Home Blog Page 26

How Reinvesting Dividend Makes Investors Become Richer

0
Stocks Chart

 

Have you ever wondered why some investor seems to get seriously rich, while other investors never seem to accumulate as much?

Either a newbie investor or not, if you ever come up with this type of question….Cheer Up! I’ve been in your shoes before until I discovered the golden nuggets.

This post is definitely for YOU! To help guide YOU to the right ticket of massive wealth. Now let’s get started….

Majority of investors doesn’t fully recognize that larger than 40 percent of the entire stock market returns over the past 50 years could be ascribed to dividends. For that fact alone makes dividend investing a piece of cake.

The technique is to search for companies with long-term history of paying consistently and expanding dividends frequently. The companies that meet this standard are for the most part steady, more predictable, and well-grounded.

A sure-fire way to help you get rich in stock market is through Reinvesting Dividends. So, how reinvesting dividend makes investor become richer?

Let’s first start with its exact definition….What is meant by “Dividend Reinvestment”?

According to Investor Dictionary…..Dividend Reinvestment plans let you take advantage of the power of compounding. Instead of receiving cash dividends from the company, you may purchase more of a company’s stock by having the dividends reinvested. You must sign an agreement with the company for this to be done. If you have a brokerage account or mutual fund, your firm may also have a dividend reinvestment plan. You should check with your firm or the company to see whether you will be charged for this service.

Furthermore, as your earnings build faster and reinvest your dividends the value of your return also increases.

Based on my several years of experience in stock market, I consider dividends one of the best wealth-building tools in the world of investing. But I consider the effect of compounding to be equally powerful.

Accordingly, the qualities of domestics stocks appear to be incredible for dividend reinvestment but the shares in international investment can be more substantial.

Why is this so?

Well, simply because…In general, international companies pay a higher profit yield compared to domestic partners. This implies that your portfolio will grow quickly because of the higher yield.

As you might know, compounding takes a lot of time, as the cash you’ve already earned on your investments begins to earn returns of its own.

For instance, if you put $15,000 into a savings account with a 6% annual interest rate, you’ll have $15,900 after one year. Then next year, you’ll be earning 6% on the $15,900 rather than just the original $15,000.

Initially, it may not be a huge value however the total impacts will truly sum up over the period of time. In dividend reinvestment, you will be consolidating both ideas into one super drive and setting yourself up for considerably more profits down the line.

Getting rich in dividend reinvestment is simple if you know the secrets… The best part is you don’t exactly need to be a star trader or market timer to reach your financial goals.

I’ve been working for more than 15 years in Stock Market and I’ve managed to accumulate a great deal of experience through it. I’ve learned that there are 3 important points to consider to be a successful in dividend reinvesting.

The secret to successful investing is to start investing early. The sooner you get started, the more opportunity you have for compound interest to work in your favor.

Invest as much as you can each year until you retire, bet on the entire market – not on individual stocks, invest automatically, reinvest dividends to buy more shares and keep your investing costs to a minimum.

Consistency Is a Must

Take advantage of the powerful effect of compounding over time by consistently reinvesting dividends. This strategy will help you create a sustainable, rising stream of dividend income and eventually allow you to be financially secure in the future.

A consistent rate of dividend growth demonstrates the underlying health of a company. It’s not just popular with investors, it’s a real business engine pumping out real cash.

Be Patient

By patiently reinvesting dividends over many years, you’ll achieve gratifying results in your own. It can be extremely enticing to use the cash in the account either by purchasing an auto or even a house at one point. Then again, if you just wait patiently one day you will have the capacity to buy whatever car and possibly the house that you ever wanted. You just need to be patient enough to push through the volatility onward to the higher ground.

In addition to this, I will also share some of the famous quotes by Warren Buffett on investing that I truly find inspiring and uplifting…Enjoy!

“Always invest for the long term.”

“No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.”

“Buy companies with strong histories of profitability and with a dominant business franchise.”

“Diversification is a protection against ignorance. It makes very little sense for those who know what they’re doing.”

“It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.“

“A great investment opportunity occurs when a marvelous business encounters a one-time huge, but solvable problem.“

“You shouldn’t own common stocks if a 50 per cent decrease in their value in a short period of time would cause you acute distress.“

“I always knew I was going to be rich. I don’t think I ever doubted it for a minute.“

 

In every business, good or bad times would constantly occur when things aren’t right. Moving relentlessly, on track, to your objective and having the patience to take as far as you need to get there can help you keep away from numerous pitfalls in your business.

Whether you are a newbie or skilled investor, if the three pointers I’ve shared has been performed properly it could pay off. Now prove to yourself that you have what it takes to become rich in Dividend Reinvesting!

- Advertisement -

Trader Personality Andy Krieger

0
Andy Krieger

All Forex traders aspire to become super traders. Let’s consider the trader personality Andy Krieger. Most have a hunger for that one big deal which has the potential to immortalize their name in the currency trading market and the industry. However, contemplating about becoming a legendary trader is easier than accomplishing the goals which can get you there. It is still great to get a bit of inspiration from some of the world’s most diligent and hardcore traders. Andy Krieger is one of those legends.

Black Monday, 1987

People who belong to the trading markets and those aspiring to become successful traders all know about the fateful incident that took place on October 19th, 1987, when the stock market crashed. Dow Jones ended up falling 22%. The days that followed gestured towards a massive collapse of the world’s stock markets and most markets fell by 20% by the end of October. To the surprise of many, this collapse was not triggered by any single event. Experts believe that the collapse was a result of a mass panic that ended up devouring the entire market.

However, amidst everything, there was one currency trader working with Bankers’ Trust who wasn’t too concerned about what was going around him.

Introducing Andy Krieger

Andy Krieger, after graduating from Wharton School, joined Salomon Brothers and in 1986 joined Bankers’ Trust. It wasn’t long before he made his mark in the company, being labelled as one of the world’s most assertive and hard-hitting dealers. It was his reputation in the market that led the Bankers’ Trust to gain the full confidence and support of the board members. And it was because of this that he had a trading limit of $700 million, compared to the normal limit of $50 million.

The Attack on the ‘Kiwi’

In the wake of the stock market crash on that day, which has been noted in history books as Black Monday, Krieger became overly convinced and confident that the Kiwi (the New Zealand dollar) was susceptible to attack. Krieger, in light of his research, his diligence and aggressiveness chose to hit the Kiwi and take advantage of the situation. By utilizing his trading options, Krieger had the ability to leverage massive amounts and could own and control up to $30 to $40 million in actual currency.

And he did not hesitate to use his advantage to land a big speculative strike on the Kiwi in 1987. Because of the fact that he had a fairly large trading limit, he decided to leverage it by trading currency option spiking up to 400:1, which allowed him to topple the a massive amount of money to crush the Kiwi dollar. As a matter of fact, Krieger’s short position ended up being so large that he said it went past the entire country’s money supply. In simpler terms, he controlled more Kiwi dollars then there were in circulation in New Zealand.

The Outcome

Krieger’s move to destroy the currency had a catastrophic effect on the Kiwi dollar. The New Zealand dollar dropped by 5% against the US dollar in a span of just a couple of hours, allowing Krieger to make a staggering $300 million profit for the Bankers’ Trust just sitting there. Of course, the reaction of the Bank of New Zealand wasn’t pleasant. They were outraged and rightly so, but Krieger responded to their outrage by saying something only a man of calibre can say. He made it clear that Bankers’ Trust did not make a position that was significantly big for them. Instead he said that New Zealand did not have what it takes to handle the operations carried out by the company.

