There are abundant of money in the stock market. However, not everybody can get the money out from there. Some people can gain a lot from the stock market but some has lost a lot of money there. It is very indecisive. Sometime at that moment, you loss money but after a few days, you may earn a profit and sometime is reverse. So, how should we do to get the money out from the stock market? Usually, there are two ways to get the money out from the stock market; that are investing and trading. The difference between trading and investing is trading involves buying and selling share, future or option within a short period of time; whereas investing is buying share, future or option and hold it for quite a long time, usually one year or more before selling it.
What is the difference between share, future and option? What we know is that option is much cheaper than the share and future, usually is tenfold lesser than the share price. So, if you have an amount of money that enough for you to buy 100 units share, you can use that amount of money to buy 1000 units option. And the return of investment is almost the same between share and option. Therefore, you will earn around tenfold if you buy option rather than share or future. However, the disadvantage is that if you lose on that trade, you will lose almost tenfold also. When we trade option, the amount of money that we can profit and lose is almost same as if we trade share. However, we need a lot of money to buy share compared to buy option. This causes the percentage of the profit and loss for buying option is much higher than share. The example is like when you buy $10 for one unit of share and $1 for one unit of option. When the share price drops for $0.10, the percent drop for buying share is 1% but for buying option, the percent loss is 10%. That’s why the percentage of the profit and loss for buying option is huge compared to buying share even though the share price fluctuates in a small amount.
Due to the high profit and loss when buying option, trading or investing option is just like gambling. It is quite normal that the return of investment is more than 100%. But it is also quite normal that you could lose all your money in the investment or trading. In order that you can earn more than lose, you need to know some basic option trading strategy and technical analysis. Option is different from the share. Option has time value; whereas, share does not have time value. The value of one share will not depreciate due to the passage of the time. It is only affected by the supply and demand and also the company performance. However, option value will depreciate when the time has passed. When the time reaches to the option expiration date, there is no more time value for that option. That’s why, you need to use strategy to trade option, in order that you can minimize the loss and maximize the profit.
The very basic two option trading strategies are bullish call spread and bearish put spread. Bullish call spread is used when the stock price is anticipated to rise in the coming months; while, bearish put spread is used when the stock price is anticipated to drop in the coming months. Steps that are involved in this strategy are buying in the money option and selling out of the money option. In the money option is the option that has time value and intrinsic value; whereas, out of the money option only has time value. When the stock price moves to the positive side (generated money side), in the money option will generate profit and the out of the money option will cause loss. However, the minus of the profit and the loss is the net profit that has generated from this strategy. When the stock price moves over the out of the money strike price, the profit will become maximized. Continuously moving of the stock price to the positive side will not generate any profit. In this situation, we will close both positions to take the profit out from the market.
If the stock price moves to negative side (opposite side that cause loss), in the money option’s value will depreciate and the out of the money option will generate profit. However, the profit, which is generated from the out of the money, is limited to the price that you have sold. The subtraction between out of the money’s profit and in the money’s loss is a negative value. This is because the profit that is generated from the out of the money option is less than the loss that is caused by in the money option. Out of the money option’s profit is limited in this strategy and in the money option’s loss is unlimited. If the stock price continuously moves to the negative side, you may lose all of your capital. So, what is the difference from buying naked option and buying option using spread strategy? The difference is that you may lose more money if you buy naked option and lose less money if you buy spread. This is because you do not generate any profit when you just buy naked option; whereas, profit is generated from the out of the money option if the stock price moves to the negative side. The disadvantage of the spread is that the commission, which is charged by the broker firm, is double compared to the naked option. This is because, naked option only involves one position; whereas, spread involves two positions. Each position will be charged with commission separately.
Besides, the purpose of selling out of the money option in the spread strategy is to minimize the loss of the time value of the in the money option. Actually, both in and out the money option’s time value would depreciate when the time has passed. Because we do not own the out of the money option; therefore, we can keep the money that we have received from selling that option. When the time value of this out of the money option has depreciated, we used lower price to buy back the option. So, we sell at high price and buy back at low price; therefore, we earn money. The money that we have earned usually is enough to cover the loss of the time value from the in the money option. However, you still lose the intrinsic value of option if the stock price moves to the negative direction.
