Not sure how much programming this would involve but instead of giving the person in practice 55,000 to play with, I think as a few other have said to use it as though it was your own money, what i mean is money you actually have.
could it be possible to let the person add money to their account ad hoc as though they were really investing, because it is too easy to buy shares when you have 55,000.
This would give someone new to T212 to go in the real money side thinking it is easy, they may see they have a decent amount in their portfolio when really they have invested far more than they could really afford in real life.
also change the icon and opening page colour, it looks the same at the real money version and you could get the 2 mixed up very easily, I nearly did once then I realised before I bought some shares.
For me the practice account just helps you say “I told you so” unless you are running investments side by side to reduce the risk ie day trading there are no benefits.
The only thing it does do is allow you to work the trading 212 system out and learn how to use each function.
The leverage massages your ego on cfd modes and helps you make uneducated mistakes in the real money account.
I use it to watch list stocks that I don’t want in my real money account so it doesn’t overload the main account
As lenos said, best use case is to have it as a personal stock screener running alongside your real accounts.
Sometimes useful to pop potential hopefuls on the practice account with alerts set up, to ping you when they get to cheap levels etc, rather than overload your main live account
Yes I use the practice to see how stocks go as if I had bought them with my own money, sometimes I have done better in practice than in real money, in fact it was doing well that made me decide to go real lol.
I practiced for about 10 days then went live, I altered my strategy a few times as well, but I wasn’t making very much because I wasn’t buying enough shares.
I’m 72 and on limited income so I was only buying a couple here and there, in the end I have decided to give up,
I liked doing it and found it interesting but as for making money it isn’t for the likes of me.
If you view it every day and are worried about the money then your right it becomes a bit nail biting, but rather than shut the door after only a few weeks why not leave a small amount in stocks your comfortable with and use the practice account to gain the market experience?
I’ve used t212 on and off for a while and I’m still none the wiser but your fear towards the risk level will change as your buys become more educated and you don’t make the shouldn’t have sold that mistake that comes with the constant watching and fear from it.
Also what people forget is if you have stocks on your practice account and you’ve watched them bounce for a month you can buy on your real account at a better time because of your awareness of the stock price.
I’ve got to be honest though 10 days is no indication of profitability, I can appreciate your not going to spend years looking at it but the more you look without buying the better it will be.
On the contrary looking all the time once you’ve bought can be counter productive, here I would suggest a pie set up buy what you know and forget about it then set up a watch list for your next buy and concentrate solely on those until your ready.
It also doesn’t matter how much you put in its always relative to you
HA HA, I know mate, I’ve bought stocks and seen them rise and my portfolio is in the green but not by much, then seen a couple take a dive and then I’m in the red, sometimes sold at a loss then saw them rise again after I sold doh!
Some people have told me to look at this stock and that stock, then another comes on and says different, do it this way etc.
At my age though and buying small amounts is a waste of time, I’m not going to make a lot of money compared to what I’m investing, someone did tell me that so I decided to take their advice and give up.
Thats simply not true! Some penny stocks make people millionaires!
Keep going, just concentrate on stocks you know and trust yourself and then use the pie to add some stocks you perhaps don’t know so well that may have a chance like the tech companies at the moment. Potentially a great opportunity for everyone right now
Theres no one horse race in stocks and shares thats what we all forget, the guy at the pub with a dead cert doesn’t apply here we just have to try as much as possible to make an educated guess but in the end thats all it is a guess.
What’s the alternative spending the money or leaving it in a no interest account? Even if you put it in a tracker fund you will by far exceed inflation
I made a post a while ago where I saw a video of a guy that said all you need is 2 shares one is a tracker and the other a bond and leave them to grow, I looked but it is knowing which ones, I picked a couple but one wasn’t too bad the other just went downhill, then the one that seemed OK also started to drop, I got rid of them in the end.
Sit back relax and watch, thats the learning process.
If you want a tracker fund view the main ones not the up and coming, the American trackers will be the best short term I would have thought but do your own research.
No market tracker ever stays down thats impossible, you’ve sold on impulse and thats why its best to study, by as low as you can and then forget it and move on to the next thing. If you set it to reinvest the dividends you should see good growth.
In my Practice at the moment I have only 2 stocks, 1 share in one and 2 shares in the other.
CNC ÂŁ106.53
BNTX ÂŁ83.65
Invested ÂŁ182.70
Return +ÂŁ7.40 (Green)
That is in my practice, so in real life I wouldn’t buy any more till next month because i couldn’t afford it, so is that worth it or not?
It always worth it, not only is it like a savings account but there’s potential to increase and its something good to do. That’s how I see it.
It feels like your turning up to book club for the first day but unfortunately the subject is philosophy or similar in the end though you will understand more and you will make better trades.
Pennies make pounds pounds make hundreds and hundreds make thousands.
Bet you wished you’d invested in your 20’s? Same applies now
I’m not suggesting we use hindsight here I’ve had 25 working years to invest and always found a reason not to, all I’m saying is generally if you invest in a diverse range of stocks time will have its effect on the price.
With that you might get lucky and pick a heavy hitter!
Have you tried using the pie function yet? You could research some companies make a pie and then set your account to auto fund an amount your happy with each month and allocate it to your chosen pies, this would take the hands on side of it away?
You can then concentrate more on the next pie without your current pies missing its opportunity to grow.
Hi Lee,
Funny you said that I scrubbed my ordinary investments in the practice and tried creating a pie, first time I’ve done one.
Everything almost went as planned but one thing seems to be bugging it, I got 5 stocks and put them in the pie, but one of them hasn’t yet been bought so it is pending.
It isn’t listed in the pie but it is locked in the pie and I can’t take it out, is is still pending I may have to start it over again unless it rights its self soon.
If I click on it it says this is a pie order you can not manage it manually.