Trading platforms

[thegingerone]

Aloha, for some time now i've been a little fed up at work. Nothing serious but no longer stimulating or exciting. I've been looking at Etoro, Trading 212, etc to dabble in stocks/shares but as a novice i'm a little unsure on things. Goals?, build a portfolio over say 15 years, not fussed about occasional loss, could start say £5k. Don't really need income but, as we all would, I'd like a lump for later. Hypothetically, if one was new to this environmnent and was willing to learn and not baulk at occasional bombshells, how and where would he look. Also wouldn't rule out a managing agent (of sorts, if they exist?)

Stay safe,

B

[xeny]

For a comparison of brokers see:

https://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-b...

If you're thinking of building a portfolio from scratch, https://monevator.com/freetrade-how-to-build-your-... may be useful reading. It's written in the context of freetrade, but is broadly applicable.

[Riggadig]

I started out in March when the market was very low, initially started on Trading212, then started to use Hargreaves Lansdown and now Freetrade as well. They all have their pros and cons, the main thing for me is low fees as you need to be doing large trades with good upside potential to make Hargreaves Lansdown fees worthwhile £11.95 to buy / sell. Thus there is no point using them for small bets £100-200 for example.

Just a heads up more than anything, it gets time consuming VERY quickly! Before you know it you are reading message boards, news articles, Twitter feeds and watching your portfolio all day and all evening. If that doesn't appeal to you, a fund might be a better idea.

Trading212 - App & Website and both are decent, easy to use
Hargreaves Lansdown - App & Website both are also easy to use
Freetrade - App only, easy to use

[anonymous-user]

A couple of my friends say Plus500 is very good as well.

I've got the Plus500 app and also use the desktop version and find it very good, but I only use it for fun in 'Demo Mode' so can't comment on fees etc.

[thegingerone]

Thanks for the input everyone, much appreciated.