The damage he inflicted on the Kiwi dollar caused a lot of controversy for the New Zealand Central Bank. So much so that the New Zealand Central Bank and government official kept on asking the bosses at Bankers’ Trust to get him out of their currency. Shortly after the Kiwi incident, Krieger resigned from Bankers’ Trust and found started working for another trading legend and guru, George Soros.

So we can see that Andy Krieger  is a trader personality. Part of why he resigned from Bankers’ Trust was also because of his disgust and anger at his former company which only gave a $3 million commission on a $300 million profit he made for them. After he left on good terms, Bankers’ Trust ended up reaffirming their foreign exchange and trade profits and that is because of the fact that they had no idea how Krieger operated and failed to understand his complex methods of trading.

- Advertisement -

Top Bitcoin Start-Ups

0
Coins, Currencies and Exchange rates

Due to the growing popularity of Bitcoin, Bitcoin start-ups have gained considerable recognition and begun to amass a significant amount of investment capital even when several of them are warned there could be serious risks associated with them in terms of fraudulent activities and worst of all, hacking.

But despite that several infant Bitcoin start-ups have successfully raised millions of dollars from powerful venture capital companies and angel investors which has also served to grant them a credible form of authenticity and permitted them to add a currency that is not regulated by the central bank, Coinsetter Inc. and Coinbase Inc. are among several start-ups who have successfully embarked on giving good Bitcoin and ‘alt coins’ trading options to users.

A List of Some Successful Bitcoin Start-ups

Coinbase Inc.

Coinbase Inc. is a digital currency company which provides users several digital trading and overseas digital trading solutions which enable them to buy, sell, use and accept Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency securely and reliably. This also allows Coinbase to facilitate traders and merchants to conduct high/low order trading using Bitcoins. It is a strong platform which also provides cloud storage options for Bitcoins as well as a multitude of other merchant instruments.

BitPagos

BitPagos is the only payment gateway which is focusing its efforts on bringing easy Bitcoin to Latin America and provides customers the options to make payments via credit cards and it also pays out to traders in Bitcoin currency but charges a fee for it. What this exclusive and revolutionary feature does is provide traders an approach to Bitcoin trading which reduces their costs for effective, convenient, efficient and safer Bitcoin transactions across borders.

ButterCoin

An open source platform, ButterCoin is designed to be an efficient and high volume Bitcoin trading engine which can also be utilized to set trades in the order book. The design and concept of ButterCoin is based on LMAX and aims for an increased throughput while remaining vigilant of what is being traded via the platform.

Ripple

Created by Rip Labs, Ripple is an online currency exchange, payment gateway and remittance platform and exchange designed over open source internet protocols and distributed through a consensus ledger and a native currency known as ripples. The platform provides users secure, fast and almost free worldwide trade transactions of any size, eliminating chargebacks. The platform also accepts fiat currencies, like dollars, pounds, and yen, as well as digital currencies, like Bitcoin, Dogecoin and Litecoin. It also accepts commodities exchanges or any other unit which is of value, for example mobile minutes, and frequent flier miles.

Fundamentally, the platform is based around a ledger or a shared public database. In addition to indicating the balance, the public database also stores information pertaining to various buys, offers and sells currencies and assets, a feature no other exchange platform has.

Bitinstant

Established by Charlie Shrem and Gareth Nelson in 2011, Bitinstant provides its customers the ability to buy Bitcoins from over 700,000 stores, including big retail giants like Walmart, Duane Reade and Walgreens. A year after being founded, presidential candidate Mitt Romney got blackmail threats from an anonymous group, demanding he pays them $1 million in Bitcoin. At the time, Erick Voorhees of Bitinstant offered Romney a proposal that he is willing to buy the Bitcoins for him without charging any fee at all.

Tradehill Inc.

Tradehill Inc. is a strong digital currency exchange and platform for seasoned and experienced traders, investors, governments and businessmen. Moreover, Tradehill Inc. is considered to be an extremely secure and reliable exchange platform as it has never been hacked nor has it experienced downtime, unlike various other Bitcoin exchange platforms.

Bips

Bips is another prominent Bitcoin start-up which is both dependable and secure and is considered the most efficient Bitcoin checkout all over the globe. It’s so fast and convenient that users can easily check out and with just a single tap or click can pay online without having an account. Plus, you can also start receiving payments in Bitcoin in a matter of minutes with fast authorization.

So, these are the best Bitcoin start-ups which rose to popularity and success shortly after the Bitcoin currency increased in value and gained popularity.

- Advertisement -

Top Digital Trading Resources

0
What Makes an Elite Trader

If you want to become an aspiring Forex trader, it is increasingly important that you start learning and using the various digital trading tools which have been designed and created to aid you in trading efficiently and more precisely. Let’s consider hte top digital trading resources. These tools help you to minimize a plethora of risks associated with Forex trading, that is if you make bad decisions and calls. Online trading resources will significantly aid you in keeping track of your trading portfolios along with your stock trades and give you valuable forecasts which you can use to your advantage.

Mentioned below are some of the best digital trading resources you can use to master Forex trading:

Trademiner

Trademiner was designed to locate different trade trends in the stock market. The fluctuations in the stock market happen in cycles. With Trademiner, you have the advantage of predicting when another cycle is going to hit and to determine whether you will make a loss or a gain. So, Trademiner is an excellent tool you should consider adding to your arsenal.

Market Club

This powerful tool is a subscription service which provides users complete access to various stock market charting platforms, gives them newest trend evaluations and effective scanning services. Using Market Club, you will be able to conveniently identify different changes and trends in the stock market and monitor stock prices over short and long stretches of time.

E*Trade

E*Trade is an investment website which provides useful insights pertaining to the stock market. Plus, it also provides users a number of trade analysis resources and reports which can help you in making the best possible decisions. Using E*Trade, you can monitor and analyze Forex market trends and also review your own portfolio’s trading history.

Scottrade

Scottrade was designed to give investment advice to traders along with equipping them with optimized stock analysis tools, different trading platforms and a number of other features to help them make better trading decisions. The Quota and Research options are excellent for predicting future market trends or analyze one off stock prices. Via Scottrade, you can supervise your entire portfolio quite conveniently.

TD Ameritrade’s Thinkorswim

TD Ameritrade provides its state of the art Thinkorswim which was designed to provide traders accurate analysis pertaining to stock trends along with increasing their knowledge base in investing. You can think of it as an educational trading resource and a trading tool. You can use Thinkorswim to forecast cycles and locate them in the market and seek prices which best suit you.

FxPro Library

FxPro Library is an important trading tool created for stock traders who want to enjoy all the benefits of automatic stock trading, but lack the experience necessary to create their own EAs. FxPro has created a library of back tested EAs which were pre-built and created to increase your trading abilities and performance in the market. According to the research, it has been revealed that trading using proper EAs is far more effective than both manual and enhancing trading.

FxPro Quant

The FxPro Quant employs the use of cutting edge technology and is a powerful trading tool. The FxPro Quant enables traders to create and establish their own Expert Advisors (EAs) by simply using simple drag and drop options. You don’t need to have any sort of programming knowledge or experience at all.