So, bullish call and bearish put spreads are two of the very basic option trading strategies. However, it is not guaranteed 100 % win from the stock market. You still need to learn to predict the stock price direction accurately using technical, fundamental and news analysis.
posted by Traders University
Tuesday 8 December 2009
Tuesday 17 November 2009
Struggling to Identify the Direction of the Market - Posted by Traders University
If you know the pitfalls of trad¬ing, you can easily avoid them. Small mistakes are inevitable, such as entering the wrong stock symbol or incorrectly setting a buy level. But these are forgivable, and, with luck, even profitable. What you have to avoid, however, are the mistakes due to bad judgment rather than simple errors. These are the “deadly” mistakes which ruin entire trading careers instead of just one or two trades. To avoid these pitfalls, you have to watch yourself closely and stay diligent.
Think of trading mistakes like driving a car on icy roads: if you know that driving on ice is dangerous, you can avoid traveling in a sleet storm. But if you don’t know about the dangers of ice, you might drive as if there were no threat, only realizing your mistake once you’re already off the road.
One of the first mistakes new traders make is sinking a lot of wasted time and effort into predicting legitimate trends. Traders can use very complicated formulas, indictors, and systems to identify possible trends. They’ll end up plotting so many indicators on a single screen that they can’t even see the prices anymore. The problem is that they lose sight of simple decisions about when to buy and when to sell.
The mistake here is trying to understand too much at once. Some people think that the more complicated their system is, the better it will be at “predicting” trends. This is almost always an illusion. Depending too much on complicated systems makes you completely lose sight of the basic principle of trading: buy when the market is going up and sell when it’s going down. Since you want to buy and sell early in a trend, the most important thing to discover is when a trend begins. Complicated indicators only obscure this information.
Remember to keep it simple: one of the easiest ways to identify a trend is to use trendlines. Trendlines are straightforward ways to let you know when you are seeing an uptrend (when prices make a series of higher highs and higher lows) and downtrends (when prices show lower highs and lower lows). Trendlines show you the lower limits of an uptrend or the upper limits of a downtrend and, most importantly, can help you see when a trend is starting to change.
Once you get comfortable plotting trendlines, you can use them to decide when to start taking action. Only after using these early indicators should you start using more specific strategies to determine your exact buy or sell point. Moving averages, turtle trading, and the Relative Strength Index (RSI) are some examples of more complex indicators and systems that are available. But only use them after you’ve determined if the market is trending or not.
Posted by Traders University
Think of trading mistakes like driving a car on icy roads: if you know that driving on ice is dangerous, you can avoid traveling in a sleet storm. But if you don’t know about the dangers of ice, you might drive as if there were no threat, only realizing your mistake once you’re already off the road.
One of the first mistakes new traders make is sinking a lot of wasted time and effort into predicting legitimate trends. Traders can use very complicated formulas, indictors, and systems to identify possible trends. They’ll end up plotting so many indicators on a single screen that they can’t even see the prices anymore. The problem is that they lose sight of simple decisions about when to buy and when to sell.
The mistake here is trying to understand too much at once. Some people think that the more complicated their system is, the better it will be at “predicting” trends. This is almost always an illusion. Depending too much on complicated systems makes you completely lose sight of the basic principle of trading: buy when the market is going up and sell when it’s going down. Since you want to buy and sell early in a trend, the most important thing to discover is when a trend begins. Complicated indicators only obscure this information.
Remember to keep it simple: one of the easiest ways to identify a trend is to use trendlines. Trendlines are straightforward ways to let you know when you are seeing an uptrend (when prices make a series of higher highs and higher lows) and downtrends (when prices show lower highs and lower lows). Trendlines show you the lower limits of an uptrend or the upper limits of a downtrend and, most importantly, can help you see when a trend is starting to change.
Once you get comfortable plotting trendlines, you can use them to decide when to start taking action. Only after using these early indicators should you start using more specific strategies to determine your exact buy or sell point. Moving averages, turtle trading, and the Relative Strength Index (RSI) are some examples of more complex indicators and systems that are available. But only use them after you’ve determined if the market is trending or not.
Posted by Traders University
Friday 13 November 2009
Intelligent Stock Trading - Posted by Traders University
If you want be a successful penny stock trader, you’ll need to be an intelligent trader. There are very few requirements to start trading in penny stocks. It can be broken down into three main things.
