Personal opinions about trading

⚖ Active trading
1

Hello Everyone,

Out of personal curiosity, I would like to ask a few questions, if you are willing to share your thoughts:

  1. why do you do trading?
  2. do you participate in the shareholder meetings for the stocks you buy?
  3. is there a valuable lesson you have learnt or have any regret, while trading?

For me, the answers would be:

  1. both for money (hopefully the value of the company will rise) and because of the idea of owning a part of a business
  2. I recently joined the trading activities so was not part of any meeting but listened/read some of these to see what they previously discussed and voted for. I will message the Investors Relations department and see how can one get involved in the meetings (when something is subjected to a vote for the type of shares that I own)
  3. hmm, being into this for one month, I think I regret some lost time and see it as a dangerous thing mainly for my mental health :slight_smile: “the fear of missing out” is sometimes taking over instead of just being more attentive to my money.

Thanks! :slight_smile:

2

Hi there.

(1) I don’t really trade. I mainly invest. Like you, I like the idea of owning part of a business. But mainly, I’m sick of seeing my cash in bank rising below inflation (and rates keep going down making it worse!) So I’m not looking to beat the market so much as beat inflation. That feels doable to me with investing.

(2) I don’t. I tend to read the news stories and reports of shareholder meetings of the companies I’m in or following (I own some BRK.B so that’s a good laugh if nothing else) but I’m not far enough into any company to go to their meetings.

(3) Too many to list!! Quite a few are to do with my own personal preferences, though. One of the best ones is to take my time scoping things out first. The more research I put in, the more confident I am if the market moves against me. When I’ve been impulsive or followed a pick from elsewhere, I’ve found it harder to hang on when the price has dropped.

Was that the kind of thing you were asking about?

2 Likes
3

Thank you very much for your input! Yes, whatever you felt like sharing publicly as answers for those questions was welcomed.
Good luck beating the inflation (and more :slight_smile: ) !

4

You’re very welcome. And good luck with your projects, too.

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5

1: I come from a very deprived area and I’m currently trying to break out of that negative cycle/pattern that keeps most people in the same situation. It’s hard going and I have did very well the lost pretty much everything but, one thing it has done is teach me valuable lessons!!

2: I have not to date but, it’s something this post has made me think about doing.

3: Absolutely!! Crypto trading I had banked up almost £200k and following a chat groups chat and false information online I stupidly went heavy on it and lost almost 90% of it overnight. Let’s just say my morning coffee went cold looking at the screen. Got caught out on a few investments also but again, education isn’t cheap and hopefully, my 30% strategy covers any potential “mishaps” in the future.

30% strategy is putting 30% of funds/gains etc into investments and leaving for at least 5 years.

6

I am 49 and realised that if I don’t sort my money out my retirement won’t be that rosey. The thought of working past 67 depresses me so I’m have invested quite recently 35k of my savings into long term investment. The trouble is I get the jitters when I see a downturn but resisted the urge to pull money out.
I’m going for the long term and also drip feeding ETF’s weekly

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7

This was a mistake I did all to often in crypto trading and, recently (Yesterday) on the uk100 :nauseated_face: lost 3 days profit in an hour with Fomo

The way I deal with it now is this, pick your end target. Look at the yearly charts rather than the now charts.

If you look at the year charts it’s calm sailing but if you look at the minute charts it’s very easy to get caught up in the moment and panic buy/sell.

Diversify and try not to look at them day to day

8

My views, + things I wish I learned earlier:

  1. Trading for long term growth / retirement.
    I am trying to seek the smallest risk for the maximum gain.
    I strictly trade ETF’s for the diversification and simplicity.
    ( SWDA / VUSA / VFEM / ISF / VMID / VJPN / VEUR / IUHC + REIT’s ( IWDP / IUKP / IPRP ) )
    Global and US having the largest segment of my portfolio, the others roughly 2 - 5 % each.

  2. No.

  3. I feel that not enough emphasis in general is placed on looking at your “risk”, the trend is only being worried about your “gain”.

Paul Tudor Jones said it best :

Where you want to be is always in control, never wishing, always trading, and always first and foremost protecting your ass. That’s why most people lose money as individual investors or traders because they’re not focusing on losing money. They need to focus on the money that they have at risk and how much capital is at risk in any single investment they have. If everyone spent 90 percent of their time on that, not 90 percent of the time on pie-in-the-sky ideas on how much money they’re going to make, then they will be incredibly successful investors.

