Hi! Is it really true that you can’t see your portfolio’s performance, for example for a year or YTD, on Nordea’s investing tab, unlike in almost all other investment services, or am I just not finding it?
I would like to learn stock picking. I do know how to buy stocks and I know what ETFs, OST (Equity Savings Account), and AOT (Book-entry Account) are. I understand that if a stock price drops by 50%, it has to rise by 100% to get back to its previous value. I also understand a bit about taxation.
But my stock selection happens without any deep fundamental analysis or technical tools. I did try to use the latter a bit at one point, but my execution and skills felt so shaky that I didn’t want to rely on it. It felt like there was still something essential I should know.
When reading the forum, signals are coming from all over the place, and it’s hard to focus on anything essential when you don’t even know what is essential. Does anyone have tips for any good books, courses, articles, videos, etc., through which I could get a good basic understanding of things? Just so I could at least gain the ability to better understand discussions by those who are more knowledgeable.
I have flipped through Saarinen’s “Stock Market Bible” (Pörssiraamattu). It does have some useful content, but it seems to focus more on introducing investment world phenomena and factors than on actual stock picking. (Or should I perhaps read it with more patience and thought?)
I have already made some successful picks—not just tailing forum members—and my net portfolio is (so far) in the black. But if I had to explain exactly how I ended up with those specific picks, I couldn’t provide an answer better than gibberish and hand-waving.
I don’t know if I even managed to phrase this “request for help” correctly. But if someone still understands and is able to guide me in the right direction, that would be great.
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I can relate to your situation, and so I should apologize right away that I can’t really—nor will I even try to—answer your specific question. I’ll just share my own way of investing.
I recognize a similar mindset in myself; I don’t have the ability or expertise to dive deep into the financial figures of my investments, aside from the most basic ones. Of course, a lot depends on your investment style. Personally, I only aim for annual growth in the total dividend amount. When choosing stocks, I mainly look at historical performance in broad terms, and I naturally review the dividend amounts and payout ratios. If I see that the dividend history is healthy and Inderes’ forecasts look good regarding earnings, that’s enough for me to make an investment decision. Of course, the industry and the company need to be familiar enough that I can explain right off the bat what they do and how they make a profit.
I’ve been investing in direct stocks for just over six years, and even with this approach, I’ve achieved a 160% return over that period. So, I’ve managed to convince myself that when you invest in quality companies, they will create value over the long run.
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I personally went as far as returning to the school benches to study finance and accounting. I am currently of the opinion that accounting and financial statement analysis are more useful than finance’s portfolio theory and futures pricing. Even more experienced players mostly operate with financial ratios and income/expense trend lines, since the end result still depends on luck, and skill is mostly useful for avoiding obvious landmines. But it is good to understand how the ratios are calculated yourself and why they are what they are, because of course companies try to “prettify” them in their reporting (for example, the hybrid bond arrangements of real estate firms beautified the balance sheet and, in SBB’s case, hid debt problems). It was also an eye-opening experience to realize what a tight “holy trinity” the income statement, cash flow statement, and balance sheet actually form, whereas previously I had somehow just thought “the cash flow statement gives a better picture of actual cash movement than the income statement”…
The textbooks used in those university courses have generally been very thorough (and as thick as phone books), and I’ve been left with a good impression of them. You can explore university degree programs even without logging in and find information about the related reading lists (Aalto has MyCourses and Sisu). Studying at an Open University is actually cheaper than buying the books, because as a student, you should then have access to all the books through the university’s own online library, and some can even be downloaded to your own computer (anyone can usually walk into a physical library, even if you can’t carry the books out). Then, of course, you can try to Google PDF versions of older editions, but that would be piracy 
But then again, I still don’t understand anything about anything, so don’t expect too much.
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The duo Oksaharju & Hämäläinen has written books that can be found in quite a few libraries (if you have access to them), in which the basics are covered. Heikki Keskiväli also has a book out there, but I don’t have experience with it.
It’s also good to remember that even a dart-throwing monkey can succeed in stock picking. And this can also be applied by other primates (e.g., homo sapiens). Personally, I’ve used dart throwing for quite successful stock picking 
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Since you have already read Saario’s “Stock Market Bible” (Pörssiraamattu), I will give a few book recommendations.
