How to Trade Shares and ETFs on Investfora
A practical guide to buying and selling shares and ETFs through Investfora's trading platform, and what to consider before you start.
What are shares and ETFs?
A share is a small piece of ownership in a company. When you buy a share, you own a tiny fraction of that business. If the company does well and grows, the value of your share may go up. If it struggles, the value may fall. You can also sometimes receive dividends, which are payments the company makes to its owners from its profits.
An ETF is short for Exchange Traded Fund. It is a bundle of many shares or other assets packed together in one thing you can buy and sell like a single share. For example, one ETF might hold shares in fifty technology companies, or fifty banks, or fifty oil companies. Another might hold gold or bonds.
Both shares and ETFs are traded on markets, which means their prices change all day long as people buy and sell them. You can buy and sell whenever the market is open. This is different from a fixed-term deposit, where your money sits locked away for an agreed time at an agreed rate.
How Investfora's trading works
When you open an Investfora account, you transfer euros by bank transfer using a reference shown in your dashboard. That money becomes your Investfora cash balance. From there, you choose what to do with it. You can move some into a fixed-term deposit, some into business lending, some into crypto, and some into a trading account with our broker.
Your trading account is funded from your Investfora cash. Once you have funded it, you can trade on the broker's platform. You can buy and sell currencies, indices, shares, ETFs and commodities. The platform works on Windows, on Android, or through a web trader that opens inside your Investfora account. You can open it whenever you want to check prices or make a trade.
Each investment you make is held separately and shown on its own screen in your dashboard. So you can see at a glance how much you have in your trading account, what you have bought, and what each position is worth right now. There is no confusion about where your money is or what it is doing.
Understanding risk and volatility
The value of investments can go down as well as up. When you buy a share or an ETF, its price may fall below what you paid for it. If you sell when the price is down, you get back less than you put in.
Volatility is the word traders use for how much and how quickly a price moves around. Some shares are volatile, meaning their price jumps up and down a lot. Others are steadier. Some ETFs are volatile because they hold volatile shares. Others, holding bonds or gold, move more slowly.
A useful way to think about it is this: money you need in the next month or two should probably not go into shares or ETFs, because the price might be down when you need to sell. Money you are comfortable leaving alone for years has more time to ride out the ups and downs. There is no guarantee of any outcome either way.
Choosing what to trade
The first step is to decide what you want to own. Do you want to own pieces of specific companies? Do you want to own a bundle of companies all at once through an ETF? Do you want to trade currencies or commodities? There is no right answer. It depends on what you understand and what appeals to you.
If you choose individual shares, you are betting on how well a specific company will do. You might read about a company's business, its profits, its plans for growth. You might look at its share price history. You might compare it to similar companies. But remember: even experts cannot predict how a company will perform. Past performance is no guide to the future.
If you choose an ETF, you are spreading your money across many things at once. This means if one company in the bundle does badly, it has less impact on you than if you had put all your money into that one company. ETFs are a way of reducing risk through spreading.
Before you put money in
Ask yourself three questions. First: can I afford to lose this money? If the answer is no, do not put it into shares or ETFs. Put it into a fixed-term deposit instead, where the amount you get back is fixed in advance. Second: how long can I leave this money in?
Look at the price history if you can. See how far up and down it has moved. Imagine what you would feel if the price dropped by half tomorrow. Would you panic and sell, losing money? Or would you hold and wait for it to recover? Your answer tells you something about whether this investment suits you.
Never put all your money into one share or one ETF. Spreading across different things reduces the damage if one of them falls sharply. This is called diversification, and it is one of the few things that makes sense for almost everyone trading.
Trading on the platform
Once you have decided what to buy, the mechanics are simple. You open the trading platform on your device. You search for the share or ETF you want. You see the current price. You enter how many shares you want to buy, or how many you want to sell. You confirm the trade. The transaction happens in seconds, and your position appears in your dashboard.
You can sell whenever you want during market hours. If you bought a share at ten euros and it is now worth twelve euros, you can sell it and take that gain. If it is worth eight euros, you can sell it and accept that loss, or you can hold it and hope it recovers. The decision is yours. You are not locked in.
Keep an eye on your positions. Check the prices sometimes. Think about why you bought each thing and whether that reason has changed. Do not check every five minutes, or you will go mad watching small price moves. But check often enough to know what is happening and to make a reasoned decision if something changes.
Getting started
Opening an Investfora account takes minutes. You provide some basic information and proof of identity. Our team checks everything. Once you are approved, you transfer euros using the reference shown in your dashboard. Your Investfora cash appears immediately.
You can then explore. Look at the shares and ETFs available. Read about them. See how their prices have moved. Get familiar with the platform. Fund your trading account with whatever amount feels comfortable. Start small if you like. There is no pressure to rush or to bet big.
Investfora is authorised and supervised by the CNMV, Spain's financial regulator, under register number 244. We are here to provide a platform, not to give you advice. The decisions are yours. The responsibility is yours. But the platform is straightforward, the fees are clear, and your money is held safely. Start when you are ready.
Open an account
Deposit euros when you are ready and choose what they do next. You can start with one thing and add others later.
Written for Investfora, part of LIFT INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT SGEIC SA, CNMV register no. 244. This article is general information, not advice or a recommendation. The value of investments and crypto assets can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you put in.