FxPro Vault

FxPro Vault is a quick and efficient way to finance live trading accounts and is a one of a kind application in the Forex industry. The FxPro Vault is a powerful risk management resource which enables traders to transfer all the funds they are willing to risk to their Forex account, keeping the rest of the funds safe in the FxPro Vault to be used in the future.

FxPro Dashboard

The FxPro Dashboard is an important trade resource which allows traders to analyze the stock market and other trading activity. This trading tool will also enable you to analyze the Forex Market, including currency movers and client positions.

AutoChartist

>AutoChartist is an accurate charting and technical analysis tools in the Forex market. AutoChartist can also be used through FxPro’s MetaTrader 4 platform and also provides traders valuable information regarding lucrative trades through real-time Chart Patterns, Fibonacci Patterns, Key Levels and Market Alerts.

Trading Central

Trading Central is also a good trading resource designed to provide traders with specialized technical analysis pertaining to Forex trends. Trading Central is regarded as the best research tool available for traders who require detailed financial market reports.

So, these are some of the most important trading tools you can get your hands on and you should because it has allowed so many inexperienced traders to trade in the big leagues. They are a great help indeed.

- Advertisement -

Bitcoin: Legal, Regulation, Exchanges

0
Bitcoin and criptocurrency

Due to the rise in popularity of the Bitcoin, it has attracted the attention and interest of various law enforcement, tax and legal authorities. Each agency and authoritative body is in search for answers to solving the biggest mystery of all, and that is how Bitcoin fits inside current economic and financial frameworks.

Bitcoin has now become a controversial subject for regulators and tax authorities, both of which have excessively targeted the utilization of cryptocurrency and how it should be used. However, it is also true the proper authorities need a bit more time and are still way early in this game, which is exactly why most of the authorities are struggling to get a grasp of this popular digital currency. This is also why they cannot make any permanent laws for it.

On the other hand, amidst this controversy, there is a questions often posed by many people, and that is, is Bitcoin a legal investment? The answer quite simply is yes, it is, but that also depends on how you use it. Given below is a guide explaining who regulates Bitcoin:

So, Who Regulates Bitcoin?

It is important to understand that the laws and regulatory actions against Bitcoin in order to supervise it will differ from nation to nation. In the US, you can expect intervention from financial regulators that have taken active interest in Bitcoin along with several other cryptocurrencies. These regulators also work with regional regulators at sub-country levels. Here are some of the regulatory bodies which supervise Bitcoin activities:

FinCEN

FinCEN stands for the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network which is a regulatory agency in the US Treasury Department. It is the FinCEN that took the initiative to investigate Bitcoin trading in the US. The FinCEN also published various tips and guides pertaining to the utilization of cryptocurrencies.

In the guidelines published by the agency on March 18, 2013, they explained the situations and conditions under which digital currency investors and traders could be classified as money service organizations and businesses which are usually known as Money Transmitting Businesses (MTBs). It is mandatory for MTBs to put Anti-Money Laundering (AML) as well as Know Your Client (KYC) policies into immediate effect. It requires businesses to first engage in measures that can identify the customers these businesses are dealing with.

The CFTC

CFTC stands for Commodity Futures Trading Commission and is US based. Its primary objectives are to keep a keen eye on all financial derivatives. However, the CFTC is yet to announce any regulations, but it has made it abundantly clear it can announce a regulation if and when it wants to.

SEC

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) like the FinCEN and the CTFC, is yet to announce any regulations on digital currencies. However, the SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy posted an investor warning to alert people about investments which are conducted through fraudulent schemes designed to rob people of their money or in this case, Bitcoins. More specifically it warned people about Ponzi plans and plots after the SEC arrested Trendon T. Shavers, also known as Pirateat40, who was the owner of a Bitcoin savings company that generated over 700,000 Bitcoins by falsely claiming that it would pay investor 7% interest on a weekly basis.

Legislative Branch

The SEC has enforced the legislative branch of the US government to take into account Bitcoin’s overall legal standing. Shavers, in his defence argued that because Bitcoin is not the same as money, he can’t be tried and convicted. The judge, Amos Mazzant, begged to differ and issued a memorandum proving Bitcoin can indeed be used like money.

In August last year, the US Senate published letters to various law enforcement agencies and bodies getting inquisitive about the real dangers and risks of trading and using digital currency. One letter was also sent to the Department of Homeland Security. In the letter, the Senate complained about the lack of any paper evidence or trails that the other regulators and enforcement agencies could use to track cryptocurrencies.

It ultimately requested the Department of Homeland Security to approve policies which could guide them and tell them how they should treat digital currencies and also inquired about any information pertaining to ongoing strategic policies in the region.

In November, 2013, the Department of Homeland Security, along with various other regulative bodies, replied in kind to the Senate’s inquisitions. The Department of Homeland Security was most concerned about the various criminal threats rising due to the illegitimate use of Bitcoins, while both the Department of Justice and the Federal Reserve approved the legal aspects of the currency.

The SEC argued the interests allowed by virtual currency vendors as well as for those who provide returns on the grounds of being a virtual currency falls under the SEC’s remit.

Exchanges

FinCEN recognized exchanges as MTB and for virtual currency platforms and exchanges it explained any person who is a cryptocurrency exchanger or money transmitter will be deemed as an ‘exchanger’ if that person accepts decentralized digital currencies from one individual and gives to another individual as a part of a process which involves the use of cryptocurrency, funds and any other item of value which can be substituted for any currency.

What Can This Mean For You?

All in all, there is nothing to be overly concerned about because, as mentioned above, the legality of any cryptocurrency, may it be Bitcoin or Dogecoin, depends on how you make it and use the currency.

- Advertisement -

Mobile Trading Technology Redefining the FX Trading Landscape

0

Traders are normal people too, you know and they use mobile trading technology. And like normal people they too can’t sit in front of their laptops and computers, staring at the screen non-stop. They have to do other things too which requires leaving their terminals and sometimes their office. However, nothing is more unpredictable and uncertain than the Forex currency market and who knows, just after you leave, there is a sudden increase in the value of a currency, which could have been favourable for you. But you weren’t there to do anything. Tough luck, isn’t it?

However, there is a way around this. As a matter of fact, you already to know what it is and you use it every day to do most of your stuff. Yes…you have guessed it: using a smartphone. Thanks to some brilliant applications, you can now trade fairly easily and effectively using your phone.

Vast developments and improvements in cellular technology have made so many things that were considered impossible possible. For example, in just a few clicks and taps, you can view your account, initiate trading and simultaneously monitor your account. You can evaluate and follow your trading region from anywhere in the world without having to worry about anything. Thanks to technology, traders have now broadened their horizons with respect to the various methods they use to carry out business in an environment which is constantly evolving.

Information at Your Fingertips

The use of smartphones and tablets has become imperative for everyday Forex trading. You see, trading software used a decade or so ago was slow but now faster applications have replaced the slower ones. Moreover, a majority of these applications have been designed to mimic desktop versions. And thus, the demand for these applications grew exponentially because there is nothing more traders can ask for than trading using application which allow them to trade when they want and where they want.

The power of having the right information at the time you need it most is an exceptional feeling. It gives traders a sense of control they can enjoy over the currencies. Plus, this quick and easy access to information also allows them, or rather empowers, them to use any given or presented opportunity to the maximum. After all, the nature of the Forex market is to flourish on volatility and how else can you benefit from this fluctuating volatility than carrying around a smartphone or tablet anywhere and everywhere you go.

