The Beginner's Path
Seven short stops, in the order that makes each one easier than the last - from 'what even is a share?' to a practice portfolio you can hold in your hand. Your progress lives on this device only; there's no account and nothing to sign up for.
What a share actually is
A share is a small slice of a real business - not a lottery ticket, not a line on a chart. Get this one mental model right and everything else follows.
Price is not value
A £100 share isn't 'expensive' and a £2 share isn't 'cheap' - what matters is what you get per pound. This is the P/E idea, and it's simpler than it sounds.
Meet the fund
One purchase can spread your money across hundreds or thousands of companies at once. For most beginners this is the single most useful thing on the whole site.
Fees quietly compound
A 1% yearly fee sounds like nothing. Over decades it can quietly eat a surprising slice of your outcome - see it in actual pounds with your own numbers.
Wrap it in an ISA
A stocks-and-shares ISA is just a tax wrapper: what grows inside isn't taxed. Same investments, less friction - worth understanding before anything is real.
Read one real explainer
Pick a company you actually know - the shop you visit, the phone in your pocket - and read its full plain-English page. Numbers make sense when the business does.
Build a practice pie
Put it together: sketch a pretend portfolio and let the pie X-ray reflect back what you've built - concentration, gaps, balance. No sign-up, nothing real, all on this device.
Done with all seven? The Discover shelf and the head-to-head comparisons are good next wanders - at whatever pace suits you.