Sam North (eToro): Trading vs Investing, Portfolio Rules and the Sectors He Was Watching

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This transcript was generated from the episode’s YouTube captions (Buzzsprout has no transcript for this episode). Speaker labels are NOT available; all turns are unlabelled.

[0:00]

I am looking at Trends if I really like the stock and it drops 20% I’m loading up you’re getting some information from some of the top people in the world what kind of Trends are you looking at at the moment the two that are going to stand out are going to be AI and crypto crypto now is like what the dotom was we fast for 10 15 20 years some of the top assets will remain and they will just be light years ahead of where we are I think healthcare is an interesting area uh Renewables go 5 years and there’ll be companies that are creating things we can’t even imagine I do like CH I do and there will be people shouting at the screen I feel like I think there are some good opportunities there if you were to say to me you got Chuck 100% of all your money on on an area near the bottom end of the list China I’ve got a stock in my portfolio at the moment which is up 230% which is great and I started buying

[0:48]

the S&P 500 every single month never ever taken profit if it drops 5% I lump in what I’ve done recently is I’ve taken some of that position off the table and now I say whatever this I don’t care it’s I’ve already made money on it how do you set your own portfolio up at the moment the main thing that I do without fail every single month is hello and welcome back to the Money Gains Podcast this week we have a very special guest his name is Sam North and he is a market Analyst at the worldwide investment brand eToro and what a conversation this is if you want to learn about investing the markets his actual history as well as a Trader and the difference between trading and investing because because there is a massive difference you guys are going to love this conversation and let’s get started on the Money Gains Podcast

[1:39]

welcome back to the Money Gains Podcast man how are you very well it’s good to be here and congratulations on on how well it’s all gone yeah we’ve leveled up we’ve leveled up this time and gone in person you were episode three wow and we’re like 85 now 86 wow smashing amount so yeah good year and a half ago yeah we had a good chat didn’t we yeah I remember that well um yeah well a year and a half uh seems long ago but also like it was a second ago yeah and we’ve bumped into each other a couple of times down at Fox Hills on the uh on the golf course well like I said before I was playing tennis and you were you were smashing rackets and I smashing smaller balls yes yeah yeah sounds a bit weird but I won’t go into that of course your job at eToro is as a market analyst which is pretty cool and like I love

[2:31]

following you you know I do I follow everything you do and the podcast as well of Josh um what’s that in job actually mean and what’s it inail what do you do yes it’s it’s a tricky one really because when I say to people on the market analyst you know it’s way more than than that um daytoday there is definitely some actual Market analyst um you know comments about the market and reports that I’ll put together so for example today um latest UK inflation number came out so I’m going to write a report or wrote a report about that that then get sent out to our clients and then to PR and all of that kind of thing but then there’s the podcast as well um that we do and that can be about what’s happening in the market or it could be about an individual stock uh or interviewing uh people uh whether that

[3:22]

be CEOs or uh Market professionals about anything or uh sports stars as well because of course eToro partner with many sport teams uh so I get to I I get to do some interesting things and you know a couple of weeks ago I was in Milan hosting an event as well as a market analyst so it’s uh yeah it’s pretty wide ranging job description uh but I enjoy it the week goes quickly work life balance is good so yeah I’m I’m happy of it enjoy it you’re talking about things that you love though it’s a big difference isn’t it yeah I think so and and you know my number one passion it won’t for anyone that follows me on on Twitter it won’t be surprised is football and Arsenal in particular which Al we having um but I enjoy markets I love it they’re Ever Changing there’s always something new to talk about and I think there are a lot of uh parallels within Sport and investing and trading certainly from the

[4:12]

psychology side as well so I feel like it was uh sort of a natural thing that happened for me my dad used to work in markets as well so yeah I enjoy it the week goes quickly which is you know a week can assle really what do you mean when you say there’s a crossover between that I think when when it comes to personal like trading or investing the psychology uh behind it I mean the sport in particular is Golf and trading you know if you have a bad shot if you have a bad trade how are you going to recover from that okay last thing you want to do is take that shot straight away quickly and golf without taking you know your time and your patience where def definitely a sucker for that but you know what like I played with uh played with someone on Saturday Hampton Court Palace Golf Course who shot four under joke of a player but what he did I I hardly took a practice swing he’s over the ball every single time taking his

[4:58]

time same r over and over again the best Traders I know do the same thing over and over again never rush in don’t Revenge trade uh so yeah the psychology I think with with Sport and investing I think is is is there and that’s why I quite enjoy it and maybe I had a bit of beginner’s luck at the beginning of my journey but you know as I sort of you know moved down the line I uh I feel like the parallels helped me out do you think your D as influenced dur in your career choice do you think do I think what my your father’s yeah I think so I mean I I I studied sport science at University just to tick a box and go to UNI came out and well to be honest within the first year I knew I wasn’t going to be a sports scientist but uh so I came out a university um took a gap year like many people did a bit of traveling and uh but I always knew when I was going to come

[5:45]

back I was going to go down the route of uh potentially trying to become a Trader so my dad worked on a trading floor in in London uh at a place called life the life exchange and he was like why don’t you go and learn to do this so maybe the back of my mind always had a bit of an interest in it but he’ pushed me down uh this route and and one thing led to another and I’m sitting here now you know talking about markets so yeah he he definitely had a an influence and you know he also did a lot of teaching um and I think you know where I can hopefully break down things relatively easily has come from him and I get a lot of advice from him about markets and and and that kind of thing as well yeah what I love about your Twitter and you know other posts that you do is that you kind of give like a really cool chart and what could happen and what what you feel

[6:34]

is going to happen and I love like checking in a few days later to see where it actually did and you get quite a few right well that that’s it and and but also there are going to be some that are wrong and that’s absolutely fine um but yeah I I feel the way I started in markets was because my background was not not Finance it wasn’t politics wasn’t anything or economics anything to do with what can maybe drive market so I had to maybe go down the route of let me understand technical analysis first how charts actually move what they respect why could they go up or down and so I started on that before I you know cared about all the fundamental side of things so I feel like when I see a chart I can be like okay well that is an important area that people going to care about the Market’s you know a game of opinions really where are most people going to be looking at what do I think most people