With applications designed to give traders a sense or real time Forex pricing, traders can now track their position in the market and simultaneously place orders. And because of this flexibility in technology, people now check their accounts and analyze the Forex markets while on their way to work on the train. On the other hand, with the increased benefits of using mobile technology in Forex trading, one also cannot look the other way when it comes to the risks associated with it.

For example, traders who rely heavily on the use of smartphone technology to track and analyze markets need to subscribe to reliable data package, which can be quite expensive. And because the initiation of trading orders can differ tremendously as the entire traffic has to be directed through the ISP, the network the trader relies on can be overloaded.

According to Michael Greenberg, who works for Forex Magazine, there will be a tremendous increase in the use of smartphones and tablets in trading this year and the next and this demand will ceaselessly rise as more advanced applications are launched in the near future. He also says the next best thing is the ‘mobile-first broker’.

Think about it. Amazon sells Kindles at a lower price so more people buy from their online store. A mobile-first broker will do the same, but in this case, it will be creating and promoting a trading experience which they will sell directly to the first mobile user who trades using a standard desktop trading platform. Another example of how mobile technology is rapidly changing the landscape of Forex trading is the StreamLink application by Caplin Systems, this application allows traders to create their own mobile trading application on a number of different trading platforms.

Forex.com, Saxo Bank along with IG Market released statistics indicating there has been a substantial increase in the use of mobile phone technology for trading. And according to the same reports, there were many brokers who said that 20% of their clients depend on mobile technology to trade daily.

The nature of trading has changed so much that you can now trade even if your 30000 feet in the air, travelling to your favourite destination for a quick summer getaway. And things are just going to get easier. There is no shred of doubt that mobile technology has indeed made an everlasting mark on Forex trading and has proved to be a game changer.

 

- Advertisement -

Top 10 Equity Crowdfunding Platforms

0
Financila Market, Frankfurt

Equity crowdfunding, also known as crowd investing, is a growing and constantly evolving substitute for companies that would like to sell equity in small quantities to a larger number of investors via online platforms. It was ten years ago when equity funding was introduced in the US and is still a rather fresh crowdfunding alternative. The chief objectives of these and previous crowdfunding platforms was to aid charitable companies, NGOs and artists to finance their projects by making them known to other investors and stakeholders which is known as the (crowd), through online platforms.

Today we observe steady growth in crowdfunding, with major growth in specific industries.

Thus, there was this influx of online crowdfunding platforms which were set up in between 2000 and 2010, platforms like Kickstarter (2009) and ArtistShare (2000). Compared to the traditional contribution processes associated with crowdfunding, equity crowdfunding is still under the regulatory microscope and a number of barriers. This is mainly due to the fact that soliciting funding and investments from the general public is illegal. That is, unless there has been a prospectus filed with the concerned securities authorities.

In April 2012, US President Barack Obama made a conscious effort to smoothen the process of investing in the US by approving the JOBS Act legislation, which (a variety of different rules and regulations) permits equity crowdfunding platforms to crowdsource a year ago. And as a direct result, there have been a number of new and old platforms which have emerged strongly. Mentioned below are some of the top equity crowdfunding platforms you can use:

Crowd Cube

Crowd Cube was launched back in 2011 by a UK-based company. Crowd Cube is considered to be a strong platform and is used widely across Europe. The platform’s main developers are Luke Lang and Daren Westlake and since its advent, 30 enterprises have successfully been able to generate equity using Crowd Cube.

Grow VC

Grow VC, which stands for Grow Venture Community, is a worldwide crowdfunding online platform providing an active crowdfunding community amidst a number of entrepreneurs and investors. The main focus of the platform is to aid start-ups to create their teams and generate funds which can run up to $1 million.

Grow VC defines itself as an encompassing and expanding ecosystem nurturing entrepreneurs and allowing them to connect with other experts, new team players, funders and with new clients and partners. In the Grow VC community, clients and members are responsible for building their own profiles. However, whatever they do is tracked. Today, Grow VC has more than 50 employees with its headquarters situated in Hong Kong.

Kickstarter

Kickstarter is another equity crowdfunding platform which encourages creative projects to emerge via donations and funding. The project can be anything, for example there can be an art installation, an innovative watch or a music album. However, Kickstarter is not meant for business causes, charities, and personal financing. And over the years, the online platform has experienced tremendous growth.

Indiegogo

While Kickstarter focuses more on creative projects which have to be first approved on the website, Indiegogo encourages fundraising campaigns for almost everything, including music, personal finance, hobbyists and charities. However, it is not meant for investments and due to their heightened flexibility, they have progressed extremely well and grown considerably.

Crowdfunder

Crowdfunder is an excellent online platform for generating investments (no rewards) and is considered to have the largest number of investors of any platform. On top of that, it is a rapidly growing company. Gaining immense popularity, the company also featured on Fox News as a top-notch crowdfunding company primarily because a story pertaining to another company which exited Crowdfunder with $2 billion.

RocketHub

RocketHub operate a powerful donation-based crowdfunding platform for a number of creative and curative projects. The thing that is unique about this online crowdfunding platform is their FuelPad and LaunchPad programs which significantly aid campaign owners and marketing/ promotion partners to interconnect with each other, allowing them collaborate to form successful techniques for the promotion of the campaign.

Crowdrise

Crowdrise is another crowdfunding platform which solely operates for causes and charities. Moreover, they have managed to successful attract a number of community do-gooders to work towards inspiring needs and causes for the betterment of the world.

Somolend

Somolend is a website designed for small business lending. Based in the US, Somolend provides qualified small businesses with debt-based funding and investments cope with their operations and revenue. The equity funder has also teamed up with banks to give out loans as well being instrumental in providing help for businesses to employ their family members and friends. Having Midwest roots along with a driven and commanding founder who was also a strong participant in the JOBS Act legislation, the company had expanded into different cities and states in the US.

Appbackr

As the name suggests, this is a platform which encourages talented developers to come and get the funding they require to design and develop promising smartphone applications. They provide initial funding for developers to get their projects off the ground.

Invested.in 

In order to use the services of Invested.in, it is imperative that you create your own crowdfunding community to support the contributions based fund generating for a particular group or niche in the market. Based in Venice, California, Invested.in is a top-notch white label software tools provider to help you start and grow your own business.

So, these are some of the best equity crowdfunding platforms you can go to for fulfilling the requirements of your project or small business.

- Advertisement -

How to Hedge Against Risk When Investing in Bitcoins

0
What Makes an Elite Trader

Understanding the Association of Risk When Investing in Bitcoin

Bitcoin has become an exciting new cryptocurrency. Well, it’s not new anymore, but it does provide users lower international trading costs. Are there risks when investing in bitcoin? Yes. Bitcoin is also a cross-border cryptocurrency unit which many traders believe could have exponential advantages for the purpose of international business to be more specific, business conducted online. However, for many people, Bitcoin has proved to be an alternative to the everyday banking system and the printing of money by the central bank like it’s going out of fashion.

From the perspective of an investor, Bitcoin’s price has increased over the years, which means that if you owned Bitcoins, you could have beaten other investments nine time out of ten. Various investment analysts comment that if Bitcoin allows itself to come out of the fringe geek circles, which has considerably pushed its value upwards over the years, and is made accessible to the general public more easily, there is a lot of potential for it in terms of price increase.

