David's Story

I’m not new to investing but I am new to investing in individual stocks. Before Stockopedia, I only invested in collective investments (OEIC’s, unit trusts, investment trusts and ETFs) for the majority of my investments through a SIPP. If I can borrow a racing analogy, this means I got to choose the stables but not the horses.

I decided I would like to try a more hands on micro strategy by selecting individual shares myself. This way I can gradually build up my own portfolio and keep the management fee for myself. To help me to this, I took a trial with Stockopedia and went on to subscribe. I decided to start small and go slowly and as my confidence, appetite and knowledge grows so does my desire to do more.

Yes it has. For a start I’m diversifying away from collective investments, so it’s a new strategy for me. I’m enjoying the process of learning how to use your platform and increasing my technical knowledge. With all the tools, screens, data, content, and opinion, I feel I’ve got all the necessary ingredients in one place, I can make informed choices, minimise risk, and sort out the wheat from the chaff. I’ve also made the decision to raise cash from my other investments in order to be able to invest more in individual shares.

I’m delighted with my returns, especially given the relatively short time I’ve been a subscriber. Using Stockopedia has become a hobby. I actually enjoy it. Rewarding in the financial sense and also rewarding to learn new skills and increase my knowledge.

For new investors and novices, I would strongly urge you to get familiar with Stockopedia. Get used to the platform, what things mean, where things are. Use the guru screens and stock rankings. Take your time, go steadily, work methodically until you’ve got a grasp. Then build your own virtual portfolio and track it over a week or a month, have a play with it. When that is done, you should be ready to go for real.