[7:21]

are going to think is going to happen just yeah just go from there and so yeah in terms of being in in chinua chart I feel like that’s my my biggest skill um fundamentals are I guess a little bit tougher because you know how do I know everyone else is is viewing it this way uh I mean there’s plenty of insanely knowledgeable people that get individual stock picks completely wrong all the time you know and uh you know we just I mean coming up shortly we’ve got the uh us election there’s you know countless investment Banks and hedge funds that are giving one opinion about it and another is given the opposite one of them is going to be you know massively wrong and uh you know these fans uh you know multi multi multi Mill bill you know so yeah yeah there’s a lot going on right now for sure man I mean like one of your part of your jobs which I think

[8:09]

is wicked is that you get to get out and speak to people directly and meet some of your Heroes as well like I’ve seen a few of That Knocking around which is pretty cool they say never meet your Heroes is they they do say that um I mean listen if I if I met tierry HRI I think I would get very very nervous luckily I I always been okay with it I mean Ray paror was a you know a player I admired growing up and he’s he’s a character in the ronford P you know and actually he likes a bit of trading himself so yeah he’s into markets yeah yeah um I think he now prefers that than the horses uh is what he said but uh you know I’ve met some incredible people in in the the sporting world but also the financial world as well I mean last week I was with Kappy wood which is you know incredible to to pick her brains about

[8:57]

things and we’ just did a collaboration to with Arc invest so yeah it’s uh it’s good I get to to speak to to some incredible people and obviously you know sport is my my thing so whether it be the football players or the rugby players yeah it’s great to uh to to chat with them do you feel like that gives you kind of the edge when you’re doing your analysis being able to speak to all of these different people yeah I do think so I mean we just just a side note we were we had like a popular investor Global Summit I can talk about popular investor thing another time what ever but that was in London beginning of September middle September and we spoke with someone uh one of the guests who runs a um runs a hedge fund in the states and one thing he said he he goes I speak to 10 people every single day just to recall what they think about

[9:45]

markets what’s their View and I think that’s a great way to you know form your overall opinion if you just go into something whether it be Market spec specific stock and say okay this is my analysis boom I’m going for it you may be a little bit blindsided whereas if you get you know 10 different people’s opinion then you can start to maybe form a better overall view of it um so yeah by speaking to all these different people I’m picking up different bits and pieces you know how does this CEO speak what was the psychology behind this particular Sports person um and yeah bringing that all together and I mean listen you’re not going to take everything from everyone um I mean I remember being on a a trading floor and if someone stand standed up and jumped up and said you know uh oil was going to go higher I’m thinking last time you said that it’s going going low so it’s going lower this time so you don’t always have to agree with people but

[10:32]

it’s good to see what the other side are saying and yeah those are things I pick up you obviously mentioned the trading floor there you started life at Amplify Trading um how was that for you that experience did it help mould you yeah absolutely it was it was good I mean I I did a course there with my brother back in uh well literally 10 years ago to the day almost and again my like I said before my background was nothing to do with that so I was lucky in a sense that was with my brother I had advice from my dad about certain bits and I was always quite risk averse so I didn’t go into it and felt like I needed to be in a trade you know I could take my time and uh only you know get into a position where i’ feel like I ticked all the boxes of my process before doing so and that probably gave me a bit of beginner’s luck I mean

[11:19]

trading is a very hard game you need you know a long time before you sort of find that a hard moment but I feel like uh yeah it was a great learning process I mean Amplify Trading, now called Amplify Me, were you know a great Institution for me they you know didn’t uh sell it as Lamborghinis and all of this and I thought okay well then you’re doing it the right way you’re teaching the right things and uh yeah it moulded me into I guess the the analyst I am now and how I look at markets how I decipher the news where I go to find it it was uh yeah a great experience for me like obviously you talk about it like from a trading perspective a lot of what you talk about is quite short term in terms of the outcomes or what’s happening but some there’s so many different sides to investing yeah yeah yeah do you feel like it’s kind

[12:08]

of black and white or is there there there there’s definitely differences isn’t there I think the the main one I guess is going to be the time Horizon you know trading generally is going to be shorter term you are going to get people that obviously trade and it’s going to be a swing trading it could be months into years especially if it’s going well um but generally speaking trading I I think is better suited to the shorter term not everyone’s got the uh availability to do that in an ideal world you’re at the screen for the most part of the day and you do your analysis and the trade comes in you manage it because obviously things can happen in that short period whereas investing it could be something that you hold for the rest of your life right you know I mean if people in the early part of the Millennium bought apple and Amazon their and they’re holding it now you’re laughing absolutely laughing all the last couple

[12:54]

years inidia whatever it might be and it’s having that patience to hold it and then I guess another the main difference certainly I found and I think people should know if they don’t is the risk behind it all so if I’m investing it might be that I’ve got a selection of different stocks and I might say okay I’m going to put you know 5% of my portfolio into whatever company like apple Amazon Microsoft Nvidia whatever um whereas I’m not going to put 5% on an individual trade on a day trade because I could lose five trades in a row and I’ve done that before absolutely and suddenly you’re down a quarter of your portfolio which is ridiculous and I think if if we were to have a massive room here of new Traders and ask them how much would they risk per trade the answer probably is going to be 5 to 10% which is way too high and really you’re looking more about sort of 0.25% 0.5%

[13:44]

per trade because you know even if it was 2% five trades in a row you’ve lost 10% so it’s all about trading is about controlling that risk a lot more than maybe investing is staying in the game you know I spoke to people years ago now that were very very successful Traders and that that’s what they said low risk you know that that’s what’s going to keep you surviving obviously you got to make your winners count and risk reward is you know another Avenue to to consider but trading it might be that a day trader risks you know 0.25% whereas in an investment certainly if you’re holding it for the longer period it might be okay 5% of my portfolio fund it can be yeah exactly you know and uh I think those are the main differences really uh obviously different objectives within that for each individual person but yeah time Horizon and and risk are the the two ones that really have always

[14:32]

stood out to me obviously there’s a like a big concept misconception around investing as a whole but certainly it’s much more Amplified on the trading side yeah do you think that’s warranted yeah I I I think I mean trading is is something where you aren’t going to be a great Trader in six months yes and and and I don’t think everyone can trade I think everyone can invest yes I don’t think everyone can trade I mean I when I um there was a period where I was just purely trading to make income so I didn’t have another job and psychology psychologically that’s tough you’ve got to you know you feel like you got to make returns to pay your bills to pay your mortgage whatever it is and psychologically that isn’t going to be for everyone some people are going to force a trade they’re going to go looking for something that they

