Eli Hoffmann

Covestor and VesTopia: Winners and Losers from Peer to Peer Investing

Thanks for responding Rikki. Looking at your user profile on your site, it seems to me that while I can track your holdings, and individual trades (once I register), I have no way of knowing whether you're a heavy-handed investor or a 'piker' flipping 100-share lots.

Why does that make a difference?

Well for the same reason that David in his erudite post expresses reservations about tracking investors trading fantasy portfolios. Part of what makes a great investor is the ability to keep cool in the face of big-money swings. If my Covestor portfolio can be assembled using 100-share lots, is it all that different from a fantasy portfolio?

Covestor and VesTopia: Winners and Losers from Peer to Peer Investing

This is a brilliant idea. How long did it take you (both) to navigate what surely was an ocean of red tape until you were able to convince brokerages to release this information to you in real time.

One potential item of confusion I can foresee is that active investors often combine long-term trades with short-term or even day trades. Looking at their portfolio from the outside, it might be quite difficult to get to the bottom of what they're actually doing. Will investors be able to annotate their moves?