If you want to read Finnish investment books, I most recommend Heikki Keskiväli’s book - Tähtäimessä osakkeet. It has a lot of good information, but above all, its best lesson is that it teaches through examples how to read interim reports, income statements, cash flow statements, etc. This is essential knowledge for a fundamental investor; otherwise, you won’t get anything out of interim reports.
Next, I recommend reading Burton Malkiel: A Random Walk Down Wall Street. In my opinion, this is one of the most comprehensive general investment books.
If you want to become a fundamental-based investor, I’ll give two more book recommendations, which I think are the best investment books: Philip Fisher - Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits (a foundational work on quality investing, which for example Warren Buffett has praised; in my opinion, the best investment book ever written, but of course, I have only read ~20 investment books). The second recommendation is Peter Lynch: One Up On Wall Street. This falls into almost the same category as Phil Fisher’s book.
Even one of these books is an excellent start, and if you can manage to read all four, I think you’ll be on very solid ground in fundamental investing.
I don’t really know technical analysis in depth; my own buying decisions are usually fundamental-based. However, I have watched enough of Trader’s Club on Nordnet’s YouTube channel to know how to use the 200 daily SMA (200-day moving average for the stock price) and I aim to buy / add when the stock is below the 200-day moving average. Usually, that is an excellent buying spot for quality stocks.
And if you are looking for YouTube channel recommendations, Joseph Carlson is excellent in my opinion (he has two channels, Joseph Carlson and the “lighter” Joseph Carlson After Hours). I am very picky with investment content and this is one of the few channels whose videos I watch. A fundamental-based quality investor, lots of good content.
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Thanks for all the responses and especially for those concrete tips! Learning bookkeeping and accounting has crossed my mind too. And let’s put all those book recommendations on the reading list and subscribe to the channels! 
To clarify further, my problem isn’t a lack of faith in my portfolio’s growth potential. It’s not just about the money, but about a desire to gain at least some kind of control over my own actions; a kind of sailing skill on the untamed sea of the markets 
Investing has nonetheless inadvertently become a hobby of sorts for me, so I’d rather make it meaningful than just cross my fingers and hope for the best.
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To add to Housumies’ book list, Howard Marks’ “The Most Important Thing” provides very good general-level tools for conceptualizing things that usually remain vague, such as “risk” and market psychology. Investment literature sometimes has a rather poor efficiency ratio, and you might not always remember much, but I found that one to be exceptionally good.
The whole book also seems to be available as an audiobook on YouTube, but this video summarizes the main points quite well:
In general, it’s worth listening to/watching investment matters on YouTube; in my opinion, it’s the best format for learning. You just have to be very selective about which channels you follow, and when there is a lot of information, you have to use plenty of self-control (you don’t have to swing at every pitch - Warren Buffett).
The same applies to the forum: it’s not worth copy-trading anyone because even if the theses are correct, you cannot copy the “conviction,” and then you won’t know how to act when a stock rises or falls.
Joseph Carlson is perhaps the best single investment YouTuber, as Housumies also mentioned. I have followed him for years, and he has a really good track record. In this relatively fresh video, he goes through the basics of portfolio management and stock selection.
I actively follow a couple of others as well. This French guy with a funny accent goes through the most common mistakes quite excellently—every one of which I have made myself when starting out (such as over-diversification, buying value traps, and borrowing conviction from whichever guru).
His investment style is similar to Carlson’s, meaning he seeks quality for his portfolio (well-steered companies that grow predictably and possess moats). There are many good videos for beginners there, e.g., regarding portfolio structure and stock selection criteria.
Traders Club’s Lepikkö is exceptionally well-informed about US politics and macro drivers; he’s worth following (he was, for example, pretty much 100% correct in predicting the bottom of the tariff dip). But it’s not worth following or churning trades based on these; rather, listen to them as a kind of short/medium-term weather forecast.
Excessive scrutiny of macro issues is almost useless anyway, or sometimes even harmful, because there’s always some good macro reason to make bad investment decisions. Buying truly great companies at a reasonable price and then strictly sitting on your hands and ignoring all kinds of short-term noise is generally a proven strategy in the stock market.
