EToro, Trading & Criminal Records

seacaitch

The_Astronaut wrote: »

I was recommended the platform independently by a few different people who I trust.

You may well trust someone to be an honest individual, but that's different to trusting someone's judgement, where they may not have sufficient expertise, experience, nous, etc to make a good call.

Financial matters can often trip up otherwise sensible-sounding people and expose them as having less sound judgement than you might have anticipated. It's why places like this, which allow you to cast your net wider than just your own acquaintances can be valuable, so long as you use the feedback appropriately.

The_Astronaut

seems to me that you could point eToro at the Police Scotland quote

I did highlight this quote to them and questioned if this was a legal request...may or may not have influenced their decision to drop the request.

You may well trust someone to be an honest individual, but that's different to trusting someone's judgement, where they may not have sufficient expertise, experience, nous, etc to make a good call.

That's true, but like I say the ratings on google play and it's popularity played a factor. They'd used it and had a positive experience. If you search for eToro you a full spectrum of ratings and reviews. Some claiming it to be the best and largest social trading platform out there. Investopedia gives it a middling score overall but high in terms of Trust. Trustpilot giving it dismal reviews. So in that landscape, personal recommendations can mean a lot, albeit as you point out correctly not necessarily the most informed.

I'm primarily interested in crypto currency. I've heard the best and safest way to do that is to avoid intermediaries altogether and store the underlying currency yourself, albeit within a digital wallet whose code is as far from the internet as possible. Going to do much deeper homework this time. Any thoughts on this would be great.

Appreciate everyone input on this to date - thank you.

AnotherJoe

The_Astronaut wrote: »

I'm primarily interested in crypto currency. I've heard the best and safest way to do that is to avoid intermediaries altogether and store the underlying currency yourself, albeit within a digital wallet whose code is as far from the internet as possible. Going to do much deeper homework this time. Any thoughts on this would be great.
.

If its bitcoin, there are trackers which are just normal funds (or ITs, ETFs whatever, not sure of which type) , which will remove all the chances of fraud or loss against your holdings.

Yes you can put your bitcoins onto a physical device you can unplug but you still have the issue of loss/failure of those, or loss of those codes to access them.

seacaitch

The_Astronaut wrote: »

That's true, but like I say the ratings on google play and it's popularity played a factor. They'd used it and had a positive experience. If you search for eToro you a full spectrum of ratings and reviews. Some claiming it to be the best and largest social trading platform out there. Investopedia gives it a middling score overall but high in terms of Trust. Trustpilot giving it dismal reviews.

You may as well be asking your local ice cream man about advanced intercropping strategies.

The_Astronaut wrote: »

So in that landscape, personal recommendations can mean a lot, albeit as you point out correctly not necessarily the most informed.

Nope. Personal recommendation from someone who has no useful domain knowledge or expertise with which to make a judgement is worse than useless, as it may cause you to ascribe unjustified value to their input and consequently have far greater confidence in your decision making than is warranted - precisely as has happened here.

The_Astronaut

You may as well be asking your local ice cream man about advanced intercropping strategies....Nope. Personal recommendation from someone who has no useful domain knowledge or expertise with which to make a judgement is worse than useless, as it may cause you to ascribe unjustified value to their input and consequently have far greater confidence in your decision making than is warranted - precisely as has happened here.

This is a little overzealous. And not entirely correct. If you know someone personally you're in a much better position to understand their point of view, their motives, their character. Are they usually reckless? Are they sensible? Are the biased? And it depends how you define 'useful domain knowledge'. They had first hand experience which counts for something. So it's a bit strong to equate that with irrelevance. I know a number of relatives who have put faith in charming, domain savvy financial advisers with appalling results.

You were suggesting the sensible thing to have done would be to use a forum like this one we're in and cast a wide net, with the caveat of using feedback appropriately... but then... with an array of feedback from anonymous strangers, how would you decide who actually has robust knowledge? Who is correct? Who's trolling? Who is truly independent? The person with the most convincing case could in-fact be an ice cream vendor.

I don't entirely disagree - you shouldn't rely on a small sample of individuals - wider homework is key.

seacaitch

The_Astronaut wrote: »

This is a little overzealous. And not entirely correct. If you know someone personally you're in a much better position to understand their point of view, their motives, their character. Are they usually reckless? Are they sensible? Are the biased? And it depends how you define 'useful domain knowledge'. They had first hand experience which counts for something.

A disagreement on the Internet! Now there's a first....

We're not dealing with the general case but the specific case where your friends' counsel was to recommend eToro, which "I know" to have be poor advice. Whether you accept or agree with that view is up to you of course; we can disagree on these things!

The_Astronaut wrote: »

I know a number of relatives who have put faith in charming, domain savvy financial advisers with appalling results.

Interesting. Care to expand on that?

eg. What type of financial adviser were they? What type of advice was given? And what/why were the appalling results?

Fintech_spudling

Unless they're well versed in the trading milieu, I don't think friends' opinions hold much water here. You'd be as well asking for homebrewing advice from your mortgage advisor!

boomsmitty

Yep, it's legit.

If you don't provide the documentation your positions will be sold automatically.

Fintech_spudling

Sounds like straight up cuckoldry to me!

The_Astronaut

seacaitch wrote: »

A disagreement on the Internet! Now there's a first....

We're not dealing with the general case but the specific case where your friends' counsel was to recommend eToro, which "I know" to have be poor advice. Whether you accept or agree with that view is up to you of course; we can disagree on these things!

Interesting. Care to expand on that?

eg. What type of financial adviser were they? What type of advice was given? And what/why were the appalling results?

Well I don’t know, that sounds like backtracking to me. As I understood your point was a general one: If you listen to your friends the rational bit of your brain fizzles out, your bias kicks in and before you know it you’re in the financial skip, as I am right now.

Happy to elaborate on those - three examples:

Me Uncle Dereck, who worked at a metal forge, sought the financial advice of the bookkeeper who manages the trolley with the payslips. However, he advised Simon to put his money into this protein yoghurt franchise. None of the other lads would touch the stuff and it’s still in his garage to this day.

Secondly, my cousins friend used a financial advisor in Anstruther. Who, for commission, invested his savings in a seemingly lucrative breed of Aberdeen Angus Cattle. It included a free bag of feed for the kids. Apparently… the livestock all had to be put down and he didn’t even get the feed. But I’m informed the fellow was definitely a real financial advisor who specialised in agriculture because he had a cracking watch and a little bit of manure on his shoe.

Lastly, the worst case, Maureen an old neighbour, was contacted by the financial team at her local bank and told to move all her savings to The Bank of The Western Union, which subsequently folded and she lost everything.

Again domain savvy financial advisors at the core of each case.

I don’t know about you, but I have a three strikes and you’re out policy which is why I believe sociable, socialist investment platforms are the only way for us to escape these capitalist predators.