James' Story

Following broker and press tips - then doing research from the limited info and data on the Hargreaves Lansdown site where I do my buying and selling.

For a start there is so much more information available on the Stockopedia site. There are regular news updates, ratios and analysis, 6 years previous accounts and financial info, the StockRanks... Then there are the comments from the Stockopedia community - many of whom are clearly very knowledgeable. All this on top of fantastic write ups from Paul Scott and Jack Brumby, and brilliant tutorial videos from Ed Croft both on the site and on YouTube. I use all of the above in forming an opinion on a given company.

This has impacted my investment decisions and outcomes. I only started reading/researching and getting interested in the stock market last summer. I wish I'd started back in March 2020, but I'm glad I didn't start 3 months earlier! To start with I made basic mistakes, but Stockopedia has quickly taught me how to avoid these. My quality of life has definitely improved - I now sleep a lot more soundly!

For new investors there's nothing like 'skin in the game' to focus your attention but I wouldn't recommend going 'all in' too soon. I have read some books that have really helped me a lot - mostly through recommendations from Stockopedia's Ed Croft and Paul Scott. However I do think that in all cases these books will have more meaning and be more relevant if you have made some investments first.

If I had to give just one piece of advice it would be to join Stockopedia. I am not trying to blow smoke here - it is simply the truth. I was losing money, struggling to understand why and thinking investing was probably not for me. However once I had discovered the site, watched the tutorials, and learned how to make use of the information available I started to turn my fortunes around.

I religiously read everything that Paul, Jack and others write every day and always get something out of their insightful reports - even if I don't follow or want to buy the given company there's always something new to learn.