[15:18]

shouldn’t do and of course you can have periods where you don’t make money and also you need quite a big account balance to make money not everyone’s got that whereas investing you can say to yourself 20 30 40 years the line I’m going to keep investing every single month anyone can do that once you’ve got your money in order whereas investing trading isn’t for everyone uh the psychology is tough you speak to or I speak to some of the best Traders I’ve ever known that have done insanely well and they always say the same thing you know if you if I ask them what percentage of trading is psychology they say 90 95% and then if you go to a load of new Traders and you go how much do you work on your psychology they go one two three we don’t we don’t do you know what I mean so yeah it’s uh those it it it is warranted for sure yeah um I do

[16:08]

believe that not everyone can trade but once things are in order anyone can invest one of my favourite things to do at the moment is listen to podcast while I’m out walking the dog and as you can imagine especially those about money one of my favourites right now is coming from PensionBee one of the UK’s leading pension providers the pension confident podcast is a monthly show hosted by the wonderful Philippa Lamb who is joined on each Episode by a panel of expert guests they cover topics from pensions to mortgages right through to ISAs the pension confident podcast is available wherever you listen to your podcast or you can check out the show notes below for a direct link when it comes to the show it’s important to remind you that everything discussed should not be considered as Financial advice and when you invest your capital is at risk tune in to the pension confident podcast right now it’s like learning a language yeah in a way that you possibly May

[16:59]

speak yeah exactly exactly and and I and I think there are a lot of uh sort of cowboy outfits out there that you know make trading look like it is easy and it just Lambo life bu buy my signals I’ve had people that I would call good mates messag me be like do you think this is real and I’m but it shows how easily people can be swayed to believing it is yeah you know you dangle that carot of you know you do this for a couple you know what I mean and so it’s bad and you know the good thing like I said about Amplify was none of that you know this is something that isn’t easy but if you do want to learn about it then you can go down this route and actually what we when I ended up working for Amplify we had a lot of students that would come and they just wanted to learn about markets to then go get a job down the line and use it as experience and they would always say when I go

[17:47]

speak to or when I had an interview at Goldman Sachs or City Bank or wherever it might be the fact that I could talk about markets and actually what happens on a day-to-day basis Put Me Above someone that you know has never actually been involved in it and lived it so yeah I think uh yeah it was really Amplify were you know I’m so thankful for my time there what’s one of the best trades you’ve made do you think uh best trades I’ve made trade or investment trade specific said was so either or so so the one that always sticks out to me um and usually in my trading world I’m not amazing at trading volatility volatile markets I used to get a little bit fomo and panic and not think irly but anyway during the pandemic this probably would have been March or April so the March

[18:36]

actually I would imagine the the US equities and all equities fell off a cliff yes I think it was almost like the p uh Co had spread to Italy and it’s like now it’s Europe that’s it yeah so markets tank they obviously have a little bit of a bounce as most times they do and then the Dow Jones came to a really interesting area in the market where I’m thinking and the Dow Jones is for someone that so the Dow Jones 30 so 30 of sort of the uh sort of the older staple stocks in in America would to say for example and that came to a an area where I thought this could go lower from here technically I think people would be looking to sell anyone that’s bought I think they’ll be looking to take profit there so I I entered the trade and then it just went lower from literally where I got in which is very very rare that that’s going to happen and it just went and it just went and I had a you know a

[19:25]

profit Target in mind but the momentum that it was going out thought well I’m just going to you know let this go took a little bit of profit left some on and you know ended up making new lows and it was just like a trade like that can make you year um but it’s not going to happen every year as well and uh yeah so that that’s the one that always sort of sticks out to me so we’ve discuss like the the difference between trading and investing is there any other things for you in there rather than time Horizon that people should be aware of for for the differences differences between trading and investing yeah I I the the objectives as well I think for someone that’s looking to trade you you’re I guess you’re you’re trying to look for opportunities in the market and it could be that you’re looking to

[20:15]

hold I guess like we said for a day month or or week or whatever but your objective is to to find Opportunities shortterm to make the most out of them investing you almost don’t really care too much what happens day today andless is like an earnings report comes out or something like that um so yeah it’s another thing I I guess to consider is the risk reward when someone trades you’ve got to have a clear you know sort of edge in the market to you know might be that you whatever you do to get into the position you’re risking say 0.5% to make 2% 3% whatever it might be whereas with investing it you know you’re not necessarily uh you know like using leverage for example which in trading you could be be and you’re just saying okay well I’m going to hold this for 20 30 40 years it’s going to do what it

[21:03]

does whereas trading I think you’re a lot more regimented in the actual approach before you get into a position so that’s why I always said I think not everyone can do that investing you can buy an ETF and hold it for 30 years and dollar cost average in and it’s just you know you believe in the stats and the history that it is going to go up over time whereas with trading you know you’re you’re there in the moment then and there trading as well I guess you don’t overall care about where the direction goes as long as it’s the direction of your trade yeah you know if you’re buying something for the longterm investing you want to go yeah but trading you can trade any Market either way so you don’t you know you don’t really have to have a bias from a fundamental point of view for the medium to long term uh and but some people find will find that easier I guess uh but yeah those are the sort of the main

[21:50]

things that really uh really stick out to me psych psychology psychology I think is tougher for trading though yeah I Ted into the trading game by Gary Stevenson yeah yeah and that blew my mind the level of like stress and the like going against the grain when everyone else is going the other way knowing something you know something’s going to happen you stick with it everyone’s telling you to pull out like it just sounded nuts yeah it is and I and I think just the impact that that can have on like certain people’s mental health means you should you shouldn’t go down the route of training it’s not for everyone it really isn’t and it is tough it is something that takes time um you know how long would I recommend someone to actually give trading go before they know they can do it probably a year to

[22:39]

be honest really probably a year because at the beginning I’ve heard other people say two three years like as at a minimum one you know it takes it takes a while for you to know to understand what you’re doing then you got to find an edge then can you be consistent with that then you can make you know small you know uh small improvements to it but yeah it’s it’s not something that’s uh as simple so obviously we talk heavily about trading but how do you set your own portfolio up at the moment so I mean there’s there’s different avenues that I’ve got um and the main thing that I do without fail every single month is is add to uh you know a series of ETFs so for indexes indexes yeah okay great so ones that track the S&P 500 ones that track uh the NASDAQ uh China for my sins as well and had a little bit

