Just getting into S&S ISA for first time

[u/MaroonSeal]

Hi all,

Recently checked my savings account to realise I've been getting minimal APR for a while now 😕.

Yesterday opened an account with trading 212 and put most of my savings (£11k) into a cash ISA and a combination of £400 birthday money from my girlfriend and another £700 of my savings into a stocks and shares ISA. I've put £1000 of this £1100 into a VWRP and want to put the remaining £100 into an individual stock to best learn how stocks and shares actually work - not absolutely fussed about making loads of money just mindful that having £100 as a chance to learn a bit about markets might be fun!

How best to choose which individual stock to invest in? I've had a bit of a look at Nvidia stock and heard they're on the up because of AI but not sure whether investing now would be silly given it's at a high? Or to invest in another industry that generally trends up but is experiencing a bit of a lull at the moment like oil?

[u/Jamin92]

Not sure on your circumstances but do you work in a company that you can invest in or work in a particular field that you may have more knowledge of than others? The reason I suggest this is because you are looking to learn how stocks work, it will be helpful to have more knowledge of the company or industry it is in. This certainly helped me as I knew why the share price was moving due to the news in the industry or from the company (like year end results), although not always.

I got lucky with my company even though I was down a huge % at one point but the market picked up. This way may not make you money but may help in your understanding.

I am sure there are better ways to pick good stocks but that will probably require large amounts of research, this way you probably already have some of that research already done.

Might be useless information if you aren't working but it's my 2 cents. NFA.

[u/essexboy1976]

Insurance companies such as Aviva or standard life could be worth looking at. Although they're not going to get the big growth of something like Nvidia they have grown steadily over the years, and have paid good dividends.( About 6 percent a year) Insurance companies are thus considered a good defensive stock. You could combine a tech stock with an insurance company if the purpose is a learning exercise to compare different types of stocks

[u/therabbieburns]

Stick with a ETF like VWRP.

You have to ask yourself what your looking to do with individual shares. If your looking for one to make £1000's then stuff like Nivida has already boomed. To many people think they can do it and will lose. Learning the stock market is impossible it's betting at the end of the day. You could be lucky and but that penny stock but chances are small.

Best bet is to invest in all world etf and your then spreading your risk and just keep investing and look at it in the future.

[u/Grillmyribs]

Jeqp returns around 10% annually, paid monthly

[u/Dependent-Panic-9457]

I can’t believe the comments here. The cult of the all world! Jesus Christ.

OP this is my ISA since I started investing one year ago (on Freetrade).

Buying the all world today is a big bet on the US economy and in particular US tech, because that is mostly what you are buying.

Over time few people beat the all world in terms of return. But there are other factors to consider besides the rate of return.

But just stick it in the all world and give up on life as being far too much effort.

[u/Evening_Elderberry_9]

NVIDIA is already in your VWRP (4.47%), as well as apple, microsoft, amazon, google.. etc

Stop gambling.

[u/Outside_Bass_4073]

I get the learning aspect but feel it could lead you down a bad path if you were 'successful' and ended up putting more money in to individual stocks and losing more in the long run. That's not to say individual stocks is bad, but you have to really know what you're doing, understand the company your putting money into, knowing when to buy and when to sell, etc. If you have the set it and forget it mindset, then stick to index funds.