My S&S diary - investing from February 2026

aroominyork

@aroominyork agree with point 1 and 2 but not sure if these two would deduce to the conclusion in the conjunctive adverb.

I think you're saying the two cannot be true together. If so, why not?

InvesterJones

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82140419#Comment_82140419

Are you sure you're not just seeing confirmation bias? i.e. you think there ought to be more volatility due to the war so you start seeing evidence for it, even if factually there isn't much?

The comments you're reading about favourite stocks going up and down so much don't sound like they are coming from investors.

As for all time high valuations.. where are you getting that from? Forward P/E of the S&P500 is below the 5-year average, and currently around the 10-year average.

Point is, are you actually checking the data, or are you taking rumour mill as fact?

And even if your concerns were true and therefore conditions are tricky.. why does that make you think that's the best time to start the most risky form of trading via individual stocks/crypto?

LL_USS

@aroominyork and @InvesterJones thanks I'll get back to you.

@HedgehogRulez and @eskbanker - No, you're right, the ETFs do not go up and down much - I can see that now. It's just the rotations of invidual shares/ industried within the ETFs. That's why I am going to DCA back into ETFs soon after this roller-coaster (going into the storm without much of the need for it - but it's good learning curve).

21 Sep:

I believe in the future of crypto so I have been investing in it. But when it goes up so much today even after the failure of clarity votes and FED interest rate hike, it's better just to take the profit. Having sold a lot more Bitcoin ib1t, Bitmine (ETH proxy) and Sol strategies (Solana proxy) as the US market opens today (on T212)
Selling the last of itel and google on Dodl Lifetime ISA too.

LL_USS

4 October 2026

Been incredibly busy at the start of the term, with teaching and admin, as well as finishing up some papers and a running a research project.

Most funds in Dodl lifetime ISAs still in cash (with even deeper negative from Nike) and some small shares in T212 S&S ISA. Still have not looked into the schedule to drip back into World Index for Lifetime ISAs.

masonic

Being busy is perhaps your portfolio's best opportunity to get to work for you unimpeded. Please find a few minutes to set and forget that drip feed.

LL_USS

@masonic yes yes yes. I've been so busy with uni work that I have not even had a chance to check what's happening on the stock market for the last few weeks since students came back (am coming online now thinking my thread may be closed if inactive for a while). I only had a chance to set up a two year fixed cash ISA with Shawbrook (about 5% interest) last week and deposit 12K from saving and the cash from selling most of my investments outside Lifetime ISAs.

Almost 7K profit crystalised across investment accounts during the 8 months learning the process whilst unfortunately diverting from my original plan - so it's lucky still. Investable accounts are still mostly in cash so time to drip in WI then (even though WI is still so expensive - I like a good deal but the time I set up to wait for it has run out 😅).

ISA allowance now used up for this fiscal year (12K cash ISA, 4K allowance in S&S ISA now and 4K already paid in S&S Lifetime ISA from April). As I have the S&S lifetime ISA with enough money I want to put into investment, I am still thinking whether I can reduce my flexible S&S ISA down even more by April 2027 to add to cash saving - to do so I'd need to check for a flexible account, if I put in, say 8K, then say profit added 2K, then:
- can I take out 4K to leave the allowance used as 4K in this account (plus 2K profit = 6K to take over to the next financial year).
- or can I even take all 8K principal out and leave only the 2K profit there?
- or can I even take out all (8K principal +2K profit =) 10K? 😂
- or because the initial amount i put in was 8K that means I have to make sure the original 8K has to be in the account by Apr 2027 (plus the profit)? Who can police this if across all my ISAs I still only use the 20K allowance?
Just hypothetical - I am curious. @eskbanker you have helped forum members a lot with flexible accounts - what do you think?

eskbanker

ISA allowance now used up for this fiscal year (12K cash ISA, 4K allowance in S&S ISA now and 4K already paid in S&S Lifetime ISA from April). As I have the S&S lifetime ISA with enough money I want to put into investment, I am still thinking whether I can reduce my flexible S&S ISA down even more by April 2027 to add to cash saving - to do so I'd need to check for a flexible account, if I put in, say 8K, then say profit added 2K, then:
- can I take out 4K to leave the allowance used as 4K in this account (plus 2K profit = 6K to take over to the next financial year).
- or can I even take all 8K principal out and leave only the 2K profit there?
- or can I even take out all (8K principal +2K profit =) 10K? 😂
- or because the initial amount i put in was 8K that means I have to make sure the original 8K has to be in the account by Apr 2027 (plus the profit)? Who can police this if across all my ISAs I still only use the 20K allowance?
Just hypothetical - I am curious. @eskbanker you have helped forum members a lot with flexible accounts - what do you think?

I'm confused about where the £8K comes from, if you're talking about moving money from a S&S ISA with £4K of current year money in it - does this have a different £4K of previous year money in it too?

If you withdraw any prior year money from a flexible ISA, then it can only be replaced in the same ISA, and the same applies to any profit/growth obtained from current year money, so if you're looking to benefit from flexibility provisions to move money from S&S to cash ISA (having fully used current year allowance) then you can only do this with the actual current year subscription.

Alternatively, use the ISA transfer process, which allows any amount to be moved from one ISA to another, without reference to annual allowances (except for LISAs)…

Policing of net subscriptions across all ISAs is only done by HMRC after the end of the tax year, although the customer should keep tabs during it!

LL_USS

@eskbanker quick answer is I did not have an S&S ISA before - this is the first time. And it's a flexible S&S ISA with Trading 212. So the 8K is what is put in this year fresh, from my normal cash saving.

Apr 2026 was the first time i transferred my cash Lifetime ISA to S&S lifetime ISA too. Never invested before. Hence all the attempt to learn.

What I ask is what would happen towards the end of this financial year moving to Apr 6 next year.

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82170426#Comment_82170426

I'm still struggling to reconcile that with your statement that "ISA allowance now used up for this fiscal year (12K cash ISA, 4K allowance in S&S ISA now and 4K already paid in S&S Lifetime ISA from April)" - how did this £4K in the S&S ISA become £8K (or is it the other way round perhaps)?

LL_USS

@eskbanker sorry for not having been able to be clear.

My question is about how to deal with T212 flexible S&S ISA account to the new fiscal year (starting 6 Apr 2027).

I have used up my ISA allowance for this current year. 4K paid into Lifetime ISA. 12K paid into a fixed rate ISA. So I should only have 20-4-12=4k leftover in S&S ISA. The issue is I am currently holding 8K in my T212 flexible S&S ISA, keeping all of which will carry me over the 20K allowance for this year.

So I am to reduce my flexible S&S ISA to 4K to keep me within the 20K allowance. I was just wondering if it's still okay in the eye of HMRC that I used to have 8K in this flexible S&S ISA account but I only keep 4K at the end of the year (or even less, for e.g. moving even more money from this flex account to my cash ISA).

I hope this is a bit clearer?