That is why I have gone into ETF’s. I know full well that in aggregate my returns are going to be somewhat lower that individually picked stocks in a short time frame, but over the long term, factoring in the dividend returns and compounding effects I feel that my returns will outpace individual stock pickers.

John C Bogle advocated index funds, and threw caution to the wind toward ETF’s. His reasons are sound in my mind. If you plan on buying and selling ETF’s solely based on speculation, I think it is a fools game to get into. On the other hand if you choose to select well diverse ETF’s that are focused on markets you see growth, low cost fees and large fund sizes, held over the long term I feel is a no brainer to make money. Companies and economies have vested interests to improve and thrive, the long term effect of this capitalistic mindset means growth for the companies and growth in the share prices.

To quote John C Bogle:

“Don’t look for the needle in the haystack. Just buy the haystack!"

Every single money manager, fund manager and investor tries to beat the market index. It has become the generalised standard of measuring performance of a portfolio. If overtime results default back to the mean, or worse underperform, just cut out all the hassle and work and buy the index! For me this approach in my time of life is best.

Lastly, always remember that your money is precisely that … yours … so every choice made should come with sound reasoning and be tailored to your needs. Don’t impulse buy. Always remember, if anyone says they have a proven strategy, or x/y/z approach to making money in the markets, is talking complete rubbish. Even the best can’t win them all.

If you do go ahead with choosing individual stocks, keep this in mind:
The whole market is gambling and odds! Anyone saying otherwise is lying.
You stack the odds in your favor (good market segment, good capital allocation, good risk management, along with good luck and you make money.) You could lose 90% of your trades and still be profitable providing your risk management is spot on and you let your winners run, keeping a sensible trailing stop near enough in place once in profit.
Repeat this, just like the casinos run their businesses and retire on your own island.
Well, that’s the idea anyway :smiley:

My views are my own, and many may disagree.
But I encourage everyone to read what others have to say and go with what makes sense to you.

9
  1. Investing/owning stocks, mainly so that I can make proper use of the money I have/earn instead of having the money sitting in the bank doing/earning nothing. (will still keep 30% max in the bank, just incase)

Trading, mainly to fund my invest/ISA accounts instead of using my own salary. (but will need to beat that 76% failure rate for it to succeed - ongoing)

  1. No

  2. £1500 Profit in 7 Days Investing Using Trading 212 | Simple Strategy Explained

I guess the main goal atm for me is to manage to cap my yearly ISA allowance just from trading/CFDs and maybe secondary incomes from small work projects I do

10

Nice to read these thoughts and examples of people’s behaviour.

Thank you.

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11

I personally read news, read quarterly reports. Im am eager to hear about shareholder meetings but don’t attent.

I create my own concencous of buy, sell hold ratings and create alerts so easier to manage.

I aim to have a very spread portfolio of about 30 companies in different industries ( Also reits). I have £500 in 10 companies as it stands working on my next depositing £100 weekly.

12

  1. I have spare cash and there is nowhere to put it these days. I enjoy the challenge of pitting my research against the market although I know in the end you just have to be lucky sometimes.

  2. No but I keep abreast of all news in relation to my holdings

  3. If you’ve done your research, dont panic when the rest of the market panics. If one of your investments drops, invest incrementally on the way down. Don’t invest on sentiment alone, make sure fundamentals are sound!

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13

Spare cash sitting in the bank not doing anything. When Covid hit, I started thinking about stocks that would go up but was too afraid to invest. When they all went up, I regretted not trying it. Also, I work in academia and despite having a PhD, my income won’ t grow. I love my work but need to build a future for my son. I have been incredibly lucky with the gains I have made - my annual salary in a month from 10k initial investment - bonkers I know. I always take profits (regret is to take profits too late) and only reinvest 10k. Currently, only investing in 2 companies max as the stocks are very volatile. Only invested in US penny stocks.

Trading 212 has been absolutely fantastic - it was glitchy with delayed executions but looks like all is well now.

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14

Well, at least it’s sitting safe - less chances to get a bankrupt bank than to have the idea of a company’s value (stock) fall, if you do stock buying and not other stuff.

I started with a more "no-risk’ approach and bought the more expensive stock which had a good history, but indeed, it feels like there is no room for movement so had some money “stuck” with little to no return :slight_smile: but I am learning and am trying to sell now those big guys and focus on some volatile cheaper ones. Unfortunately, like you said, trading212 had some performance issues and as well they lack a lot of good quality stock.

Congrats for the gains! and best of luck to come!