New to Stocks and Shares ISA- Profit Query

[Dobbysocks]

I’m new to stocks and shares ISAs this year. Having used my cash isa to save for most of my adult life over the last 15 years.

I’ve kept an emergency fund in the cash isa and transferred the rest into a trading 212 stocks and shares. (£24k)

I have been investing £500 per month and can afford to continue doing so. But I’ve seen very little gain due to the volatility as a result of events in the Middle East.

I know all the basics of keep it in, keep investing, don’t crystallise the loss by moving when it’s down.

But my question is do you not start to ‘see’ the gains until around 5 years since investing. Or do you see some gains along the way, market dependant?

I’ve got another £37k in premium bonds and wondering whether to move these over too. (I’m currently on £1000 profit in 2026 on premium bonds vs £60 in my stocks and shares isa) But feel atm I may as well leave them where they are seeing as they’re gaining in the meantime.

Premium bonds are not a sound investment choice. You might be very lucky and win the premium bond lottery (which is all it is). Reality is you will probably lose money compared to a normal savings account.

The only people who should even vaguely be contemplating premium bonds as a holding place for their money is higher/top rate tax payers who have used up their full isa, pension and tax free savings interest allowances. Otherwise you're just playing a bunch of everlasting lottery tickets.

Thanks for this. Yes everything was maxed out last tax year. Won’t be this year so have scope to move some of that money over to the stocks and shares ISA. Think I’m just erring on caution as it’s been a wild ride so far for my first 4 months investing!

I have a mix of ETFs and managed international investment trusts. The managed trusts are more risky, and can swing more, but can bring much better returns if you pick well / are lucky. Definitely stop checking prices on the daily. Once a year is fine in my experience. God knows how the market will perform in the mad times we're living through, but my theory is if it all goes to the sort of shit that means stock markets around the world crash completely, savings (or lack of) will be the least of our worries.

Your investment strategy is sensible OP, just try not to get into the habit of checking it.

FWIW I started mine 10 years ago also investing monthly and I'm up 25% which is incredible really. Similar ETFs to you.

My "strategy" if you can call it that is set and forget. If I lose money on the FTSE or S&P we've got bigger problems than an ISA so those are the majority of my money

I also have some gilt, which did very well during Brexit, and I have since then transferred into FTSE/S&P and stopped adding to it. I'm actually thinking now of jigging things about and starting to drip money in again.

I also have some emerging markets, Japan and REIT investments. But the bulk is still the big 2.

You’ll see any gains or losses from right away, I’m 13% up over the last 12 months on my Global index tracker and 2% down on a new ( February) investment of a ‘balanced’ mixed asset fund.
It’s not linear like savings interest, it’s more akin to gambling. The average over the last century is 8% but there have been a few periods of 20-40% losses, losses are usually recovered within a couple of years if you are diversified.

My total investments are currently running at:

+3.45% since the start of this tax year (noise in the signal rather than reliable growth, with it only being a matter of days; but it shows you don't have to wait long to see profit)

+9.65% since the start of the 2025 tax year

+46.22% since the start of the 2021 tax year

That’s an amazing return over 5 years!

This year (2026) has been bumpy however global markets are up 30% since this time last year. Investing isn’t a quick thing or even a short term thing but across the last 50 years global markets have gone up on average 10% a year

You can keep checking daily and what you will see is some days it’s up and some days it’s down. Often way down. The trick is not to panic and leave it be. Over time - 5 yrs as a minimum but realistically 15 yrs+ - the longer the better, you should hope to see overall growth. Your account will show daily change and overall % change vs the initial amount invested. That’s the one to look at long term. Best advice is to put it away and forget about it for a few years.