But it is important to remember that investing in Bitcoin is not for the fainthearted. This is mainly because there are a lot of risks associated with Bitcoin investments and trades. For example, the value of Bitcoin can fall abruptly after an increase. And the volatility levels in the Bitcoin market in 2013 should be enough for you to realize that. However, those volatility levels have died down.

Fortunately, you can do a number of things to hedge against risk when investing in Bitcoin and mentioned below are some of them:

Invest in Alternative Digital Currencies

There is no doubt that Bitcoin has given birth to a strong ‘proof of concept’ when it comes to powerful cryptocurrencies. However, you have to understand it is not the only cryptocurrency out there and definitely not the last. There are various cryptocurrencies you can invest in, a majority of which are now dubbed as ‘alt coins’, and that is solely to differentiate them from Bitcoins.

Many of these alternative coins in the market are simply hopping around, moving from one speedy bandwagon to another, and have little to offer to users in terms of value. However, there are some which have genuinely progressed to compete against Bitcoin in terms of reliability, speed, security, efficiency and costs. If you are an avid digital currency investor, you must consider investing in other digital currencies as well to be diverse.

If Bitcoin prices increase, there is also a strong chance the price of other currencies will increase, although by a lesser margin, because Bitcoin will always take point in creating a new market in which all cryptocurrencies can thrive. And so far, alt currencies have also proven to be fairly lucrative in relation to the Bitcoin.

However, there is also another fundamental aspect you should understand. If, because of any legal or security issue, the price of Bitcoin falls, and you see that the problem can be solved by another digital currency, or if other currencies have features that can gain an even bigger market share, you could well see an exponential increase in the prices of these ‘alt currencies’.

Buy Apple Shares

If you think about, and you won’t have to think hard, Apple is the number one long-term threat to this innovative technology. Believe it or not, the threat from regulators and hackers is minimal compared to the smartphone giant, especially from one that is reputed to be a ‘great innovator’.

Although if you look at it, Apple has never invented anything even if everybody thinks it is an innovative company, what it does is or rather its modus operandi is to search for new technologies invented by different companies and produce the ultimate spinoff version of the same invention to capitalize on the market by launching it just before the original invention is about to hit the market, a product which becomes instantly successful. Apple did the same with MP3 players, tablet computers and high-tech smartphones. However, they are also considering to the same with cryptocurrency.

So, if you think this from a logical and a more financially inclined perspective, it may be a good idea to invest in Apple shares and hedge against the risks posed by investing in Bitcoin. Investing in Apple is safe regardless of what happens to Bitcoin and if they succeed in promoting and creating iMoney, consider yourself lucky.

To conclude, it is important that you consider the aforementioned options if you want to make sure you don’t suffer any hefty losses by investing in Bitcoin.

- Advertisement -

ForexFactory.com: Site Overview

0
Forex Traders Chart

Forexfactory.com is an immensely popular Forex trading website on which a majority of traders converge and trade. Forex Factory was established in March 2004. The website was uniquely designed and developed to provide traders top-notch information they can use and implement to make hefty profits. And according to Alexa, Forex Factory is the most viewed Forex trading website in the US and ranks at 1,242 in the list of most viewed websites around the globe.

And it is because of the website’s impeccable design and its uncompromising efforts to provide traders better options, top financial products, and features, which has resulted in the website’s considerable growth and success. Options like adjustable time zones, which enables Forex traders to look and gather important trading information in their own time zones. It also provides traders revolutionary features like Google-based worldwide search, gathering via member post history which makes obtaining information simpler.

Forex Factory also has a Member Impact Ranking System (MIRS) which can be instrumental in gaining opinion and in-depth analysis of various trades through different members. You would be amazed to know that all of these features and options have consistently been refined and made better for more than ten years now, providing traders the richest of trading and investing experiences.

Members of Forex Factory are considered among the most brilliant minds in trading across the globe. Their knowledge, experience and strategies are what make the Forex trading experience here an oasis compared to other platforms. Moreover, people from over the world come and trade on Forex Factory regardless of their creed or nationality which in turn promotes a productive trading environment.

It is important to understand that Forex Factory cannot be considered a social networking platform and neither is it a web portal. It’s quite simply a website designed and developed to provide state of the art features in trading and high quality trading information to all who want to participate in Forex trading.

ForexFactory for Clever Businessmen

If you are an aspiring trader or want to become a successful one, it is important you join Forex Factory. That is primarily because it is designed specifically for traders who are smart, sure of themselves and not afraid to lose. The website guides rookie traders on how to make educated trades and staying risk free at all times.

Products Offered by Forex Factory

Mentioned below are the names and brief descriptions of some of the products offered by Forex Factory:

Forums | Launched March 2004

Did you know that more traders post on ForexFactory forum than on any other platform around the world? That is because at Forex Factory forums, traders from across the world gather and talk about trades, orders and different aspects of Forex trading. Trading forums here offer a professional environment where traders bounce ideas and opinions off each other, learn, debate and compete against each other.

Market | Launched November 2009

This product consists of different applications, including charts, broker quotes, composite quotes and sessions. All these applications are powered by the Market Data System of Forexfactory.com. The Market Data Structure or MDS is a complex trading infrastructure designed to gather aggregate data from different brokers, all in real-time. By amalgamating these sets of data from different sources, the MDS allows for traders to gain access to the ‘true’ price which can be set in comparison to prices from other brokers. What this does is promote a stable trading environment in a volatile market.

Trade Explorer | Launched February 2011

The Trade Explorer application is basically a web oriented interface which enables traders to evaluate and monitor their trading output and efficiency. You can say that it is a trade measuring tool which allows you to analyze your historical trade performance. Trade Explorer also automatically integrates with the individual trader’s brokerage account to allow him access to real-time evaluative abilities.

Trade Explorer has been instrumental in launching an array of different innovative applications. It provides users automatic graphing options, synchronization, time zone control and balance/equity controls. These are all options Forex Factory provided way before any other trading platform did.

Brokers | Launched May 2012

This product is designed seasoned and experienced Forex brokers. It is a guide which explains and analyzes the various ways in which brokers and traders do their research. It gathers high quality information with precise details and real-time spreads, all combined in a single, impeccably-designed trading platform. Furthermore, the information provided in the application is regularly maintained and updated by the administrators. They ensure the content you get is fresh and usable.

The ‘Spreads’ area on the website gathers ratings from each individual broker’s account in real-time and indicates all the current spreads in the form of pips. These spreads are indicators of what ‘traditional account’ traders are viewing from their platforms without the inclusion of demo accounts.

All in all, Forexfactory.com is a wonderful and groundbreaking website which has a plethora of trading tools and features that have designed to help traders get the best out of their trades. So, the website may considerably benefit you in your trades as well.

- Advertisement -

Crowdfunding and Trading

0
Crowdfunding

According to famous economist Paul Volcker, if the modern society has benefitted from any financial innovation, it is the Automated Teller Machine (ATM). He went on saying the ATM has brought the public a lot of advantages and improvements. However, most experts don’t agree with what Volcker has to say. According to an essay posted by the founder of GigaOM, Om Malik, who is also a venture capitalist, entirely placed emphasis on the fact that crowdfunding will be the new face of day trading and the fact it is the newest financial innovation, a digital product designed to reduce costs and promote a broadened participation in the market that has been defined by him as being closed and clubby.