1. Money:
The money we are talking about is not just the money that is sitting in your bank account. It is not the money that you use to pay for your rent, your car or your food. Penny stocks can be extremely unpredictable and although you might make a great deal of money it is also true that may lose everything, so it is important especially when you are starting out with penny stocks that you only use money that you can afford to lose. After you have built up a nice profit, you can re-invest your profits from past trades which will snowball your earnings.
2. Knowledge:
This is without a doubt the single most important factor in determining whether your budding career as a penny stocks investor will be a spectacular triumph or a dismal failure. If you are a newcomer to investing of any kind there are various guides you can buy and it is a good idea to read several of these before spending any money.
Penny Stocks: The Next American Gold Rush by Dan Holtzclaw
Stock Investing for Dummies by Paul Mladjenovic
The Guide for Penny Stock Investing by Donny Lowy
These are all good and although they will not help you with specific decisions such as whether to buy a particular penny stock, or when to sell, they give you a good background on how it all works and are invaluable in building a good knowledge base.
3. Make A Plan:
Before you investing any money, make an investment plan and stick to it at all times. This will help you become disciplined and will also help you organise your time and investments. Keeping things simple will result in less stress. Your plan should consist of the investments you are going to make and why and how much you are investing in them. It should also include your exit point (the price which you will sell your investment at to take profit) and also the time you want to allocate for your investments each day (i.e. The time it takes to monitor and research them).
Now you have got all the major elements in place you are set for the roller coaster ride that is the world of investing in penny stocks But remember that knowledge is the most powerful tool you have to make your penny stocks successful so start learning today.
Posted by Traders Univrsity
1. Money:
The money we are talking about is not just the money that is sitting in your bank account. It is not the money that you use to pay for your rent, your car or your food. Penny stocks can be extremely unpredictable and although you might make a great deal of money it is also true that may lose everything, so it is important especially when you are starting out with penny stocks that you only use money that you can afford to lose. After you have built up a nice profit, you can re-invest your profits from past trades which will snowball your earnings.
2. Knowledge:
This is without a doubt the single most important factor in determining whether your budding career as a penny stocks investor will be a spectacular triumph or a dismal failure. If you are a newcomer to investing of any kind there are various guides you can buy and it is a good idea to read several of these before spending any money.
Penny Stocks: The Next American Gold Rush by Dan Holtzclaw
Stock Investing for Dummies by Paul Mladjenovic
The Guide for Penny Stock Investing by Donny Lowy
These are all good and although they will not help you with specific decisions such as whether to buy a particular penny stock, or when to sell, they give you a good background on how it all works and are invaluable in building a good knowledge base.
3. Make A Plan:
Before you investing any money, make an investment plan and stick to it at all times. This will help you become disciplined and will also help you organise your time and investments. Keeping things simple will result in less stress. Your plan should consist of the investments you are going to make and why and how much you are investing in them. It should also include your exit point (the price which you will sell your investment at to take profit) and also the time you want to allocate for your investments each day (i.e. The time it takes to monitor and research them).
Now you have got all the major elements in place you are set for the roller coaster ride that is the world of investing in penny stocks But remember that knowledge is the most powerful tool you have to make your penny stocks successful so start learning today.
Posted by Traders Univrsity
Wednesday 11 November 2009
Stocks -What Key Factor Separates A Winning Trader From A Losing Trader? - Posted by Traders University
Often, I receive requests from members of my stock market trading discussion group to give my views on technical analysis of stocks that they are watching. In the course of discussion, I discovered one common factor which separates the winning traders from the losing traders.
In general, both group of traders like to scan their lists of active stocks to uncover possible trading candidates. However, the traders in the winning group are specific about their trading, and have their entry and exit points well spelt out in a specific trading plan.
In their trading,they have precise entry and exit points...so that the trade is unemotional. After they have entered a trade, either they are correct and ride the trend or they are wrong and you exit with a loss that has been predetermined. There is nothing vague in their trading.
In contrast, those who are losing money in their trades invariably do not have a trading plan, or at least a semblance of a trading plan. This group of traders jump on tips provided by others without being able to check or verify the tips from some analysis, whether technical or fundamental. They do not have any idea of when to enter the trade or to exit with a stop loss.