[23:29]

Resurgence Rec I’ve gone from I was very happy cuz I held on to my Chinese Holdings I was like hopefully they bounce back one day you know for two years okay I’m going to keep buying it’s going lower at some point you know they’re actually going to stick with their stimulus plan and they hav’t it’s recovered so like my Alibaba shot back up the other day I was like yes finally yeah exactly it’s still ridiculously down yeah no I mean yeah from a few years ago yeah incredibly low so yeah every month we do that um and uh the plan is to hold that Till I Retire never ever taking profit I mean I started buying the S&P 500 or the Spy or whatever you want to call it on the ETF Lo different versions of it um started buying that October 2014 every single month never ever taken profit if it drops 5% i’ lump in if it drops 10% which is super rare whatever I can get

[24:17]

my hands on I’m going to going to lump in and if you get an opportunity like Co then yeah I just want to load in as as much as I can if I can of course not everyone’s got the funds to do that at the time but yes statistically you know the the S&P what it 70% of the years it finishes up average about 10% you know so it’s 94% over the last five years I a joke isn’t it which is mad yeah incredible and and that’s with like a pretty Savage year in 2022 2022 was tough 2022 was tough and this year was just incredible you go back to August when um you know Japan sort of shot the markets when they sort of maybe moved a little bit more hawkish with their interest rates rather you know rather than what we’re seeing here where we’re going down Japan might be going up that spooked the markets and we had like a

[25:04]

Monday where everything came under pressure that and you’re think okay well actually maybe the rest of the year it’s going to be bad no but by a couple of days it’s all next day the news was like three trillion wiped off the stock market next day it was like oh three trillion back yeah yeah so yeah I mean it’s more and more people are investing now as well and then you got the 401ks which are buying into it every single month which is so passive yeah yeah so I don’t see how people could be in the long term you know bearish on on US Stocks China oh really interesting yeah I mean you just have to look at the you know the history and CH just the debt levels not worry you no really no not long term though why is that I I’m I just you know the the most this isn’t me saying you aren’t

[25:51]

going to get a period where for two years it doesn’t go higher okay but I’m saying in 10 20 30 years I mean I just just to the Moon I really do believe the most you know the biggest companies uh their innovation’s insane yeah and you know you can get you know talking they you know you you could do a podcast with someone where they talk about why they don’t like the US that’s all public knowledge all the reasons they would give and we’re still trading where we are you know look what happened in like we said in August with the uh the market goes down but guess what it does it goes up you know and whoever wins the election you might get a little bit move lower based on you know certain things that they’ve said in the buildup but temporary yes temporary and uh you know I I do believe that China will recover to its alltime high at some point it couldn’t tell you when cuz it’s it’s it’s tough out there I need to hear that

[26:39]

yeah yeah yeah exactly I’m sure there’ll be people thinking yeah go on me too to be fair it’s such a minut part but it’s like one of the only parts that are in red right now yeah yeah I mean like I said I was building up for for every month for a couple of years and it was down you know sort of 20 25% and then suddenly within a couple of days it’s back to break even I’m thinking here we go but also I’m thinking damn I wouldn’t have minded a few more years of it going lower to buy lower down to dollar cost average in for it to to go up you know I was just so worried about that whole like you know clamp down on those big big businesses that’s the thing with TR you never know what’s around the corner and suddenly headline comes out like that and then your your big companies there come under pressure um you know lvmh the the fashion brand said yesterday that they they did like a survey or whatever and they said

[27:26]

sentiment in China for sort of luxury Brands and all that is the lowest it’s been since the pandemic so there’s still a lot of bad news out there however you know sometimes when you get this really bad news all it takes is less bad news and we can recover so you know it’s almost like you want things yeah you want things to be bad for for then things to be the opportunity to to buy you mentioned about buying when things are down yeah how important is that for you and how is them how easy do you feel like that is for someone listening to this to to actually Implement themselves first time it happens it’s tough it really is because you’re you you see red on the screen or your portfolio whatever it might be and you sort of panic a little bit don’t you think okay well this is the end of the world the worst thing to do especially if you’re look if you’re leveraged up then it’s tough because you know the losses are going to

[28:13]

be Amplified either way but if you’re you know just trading in this you know spot Market effectively yeah or even just buying a fund or just buying a fund then you just got to you got to take a step back and experience obviously is is key here but look at history you you know look at the biggest also stocks in the world I mean Amazon is up hundreds of thousands percent since the Millennium it’s had so many periods where it’s dropped 10 20 30 40% at a time and look how it you know recovers so I think understanding history is is key and the stats behind all of that but there’s also and I won’t be able to quote this well but I think it’s if you miss the 10 best days of the stock market um you know your performance is significantly lower those 10 best days most likely come after a significant

[29:00]

drop so it’s almost like when you get that big move lower okay this is my time to go in and and you know if you’re longer term who cares pick it in don’t look again for a week yeah the first time you do it you’re like what am I doing everything out of your being saying don’t do it and then you see it go well and you’re like well I’m doing this every time you just become numb to it um so it is about that sort of initial dip yeah and and and also you got to have the understanding as well it could go lower could go low for another week could go low for another month but if your dollar cost averaging okay well I’m buy and lower down yeah and also you know it’s important to say to be Diversified as and what is dollar cost averaging for the average person I mean let’s just take I didn’t know say the FTSE 100 for example let’s say there’s an ETF that tracks that and we say

[29:49]

rather than just let’s say 10 grand you’ve got 10 grand which would be nice wouldn’t it you say rather than just go 10 grand to buy that fund right now I’m going to divide it buy you know whatever and do like a grand a month instead so as the market goes ups and down has its Ed EPs and flows you’re just buying let’s say on the first of the month it could be that you do it quarterly or whatever and you’re just averaging into that position and maybe that’s the way that people choose to do it it takes out the the uh sort of the volatility of it all the psychology of trying to time the market time in the market is very very tough whereas if you say to yourself I don’t care where it’s trading I’m just going to average myself in then you know you can you benefit from that and I think certainly for for newer investors is not a bad way to go about it at all you know I’m experienced and I still do it so yeah yeah know I take it just one