To be abundantly clear, Malik isn’t referring to the popular crowdfunding platform ‘Kickstarter’, where crowdfunders make separate contributions that are actually meant to be pre-orders. What Malik is referring to here is the access to buying stock in private enterprises by the public, which is something which can soon be expected to be legalized, all thanks to the JOBS Act, which came out with some new regulations from the SEC permitting private companies to market their investment opportunities for legitimate investors.

For example, various hedge funds and start-ups can market their opportunities and advertise the fact they are raising a lot of money. Just consider the fact that soon a majority of people will be given the chance to invest with some of the wealthier citizens of the society.

And if that happens, it would trigger a massive influx of participation in crowdfunding and start-up investing. However, if you compare this with day trading, it would provide an affirmation for the crowdfunding sceptics’ worst fears, which is, that if the party ends, the public will end up losing most of their money. And to much surprise, that has happened with day trading.

According to a research study conducted in 2004 by day traders in Taiwan, while a handful of traders repeatedly made money, eight of ten day traders ended up losing money. Another report confirmed that less than 1% of day traders’ actually succeeded in making money.

Two of the researchers who conducted the research discovered similar information on stock trading 4 years prior to their initial research. The paper they wrote was titled “Trading is Hazardous to Your Wealth.” Once you deduct the commissions, the research identified the households that traded poorly when they invested in index funds. In fact, they found out that the more these households traded in the index funds, the more they lost.

According to them, their empirical proof is derived from 20% of the households that were engaged in frequent trading. With the average revenue being more than 20%, the households turn their nominal investing portfolios twice every year. The gross returns they made were less than decent and they virtually had no net return. So, it is true that when you talk about crowdfunding and day trading, it kind of begs the question whether or not a wider participation by active day traders is a good idea.

Om Malik does acknowledge this problem and explains that although people don’t hesitate to consistently try earning big amount in the stock market and it does work at times, but the streak is rather short-lived. Ironically, the crowdfunding innovation led to an influx of new traders which caused those returns to collapse, leaving other day traders with zero capital.

However, it is also true that it is due to a lack of knowledge of day traders that they lose rather than their timings and this is the major concern. Nonetheless, the most important question that needs to be answered here is whether or not this innovation can help people? There are numerous causes for doubt and cynicism. For example, venture capital taken as an asset has consistently performed below par in the S&P 500 for the past ten years. Flushing more capital into the VC has led to lower returns. But when you talk about start-ups, the timeframes concerned are long enough that it has impeded basic trading.

The central partiality that was discovered by researchers and the reason they believe individual stock traders lose their investments is that they are overconfident. To conclude, when you talk about the stock market, it is always the case where the stack is set against the new guy or the guy who doesn’t have much. So, that little guy is then forced to invest in boring index funds which also don’t prove to be lucrative for him.

- Advertisement -

What is a Bitcoin Exchange?

0
Bitcoin and criptocurrency

Bitcoin currency exchange operates in a similar way to banks. Just like in a bank, you have to deposit a certain amount of money in your account, but in this case the money you deposit should be in a currency or currencies which the exchange supports. The person depositing the sum of money would then on his own account use that currency to engage in trading with thousands of other traders on the market who are also registered on the exchange. After a profit is made, the user withdraws his money and comes back to trade another day.

Unlike traditional trading transactions, when you talk about making a currency or rather cryptocurrency trade on Bitcoin exchanges, there are no immediate risks of losing money because other traders haven’t stood up to their part of the deal. You will only stand to lose money if the Bitcoin exchange itself is involved in fraud or some other legal issues.

Exchanging is initiated by placing either “buy” or “sell” orders. These orders are then matched with other orders via the exchange system. ‘Buy’ orders are also known as bids and are offers to buy a certain number of Bitcoins. “Sell” orders are referred to as ‘asks’ where a trader offers to sell his Bitcoins for a minimum price per Bitcoin in the market. If the buy price of a buy order is more than the ask price of the sell order, a digital currency exchange is established and both bid and sell orders can be eliminated from the ‘order book’.

Thus, at each given moment, a price exists over which there can be no more buy order and a little higher price over which there can be no further sell orders. These transactions and further communication via the Bitcoin exchanges is done mainly through traditional web browsers which have a secure SSL connection.

Payment Methods Commonly Accepted by Most Bitcoin Exchanges

  • Bitcoin transfers
  • Liberty Reserve
  • Bank wires
  • Credit cards

Currencies Exchanged via Automation on Bitcoin Exchange

  • US Dollars
  • Euros
  • Japanese Yen
  • Russian Rubles
  • Pound Sterling
  • Pecunix Gold

Soft Currencies & Chargeback

It is important to understand that exchanging a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin for other types of currencies could lead to some issues pertaining to chargeback fraud. Particularly, automated payment methods like credit cards and payment gateways, such as PayPal, through which you can get a 90-day chargeback facility after the transaction is done.

On the contrary, Bitcoins are considered a hard currency, which means that if you spend them, you will not be able to get those Bitcoins back through pulling. In essence, if you initiate a Bitcoin trade for a soft currency trade, (such as PayPal) you stand the risk of a chargeback after you trade your Bitcoins.

The person buying your Bitcoins can file for a chargeback by declaring the non-receipt of the Bitcoins or if the buyer is using a stolen account, the true owner of the account might reverse the charges because he hasn’t made any transaction, resulting in a loss for you. This is why it is important that you trust the person you trade with.

Exchange Rates and Market Forces

A few years earlier, when Bitcoin was still in its infancy, the digital currency indicated a strong fluctuation in exchange rates and prices, which ranged from $50 to $266. However, it was in 2013, that Bitcoin indicated a rather stable progression in its exchange rate. According to the statistics provided by ConvertHub, the exchange rate for Bitcoins stood at $959.58 in February 2014.

Bitcoin has been a subject of much criticism from various economists who claim the only thing it does is bubble around itself, something which is vaguely similar to what happened before the housing market collapsed. However, no one can deny that Bitcoin has indicated a great tendency to fluctuate massively.

On the other hand, due to growing instability in the global economy, many consider Bitcoin to be a reliable and progressive investment vehicle compared to other well-known currencies. While access to Bitcoins is getting convenient by the day, more people are buying and selling Bitcoins and the availability of that access serves to be prime source of unpredictability and inconsistency in the prices of Bitcoins in the market.

Due to bans on Bitcoin converts imposed by governments around the globe, most notably the US government, it can now be difficult to convert your Bitcoins into US Dollars. This has, in turn, led to a massive instability in the price of Bitcoins pertaining to its geographical integrity, which ironically has become a problem for the currency which was created to be free from borders.

- Advertisement -

Trader Personality: Jesse Livermore

0

Jesse Livermore, who is thought to be the grandfather of stock trading, was born in 1877 and died in 1940. Although Jesse traded more than 100 years ago, the principles he used for trading at the time are still practiced firmly by many of the legend’s followers today. He was an ordinary American citizen who rose to riches through trading and also saw his share of multi-million dollar losses.

‘Boy Plunger’ was the nickname given to him early in his life when he started his journey towards a successful future as a trader through various bucket shops, which is another name for gambling houses. He used to trade there and started at the tender age of fifteen. When Livermore turned 40, he already had a $100 million fortune which in today’s terms can amount up to $6 billion dollars, a staggering amount. And he rose to fame when he shorted the market in 1929 when the entire US stock exchange was crippled.