Again, when the winning traders have computed their entry and exit and stop loss points, these traders can approach their
trading day with guarded optimism, watching whether an expected rally is on the cards or not. By watching pre-determined price points, the trader can know whether a rally has in fact begun and to start to trade in a more aggressive manner or to stop trading on wrong expectations which comes soeasily by being influenced by tips here and there. If the trade goes against them and hit their stop loss, they take their loss unemotionally and are out of the market, thus limiting their losses.
Remember, you involve hard earned money into your trading and investment.There is nothing VAGUE about trading. Every entry and exit points is calculated before hand to enable you to control your risk, if you are to become a successful trader.
Learn how to do this well and you will be a consistent trader. Test every tip and breathe specifics into your trades and you can make profits. In every profession, it is the specialist who makes the most money. Learn to excel in your trading and you will be profitable.
Posted by Traders University
In general, both group of traders like to scan their lists of active stocks to uncover possible trading candidates. However, the traders in the winning group are specific about their trading, and have their entry and exit points well spelt out in a specific trading plan.
In their trading,they have precise entry and exit points...so that the trade is unemotional. After they have entered a trade, either they are correct and ride the trend or they are wrong and you exit with a loss that has been predetermined. There is nothing vague in their trading.
In contrast, those who are losing money in their trades invariably do not have a trading plan, or at least a semblance of a trading plan. This group of traders jump on tips provided by others without being able to check or verify the tips from some analysis, whether technical or fundamental. They do not have any idea of when to enter the trade or to exit with a stop loss.
Again, when the winning traders have computed their entry and exit and stop loss points, these traders can approach their
trading day with guarded optimism, watching whether an expected rally is on the cards or not. By watching pre-determined price points, the trader can know whether a rally has in fact begun and to start to trade in a more aggressive manner or to stop trading on wrong expectations which comes soeasily by being influenced by tips here and there. If the trade goes against them and hit their stop loss, they take their loss unemotionally and are out of the market, thus limiting their losses.
Remember, you involve hard earned money into your trading and investment.There is nothing VAGUE about trading. Every entry and exit points is calculated before hand to enable you to control your risk, if you are to become a successful trader.
Learn how to do this well and you will be a consistent trader. Test every tip and breathe specifics into your trades and you can make profits. In every profession, it is the specialist who makes the most money. Learn to excel in your trading and you will be profitable.
Posted by Traders University
Tuesday 10 November 2009
An Overview Of The Stock Market
When you are interested in investing in the stock market one of the first things you will need is a reliable and affordable stockbroker. At one point in time, a stockbroker was seen as a very high priced person that was extremely hard to understand. In today’s world, stockbrokers have become much different, they have begun to make their services cheaper to obtain and in such a way that is easier to understand. This is an extremely wonderful change for the simple reason that you will not be able to trade in any way, shape, or form without a stockbroker.
One of the major rules within the stock market is that no person is allowed to trade within the stock market unless they are a certified stockbroker. A stockbroker, within the United Kingdom twelve million investor’s trade in the stock market, performs every trade that occurs and each one has enlisted the services of a stockbroker.
So you are probably now wondering, what exactly can a stockbroker do for me? There is a wide range of abilities and services that any stockbroker can offer you, at the same time there are also various ranges of fees that will be collected from them. Typically, a stockbroker will charge a commission, a set fee, or some combination of the two. In regards to the services a stockbroker can offer you, there are three basic levels that include only execution, portfolio management, and advice.
When a stockbroker only deals with the selling and buying of particular shares, per the instructions you give them, this is generally called execution only or in softer terms dealing only. With this type of service, they do not offer you any type of advice on any action you want perform. Typically, investors that are experienced or novice in investing will use this type of service. Execution only is cheaper and extremely efficient the fees the stockbroker charges can range anywhere between £20 to hundreds of pounds, this will depend on the specific stockbroker you choose.
Portfolio management is extremely detailed and the most expensive type of service performed and dealing with advice is typically a little more expensive than execution only, because the stockbroker will offer advice and views on what is happening within the stock market. The stockbroker at this level of service will also take the time to explain anything you may not understand very well.
Within the portfolio management service, you can separate these into two other categories these are advisory and discretionary. When under the advisory category, the stockbroker will create a proposal of a portfolio for you; however, he or she will not take any action without express permission from you. Within the discretionary category, your stockbroker will completely run all aspects of your portfolio and will give you reports as needs on how the portfolio is working.
