Newbie looking at ISA stocks and Shares

Catplan

I’m not sure what you gain from investing £500 for a year on a platform, are you just doing one trade or numerous? It seems like your saying you are wanting to test the purchase of a fund / investment? (Apologies if not but that’s what I’m taking from your posts) I know when I was in your position I approached it differently. I already knew my risk profile from doing much of a similar thing the year before when combining various workplace pensions.

The approach I took was to select what I was going to invest in, I then found the cheapest platform to do that on. Since then, I’ve topped up and added to it, using the same platform, and on a different platform as it’s since been “upgraded” or moved… iWeb to SWSD, so it’s different now than when I started. It’s fee structure has also changed, so be aware what you do today might well be different in a years time, or at some stage on the investment period, although I’m sure none of us expect it to be the same in 2036 for example.

ApolloHubble

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81989128#Comment_81989128

I'm saying that I wish to understand how to use platforms by investing £500 this year. I do not intend to access in a year. This is about me understanding how to invest per se

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81991349#Comment_81991349

The point people are making is that the mechanics of how to deposit money with a platform and make a purchase are effectively trivial when compared with all the more significant and important aspects of investing, i.e. establishing your objectives, risk tolerance, strategy, etc, before choosing suitable investments and platforms.

It's obviously your prerogative to focus on a specific area where you feel you're lacking in knowledge or experience, but others are simply observing that there are far more consequential matters to address…

Catplan

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81991349#Comment_81991349

Would something like playtrade be helpful to you then? Or IG’s smart calculator but it’s been a while since I played with that. The bigger platforms also have FAQ’s that should help you.

ApolloHubble

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81978398#Comment_81978398

Thank you. I have now added two pies on Trading 212 (£100 each). I can already see I lost 50p then gained 20p. I have spent quite bit of time looking at all platforms (including Freetrade) but felt that Trading 212 was an easier platform.

seacaitch

As dunstonh mentioned, you should probably be investigating low-cost multi-asset funds (one or perhaps two), and a low-cost platform to purchase and hold them on. Your enemies will be behavioural: meddling and overreacting; this means you should be cautious when it comes to app-based platforms (vs. web-based), which can make it too easy to trade, and you should steer clear of anything resembling gamification which can also encourage activity, since your goal should be inactivity…

For the vast majority of people, building wealth through investing is a long-term compounding process, which means that your main "job" as an investor is to position for that longer term, keeping costs low, ignore the shorter term, and minimise portfolio activity. Much of the investment 'challenge' comes down to mastering your own emotions and behaviour so that you don't trip yourself up and derail the compounding process.

This is all easy to say, but can prove much more difficult in practice when your hard-earned is on the line; and more so when you're new to it and haven't yet built up the resilience (investment 'muscle') that comes from exposure to the ups & down of markets.

Investing is simple, although not always easy, albeit well within the capability of most people so long as they approach it sensibly. If you do that, and can avoid making large expensive mistakes, you should eventually generate far better returns over the long term than you ever would with cash deposits, so it is well worth starting the journey.