The Trading Style of Jesse Livermore

Jesse was an active and successful trader in the US even before the great spike and plunge of the US economy. The Civil War, having been long over, people still remembered it. However, it was also era of great industrial development in the US at the time which presented a great deal of opportunities for smart traders and businessmen. It was at this time that America rose to becoming a safe haven for all who needed shelter and food.

This induced a massive influx of settlers who chose to escape the endless hardships of the Old World to embark on new beginnings through hard and honest labour. And this is what Jesse Livermore loved and the sort of environment he chose to invest in. He got involved with people like Henry Osborne Havemeyer, the owner of American Sugar Refining Co, along with the owner of the National City Bank, which has become Citigroup today, E.H. Harriman, the master of the railroads, J.P. Morgan legendary banker and the founder of Standard Oil, William Rockefellar.

He was rolling with all the big people responsible for developing these booming industries. Livermore was familiar with each and every industry, from coal to coffee, to sugar and the world of banking, which meant he had a tremendous amount of knowledge and information available to him at any given time.

Yet with all that knowledge, Livermore was convinced not to anticipate anything in the market and chose to be patient and let things swing in the way his knowledge enabled to predict and believe that it should and it did, so he did what he did best: invested in a bullish market and shorted in a bear market.

However, Livermore’s personal life was not as successful as one might imagine. Having endured three unsuccessful marriages he was also stricken with clinical depression which had been with him for a long time. And this is what led him to taking his own life in 1940.

The Grandmaster’s Principles in Momentum Trading

Although Jesse Livermore was active along time ago, trading in commodities and stocks, making millions. Believe it or not, the methods and principles he used are not so different from today’s financial world and just as legitimate. Jesse Livermore used to say a successful trader never acts on his own instincts until the market has deemed his instincts correct. If you try to understand the meaning behind what Livermore was talking about, it would do you good to remember you are in the market to make investments and not to form prophesies.

And many of the successful traders today follow in Jesse’s footsteps, which is not to anticipate but to follow the markets to a more fruitful return. The maestro also used to stress on the fact a trader can never buck the stock market, because there is never anything new. However, there are always variations of the same patterns, insightful for a man who traded 10 decades ago.

Livermore also emphasized on the fact one should never trade when he is unsure of the opportunities in the market, learn to hold money. This means all good trades need time and a lot of patience and greed is the worst enemy of a trader. All in all, Jesse Livermore’s wisdom still carries out, even today where everything is modernized in the world of stock, hedge funds and ETFs.

- Advertisement -

The DNA of Successful Trading

0

The world of trading is often filled with enigmatic elements due to the fact there is no one formula to trade and be successful. Think of the trading market as an ocean and imagine that all the traders in it are surfers. Now, what does a good surfer require? He requires balance, discipline, patience, a proper surfboard and a keen eye on the environment around him. That is what will allow him to ride the waves successfully and not crash at every attempt. Well, the world of trading isn’t that different and you have to do all of the aforementioned if you wish to conduct successful trading.

The DNA of Effective Trading

The Approach

Before you begin to trade, it is important that you first prepare. You should identify your targets, your goals and align yourself with the market and the instruments you would require to successfully accomplish your goals. Do what you know best. For example, if you’re into retail, then look up retail stocks instead of oil trades.

A Proper Time Frame

After you set your goals, the next thing to do is identify a proper timeframe in which you will assess what type of trading is best suited to your ability and your attributes. For example, trading using five-minute market charts indicates that you are more comfortable in a position where there is no overnight trade risk. However, selecting a weekly chart to trade would suggest you are more comfortable with overnight trades and the risks associated with them which includes letting a couple of days slide by.

Moreover, try to first determine whether or not you have the strength and focus to sit in front of your laptop or PC or if you would rather do research all weekend and arrive at a trading decision in the week ahead based on your evaluations. Always remember that if you want to make money in the trading market, learn to wait.

Methodology

Once you have determined a timeframe, the next thing to do is discover a good methodology. For example, most traders prefer to buy support and then sell resistance, while others prefer to buy or sell breakouts, yet many trade using MACD and crossover indicators. Furthermore, upon selecting a methodology, it is important that you give it a test run to see whether or not it is consistent with your strategies. If you see that your system combined with your methodology is reliable most of the time, it is safe to say you have an edge. So, test each methodology for positive results.

Discipline

Discipline here refers to how much patience you have. It is essential that you have the patience to sit and wait for you system to indicate an opportunity for you and when that happens, you have to be ready. However, there will be times when the price action will not reach your predicted price level. When that happens, you have to be patient enough not to start second guessing your system.

Objectivity

Objectivity plays a crucial role in trading and it can make or break a trader. Your emotional detachment relies on your strategies and methodology of trade. When you see you have a system that gives you a good entry and exit into the market, you have nothing to worry about. You can’t allow your emotions to get the best of you and be influenced by other traders who will never be interested in your trade levels and may often misguide you. This is by the far the most important aspect of trading.

Keep Your Expectations Real

It is true that, at times, the market does makes exceptionally big moves, but being realistic here implies to the fact you can expect to make $2000 off a $500 trade each time you make a move in the market. Though using short-term timeframes entails fewer opportunities to make a profit, long-term trades carry high risk, but high profits. In the end, you will have to make a ‘reward versus risk’ decision.

Control the Risks

At the end of it all, successful trading depends on how you control and manage your risks. Be quick with taking losses, if necessary. It is important you direct your trade in the right direction. If it pushes you back, exit the market and try again. Controlling risk requires both discipline and patience.

So, in the end, it is all about your approach, tactics and discipline when it comes to pulling off successful trades. In regards to this, Warren Buffet says that there are two rules to trading successfully

  1. Don’t ever lose money

  2. Always remember rule number one.

So, always be prepared to counter losses quickly and never wait for big losses to happen.

- Advertisement -

The traders glossary

0
Traders Analysis

Mentioned below are some of the most common terms used in the Forex trading market:

Ask Price

Also known as the Offer Price, Ask Prices are market prices for traders interested in purchasing currencies. Ask Prices are displayed on the right side of a quote, for example, EUR/USD 1.1965/68. This means that you can buy €1 Euro for $1.1965.

Aggressive

Traders and/or price action are acting with conviction.

Analyst

An analyst is a financial expert who has the knowledge and evaluative skills to assess investments and in light of his research, diligently pulls together buy, sell and hold recommendations for his clients.

Appreciation

A product will ‘appreciate’ when it gains strength in terms of price correlating with the total demand in the market.

Arbitrage

The concurrent buying or selling of a financial product to enjoy the benefits of small price differentials in between different markets is known as arbitrage.

Bar Chart

Bar charts are used in the technical analysis of trading in a market. Bar charts consist of time divisions which are shown vertically with the following information: the top of the bar is the price high, the bottom is low price and the horizontal line, which is on the left, indicates the opening price and the horizontal line on the right side indicates the closing price.

Base Currency

Refers to the first currency when you look at a currency pair, a trade quote indicates how much the base currency is worth. For example, in the quote USD/JPY 112.13, the base currency is US dollars with $1 having a worth of 112.13 Japanese Yen.

