Thank you for that long repliy and yes it did answer my question and maybe others had it on their minds as well 
All of the things you have done I did and sometimes still fall into traps at times like everyone else Iām sure.
As the tik tok rabi says āDonāt worry about todayās fk ups, when you have tommorows fk ups to look forward tooā
Hehe
Hi, the market goes down but it will gonup again. Look at the sp500 on a max term chart and it will make you feel better. Think in terms of shares and not value. You havnt lost anything!
Unless youāre a full time pro (or you get lucky) then the only way to make a profit (long term) out of stock & shares investing is Index Funds - not my words but the likes of Warren Buffet, Peter Lynch etc.
However, even that is a challenge - there are thousands of Index Funds.
My advice: research+++, start small, experiment with cash you can afford to lose then when you feel you know enough start investing more serious amounts.
Good luck.
Feel free to show some proof that Buffet said exactly that.
Or is that your version of what he said?
Actual quote from Buffettās 2017 letter to shareholders, https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2016ltr.pdf:
"Investors, on average and over time, will do better with a low-cost index fund
than with a group of funds of funds."
Also details here where he had a 10 year bet versus hedge fund managers and he won with his bet on S&P 500 index doing better.
Here is a interview with somebody who was on the other side of the Bet.
Remember these threads:
Re-reading some of these are hilarious
I began my investment journey in the run up to the dot com bubble in the late 90ās. Couldnāt believe how easy it was to make so much money. Seeing my account go up by thousands every day. I wasnāt smart I had just jumped on an investment bandwagon that was being pumped up by dumb investors like me. The smart money had already got in years before and as soon as they started selling every speculative stock went south including my holdings and everything that had been green turned to red in a matter of months.
Forward 25 years and what have I learnt. I believe in the 80/20 rule more or less. Thereās about 20% of stocks worth owning, the other 80% are dross. You need to know what those 20% are. Looking at history helps and being able to identify which companies have been very profitable over a long period of time and those that have survived over the decades. Consider newer companies that have been around for a couple of decades and determine if they dominate enough in their industry to be able to dominate for the next 20 years. Almost all of my most successful investments have been in the US.
The same goes for funds. So many are rubbish and all they want to do is collect their fees. Some but not many can outperform but only if they avoid the dross.
You may be better to stick to ETFās like S&P500 and Nasdaq as a core and only invest a small amount in a top quality company when you feel you have enough knowledge to identify one and the price is attractive enough.
Great post. Thanks for sharing your story too 
Almost all of my most successful investments have been in the US.
It does seem like LSE stocks are a bit unloved at the moment.
Maybe the zero growth in the UK economy has something to do with it.
Similar to the rest of the Europe. Why everyone feels the urge to slag down the UK is beyond me.
Is the great Germany economy doing better??
All my stocks are LSE apart from mercadolibre.
As of now only up 15.5% over the last year ISA. The index is up 5%
My much smaller GIA account up 8% but still beating the index.
The S&P 500 is grossly over priced compared to the past.
No it canāt go up faster than the rest of the world forever.
No itās not different this time.
No I donāt know when reality will hit US stock.
PS I think the FTSE 250 is in recovery modeā¦ possibly!!
Itās also weird when we keep comparing ourselves with the USA and China, when the UK is nothing compared to these countries in terms of manufacturing.(Not always a bad thing though itās like showing what they have and what we want well we wonāt get that by comparing to a non productive country)
Its good though to compare yourself to underperforming countries to make yourself look better(I guess to fool the public)
Better though to compare to simular countries to show that infact weāre doing OK or not but still we should strive to try better ourselves and get production back online in the uk.
I tried that comment about the snp500 etc not long ago and got shut down, I hope it contuines to climb like past performance but I always have the feeling of whenā¦ Haha
Index funds should be the largest part of anybodyās portfolio. The S&P500 is always a must, and the Dow Jones, like the Dow Jones Global Sustainable, should be considered.
Also, mate, I would cost-average every month over time with individual stocks. Think of a sailing ship; you may lose small amounts until you find good stocks. Losing, say, Ā£65 is a lot easier than Ā£1000.
Additionally, delve into the business deeply: those annual shareholder meeting brochures that outline the company vision, scrutinize the fine details of the debt-to-profit ratio, and evaluate their plan to reduce debt. You need to be happy. If it were your business, would you follow the same plan of action?
When choosing stocks, donāt follow the crowd. Find good, stable businesses.
About the only regret I have with my investing journey is I didnāt keep track of various work pensions I collected along my career, they were left in whatever mediocre mixed securities funds the default settings were and forgotten about. Had I been more sensible, selected S&P500 focussed funds and kept a regular eye on them I would have x2 or x3 the growth.
Iāve not lost any money yet but couple of annoyances. They may seem minor for most people but being a bit autistic itās frustrating when you canāt understand something. First there was stamp duty reserve tax which I overlooked. No big deal as far as price is concerned it wasnāt a lot. Problem is I used another broker who didnāt use CREST (which I was unfamiliar with) for some reason. So they didnāt take the SDRT and the company is Coca Cola HBC which is listed on London exchange.
So then I messaged HMRC as my plan had been to keep immaculate records. I sent them the SDRT and got no receipt in return despite asking for it. Then I came here and purchased Britvic for which the SDRT was taken. I sold the Coca Cola HBC stock with the other broker and bought it here. For reasons I canāt figure out (and thatās the annoying thing) they havenāt deducted the SDRT. So now Iāll probably have to send that to HMRC as well and itās all linked to your National Insurance apparently.
So yes it seems minor but I donāt like uncertainty or unexpected issues. Especially when it goes against my plans. Maybe buying stocks isnāt a good idea if you have autism but for some reason unexplained annoyances bother me more.
As for buying indexes it does make sense but thereās a chance they might include companies I donāt like. Donāt expect to be a big fan of every company I buy into but outright disliking them is another matter. Call me egotistical but my view is Iām perfectly capable of selecting the right stock myself. Initially itās not going to be a lot and it will be with dividend companies that are safe and conservative anyway. Coca Cola HBC being a classic example of that. Britvic as well to an extent and the amount I spent on then was much lower anyway.
So no I donāt regret anything other than the unexplained annoyances most normal people wouldnāt care about!
Buy index funds?
Donāt follow the crowd?
Are element of contradiction there!
Hereās one for you
Donāt tell people how to invest without adding
āDo your own researchā
And try and use emojis both sparingly and appropriately if at all.
Iām not perfect.
I think heās referring to hype stocks/ meme stocks etc. It looks like itās āthe crowdā because there are forums full of hyped up investors echoing each other. But in reality they are pretty niche investments.