Questions from a beginner

🤝 Help
1

Hi all,

Thank you in advance for any help, I’m relatively new to this so am seeking advice before switching to real money.

First of all on a demo account am I eligible to receive dividends as practice money? I bought a certain dividend paying stock to test the process of being paid a dividend by trading 212, but despite purchasing well before the ex-dividend date I haven’t received a notification of payment and haven’t been paid into my free funds, one week on from the payment date.
Where can you usually find any information of a dividend being paid to you?

Secondly, I understand that you do not actually own shares that you buy and trading 212 own them on your behalf.
This to me is a little scary, as I’m unsure as to whether or not I’m in full control of my assets. I read a rather disgruntled review saying trading 212 sold shares from a chaps ISA invest account without his consent leaving him with a huge loss , and their answer to him when he questioned this was that they own them so they have the right to sell without his consent, is this true? Surely this can’t be true but if they technically own them then perhaps they can.

Again thank you for any advice

2

Hi there,

Welcome :slight_smile:

No. See Are corporate actions performed on DEMO accounts? – Trading 212

Your shares are hold in a custody account at Interactive Brokers. See Do I own my shares? – Trading 212

2 Likes
3

You can’t receive dividends unless you are not the owner of the shares. I think even demo dividends would be pointless to implement.
Also, you do own the shares you buy from T 212 even though they are held by T212 on your behalf. In other words, you are the bebeficiary of the shares that T212 hold in your name. You are also right that in certain circumstances T212 may have to sell those shares for regulatory reasons, but the proceeds of such transaction are credited to you. For example, last year most of us held positions in Nio and Luckin coffee in our ISA. Luckin was de listed from the nasdaq and Nio was deemed unsuitable to be in an ISA as per HMRC regulations. So T212 had to sell those stocks to ensure regulatory compliance there is not a lot you can do in this case as per the terms and conditions.