Posted by Traders University
One of the major rules within the stock market is that no person is allowed to trade within the stock market unless they are a certified stockbroker. A stockbroker, within the United Kingdom twelve million investor’s trade in the stock market, performs every trade that occurs and each one has enlisted the services of a stockbroker.
So you are probably now wondering, what exactly can a stockbroker do for me? There is a wide range of abilities and services that any stockbroker can offer you, at the same time there are also various ranges of fees that will be collected from them. Typically, a stockbroker will charge a commission, a set fee, or some combination of the two. In regards to the services a stockbroker can offer you, there are three basic levels that include only execution, portfolio management, and advice.
When a stockbroker only deals with the selling and buying of particular shares, per the instructions you give them, this is generally called execution only or in softer terms dealing only. With this type of service, they do not offer you any type of advice on any action you want perform. Typically, investors that are experienced or novice in investing will use this type of service. Execution only is cheaper and extremely efficient the fees the stockbroker charges can range anywhere between £20 to hundreds of pounds, this will depend on the specific stockbroker you choose.
Portfolio management is extremely detailed and the most expensive type of service performed and dealing with advice is typically a little more expensive than execution only, because the stockbroker will offer advice and views on what is happening within the stock market. The stockbroker at this level of service will also take the time to explain anything you may not understand very well.
Within the portfolio management service, you can separate these into two other categories these are advisory and discretionary. When under the advisory category, the stockbroker will create a proposal of a portfolio for you; however, he or she will not take any action without express permission from you. Within the discretionary category, your stockbroker will completely run all aspects of your portfolio and will give you reports as needs on how the portfolio is working.
Posted by Traders University
Friday 6 November 2009
An Introduction To CFD Trading (Part 1) - Posted by Traders University
Here's a really simple yet useful tutorial on CFD trading that will get you up and running very quickly if you're new to CFD trading.
By the time you finish this article, you'll know how CFDs work, what makes them highly profitable, and understand the costs involved in CFD trading.
CFD stands for Contracts For Difference, which is a derivative product, where you profit from changes in the prices of stocks and shares.
For example, if you buy a CFD on a stock that's $5.00 and the price rises to $5.50, then you profit from that change in price. So if you bought 1000 CFDs, then your profit is $500. That is, the value of the CFDs mirror the underlying stock prices, and you can profit on this movement.
The reasons why CFDs are a very popular trading product, and understandably so, are:
1. CFDs are traded on leverage, and this leverage is typically 10 to 1, with some CFD brokers providing 20 to 1 leverage. This means that a trader with a small float can make decent profits from trading the stock market by using CFDs. For example, you may have a stock trading system that makes a 30% return per annum. On a $5000 float, this is $1500 profit in one year. With CFDs, because of the leverage, the same system can now produce a 300% return, which is $15 000 profit in one year.
2. You can just as easily short sell CFDs as well, and therefore profit from falling markets. This greatly increases the profitability of a trading system because trading opportunities increase dramatically, and the fact that you can profit from both bull and bear markets.
3. The costs in CFD trading are relatively low when compared to stocks. This is especially so, since for a similar and often smaller cost per trade, you can gain 10 or greater times the results from a trade due to the leverage available. The 2 main costs in CFD trading are interest and leverage. We'll come to these in a moment.
4. You can set automatic stop losses. This means that it will take you less time to trade, remove the emotion from exiting a trade when you should, and allow you to exit as the stop is hit, not a day later. You therefore avoid the slippage due to getting out of a trade later than when you intended.
5. You can place all your orders in the evenings. With many CFD providers, you can place orders to enter a position the night before. For people who are working, this is a great advantage as they can do all their trading (place their orders to enter and their stop losses) in the evenings, and not need to be at the computer screen or call their broker during the day. Also, if they have any stop losses that need adjusting, they can do so in the evenings as well. Their trading routine with a mechanical system can be about 10-15 minutes per day.
So these are the advantages of CFDs that have made trading accessible to so many people because they provide large returns for a modest float, and can also be traded once a day as well.
Now, we mentioned that there are 2 main costs in CFD trading. Let's have a closer look now at each of them:
1. Commission. With some CFD providers, there is in fact no commission. This also greatly increases the profitability of your CFD trading systems, as well as the fact that you can benefit hugely from the leverage. With other CFD providers, there may be a commission of say 0.15% of the trade size or $15, whichever is greater, each way. These costs are similar or less than the commission associated with stock trading, especially when you consider that the multiplied profits that the leverage gives you.
