Jürgen Schmitt (@Social-Investor) is a fairly well-known figure in the German financial landscape. He runs JS Media, a leading financial publication in Germany, where he works alongside popular local financial expert Mick Knauff. We asked him a few questions about his trading style and strategy.
Check out Social-Investor’s Stats
75% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
Tell us about yourself. What do you do for a living? What do you enjoy? What about family?
I am the CEO of two companies directly involved in the stock market. Our team also includes Mick Knauff, one of Germany’s most famous stock market figures. Together, we give many lectures on the stock market during “Corona free” periods to encourage Germans to invest more in shares. We also publish numerous stock market letters and are also at home in the direct stock market environment via our second company with our stock market TV “aktienlust.tv.” There, we have also launched the Social Investor channel, a YouTube channel exclusively tailored to eToro. Privately, I am a passionate golfer and enjoy free time with my wife and two children.
Where do you research the instruments in which you invest?
Here we rely on a very well-trained team of analysts who do an excellent job and take a lot of the work off our hands. We have developed a research tool into which we incorporate almost all recommendations and analyses of German language stock market publications, which in turn form the basis of our own research. Based on the motto, “1,000 eyes see more than two or four,” we achieve above-average returns with our recommendations and investments, as well as by concentrating on the really sustainably solid growth companies.
You have been with eToro for a few years now. Did you have any experience in financial investments before joining eToro?
Sure, as described above, we have been at home in the financial environment for over 30 years and have experienced many ups and downs. From this we have gained a valuable wealth of experience which, of course, helps us today to categorise market developments in an objective rather than in an emotional way.
Do you set a specific profit target for each year? How do you achieve the target or how do you plan to achieve it?
It’s a thing with targets. The stock market is unpredictable. We can only always make the best of the circumstances and with a good risk/reward mix, we can achieve above-average returns in the long term. We have always succeeded in doing this in the past and we intend to continue to do so in the future. Across all our activities, we have achieved an average annual return of just under 18% over the past 25 years. We are extremely satisfied with this.
How has eToro changed the way you trade?
What we like about eToro is, of course, the simple and, especially in the stock sector, cheap way of trading — even with smaller amounts. The selection of stocks could be a lot larger, but we hope that there is still room to grow. It is also important for us to give our readers, many of whom have since switched to eToro, an easy way to simply “copy” our strategy. German brokers currently do not offer this alternative. And then the social media component and the exchange with our copiers is also a nice thing.
Have you made any adjustments to your strategy due to the current situation with Covid-19?
Basically, we always adapt our strategy to the respective changes. For example, the pandemic has led to an acceleration of digitalisation, which has provided a huge additional growth spurt for the already strong trend industries. We are, therefore, naturally focusing very strongly on topics such as e-commerce, home office, gaming, IoT, robotics, cloud business, etc.
What are the advantages of being a Popular Investor?
We can prove to our “fans,” readers of our stock market letters and, of course, also to investors who do not know us yet, that we not only provide good recommendations, but we also trade quite well ourselves. For many years, the readers of our stock newsletters have been asking us how we can invest their money. Now, these are available quite simply by copying us. Of course, the monetary incentives for our work are also an advantage in this respect.
Would you like to send a message to your followers?
If investors are looking for speculators who drive a really hot tire, then we are not the right fit for them. We focus our trades on solid growth stocks, precious metals and, with a small portfolio share, cryptocurrencies. In doing so, we try to keep volatility as low as possible and, in the long term, to achieve value growth month after month if possible. Anyone who wants to copy us should not aim for the fast euro or dollar, but for long-term asset growth. Anyone who can identify with this should, as our copier, trust that we will deal responsibly with the fact that so many investors are following and copying us.
Do you recommend reading books about investing and trading?
No. From my point of view this is just money-making. The only book I can recommend is “The Game of Games” by Jesse Livermore, as it explains the psychology of the stock market very well. You can certainly get something out of it for yourself.
Check out Social-Investor’s Stats
75% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.