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A live investing experiment testing whether disciplined active stock selection can outperform passive market investing over time.
The question
Can a regular person, with no formal finance background, use what they’ve learned from books and experience beat passive investing over time?
That’s the question this experiment is trying to answer.
Not with theory.
Not with hindsight.
But with real money, real decisions, and real emotions.
What this challenge is
This is a live, long-term investing experiment using a £10,000.
I’m documenting:
how decisions are made
what goes right and what goes wrong
how emotions show up when real money is involved
what I learn along the way
The aim isn’t to look clever.
The aim is to be honest.
Why I’m doing this
I’m not from a finance background.
Like many people, I learned about investing by:
reading books
following markets
making mistakes
slowly realising how different reality feels from online advice
Most content focuses on outcomes:
big wins
perfect portfolios
confident predictions
Very little shows:
uncertainty
second-guessing
boring stretches
the psychological side of investing
This challenge exists to show what investing actually feels like for a normal person — not an expert, not a trader, not a guru.
The rules of the experiment
To keep this honest and comparable, the challenge follows clear rules.
Starting capital
£10,000
Account
UK Stocks & Shares ISA
Approach
Individual stocks
Long-term mindset
No day trading
Decision-making
Based on research, learning, and judgement at the time
No hindsight edits
No pretending mistakes were “part of the plan”
Contributions
No additional money added
No withdrawals during the experiment
The benchmark
Performance will be compared against passive investing.
The point isn’t to claim passive investing is bad.
It’s widely sensible and hard to beat.
The question is simply:
Can a self-taught, disciplined individual do better over time — or not?
If the answer is no, that’s still a valuable result.
What will be shared publicly
I will share:
portfolio updates at key moments
reasoning behind decisions
reflections on mistakes and behaviour
comparisons against the benchmark
I will not:
give stock tips or recommendations
encourage copying trades
present this as financial advice
This is documentation, not instruction.
What the newsletter is for
Some updates are better explained with context.
The newsletter includes:
deeper thinking behind decisions
lessons learned that don’t fit into short posts
reflections on behaviour, doubt, and patience
what I’m changing (or not changing) as the experiment progresses
It’s written for people who want to understand the process, not just the result.
What success looks like
Success isn’t just a number.
This challenge is successful if:
it shows the reality of investing honestly
it helps beginners feel less alone
it documents lessons that compound over time
it answers the question fairly — even if the answer is uncomfortable
Beating the market would be interesting.
Learning publicly is the real point.
Who should (and shouldn’t) follow this
This challenge is for you if:
you’re self-taught or just starting out
you want to understand how decisions are made
you value patience over excitement
you’re curious about whether active investing is worth the effort
It’s probably not for you if:
you want fast results
you’re looking for signals or tips
you enjoy high-risk speculation
Follow the experiment
This is a long-term experiment.
There will be quiet periods.
There will be mistakes.
There will be learning.
If you’d like to follow along as it unfolds:
No hype.
No promises.
Just an honest attempt to answer a simple question — properly.
