A few months ago I decided to try Wealthsimple trade was hoping to get a free stock. I have used Wealthsimple invest for a few years this is the app where I don't do anything and just leave my money with them. I have had great returns even currently while the stock market is down I am receiving more than 15% return on my RRSP and 5% on my TFSA. If you use this referral link for Wealthsimple invest you will get free management fees.
I thought it would be fun to try Wealthsimple trade so I could learn how to trade myself knowing that I probably would not be able to get a better return than 15% this is for my learning experience. I really did not know much about stocks I invested $100 I wanted to see what would happen fully expecting that I would lose everything and it would be a learning experience. I have since started learning a lot more about stocks by watching Youtube videos and following investors on Instagram. I have invested more into a TFSA account. I never got the free stock from Wealthsimple this is why I opened the account outside of a TFSA and kept my investment at $100. If you use this referral ink for Wealthsimple Trade you should get the cash equivalent of a free stock but some people including me have not received them. I suspect I did not get mine because I already use Wealthsimple Invest. It is a little confusing as they have different apps for different things.
A few years ago a friend made me go to an investment seminar with her. The conclusion at the end of the seminar as these were american investors was the commission fees and taxes in Canada plus every stock at the time was overvalued that it was better to gamble then invest. This was before it was easy to use an app to invest. Another reason that I think investing is now better than gambling is when you invest in a stock you are investing in a company who wants to make money so they want their stock prices to increase and you to make money. When you gamble the casino wants to make money by making you lose your money.
Wealthsimple offers no fees on Canadian stocks and with a TFSA account you can save on taxes so this has really changed the market. Wealthsimple charges high fees for buying and selling US dollar stocks and no fees at all for Canadian stocks. This is why I am only purchasing Canadian stocks while I am learning. When I first chose stocks I did not know that Wealthsimple has good information regarding stats and descriptions of the stocks on the app I just picked stocks out of intuition at the time. I am also an accountant and can read financial statements but they are not easily accessible on the platform and I wanted this to be fun so did not do any external research.
I took a look at the top 100 Canadian stocks that Wealthsimple has on the app it is very easy to buy, sell, and transfer money on the app. It is also easy to add stocks to a watchlist so you can follow the stocks for without buying them. I did this for a couple of days then I started to purchase.
August 28 - $37.43 AW.UN - at the time I didn't know there was descriptions I thought I was buying A&W the fast food chain which I like and expecting some growth because they are innovative with vegan options. Now knowing how to read description this is an income fund that invests in A&W trademarks. It is also a yield of 3.89% which means it pays dividends. When I bought it I did not know this.
August 29 - $34.10 MMED - I am not sure how I determined to buy this as I still didn't know how to read descriptions at the time. I probably just determined that a medical company was a good investment.
August 29 - $19.40 GDNP - I think I did see a description for this one and the company promotes plant based packing and products. I believe plant based products will excel in the next few years.
August 30 - $8.64 GDNP - The price went down a little since the previous day so I bought some more.
September 1 - $25.14 ABX - This is gold and gold over time has usually gone up
September 1 - $9.75 PBIC - This is another example of not knowing how to read description at the time as I thought plant based investment corp would invest in plant based business. It is an investment company.
How did I buy stocks for more than $100? My plan was to to sell when a stock made a few dollars. I have since learned it is better to look at percentage than dollar amount and now my plan is I sell when the stock has made around a 15% return. I sold MMED on August 31 for $36.40 a profit of $2.30 in one day. The the stocks were not really moving my total value stayed around $99 for awhile.
On October 1 I received a dividend from AW for 0.15 and another one on October 29 for 0.15. Usually people say that dividend stocks are not good for growth but on November 1 I sold this stock for $40.86 for a profit of $3.73 including dividend. I thought it was good for a couple of months.
November 1 - $14.80 K- this is gold and silver I wanted the money to be in a stock and didn't know what else to buy with limited funds I suspect gold is a safe investment. At this time I was investing more in my TFSA and learning a lot more.
November 1 - $13.77 I Hive - I learned about this stock through my research and learning from my TFSA account it is based on blockchain and crypto currencies but less risky than investing in crypto currencies.
November 4 - sold Hive for $16.80 a profit of $3.03 in a few days.
November 4 - $28.04 BB - I heard some news about what blackberry is working on and it made me believe that in the future it will be worth more.
Then went through a few weeks of there not being much change in the stock prices my $100 staring amount was around $103. Currently my total value is $96.15. The markets are experiencing a downturn in part due to fears about new varients and restrictions. Something I didn't know when I purchased the stocks is there is always a big sell off in December as investors take some losses to reduce taxes. I am confident in a few months that my portfolio will be profitable. If you can this is a great time to buy its really like an end of the year sale. I may have bought a few overpriced stocks a few months ago but overall I think I will make a profit in time.
If you have some money that you can afford to live without investing using Wealthsimple is a great learning tool and it is fun. I enjoy looking at my portfolio each day and seeing how the value of the stock has changed. I do not expect this $100 investment to earn me a life changing amount of money but I do expect that I will net more than the 0.05% rate the bank is giving me and I enjoy this much more than dealing with a bank. I will continue to leave the $100 in this account to see how it grows in the future and maybe do future updates.
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