Hi and welcome! I started looking into this topic myself at the end of November 2024. Before that, I was only invested in building society savings, call money, etc. A big, interesting world has opened up for me and I hope you enjoy the process just as much!
As I said, I am very new and not (yet) really experienced. Furthermore, I cannot give you any investment advice, so the following topic is not one. You are responsible for yourself.
However, I also want to be honest: I'm mainly writing to you because I was in the same places as you at the beginning and I want to explicitly warn you about this. So here are my learnings:
1. never rely on small "penny stocks". Atos and Canadian "companies" in particular are deliberately hyped in social media (Reddit) to take money out of your pocket. You can of course gamble consciously - but be aware that you can lose with incalculable risk. In any case, I would advise you to say goodbye to the idea of making a quick profit with something like this.
2 The same applies to crypto. Completely incalculable. I hold BTC and HBAR myself - both in the knowledge that the amount could halve overnight. Whether you want to put yourself through that with your starting position is up to you.
3. the aim should not be to greedily and quickly achieve a 1000% return. In my opinion, the probability of actually achieving this is close to zero. Make friends with the idea that we have no idea what will really happen on the market tomorrow. At best, you can "gamble" with derivatives at some point - in the knowledge that this is exactly what will happen.
4. now a positive tip: think about exponential growth. A return of 5% per month seems small at first. But do it over 30 years and the profit is enormous. That should be your goal.
5. next year I will try to achieve this with as little risk as possible. I find Meb Faber's GTAA approach interesting. But I'm not an expert on this - I just find the concept promising. You can find it here: https://download.ssrn.com/14/03/03/ssrn_id2403936_code649342.pdf?response-content-disposition=inline&X-Amz-Security-Token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEO3%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2FwEaCXVzLWVhc3QtMSJGMEQCIDJ5Y9YoTuxyKYKz2lEMYvuE8u66rEQrIuTtAMVvNQL1AiAWl8ppClBvuCFuFxZ0PnCOGYqYJQvj9QgUJmKmP%2B8YlirHBQjG%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F8BEAQaDDMwODQ3NTMwMTI1NyIMUHH9Q0C4Bunz8j5aKpsFyjmPaU9gJaO1N7dRBccnAomDgimSPIBUjvPQtSzJVmjVzSJf9ZXnonB31%2Bqvs000EPXchkecUHJ4nKwqxzHJNDl5xqOTtwtgANDNTThaP0ties8%2Fn5CcGt5eEiRNGaGDOsDPE3OuaqovY4dYC5C6s4vd3iDhdhujUSnNEi3bkHLqFGUaIbWI6ab8LKlDX1W7h1CFHai4FH%2F6nJzb%2B7l2NfQrVFTwVK%2BX%2FH2oXcEpnbSF7nibKNG1nxKV1orYpQKOJVgWQFUlvfkjHegFu4GSTNyyYTIdVv2GGs%2FDh29iLFSTFUq%2F0QDN57RjvE2x%2FR9J5M0V3EIzUS0LhxXDTmjuUSiaHetMWaCbDDvp6xR5IXZngDSWl3r1CLNQ0Nu0G1la5NmNQremS8dIIaOlg8L0Yj3mAJE732X4cEOW2S%2BHUx9xH8VpFiQQKmZ6DVzq%2FFz4IuEbI7qkz8LfdXTRYDT3LweA%2BbwnkqBF4RpsVZZkuOLLsEJRi0e%2FX2xZC2Yle%2BKN9CeaaHC865HRHXLavIYwUjM5B1RQ6Il1KzYX1dswJsQlRCaJp9UcMLVd5GmLSfXeoPnhdhD8P%2BxzgAWIB01ZxfVwAJJlSP
All the best!
Matthias
As I said, I am very new and not (yet) really experienced. Furthermore, I cannot give you any investment advice, so the following topic is not one. You are responsible for yourself.
However, I also want to be honest: I'm mainly writing to you because I was in the same places as you at the beginning and I want to explicitly warn you about this. So here are my learnings:
1. never rely on small "penny stocks". Atos and Canadian "companies" in particular are deliberately hyped in social media (Reddit) to take money out of your pocket. You can of course gamble consciously - but be aware that you can lose with incalculable risk. In any case, I would advise you to say goodbye to the idea of making a quick profit with something like this.
