Member Info for Crescendo

Many thanks for your response TD. I absolutely agree re this site and ADVFN too - mostly people sounding off. I use Stockopedia which is worth every penny many times over.
As I have said I am sure everyone reads stuff about the shares in their positions and watch lists especially when considering whether to hold or sell. My aim is to gather all that data in one place plus my learning and thoughts in a diarised journal which is searchable by word. That way I look this stuff up only once and tag it in my journal. Anyway I have a couple of packages in mind and am going to give it a go. Much better than looking the same stuff up time and time again. Happy investing Chris

Thanks for looking at this post but sadly no comments. What do you record each day on your portfolio and watch lists? Nothing, just prices, future intentions, frustrations, learnings, the weather - what? ...and how do you do it - text, package etc? I am sure many would be most interested to know.

I am relatively new to investing with an account at IG. I am finding it difficult to keep a track of the information I am collecting on holdings and watch lists – not just the numbers but targets, comments from sites like Stockopedia, Investors Chronical, reports on research Tree and my thoughts and notes on positions too. At the moment I seem to be looking up the same stuff again and again. I need to keep a journal each day which is searchable to gather all the notes data and comments in one place on each share. Do others on here do that and if so, what do you use? I am not looking for an Excel spreadsheet but a diary where links, text and anything else can be stored like in a searchable database. Help please. Chris

I have been with A J Bell for a year and am very unhappy. Here is why:
The site is a dog – times out after 15 minutes and nothing you can do about it – tired of logging in and seeing that sad lady with a cup of tea looking out the window
You just get a menu, so it is double click on everything – no news or detail on home page.
Company look up is tedious, you have to enter all name, no ticker and no memory of past searches
Poor research and added value most of which is third party
Print out of portfolio is limited and does not reflect sequence of your columns
I suspect the spreads are not competitive but cannot prove it as don’t have a comparison
Price per trade is OK but so are many others
Often can’t buy even a meagre amount of stock but they are small caps so maybe understandable
WORST ISSUES
Over recent weeks the site has been inaccessible for long periods with no reason stated
Warning recently that paying back cash is subject to delay – again no explanation
I wrote complaining of last two issues a week ago and have got no reply!
Many seem to be happy but maybe they are not so discerning or don’t trade often
Hope this is helpful. I common with others I am looking for a more responsive and better designed site maybe with better spreads. I have asked for recommendations on here but got no reply. Will definitely second source. ii has been recommended elsewhere for good spreads. In the end one has to use a site for a while to experience how good it is.

Re Which and Trustpilot 5 stars, I suspect leaders like HL and AJB are used by one off buyers on tips from friends or hunches rather than frequent demanding traders so they are happy. Bit like rave reviews of people who go (or used to go) to the Maldives raving about the hotel they went to as a one off for their honeymoon - well they would wouldn't they, rather than people like me who have been numerous times - those were the days. BTW I have heard good things about ii especially their spreads. Pricing keen and fair too. One can only really tell how good these sites are in reality by using them for a while but the transfers out can be costly.

I have been with A J Bell for a year and am very unhappy. Here is why:
The site is a dog – times out after 15 minutes and nothing you can do about it – tired of logging in and seeing that sad lady with a cup of tea looking out the window
You just get a menu, so it is double click on everything – no news or detail on home page.
Company look up is tedious, you have to enter all name, no ticker and no memory of past searches
Poor research and added value most of which is third party
Print out of portfolio is limited and does not reflect sequence of your columns
I suspect the spreads are not competitive but cannot prove it as don’t have a comparison
Price per trade is OK but so are many others
Often can’t buy even a meagre amount of stock but they are small caps so maybe understandable
WORST ISSUES
Over recent weeks the site has been inaccessible for long periods with no reason stated
Warning recently that paying back cash is subject to delay – again no explanation
I wrote complaining of last two issues a week ago and have got no reply!
Many seem to be happy but maybe they are not so discerning or don’t trade often
Hope this is helpful. I am looking for a more responsive and better designed site maybe with better spreads. Asked on here but got no reply. Will definitely second source.

I have only been trading for about a year and use A J Bell. One only gets to really evaluate a platform by using it and recently the experience has not been good. They have been slow to access and actually down a number of times in the last few weeks. They have also had issues paying back cash. There is no explanation for this. I don’t need to tell those on here how frustrating and indeed costly that can be. Also, the site is a dog with a home page that is just a menu, clumsy company look up which does not recognise stock market tickers and has no memory. I also suspect the prices which are not live, and the spreads are poor, and one can frequently not buy unless you make an expensive and time-consuming phone call. The site also adds little to no value and trades are not actually that cheap compared to others although I am not looking for the cheapest deal – just a consistent easy to use site with some added value and good buying prices. I certainly need to second source and will probably dump AJB in the long term. Recommendations with your reasons would be most appreciated.