📈 𝟭 𝙔𝙀𝘼𝙍 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙚𝙏𝙤𝙧𝙤 - 𝟭𝟬 𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙚𝙙 💰

As I closed one of my positions in Porsche with over 137% gain today, I realised that in 3 days I will celebrate 1 year with eToro. I put 10 lessons learned from my experience:

𝟭. 𝙚𝙏𝙤𝙧𝙤 𝙞𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙄𝙣𝙫𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 eToro is attractive for long term investing as the fees for equities are 0. Due to spreads, liquidity and technical issues, it is sub-optimal for trading,. I have seen day traders quite frustrated and have experienced issues myself. For long term, patient investors, the investment style is just perfect for eToro.

𝟮. 𝙄𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙊𝙉𝙇𝙔 / 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘽𝙀𝙎𝙏 𝙎𝙤𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙢 𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙤𝙬𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝘾𝙤𝙥𝙮 𝙋𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙛𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙤 I joined eToro just to buy $PAH3.DE (Porsche Automobil Holding SE) after my thorough research - it proved to be the cheapest broker. I learned about the Popular Investor program later and got attracted to it. The fact there is not fee to be paid to copy a PI is mind-blowing for an industry professional. Even my sister who works for a leading Asset Manager asked me ¨how much is the management fee?¨.

𝟯. 𝘽𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖 𝙋𝙤𝙥𝙪𝙡𝙖𝙧 𝙄𝙣𝙫𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧 𝙞𝙨 𝙉𝙊𝙏 𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙮 My character is not easy and I have a strong point of view that I am able to defend. I voiced my opinion related to risk, which backfired and there was a period when I was copy-blocked. This period allowed me to humbly study the Risk Score in more detail, which allowed me to then manage the portfolio in an even better way. Being a PI is a big responsibility and I think should be respected more on the platform.

𝟰. 𝙎𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙨 𝙦𝙪𝙞𝙩𝙚 𝙪𝙣𝙥𝙤𝙥𝙪𝙡𝙖𝙧 Remember my post about shorting $TSLA (Tesla Motors, Inc.) ( ow.ly/tSUv30ruVrV ) that generated almost 1000 comments - some extremely aggressive. We made a good 30% or so on the trade and the people hated our guts for it. It did put me a bit on the map as someone who is able to go his own way and persist. I guess I did earn some haters though :)

𝟱. 𝙄𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙖𝙨 𝙢𝙪𝙘𝙝 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙋𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙖𝙨 𝙞𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙛𝙞𝙩 With c.1600 Copiers, I must say that some of them became close friends. It is critical to manage the communication with the Copiers and it can be extremely challenging and time consuming. Building a Dream Team has been great though and many of you have played a pivotal role in managing the Feed as well as pitching me investment ideas. It has been a major joy and I will remain the same even as we scale to 10.000 Copiers :-)

𝟲. 𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙁𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙖 𝙙𝙞𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙖𝙩𝙤𝙧 𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙧𝙢 Joining the PI program, I did not realise that most people come from outside finance and are pure self-taught retail traders. That is quite different to me with 17 years trading and working in the financial services industry. The good thing is that we can co-exist and I am a bit of a black sheep, shorting $BTC , using the financial jargon, and occasionally, wearing this $RMS (Hermes International) tie and generating even more hate.

𝟳. 𝙚𝙏𝙤𝙧𝙤 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙧𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙙 Being Elite PI, I spend more time with eToro management. I realised how the platform is a victim of its own success. Given the pandemic, the number of people joining the platform is so high that eToro is not always able to withstand the growth. This must be very stressful for the management and customer support, so please - ALL - have more respect.

𝟴. 𝙋𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙗&𝙩𝙘𝙝 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙞𝙣 (𝙧𝙚-𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙙𝙖𝙮) People love to complain and look for a scapegoat. Copying a portfolio with no fee vs 2/20% you would pay normally is just a steal!. On top, you would pay a yearly fee to manage the account and if you trade less than 30-50k in one transaction it would not even make sense as the fee to make a transaction (yes, each time you open or close) would make it nonsensical and unprofitable. Trading used to be beyond reach for most. eToro changed it. Please appreciated it. $NSDQ100

𝟵. 𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙮 𝙨𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙛𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙤𝙣 𝙚𝙏𝙤𝙧𝙤 There are AMAZING people on this platform. VP level, CEO level, super smart, all ages, cultures and colours. Mostly you do not hear from them. They just calmly invest and enjoy the profit. All the BUY or SELL, to the moon, hodl nonsense that you see is just the familiarity bias - it is not representative of the whole platform.

𝟭𝟬. 𝙄𝙩 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙢𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙉𝙤𝟭 𝙋𝙄 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙢 When I joined the PI program I wanted to grow immediately and fast. I noticed that I have an edge in terms of experience in finance and, thus, was impatient to materialise my goals immediately. eToro has made me work hard for it and it is fine. I hope for more partnerships and support in 2021 and beyond.

Looking forward to next 12 months and more!

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