2 The same applies to crypto. Completely incalculable. I hold BTC and HBAR myself - both in the knowledge that the amount could halve overnight. Whether you want to put yourself through that with your starting position is up to you.
3. the aim should not be to greedily and quickly achieve a 1000% return. In my opinion, the probability of actually achieving this is close to zero. Make friends with the idea that we have no idea what will really happen on the market tomorrow. At best, you can "gamble" with derivatives at some point - in the knowledge that this is exactly what will happen.
4. now a positive tip: think about exponential growth. A return of 5% per month seems small at first. But do it over 30 years and the profit is enormous. That should be your goal.
5. next year I will try to achieve this with as little risk as possible. I find Meb Faber's GTAA approach interesting. But I'm not an expert on this - I just find the concept promising. You can find it here: https://download.ssrn.com/14/03/03/ssrn_id2403936_code649342.pdf?response-content-disposition=inline&X-Amz-Security-Token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEO3%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2FwEaCXVzLWVhc3QtMSJGMEQCIDJ5Y9YoTuxyKYKz2lEMYvuE8u66rEQrIuTtAMVvNQL1AiAWl8ppClBvuCFuFxZ0PnCOGYqYJQvj9QgUJmKmP%2B8YlirHBQjG%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F8BEAQaDDMwODQ3NTMwMTI1NyIMUHH9Q0C4Bunz8j5aKpsFyjmPaU9gJaO1N7dRBccnAomDgimSPIBUjvPQtSzJVmjVzSJf9ZXnonB31%2Bqvs000EPXchkecUHJ4nKwqxzHJNDl5xqOTtwtgANDNTThaP0ties8%2Fn5CcGt5eEiRNGaGDOsDPE3OuaqovY4dYC5C6s4vd3iDhdhujUSnNEi3bkHLqFGUaIbWI6ab8LKlDX1W7h1CFHai4FH%2F6nJzb%2B7l2NfQrVFTwVK%2BX%2FH2oXcEpnbSF7nibKNG1nxKV1orYpQKOJVgWQFUlvfkjHegFu4GSTNyyYTIdVv2GGs%2FDh29iLFSTFUq%2F0QDN57RjvE2x%2FR9J5M0V3EIzUS0LhxXDTmjuUSiaHetMWaCbDDvp6xR5IXZngDSWl3r1CLNQ0Nu0G1la5NmNQremS8dIIaOlg8L0Yj3mAJE732X4cEOW2S%2BHUx9xH8VpFiQQKmZ6DVzq%2FFz4IuEbI7qkz8LfdXTRYDT3LweA%2BbwnkqBF4RpsVZZkuOLLsEJRi0e%2FX2xZC2Yle%2BKN9CeaaHC865HRHXLavIYwUjM5B1RQ6Il1KzYX1dswJsQlRCaJp9UcMLVd5GmLSfXeoPnhdhD8P%2BxzgAWIB01ZxfVwAJJlSP
All the best!
Matthias
•
44
•
@philosophizer Hi, thanks for your answer and tips. I read through your intro and also read the whitepaper. Now where do I start:
General: I'm not someone who expects to be a millionaire in the next 3 months and invest all my money in high-risk things. It's all for the long term as a stabilization/cushion for my finances.
Ad 1) Pennystocks
Thanks for the technical term. The fact that I bought the ATOS shares really only has the simple background that I sorted the shares by price and took the cheapest one I know, simply to have a larger share position.
I have 2 other share packages (only discovered) which I bought by mistake on Bitpanda. I thought they were cryptocurrencies and only realized that they were shares of commodity companies because they were not synchronized by Bitpanda at getquin (only works for crypto) and then created them manually. I didn't know that you can buy shares and other things there as well as crypto. I see this again as a case of, I need to find out more, but that's not really necessary as everything is now flowing into ETFs anyway.
All in all, I'm not planning to sell the existing shares again quickly, at most if there's an easy way to liquidate them to get them into the ETF.
Ad 2) Cryptos
I have a painful history here.
I bought 100 Bitcoin in 2009 because I believed in the technology and the idea behind it.
Highest level in 2014 was 300 Bitcoins.
I had actually forgotten all about it until a stroke of fate forced me to turn everything I owned into money to cover a guarantee. It was exactly at the time when the price collapsed massively and I had to sell at the lowest point.
