Investment ISA (Barclays) vs eToro

a1234555

Hello, so after 18 months in the job having graduated my 2 year fixed term ISA is coming to an end. I am hoping to put 2/3 back into a fixed term ISA (1 year only because rates should go up) with NS&I (1.5%), and invest the other 1/3.

Etoro has some deposit and cumpolsury conversion to USD fees as well as a $25 withdrawal and conversion back to GBP fees [Edit: also spread fees]. As far as I understand it, Investment ISA some tax free investment which probably shouldn't concern me as I will be under the CGT threshold.

Etoro apparently has FSCS protection up to £50k but I am currently in touch with them to confirm this is true. I am somewhat attracted by their copy funds and copy people functions.

Any advice, including not doing either and taking a different route (e.g. a different trading platform) would be awesome!

dunstonh

Etoro apparently has FSCS protection up to £50k but I am currently in touch with them to confirm this is true. I am somewhat attracted by their copy funds and copy people functions.

Etoro may but remember that direct assets (which is the type you are more likely to be buying when you use trading platforms) do not have FSCS protection.

I am somewhat attracted by their copy funds and copy people functions.

also known as blind leading the blind

a1234555

Thanks for your reply, I am pretty new to this stuff. What type of stuff does FSCS protect then?

I am definitely more interested in copy funds rather than copy people. I work full time and doing self employed stuff on the side (music teaching) so don't have any time to trade myself and want to be in it for the long run or have a trader do the work (as long as it doesn't cost much). Some of these traders on eToro have had pretty good runs according to their stats and it's tempting to allocate some fraction of my eToro investment to them but I think the majority would go into copy funds.

Alexland

In any market there will always be active investors who have had good runs the problem is there is a very low probability of them being top of the tables in future. Next time there will be someone else at the top of the table you wished you backed. It's like always turning up to the party when it's finished and people are already going home.

Either way short term trading is not investment and more aligned to gambling and unlikely to deliver sustained long term returns.

If you are new to this you would be much more likely to get a good return on your money by sticking to a well regarded mostly passive investment fund with low fees such as a Vanguard LifeStrategy fund in a Vanguard Investor ISA.

https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/what-we-offer/life-strategy-products
https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/investing-explained/stocks-shares-isa

Or if you want to go active at least go with someone who has a 25+ year track history of out performance such as Orbis who are offering a free £100 at the moment.

https://www.orbis.com/uk/individual/isas/stocks-shares-isa

Alex.