[30:38]

little step further and that’s like if it’s gone down this month then I’ll add more yeah great AB if it’s if it’s up then I’ll add less little bit less and then if it’s up the less I add I still put the same amount in I just leave that in cash and then just wait for the little dips and then I’ve got that ready to play with usually kind of works out overall that’s just allowed me to get much better average over time exactly yeah and and and then for those people like you said that want to take it that step further when it does the 5% when it does the 10% that’s you go in you know and if you you you if we think over the last 20 years you go covid you go maybe the Euro Zone debt crisis 2011 you go Trump and brexit and then the dot you know had five times it’s gone down big time and it’s up hundreds per since all of those you know multi hundreds in some

[31:27]

cases was even like earlier this year it was like 5 6% in a couple of days and everyone was freaking out it was August wasn’t it and it was like you know let’s go I was like Christmas I had so many mates messaged me and I just tweet them message them back and let’s go shopping and then you go down a week or two weeks later and they’re like damn I should have bought more and you know I said to there’s always the chance it goes lower this that and the other but yeah it’s uh it’s it’s a thing where history helps you know and understanding that and experience but and just to be clear for everyone listening to this like this could all tail off and it could have a horrible crash in two weeks time and and all of this but then for someone like us we’re ready to go again because our time Horizon is so long but if someone’s like 62 yeah that’s a big problem yeah

[32:18]

absolutely and and I think as you get closer to a point where you might say I need to retire or I’m going to need these funds for whatever it might be you know go going you know the majority of your portfolio in equities or stocks is not the right thing to do no it might be say okay I go down the route with dividends or or government bonds yeah and and that’s you know that’s you changing up your portfolio to meet your needs which is something important to to to do if you’re young and you’re saying well I’m going to hold this Till I Retire okay well let me load up in in things that I’m happy to hold for 20 30 years regardless of what happens over a one we period And I think again that can be quite tough if you see readed and your I mean some of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made is selling a stock too early because of that at the beginning you know there’s I mean I’ve at times I’ve had in my portfolio Apple I’ve had meta I’ve had Amazon and I you know they I’ve taken big half decent wins on them

[33:06]

but they’ve come under pressure where they dropped say 20% from the high oh this is over I get out and then you know this is years ago now so think of how much they’ve you know gone higher in the last sort of eight years and H imagine if I just held I know I know you do beat yourself up but you said I just see it is a NeverEnding learning experience that’s why I love the love working in markets because never you know never ending learning experience but also there’s just always something new happening some new area in the market AI bitco you know crypto yeah whatever there’s always something new new Industries pop up you yeah and Tech it’s just like never ending sub niches of it coming out of nowhere and he’s like wow I mean was was it was it on the weekend or the weekend before or during last week where Tesla had their whatever day they call it and suddenly you got robots

[33:52]

making martinis and all of this everyone’s going to have a personal assistance soon aren’t they so you know they’ll be making the decisions for you but oh yeah I can’t to be honest I’m quite I’m I’m into it I apparently they reckon once they’re mass produced they’ll be between sort of 20 and $30,000 if I could get one of them to be my golf caddy you know teach me how to play golf carry my bag sold I mean that’s like that’s worth way more money than not carrying nothing yeah yeah and then cook for me as well and you know all of that stuff yes sign me up for a rob you need a other half or any no that’s it yeah yeah no arguments tur you off oh mate love that yeah but 30 grand yeah I suppose in an upkeep it’s not a bad investment yeah I don’t think so yeah and over time they’ll get cheaper

[34:40]

as well yeah scary and well scary yeah but you just got to go you just see ioot like flashing about don’t you like them just well there are there are some people that reckon within 10 years no one will be working you know because of all of a yeah yeah I don’t believe and Rob and Robotics yeah I I yeah I I’ve come across like um a few like I I get really geeky with these like thre hour deep di into this yeah cuz I think it’s just like it’s just so interesting because it’s going to change the world right um but most of the predictions are like 15 years that’s when we’re going to see like significant change to society yeah yeah because of the um like mainly because of biology so there’s going to be like a lot of um changes the way we eat food the way

[35:28]

interact and obviously impacted by AI and Technology as well it’s just going to be like complete transformation yeah it is I think you’re right in that sort of 10 15 year period people look back and be like God we lived like that yeah you know whe that mean whe they’re saying that it’s a good thing or a bad thing we have to wait and see I think you know it’s the best time ever to have ever lived right now 100% And that’s already going to get better year after year yeah and we’re going to live longer yeah yeah hopefully we’ll see Arsenal win the Champions League in that time is long over D it is geez I mean like we just need to win something please yes um as you know I’ve been a big eoro fan for long time and I think the Brand’s great and you do so many great things like for those that are listening to this perhaps

[36:19]

I’m sure they’ve seen an advert have you been if you’ve not seen AO um knocking around on a tube or on a football game or something like that you know you’re a big supporter of sport and uh what Drew you to this company why why then the the job job description to be honest I mean people out there be thinking I’d love to work for XYZ company and if the job description isn’t what you want to do you’re not going to go there so for me it was the job description then I looked further into to the company and it it sort of fitted me quite well you know we’re a Growth Company looking to really push up disrupt the market I loved that I Lov the role that I was going in to do and then know now I’m doing things that I you know didn’t think I was doing which I now love as well but yeah I I think for your role is definitely evolved isn’t it I remember when you was first there right yeah and we sort of

[37:08]

also at the time he to a market leader in in the uh the popular investor thing that they do as well and then obviously they brought out a load of new sort of offerings and products since then but I thought that was really cool in that you could have people on the platform that have their own public portfolios that people could copy everything’s completely transparent I could see what this person’s done for the the whole time that they’ve been on the platform how long they hold positions what’s in their portfolio what percentage did they put into that so I thought that was that was cool it was fascinating is amazing it’s like a a sort of and this sometimes doesn’t sound great when you say it but it’s like a One-Stop shop you know they’ve got everything that someone might want you can trade on there you can invest on there you can copy someone you could invest in ETFs or you could actually do something we where we have Smart portfolios where we have dedicated portfolios to anything you could imagine diabetes to medicines in XY Z field or