2. With CFDs, there's interest charged for long positions that are held overnight. For short positions, the interest is paid to you. The amount of interest charged is usually a reference rate plus approximately 2%, and the interest paid is usually the same reference rate minus approximately 2%. And the reference rate is usually a major bank's overnight interest rate.
For example, the interest rate charged for overnight held long positions may be 7.5% or 0.075 per annum. To calculate how much this is for a trade, we need to make it "pro rata". That is, we'd need to divide the 0.075 by 365, multiply it buy the number of days in trade, then multiply it by the trade size. For example, for a trade size of $10 000, held for 14 days, the interest cost is about $28. Not a huge cost. For a short trade, the interest is paid to you, so will offset the cost rather than contribute to it.
So there you have it.
You now understand the benefits of trading CFDs and why they're a trading instrument that allows people with a modest float to make very decent returns, as well as understand the costs involved with trading CFDs.
To learn more about CFD trading, watch out for part 2 of this article.
Posted by Traders University
By the time you finish this article, you'll know how CFDs work, what makes them highly profitable, and understand the costs involved in CFD trading.
CFD stands for Contracts For Difference, which is a derivative product, where you profit from changes in the prices of stocks and shares.
For example, if you buy a CFD on a stock that's $5.00 and the price rises to $5.50, then you profit from that change in price. So if you bought 1000 CFDs, then your profit is $500. That is, the value of the CFDs mirror the underlying stock prices, and you can profit on this movement.
The reasons why CFDs are a very popular trading product, and understandably so, are:
1. CFDs are traded on leverage, and this leverage is typically 10 to 1, with some CFD brokers providing 20 to 1 leverage. This means that a trader with a small float can make decent profits from trading the stock market by using CFDs. For example, you may have a stock trading system that makes a 30% return per annum. On a $5000 float, this is $1500 profit in one year. With CFDs, because of the leverage, the same system can now produce a 300% return, which is $15 000 profit in one year.
2. You can just as easily short sell CFDs as well, and therefore profit from falling markets. This greatly increases the profitability of a trading system because trading opportunities increase dramatically, and the fact that you can profit from both bull and bear markets.
3. The costs in CFD trading are relatively low when compared to stocks. This is especially so, since for a similar and often smaller cost per trade, you can gain 10 or greater times the results from a trade due to the leverage available. The 2 main costs in CFD trading are interest and leverage. We'll come to these in a moment.
4. You can set automatic stop losses. This means that it will take you less time to trade, remove the emotion from exiting a trade when you should, and allow you to exit as the stop is hit, not a day later. You therefore avoid the slippage due to getting out of a trade later than when you intended.
5. You can place all your orders in the evenings. With many CFD providers, you can place orders to enter a position the night before. For people who are working, this is a great advantage as they can do all their trading (place their orders to enter and their stop losses) in the evenings, and not need to be at the computer screen or call their broker during the day. Also, if they have any stop losses that need adjusting, they can do so in the evenings as well. Their trading routine with a mechanical system can be about 10-15 minutes per day.
So these are the advantages of CFDs that have made trading accessible to so many people because they provide large returns for a modest float, and can also be traded once a day as well.
Now, we mentioned that there are 2 main costs in CFD trading. Let's have a closer look now at each of them:
1. Commission. With some CFD providers, there is in fact no commission. This also greatly increases the profitability of your CFD trading systems, as well as the fact that you can benefit hugely from the leverage. With other CFD providers, there may be a commission of say 0.15% of the trade size or $15, whichever is greater, each way. These costs are similar or less than the commission associated with stock trading, especially when you consider that the multiplied profits that the leverage gives you.
2. With CFDs, there's interest charged for long positions that are held overnight. For short positions, the interest is paid to you. The amount of interest charged is usually a reference rate plus approximately 2%, and the interest paid is usually the same reference rate minus approximately 2%. And the reference rate is usually a major bank's overnight interest rate.
For example, the interest rate charged for overnight held long positions may be 7.5% or 0.075 per annum. To calculate how much this is for a trade, we need to make it "pro rata". That is, we'd need to divide the 0.075 by 365, multiply it buy the number of days in trade, then multiply it by the trade size. For example, for a trade size of $10 000, held for 14 days, the interest cost is about $28. Not a huge cost. For a short trade, the interest is paid to you, so will offset the cost rather than contribute to it.
