With a new year upon us, we thought we’d look back at the most popular questions investors have been asking over the past year. Here are the most popular investor tips for 2017:

Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs)

ICOs made a big splash in 2017. With the Bitcoin boom and subsequent introduction of other cryptocurrencies, Initial Coin Offerings created quite a buzz among individual and institutional investors. While ICOs can be an exciting and legitimate investment opportunity, but cutting-edge technologies associated with these offerings can make them subject to risks of fraud. Check out our past blog on ICOs for red-flags to avoid when considering this type of investment. Find out more about ICOs here.

Robo-advisers

The availability and use of robo-advisers has been steadily increasing throughout many investment platforms as online trading and investing continues to grow. Robo-advising platforms allow investors more direct control over their portfolios and are often available at lower costs than traditional adviser services. Find out more here.

Knowing Your Order Types

When buying or selling a stock or security through a brokerage firm, you should be able to understand the different order types associated. You can read more about different order types here.

Securities-based Crowdfunding

This form of crowdfunding allows the general public to invest in start-up companies at an early stage. Investors are essentially able to invest with a company at the ground-floor, while it is still in the capital-raising stage. However, there are limits to how much you can invest in securities-based crowdfunding opportunities in a calendar year. Read more about investment-based crowdfunding here.

Celebrity Endorsements

We’ve all seen ads for products featuring celebrity endorsements and it’s no different with investment-based products. While celebrity endorsements are meant to lend credibility to a product, it by no means ensures a product’s legitimacy or usefulness. This is especially true with investment products. Find out more here.

Understanding the New T+2 Settlement Cycle

The SEC shortened the standard settlement cycle from T+3 to T+2. The change affects most investment transactions done through a brokerage firm. Find out more here.

What is Robo-advising?

We’ve talked before about using robo-advisors to facilitate trading and help investors organize portfolios, but here’s a quick recap: robo-advisor services are billed as low-cost, user-friendly systems that encourage first-time and novice investors to take a hands-on approach to growing their investment portfolio. Robo-advising allows investors to make investment decisions and transact deals via automation (meaning little to no interaction with a human advisor).

The Wells Fargo ‘Intuitive Investor’

Wells’ robo-advising plartform, dubbed ‘Intuitive Investor‘, is the 3rd automated platform offered by a major Wall Street brokerage. Bank of America and Raymond James Financial both launched their own services earlier this year. Intuitive Investor allows first-time investors to begin with relatively low capital risk and comparatively low commissions. Opening an account requires a minimum $10,000 investment and offers advisory fees at a half of a percent annually.

Tips if you’re considering opening a robo-advising account:

While robo-advising does offer you more individual oversight and control over your investments, that also comes with an increased responsibility to practice smart, secure investing. Automation can be great, but an increased reliance on computers for file storage and transaction comes with increased risk of cyber attack. It’s even more important for you to closely track your portfolio and transactions if you’re going to use a robo-advisor. Contact your brokerage immediately if you notice anything out of the ordinary in your account. Depending on your investment goals, it may also be in your best interest to maintain the services of a traditional investment advisor for either part or all of your portfolio.

Investor Resources

For more info on managing your portfolio using a robo-advisor, check out the SEC’s full investor bulletin. Read more about Wells Fargo’s robo-advising platform here.