Finally, I recommend using AI; in my opinion, Gemini is the best. You basically have a sparring partner with a 150 IQ to discuss portfolio composition and investment ideas. You can also link YouTube videos to Gemini and ask it to summarize them or ask how, for example, a certain stock in your portfolio fits into this thesis, etc.
You can even provide your own portfolio to Gemini with the stocks and weightings and ask if the geographical diversification is somehow completely perverse or if the portfolio looks “professionally” assembled. It gives fairly honest answers, especially if you present it as if it’s not your portfolio but you’re asking on behalf of a friend so you can provide suggestions for improvement (this way there’s less flattery).
But don’t take its words as gospel; use your own common sense, and with AI, you also need to know what you are looking for—meaning what your own investment goals are.
Edit.
Oh, and investing in a World index with steady time-diversification is boring and simple, but it is not stupid.
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Warren Buffett has said that investing is simple, but hard. He is said to be able to tell in a very short time using just a few key figures whether he is interested in an investment. He himself has said that it is important to know how to say no, and he further encourages approaching stock buying with great care, advising to think before every purchase as if you had a 20-slot punch card. Personally, I would say you should approach buying with the same seriousness as any other purchase made for the same amount of money.
Buffett has said that you need to be systematic. In practice, this means he organizes opportunities into a “ranking order” and buys the best or the best ones. I think it would help your problem if you scored the opportunities and ranked them.
I’ll return to the point that investing is simple, but hard. The ultimate purpose of investing is to get a return. In all its simplicity, return can be achieved in two ways.
- An increase in the value/price of the share and you sell it for more
- Dividends
Again, in all its simplicity, the price can grow in the long run for two reasons.
- The company’s earnings grow
- Multiples grow, meaning the future expectations for the company rise / people are willing to pay more for them
- The dividend rises
This leads to the summary that if point 1 is realized and earnings grow, everything else can follow suit.
I have a habit of asking myself the question: why are earnings growing? If I can’t answer that easily in a few words, the investment isn’t worth making. If earnings don’t grow, multiple expansion is unlikely, as is dividend growth. Even if the dividend were to grow, maintaining it at a higher level is unlikely. At the latest, when it falls, the share price falls. In my opinion, a stock whose earnings do not grow is not worth owning.
Well, from here we move forward simply. If a company’s earnings are growing, you can qualify it for the list (say yes), otherwise say no.
Make a list of the candidates.
1 Rank them based on valuation, for example P/E or EV/EBITDA
- Give the most points to the lowest valuation, and the least to the highest.
2 Rank the investments by growth, for example, PEG. - Evaluate growth critically.
- In the long run, companies usually grow at the rate of GDP (GPD), which is about 3%.
- If growth is above this, it’s an excellent thing, but consider when it will return to normal and why.
- Rank the investments by return on capital
- The metric can be ROE or ROIC
- The stock market/index yields 6-8% over the long term; how can your company yield more than that in the long run if its capital does not currently exceed it?
- Saario’s book advises investing in a company whose ROE is over 12%; I think this is a good rule, as it provides a small margin during weak years and can still outperform the average stock market.
- So, if ROE is under 12, you can say no.
- Debt
It’s difficult for a company to go bankrupt without debt. Rank the investments based on debt. Say no to over-leveraged companies.
Those are four metrics with which you can rank investments and act systematically. You get a “ranking list” from which to then dive deeper.
Another option is model portfolios/lists, one of which is definitely the Inderes model portfolio. Other options can be found if you want them in Finnish, for example from Piksu: Analyysit
My advice is to build your own systematic approach for selection.
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I’ve been trying to look into reclaiming withholding tax on dividends from German stocks.
How have you created an account on the German side to be able to apply for tax refunds?
I found the BZSt online.portal site, but every registration step required some kind of German ID, which I obviously don’t have.
At the bottom, there is a mention that “Authorities, foreign individuals, or foreign companies can register with the Bundeszentralamt für Steuern,” but I couldn’t find any registration path there either 
Any tips related to this would be greatly appreciated! 