Everyone told me at the time to get out, it wouldn't work out etc. Well, you know the story afterwards and I didn't have the financial means to get back in. So hook underneath.
Brings us to today. Buying a Bitcoin is out of reach, cryptos like shares only make sense if you have a lot of them. That used to be the case and it still is today. After experiencing what has happened to Bitcoin over time, I do the same thing now as I did then. I buy large quantities of coins that have a low price and wait to see what happens.
My investment in coins is currently EUR 250.
200 EUR in "cheap coins" because I like the logo and 50 EUR in Bitcoin (only because it is a prerequisite for a competition at Bitpanda) and that's the end of the crypto investment.
Ad 3) Quick return
I have no desire to gamble, price bets, for example, are a nogo for me.
I'm looking for long-term "self-runners" that can ideally be adjusted so that I can stop at certain limits etc.
Ad 4) Exponential growth
This was also the learning from the previous sources of information that led me to ETFs.
Ad 5) GTAA approach
Perhaps it was another mistake to google the link and find something that calls my previous approach into question. Since the ETF only starts on 15.1 and I can still change everything, I have questions about this because you probably already know more about it or are more familiar with it.
While looking for an easy-to-implement approach to this thesis, I came across Wikifolio, where an investor follows this approach and you could take over this portfolio (via a so-called certificate). This means that all adjustments made by the trader are automatically transferred to your own portfolio. I then had a look at the site and discovered other traders with interesting approaches.
Have you heard of them? What is your opinion?
I wish you every success in implementing your plans.
General: I'm not someone who expects to be a millionaire in the next 3 months and invest all my money in high-risk things. It's all for the long term as a stabilization/cushion for my finances.
Ad 1) Pennystocks
Thanks for the technical term. The fact that I bought the ATOS shares really only has the simple background that I sorted the shares by price and took the cheapest one I know, simply to have a larger share position.
I have 2 other share packages (only discovered) which I bought by mistake on Bitpanda. I thought they were cryptocurrencies and only realized that they were shares of commodity companies because they were not synchronized by Bitpanda at getquin (only works for crypto) and then created them manually. I didn't know that you can buy shares and other things there as well as crypto. I see this again as a case of, I need to find out more, but that's not really necessary as everything is now flowing into ETFs anyway.
All in all, I'm not planning to sell the existing shares again quickly, at most if there's an easy way to liquidate them to get them into the ETF.
Ad 2) Cryptos
I have a painful history here.
I bought 100 Bitcoin in 2009 because I believed in the technology and the idea behind it.
Highest level in 2014 was 300 Bitcoins.
I had actually forgotten all about it until a stroke of fate forced me to turn everything I owned into money to cover a guarantee. It was exactly at the time when the price collapsed massively and I had to sell at the lowest point.
Everyone told me at the time to get out, it wouldn't work out etc. Well, you know the story afterwards and I didn't have the financial means to get back in. So hook underneath.
Brings us to today. Buying a Bitcoin is out of reach, cryptos like shares only make sense if you have a lot of them. That used to be the case and it still is today. After experiencing what has happened to Bitcoin over time, I do the same thing now as I did then. I buy large quantities of coins that have a low price and wait to see what happens.
My investment in coins is currently EUR 250.
200 EUR in "cheap coins" because I like the logo and 50 EUR in Bitcoin (only because it is a prerequisite for a competition at Bitpanda) and that's the end of the crypto investment.
Ad 3) Quick return
I have no desire to gamble, price bets, for example, are a nogo for me.
I'm looking for long-term "self-runners" that can ideally be adjusted so that I can stop at certain limits etc.
Ad 4) Exponential growth
This was also the learning from the previous sources of information that led me to ETFs.
Ad 5) GTAA approach
Perhaps it was another mistake to google the link and find something that calls my previous approach into question. Since the ETF only starts on 15.1 and I can still change everything, I have questions about this because you probably already know more about it or are more familiar with it.
While looking for an easy-to-implement approach to this thesis, I came across Wikifolio, where an investor follows this approach and you could take over this portfolio (via a so-called certificate). This means that all adjustments made by the trader are automatically transferred to your own portfolio. I then had a look at the site and discovered other traders with interesting approaches.
Have you heard of them? What is your opinion?
I wish you every success in implementing your plans.
••