For stock picking I use IG, although I’ve heard interactive brokers is good too.
For fund picking I use Hargreaves.
imo, retail investors have gotten far, far too hung up on stock picking thanks to access via Robinhood making trading more accessible, and a decade long bull market allowing everyone to make money. If you’re going to buy and hold, I would really recommend just picking a few well managed mutual funds and dripping money into them over time.
I feel as though retail stock picking has gotten way ahead of itself. You hear about the massive wins, but the vast, vast majority would be better over the long term by just dropping money into an etf or mutual fund.
I completely agree.
One thing I've noticed is that the stock trading platforms and this weird Forex cult has been targeting the young generation of early 20 somethings, promising them huge riches without doing any real work. It's catnip to these kids and with the bull run having gone on for some time, most of them have no clue what it's like to be caught in a bear market and just watch your savings disappear rapidly. Gamer kids talking about their portfolios and cryptos.
I fear the worst for them. I have a golden rule which isn't based on much, that if something suddenly comes to my attention through a hype train. It's already too late to jump onboard... that goes for BTC too. The trend is that BTC starts on a rise, the news of this gains momentum which has people chattering about it on the internet and people outside of the loop start to hear. They jump onboard but by that point most of the increases are priced in, the original investors who have made good start taking profit and it falls down the other side trapping newcomers. I stay away from that scenario.
My intention here is to invest in companies which I think are genuinely great companies with solid futures who will grow over the years.
This is one of them...
Unity is the ultimate game development platform. Use Unity to build high-quality 3D and 2D games, deploy them across mobile, desktop, VR/AR, consoles or the Web, and connect with loyal and enthusiastic players and customers.
unity.com
NYSE: U
I had never heard of them till I got into VR then realised that EVERYONE developing for those platforms are using Unity to do it, the Quest has exploded the VR market and the demand will increase year on year. The stock price is trending down so I'll probably track this for a couple months till I hopefully get to between $50-100 per share and then buy and hold for a few years.
I'll add more to my portfolio as time goes on and I decide on companies I think have good futures. No penny stocks, day-trading or trying to catch pumps or spikes. Get myself some cryptos too.