So there you have it.
You now understand the benefits of trading CFDs and why they're a trading instrument that allows people with a modest float to make very decent returns, as well as understand the costs involved with trading CFDs.
To learn more about CFD trading, watch out for part 2 of this article.
Posted by Traders University
Thursday 5 November 2009
5 Steps To Researching a Stock Trade Before Investing by Traders University
Once you determine which business cycle the economy is currently in you can start researching for a trade. It is best to have some sort of a system in place that will be used before EACH trade. Here is a simple 5 Step formula to help get you started.
5 Steps to Investing Online:
1. Find a stock
This is the most obvious and most difficult step in stock trading. With well over 10,000 stocks to trade a good rule of thumb to consider is time of the year. For example, as I write this, it is the beginning of spring. It would make sense to consider stocks that traditionally make runs, or slide if you are bearish, during this time of year.
2. Fundamental Analysis
Many short term traders may disagree with the need to do ANY Fundamental Analysis, however knowing the chart patterns from the past and the news regarding the stock is relevant. An example would be earnings season. If you are planning
on playing a stock to the upside that has missed its earnings target the last 3 quarters, caution could be in order.
3. Technical Analysis
This is the part where indicators come in. Stochastics, the MACD, volume, moving averages, RSI, CCI, support levels, resistance levels and all the rest. The batch of indicators you choose, whether lagging or leading, may depend on where you get your education.
Keep it simple when first starting out, using too many indicators in the beginning is a ticket to the land of big losses. Get very comfortable using one or two indicators first. Learn their intricacies and you'll be sure to make better trades.
4. Follow your picks
Once you have placed a few stock trades you should be managing them properly. If the trade is meant to be a short term trade watch it closely for your exit signal. If it's a swing trade, watch for the indicators that tell you the trend is shifting. If it's a long term trade remember to set weekly or monthly checkups on the stock.
Use this time to keep abreast of the news, determine your price targets, set stop losses, and keep an eye on other stocks that you may want to own as well.
5. The big picture
As the saying goes, all ships rise and fall with the tide. Knowing which sectors are heating up stacks the chips in your favor.
For example, if you are long (expecting price to go up) on an oil stock and most of the oil sector is rising then more likely than not you are on the right side of the trade. Several trading platforms will give you access to sector-wide information so that you can get the education you need.
Posted by Traders University
5 Steps to Investing Online:
1. Find a stock
This is the most obvious and most difficult step in stock trading. With well over 10,000 stocks to trade a good rule of thumb to consider is time of the year. For example, as I write this, it is the beginning of spring. It would make sense to consider stocks that traditionally make runs, or slide if you are bearish, during this time of year.
2. Fundamental Analysis
Many short term traders may disagree with the need to do ANY Fundamental Analysis, however knowing the chart patterns from the past and the news regarding the stock is relevant. An example would be earnings season. If you are planning
on playing a stock to the upside that has missed its earnings target the last 3 quarters, caution could be in order.
3. Technical Analysis
This is the part where indicators come in. Stochastics, the MACD, volume, moving averages, RSI, CCI, support levels, resistance levels and all the rest. The batch of indicators you choose, whether lagging or leading, may depend on where you get your education.
Keep it simple when first starting out, using too many indicators in the beginning is a ticket to the land of big losses. Get very comfortable using one or two indicators first. Learn their intricacies and you'll be sure to make better trades.
4. Follow your picks
Once you have placed a few stock trades you should be managing them properly. If the trade is meant to be a short term trade watch it closely for your exit signal. If it's a swing trade, watch for the indicators that tell you the trend is shifting. If it's a long term trade remember to set weekly or monthly checkups on the stock.
Use this time to keep abreast of the news, determine your price targets, set stop losses, and keep an eye on other stocks that you may want to own as well.
5. The big picture
As the saying goes, all ships rise and fall with the tide. Knowing which sectors are heating up stacks the chips in your favor.
For example, if you are long (expecting price to go up) on an oil stock and most of the oil sector is rising then more likely than not you are on the right side of the trade. Several trading platforms will give you access to sector-wide information so that you can get the education you need.
Posted by Traders University
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