Placemarking

Before you start do some research. Otherwise start with a robo investor or pre-made portfolio. It requires long term strategy in building a portfolio and managing it. On trading212 you have the option you copy other’s investments, use pre-made pies by giants such ad Black rock or individual stocks. You can have combination of all of the above within single ISA/Investment account with different risk levels and balances and goals. Mine is a mix of premade portfolio, very diversified ETF, a bond portfolio and a small pot of very high risk stocks
Overall rate of return is 33%. This is incredibly high and takes time but it is also very volatile - my stocks alone have 40% return but I have had them dip to -20%. You will never see consistent growth only and these are usually followed by dips. Investment should be long term at least 5-10 years so you can time buying and selling to maximise growth and minimise loss. If you are highly averse to risk and depending on your age I would suggest not using T212. If your goal is shorter term, the risk should be lower. A lot of the investments in T212 are higher risk and personally I find it harder to build bond portfolio there that beats current cash savings rates. Wealthily and other robo advisers have more options on that.

I have a stocks and shares ISA with Trading 212. My ISA is growing nicely. I have mainly American tech 80 percent plus Standard Life and Legal and General for dividends, and Barclays and Lloyds banks. The footsie 100 traditionally rises but with RR in office things have slowed down so you won't be seeing much growth there. My Device would be to diversify your shares, so as you add money pick a few different shares in a sector that is rising. Don't sell shares when they are down or you take an actual loss. If you are patient most shares will rise eventually. Sell when they are high. I know shares go up and down but my pot of £8k is s&s ISA has increased by over £400 since April 6th.

I was quite late to the stocks and shares ISA and started about 4 years ago, it's definitely been worth it for me as I'm up about 20% since I started. I've not added to my cash isa since. I also have premium bonds and not had the luck you've had at all, so I'm going to gradually move that into my ISA.

@caringcarer The footsie 100 traditionally rises but with RR in office things have slowed down so you won't be seeing much growth there.

Except the FTSE100 has had a really strong growth period recently (c. 30% since Labour took office) which outperformed the S&P500 over the same time frame. Not that this has much at all to do with the government in charge at the time.

Also "picking a few shares in a sector that is rising" and "sell when high" is advice to start trading rather than investing. Why would that be appropriate for the OP?

Yeah. The irony in the RR bashing. The ftse 100 was stagnant while tories were in power. And yet in the last 12 months it’s up 28%. But sure let’s attempt to do some RR bashing

My ISA from trading 212 is up 28% in the past year. I have made about 9k this year on my isas with my one on Monzo too. I invest in AI/Tech and the global trackers. I only had invested 35k in S&S and 5k in cash just before and after the cut off last year. so 2 x 20k overall. My isa money is just under 50k now and I changed the 5k cash into S&S with a transfer bonus. I am investing another 20k this week and it will be into more AI/Tech.

My advice was to not sell shares when they were down but to be patient as they will rise again.

Time in the market is more important than timing the market. I don’t know where the quote originated but ‘invest like the dead’…ie invest and forget about it.

I have Fidelity ISA’s and the money is invested in three funds which have grown between 51% and 71% in four years.

@Dobbysocks how refreshing when this is mentioned on here most teachers tell us it is taught in maths !

Some excellent advice on here already but remember as has been said when it's low they are on sale with large diversified business you can't go wrong.

I took out a stocks and shares ISA a few years back and it bombed thats to Trump. It bounced back up amd more and then down again with more Trump twatness. I am in it for the long haul and am 29.5% up on my investment. I also drip a small amount in each month.

It hasn’t ‘bombed’ at all 🙄 Even the S&P500 is only back where it was in September, it’s up 28% on this time last year.
My All World index tracker is up 33% since last April - if that’s ‘bombing’ , I’m thrilled.
Even when everything dropped 20% during the early Covid months, it soon recovered.

Are you talking to me? Yes my Isa bombed in the first year but recovered. I took it out in April 22 and it took until Nov 23 to get level and then it took off. But there have been a couple of big dips thanks to Trump and wars but they recover quickly.

Yup trump cost me about £15k in three weeks last year with his tariff stuff. But it’s now gone back up and gone another 13k past that. You have to not panic and not sell at the first sign of trouble.

Agree