Mark's Story

In the days before Stockopedia things were quite slow and cumbersome. I used an enormous tome called Company REFS which reflected Jim Slater's Zulu Principle, and it was fairly slow to identify satisfactory stocks. Indeed, I probably never managed to extract the best shares from it! I was an avid reader of investing magazines, trying to isolate ideas to be researched in further. Company REFS then offered a CD version which sped up the process a bit but didn’t really quite hit the mark. I then came across Stockopedia at an investment fair and was stunned by it. It opened up a whole new set of opportunities and allowed me to easily filter the shares that I wanted to look at. It has developed significantly over the years and now offers features like the StockRanks. Being able to see your portfolio breakdown in graphical form is really useful in identifying any stock where the momentum is faltering, at a glance.

I started investing with a very small amount of capital and was really stretching to afford Stockopedia in the first few years - but it was worth persevering and helped me immensely in identifying problems with my investment strategy.

Over time my success rate has improved. I now hold several portfolios for my wife and I, and within ISAs they are accumulating nicely in a tax-efficient manner. I can now sleep well having a decent amount of capital behind me.

There are many great investment books and you need to do the work to understand and absorb some of them. Some are more accessible, so start with them - I enjoyed the Zulu Principle and Jim Slater's subsequent books. The Naked Trader provided some useful insights into the way the markets work and techniques for optimising your chances of short-term gains. I also rated “How to Pick Quality Shares” by Phil Oakley.