

If you ever want to chat message me direct - I may be slow to reply but I will :slight_smile:
Checkout what others are doing and see what they do.

Happy trading.

1 Like

Welcome to the club. First and foremost as mentioned above know that this is not a get rich quick scheme :grin:. Secondly there’s a whole bunch of information and advice out there about how to succeed, which can be a bit overwhelming. In order to narrow it down down and focus your energy on what’s best for you, you need to have a plan and SMART objectives. You have already started the process the best way in my opinion. The £50 is your tuition fee so it is a good investment even if you lost it all. Learning with real money will teach you a lot more than demo account and as long as you don’t risk too much money then you will be better served training in the real world. Even the best of the best investors still lose money sometimes so if you have lost some you’re in good company :blush: The difference between success and failure is having a plan that will minimise the losses and protect the wins.