[37:59]

you know biotechnology or electric vehicles and you know I really liked it I thought it was just a a good fit of the time but the main thing was obviously the job description um you know for for me to have gone there and changed from Amplify because I was at Amplify for about 2014 six seven years so yeah it was uh a good time to change there’s a lot on that platform it’s just so much fun as well like there yeah it’s uh it’s intuitive isn’t it you know it’s not you know it’s but it’s backed up by the school and the research and the what goes in and the connections now and the you know the brand Partnerships when you like put the news on there and the market analyst stuff like that wasn’t back on there on back in the day it’s changed a lot now and you’re just adding a wider Suite of tools available so

[38:47]

people don’t have to go on to you know ft or more star things like that they can just stay in out which is really cool I think so yeah and and the company are always looking for the next thing that they can bring to help the user experience like Sam is there an iser coming well I mean watch this space okay watch this space I mean we got we’ve got the next thing is like recurring Investments which I think is is to be honest bit long overdue obviously people can invest whenever they want to anyway but it might be okay we it automate it yeah so you know every month I want to do this amount into these markets boom I can now do that um and then yeah it’s uh yeah watch the space for the next thing cool I mean that would change the oh absolutely absolutely and you know the the CEO has big plans big aspirations for where we can take this company too so yeah um you know things like that

[39:36]

will help it will a it and then it’s a case will keep pushing forward and and don’t look back yeah 100% 100% um you know I I actively use my eToro account I love checking in you know I think the invest popular investing thing you own the patent for that as well which is super cool so basically for anyone listening to this Sam explain a little bit earlier but like I can jump on see John who’s done amazing and I really like his style and you people they can do posts like a Facebook thing and talk about stocks and Link out to things and funds and Trends and all this type of thing oh I really like him and the way he’s doing things you can see their risk profiles and then you can go oh I’m going to copy him with100 P of my own money and it just basically copies everything they do and when they move

[40:24]

out of a position it then changes it which just for it’s incredible I mean you know I’ve remember being in London 2022 I think it was and we with Co and we had a load of clients in and around we having a conversation he was like if you and Yoni, our CEO, goes if you ask the room for the people how many people here reckon they could beat Warr and Buffett people would put their hands up only Tor you can see if they’re telling the truth if they’re actually doing it and there are a lot as well absolutely it’s incredible you know there’s uh who was that guy was it wolf or the it’s like a Dutch fellow from Belgium jepe je yeah I was with him in Milan I’m incredible guy incredible guy I mean the the stat speaks for themselves yeah but these are guys like are smashing it from their bedroom yeah insane right and like they they can be anywhere in the world and

[41:12]

they’re just like they’re just super super smart super smart now given a platform for to be able to like voice their opinions back it up with results and then you can go and then I like them I’m going to I’m going to take a piece of their AC and you know if people are a little bit dubious about for whatever reason you got the virtual portfolio on eToro we can say Let me give it a six- Monon trial with these people and you know put in you know fake money virtual money and see how it gets on it might give people a little bit more confidence in someone or not in someone else and yeah you know it’s uh yeah it’s a good option good point actually like the virtual portfolio is there for people to try out educate themselves yeah I’m on track to have over 5.5 million in retirement and I’m not saying this to brag guys I’m saying this because I am an everyday person just like like you so what does that actually mean well it

[41:59]

means that it’s actually possible for you to build life-changing wealth too no matter where you’re at on your journey your age your knowledge or even your Current financial situation so Sammie how do I sort that out well I’ve created something super cool which literally takes one minute of your time I’ve left a link in the show notes to a free money personality quiz which will provide you guys with a free tailored content plan basic exactly where you’re at on your financial Journey once you filled it out you sent the steps to start getting you results from day one and then once you’re ready you can then move up to the next step very easily too it’s not judgy in any way it’s totally free to do and it’s actually really good fun too simply head down to the show notes and click the link there where it says to do the quiz and get your free money action plan right now now back to the show I think if you were a beginner starting today what would you do is that would you go down that route I I I think I think I

[42:48]

probably would in both the trading world and the investing world I I don’t think like you the Market’s going to be here tomorrow you don’t need to start right this instant I think obviously you would only want to start investing once you got your house in order once you got your debts paid off and all of that kind of stuff and you’ve got money where you can say okay well this I can put into investing and leave it for the period that I’m happy to lead it leave it for so okay once that’s done okay let me learn about it virtual portfolio I’m actually speaking at a um a panel tomorrow doing a doing a workshop uh for a company called Albright and it’s about managing a portfolio so we got a room for of for people uh and I’m going to teach them about how to manage a port folio on the virtual account and we’re going to you know they’re going to pick the stocks not me but we’re going to talk through it all and then the theory is and three four months time I’ll do a

[43:36]

webinar and of course we’ll talk through it and by actually having this session learning about it seeing how you manage it how psychology would you change whether things go up or down I think would be really cool and you know that’s three four months of just pure learning seeing things and you say to yourself at the end of it okay I feel like I’m a bit more ready now to put my actual real funds into this cuz I’ve got the experience of all of that um so yeah I I think if I were starting out right this second educate myself make sure I’m in a position where I can consistently now look to invest and then use that virtual account just to try things out and see what style suits me what risk I’m happy taking that kind of thing do you feel like having an edge in what you invest in is important yeah I think so everyone’s got a niche of what they like and you know if I were to speak to a lot

[44:25]

of my mates I’m playing golf on Saturday I’d say most of them probably now invest but if we go back a few years ago uh and they didn’t I’d say well you know you all like sport name maybe a few sport companies they’d be able to name quite a few that are already public and they probably know about certain companies a lot more than your average analyst yeah you know I’ve got mates that only wear night gear they would know everything about Nik and who the CEO is now who it was before a month ago who the original founder was and what they’re bringing out and what’s their Market presence are are people still wearing like or are they going to exactly bit of a hit and is that you know are people going elsewhere Adidas incredible last sort of 18 months you know if you look around everyone’s wearing what they the Adidas something or others I can’t remember the name sambers everyone’s got a pair of sambers

[45:12]

is they um and I I feel like if you’ve got a niche of something that you like that’s a great place to start doesn’t mean you’re that that if you just go choose one sock it’s going to go well cuz it couldn’t yeah you know might not sorry uh but you’re going to know enough where you can maybe diversify yourself and say okay I know a lot about this company I believe in it I believe in their Market presence their Market sharing and that’s not a bad place to start and also you’ve got a oneup on on something else if you’re going if you don’t have a clue about uh say electric vehicles for example you know it’s going to take more time to learn about that than if it was Sport and I think that’s a good place to start and you’re learning so much on the job they’re doing it that down the line you that you know like I said the Market’s there tomorrow so yeah 100% like I’m heavy Financial Tech e Commerce because I live and breath it there you go exactly and

[46:01]

there and there’s there’s so many different companies within that isn’t there you know you name a subject there’s there’s a public company related to that oh yeah you know really is and I’m very much on the side of investing where I pick the company that I think is the leader in 10 years yeah yeah yeah so I’m not necessarily worried too much about how it’s going to do three months who cares yeah even if it has a 40 50% drop I’m like cool absolutely just keep adding cuz I’m like the balance sheets are great I’m looking it out and actually it’s a quite a good question actually like everyone say like oh you know learn about earnings reports and picking stocks how do you you approach this because you obviously I’ve been on the training side you do the investing side how do you approach earnings report I’m I’m not a massive earning report

[46:50]

lover in that they come out every quarter anyway yeah you know like what am I going to learn of one report it’s I I think you’ve got to look at Trends yeah I’m looking at Trends I’m looking at Trends one bad report doesn’t make it a bad company and for the most part if it’s a good company it has a bad quarter there’s probably a reason behind that slow down in China or um you know just interest rates have changed and you know if you’re looking for the whole for the long term one quarter should never really change your opinion on the stock unless there’s a fundamental massive change yeah uh like say if you’re in Boeing and then they have all this court case and stuff and then fine right whatever but they’re probably still going to recover um so I I I’m looking at Trends I’m looking how it’s performed over the last year I might look at this quarter um earnings report and say okay what’s their you know different ratios

[47:40]

and how are they trending what’s their revenue doing what’s their market share doing and is it still heading in the right direction and if I super if I really like the stock and it drops 20% I’m loading up um so you know I work closely with someone called Matti Alon who’s our editor and Chief and he used to run his own head Fund in in the states and lived in La he’s living the dream he’s uh incredible person to work with incredibly knowledgeable he’s a value investor and he’s value investor so looks at the market different way to I do but I pick up so much from him in that he really look at things out at the end of the year so his portfolio he would be like okay I need a whole year to actually see whether anything has really changed before I make a decision so yeah cuz some of those guys are moving at a snail’s pace right yeah but I mean it works for him and I think that’s another point is that that’s his

[48:27]

way doing every year they’re creeping up that’s like the J&J VI isn’t it exactly and you know for him that’s his Edge that’s the way he trades so if uh a new stock breaks out H or like a crypto moves higher he doesn’t care about that he doesn’t care about someone who made 20% in day he doesn’t care because he’s doing you know things his way and I think people do need to understand that as well you don’t necessarily want to be a jack of all trades you want to have your Edge the areas and markets that you like like you said and and and that’s what you can do yeah for sure diversify elsewhere but uh find what works works for you but yeah on the earnings reports you know I will you know for example Netflix coming out later this week I’ll look at that see what what happens but if I like the company it’s going to take a lot for me to consider not still being in that company going have bad quarters three months anything can happen so how

[49:14]

are you setting up then because you mentioned index funds yeah and you mention that you’re getting into lots of different you know things from small to medium to long term yeah how are you then proportioning some of this so you splitting up by percentage or yes yeah so generally speaking at at the moment I enter a stock I won’t really have more than say 5% on my portfolio in that one stock yeah so it might be that you know between three and 5% 5% if I really believe it’s it’s you know top conviction for me if it’s a little bit below that or maybe a higher risk but more reward it might be a two three percenter so I have generally speaking it might be sort of 10 to 15 stocks at a time that I I uh okay total holding yeah don’t really go much over that it just gets hard to manage

[50:01]

hard to manage but I also I’m very well aware that someone listening to this go well what about that stock what about these other 20 stocks that have gone up 200 300% objects yeah I don’t care about it because I’m the way I’m doing it is the way I’m doing it I believe in compound interest like and I know you’re big big fan of all of that as well and you know if you you let the stats do the talking in in the time when I’m ready to to retire and Play Golf and Tennis every single day uh you know the the work will be done for for me so yeah I don’t I don’t want to have a um you know massive portfolio and I think actually for for newer people they might not even be ready to invest one thing I think is really useful on eToro and you don’t need money in your account to do this is look at these incredibly successful po investors what do they do you know how many stocks do they have in their portfolio what is their waiting to each one very rarely you can have someone

[50:49]

with a waiting to a stock over 10% you know how how many stocks do they have how long do they hold these stocks for and you’ll learn so much from that yeah how are they moving in and out throughout the year and yeah and September was a great month in the market this year it’s usually it’s bad if you look at a lot of these popular investors or you look at the stats behind September yeah it’s usually a really bad month for you know risk your asset yeah um so you see these Trends and you can play off that but you know if I were to start playing golf tomorrow I’m going to look at videos of Tiger Woods I’m going to look at you know the pr exactly not just going go out there just try without ever learning anything yeah it was a big big part of How I Learned was watching like a good handful of of investors on each like what were you

[51:35]

doing yeah while you’re doing it like you said with the feed post they explain all of that stuff as well so they do and it was really cool to see that you know back in the day when I first started you know I just like bought Microsoft cuz it’s like oh buy some blue chips and buy a few funds and that’s what I did and it you know they’ve done great and I still have them to this day but then I was like now I want to know like oh like I want to try and find because everyone’s like says you know it’s always fun when you pick the Amazon of the future just goes and goes and goes it just goes and goes and goes and my Amazon and markof have just gone and gone and gone which is fantastic but then you kind of go what’s next what’s next yeah um and you get interested in it and some but some people don’t and I think there like which is totally cool exactly right like you can just buy your funds crack on with your marry life and go back to day

[52:24]

me and you on the other hand like getting geeky you Amplified yeah play on words but um uh by tenfold for you but it’s you know if you enjoy it go for it yeah 100% and don’t go all in yeah don’t go in you know if I liked say sports where for example you know I would say okay I’m going to look at Nik Lulu Lemon Adidas on holding I’m going to look at all of these companies and line them up and say which ones do I maybe prefer but I’m not just going to go all in one it might be I have a selection cuz the one I choose might not be the best option as well and I think that could be quite a useful thing to do is yes you want to be able to pick those winners and to get your Nvidia of now you got hold for a long period yeah you know that you know do I think Nvidia is going to be high in 10

[53:11]

years most likely it’s mad you know and then so you’re going to have some people that are bought you know three four five years ago and oh good I didn’t by the time they this podcast comes out they have Trump’s Apple from where it was like a couple of years ago they were nowhere near incredible incredible Rise um and that you know we do you hold it do you I I uh I I’ve only got a small part of the original position I had in all honesty I pulled out probably last year cuz I was like this is too much yeah exactly and and and that can be quite tough yeah 100% And I think what can be very you know for example I’ve got a stock in my portfolio at the moment which is up 230% which is great what I’ve done recently is I’ve taken some of that position off the table and now I say

[53:58]

whatever happens with this I don’t care it’s I’ve already made money on it even if it was to go to zero I’ve made money on it see where it is in 10 years I’m not going to touch it no interest now and if it goes up and it keeps going the way I do think it will great I made more money but yeah fingers crossed oh we have to chat off there about is yeah um you obviously finger on the pulse lots of things going you’re getting some information from some of the top people in World um what kind of Trends are you looking at at the moment I I think for anyone involved in the markets the the two that are going to stand out are going to be AI and crypto and and I I I looked at crypto you know when I first sort of really came across it with an interest would it probably been 2017 2018 um and I remember speaking to

[54:48]

someone a couple years after that 2019 or 2020 about it and they said something that’s always stuck with me and I really believe in what they said is that crypto now is like what the do was like tech stocks were you’re going to have your apples your apples your Amazon your apples and Microsoft that will go up 20 years later and really be there and they incredible returns cryptos like that now where if we fast forward 10 15 20 years some of the top assets will remain and they will just be light years ahead of where we are but a lot won’t you know like your pets.com and stuff like that obviously didn’t you know make it to what they are now um so crypto I still think think it’s got legs to really run and move AI is obviously something we talked about earlier and I think is is is something where we’re still in the first Innings of a full quarter game you

[55:36]

know we’re really still so early um and I think that’s why it’s been quite an extravagant rise though do you feel like it’s yeah I I I I feel there’s there’s going to be new companies within AI that we haven’t even heard of that are going to come out of nowhere they’re going to be the new Googles exactly they really are um and that’s why I think diversification within this industry will be key um I also think right now I do like China I do and there will be people shouting at the screen I feel like they they’ve obviously chucked some stimulus I think they’re going to do more I think they’re going to stick with it it’s come so low that I think there are some good opportunities there it’s not me saying I’m going to put a 5% on a stock or 20% on an ETF it’s do you have worry about like the macroeconomics and the sort of political warfare that’s

[56:24]

going on I do but I Al feel like a lot of that has been priced in and I also think with the the sort of time Horizon for how long I would be looking to hold I could weather a little bit of more negativity anyway yeah um if if you were to say to me you got Chuck 100% of all your money on on an area near the low the bottom end of the list China but I also feel like the reward is good and actually the risk isn’t as big uh right now as as it has been has been yeah also like healthcare I think healthcare is interesting area uh Renewables too I think uh you know depending on who wins the US election I think certain companies will will do do well there as well yeah there’s a lot to like in healthcare I think yeah absolutely I mean you just have to look at what is it

[57:12]

um Novo Nordisk how well they’ve done and you know all these celebrities it’s back to my point about biology yeah it’s the the advancements in that space from both food and Healthcare perspective is just absolutely insane of you know curing diseases now with a pill that they Tak 10 minutes they have no disease like that’s a real life thing that’s probably going to be one two three years out and then go five years and there’ll be companies that are creating things we can’t even imagine that are new companies and they’re going to be the next Novo a the biggest you know company in Europe and or the us or whatever or the world and yeah yeah 100% like um I know I mention him probably every podcast but I just think he’s great is Andrew Craig’s got a book uh Our Future Is Biotech and it blew my mind it’s like we’re going to have these

[58:01]

little like things on our desks which are microchip computers and it’s just like a living organism it’s absolutely insan area that is uh is fascinating and I think if anyone you know wants to get geeky go down that route oh yeah yeah um but also you can just invest in the S&P and the global and you’re going to massively benefit from these companies too yeah you’re going to beat inflation you’re going to build build it up you’re going a compound over time and yeah and you don’t need to be a genius for that you know Warren said most people should just get a Tracker and into it you know well they couldn’t beat him yeah exactly that have six different tries and they couldn’t beat him on the tracker fund so it makes a big big difference I think so yeah mate I’ve Loved this have we missed anything do you think is there anything we’ve not gone through that uh you you

[58:48]

know you would love to sort of bring up today I mean we can talk about how Arsenal are going to win the Premier League this year but I’m not sure how many people listening to this would we care too much about that but this is the year we’re going to um but uh no I mean it’s been it’s been fascinating it’ll be interesting to catch up again in the future and you know you can come on our our our podcast great youone yeah absolutely that would be fantastic you know can talk about it from a US perspective as well on the platform but also your your career now which is going strength to strength by the way so and you mate it’s great to see like you know I love talking to people that just have that kind of same mindset and it’s you know not all of my mates are into it so you know one I can get a little bit geeky and have a little chat yeah exactly yeah it’s great man um but yeah thanks mate where can people find you uh

[59:37]

LinkedIn Sam North you’ll be able to uh connect me connect with me there uh Twitter if you don’t mind the odd football meme Sam North7 you can catch podcast is uh Digest Invest by eToro and you’ll be able to find that wherever you get your uh your podcast I love it it like just every now and then just I pop it on walk in the dog get my little cat upop like oh yeah cool that’s happening I didn’t think of it like this and it’s just it’s nice to keep your finger on the P it’s just another opinion right yeah exactly but it’s not done from like a like preachy way at all it’s like oh this is fun you know kind of look at things and uh you have some fantastic guests on there as well so yeah thank you very much yeah man all right thanks very much manate pleasure been great to be on wow what a conversation that was with Sam North

[60:25]

from eToro I loved it from start to finish he was just dropping bombs and some interesting things coming out of his mouth about China as well woo China and look guys I hope you enjoyed this episode make sure you’re subscribed next week and we’ll see you next Wednesday catch you on the next one peace