Bid Price

Bid price is the price at which traders can sell their currencies. The bid price is always indicated on the left side of each quote, for example, EUR/USD 1.1965/68. This means that €1 can be sold for $1.1965.

Bid/Ask Spread

This refers to the difference between the bid price and the ask price pertaining to a currency quotation. The spread indicates the broker’s fee and differs from broker to broker.

Broker

A broker is an intermediary representing both buyers and sellers. Most brokers in the Forex market are linked with well-known financial institutions and make a commission by placing a spread between bid and ask prices.

Big Figure

A big figure refers to the beginning 3 digits of a currency quote, for example 117 USD/JPY or 1.26 in EUR/USD. So, if the price alters by 1.5 big figures it has moved 150 pips.

Candlestick Chart

A candlestick chart is also used for the technical analysis of a trade. Every time the division on the chart is shown as a candlestick, which is basically a red or green vertical bar with extensions which run above and below the body of the candlestick body, the highest point of the extension indicates the highest price for the chart and the bottom extension indicates the lowest price. Red candlesticks indicate a reduced closing price in comparison to the opening price while the green candlestick indicates a rise in the price.

Cross Currency

It is a currency pair which does not have US dollars, for example EUR/GBP.

Currency Pair

Two currencies involved in a FOREX transaction, for example, EUR/USD.

Capitulation

Refers to the point at the end of an intense trade where traders are holding losing positions and exiting. Capitulation is usually a sign that traders expect a reversal soon.

Economic Indicator

An economical indicator is a statistical report published by the government or by the academic institutions, indicating various economic changes, factors and conditions in the economy.

First In, First Out (FIFO)

Refers to open orders liquidated in sequence, for example, the first order liquidated is the first one which will be opened in the market.

Foreign Exchange (Forex, FX)

FX refers to the concurrent buying of one currency and the selling of another.

Fundamental Analysis

It is an analysis of the political and economic conditions of a country which can, in turn, affect the price(s) of different currencies.

Leverage or Margin

The ratio which represents the value of a trading transaction, taking into account the required deposit, the common margin for Forex trading is 100:1, which means you can trade a currency which is worth 100 times more than your deposit.

Limit Order

An order to buy or sell when the price reaches a specified level is known as a limit order.

LOT

The size of a Forex transaction, standard lots are worth about $100,000.

Major Currency

The Euro, German Mark, Swiss Franc, British Pound, and the Japanese Yen are all major currencies.

Minor Currency

The Canadian dollar, the Australian dollar, and the New Zealand dollar are all minor currencies.

One Cancels the Other (OCO)

Two orders placed simultaneously with instructions to cancel the second order upon execution of the first.

Open Position

An active trade which has not been closed is referred to as an ‘Open Position’.

Pips or Points

The smallest unit a currency can be traded in.

Quote Currency

The second currency in a currency pair, for example, in the currency pair USD/EUR, the Euro is the quote currency.

Rollover

Lengthening the settlement time of spot deals to the existing delivery date, rollover costs are calculated using swap points based on interest rate differentials.

Technical Analysis

Analysis of historical market data to predict future movements in the market is referred to as technical analysis.

Tick

The minimum change in price is called a tick.

Transaction Cost 

The cost of a Forex transaction, typically the spread between bid and ask prices.

Volatility

A statistical measure indicating the tendency of sharp price movements within a period of time is known as market volatility.

- Advertisement -

Trader Personality: Paul Tudor Jones

0
New York, business center

Born on the 28th of September, 1954, in Memphis, Tennessee, Paul Tudor Jones II is the founder and owner of the Tudor Investment Corporation. The management of his other private investment partnerships is done through his own corporation, which you can refer to as hedge funds. Tudor Jones had an estimated net value of $3.2 billion in 2010 and as of now, it stands at $4.3 billion.

He studied and attained an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Virginia in 1976 and was also a welterweight boxing champ. He began working on the trading floors in 1976 as a clerk and gradually became a broker for the famous firm E.F. Hutton four years after. In 1980, he was adamant on earning on his own and made a lot of profitable deals for almost two and half years before he started to get particularly ‘bored’ with his work.

After realizing that he has to do something else, he then successfully applied to the Harvard Business School, and to the surprise of many did not join because he realized the skill set he really wanted to capitalize on wasn’t going to be taught to him by anyone and decided to take another approach. He went to William Dunavant Jr. for career advice. Dunavant, who is the founder of one of the globe’s foremost and biggest cotton merchant company, sent him to meet another commodities broker by the name of Eli Tullis, who was in New Orleans.

It was Tullis who took him in and began to mentor him, showing him the ropes of cotton trades and painted the future of the cotton industry on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Early Success of Paul Tudor Jones

In 1980, Jones proceeded towards establishing his own company, the Tudor Investment Corporation, which is regarded as today’s foremost organization in asset management companies and has its headquarters in Greenwich, Connecticut. The corporation consists of affiliations tied to leading active trading, investing and research in global equity, venture capitalism, currency, debt, and the commodities markets.

Jones became really popular following the events of Black Monday in 1987, when he accurately predicted the markets, earning massive profits due to large short trade positions. He, along with his colleague and friend, Hunt Taylor went on to successfully create FINEX, the financial futures’ section of the New Board of Trade and were also instrumental in the making of US dollar index futures contracts.

Paul Tudor Jones also went on to becoming the Chairman of the New York Cotton Exchange from 1992 to 1995.

The Futures Trading Strategies of Paul Tudor Jones

Paul Tudor Jones is a contrarian investor. He keeps going for single trades until an idea essentially changes his mind. Most of the times he works on keeping his position in the markets cut down. Then he attempts to trade in small amounts when he has trouble hauling in good trades. Jones also considers himself as the best when it comes to identifying and taking advantage of market opportunities. When he thinks up of a brilliant idea, he initiates the pursuit of its implementation from a low risk perspective until he is deemed and proved wrong or at least till another idea befalls him.

He is also a swing trader and believes that considerable money can be made at different market turns. Although he has missed quite a bit of meat all around the middle, he always managed to catch a good share of tops and bottoms. He is by the far the calmest investor and trader of all and is always relaxed, thinks coolly and always exits the market swiftly whenever his losing position in the market starts to get to him.

Jones has the habit to decrease his trading mass when he sees he might lose and increases it as his trades get successful. Plus, he also tracks his whole portfolio equity in real-time and believes that prices always move first, the fundamentals should always be a secondary concern. He always looks at the bigger picture and does not even think about the losses he incurred moments ago. Jones also emphasizes deeply on not involving your ego in the game. He says that a good trader always questions his ability and form at every turn, always yearning to improve. If you think you are better than the rest, you will fail.

Contributions

Paul Tudor Jones has also made sizeable donations to the University of Virginia, his Alma mater, and has contributed $35 million for the development of a brand new basketball arena which he named after his father, John Paul Jones.

Married to a former Australian model Sonia since 1988, Jones and his wife have four children together.

- Advertisement -

Trader Personality: Jim Rogers

0
New York, business center at night

Which trader doesn’t dream of making millions and conveniently retire at the age of 30? Surely, it is every investor’s sole purpose and their dream. But for market guru and legend Jim Rogers, a commodities trader, it was just the dawn of an illustrious career on Wall Street that has lasted for over 60 years and has helped him make millions of dollars.

Jim Rogers amassed his wealth and grew his business empire using his phenomenal ability to monitor and pinpoint long-term trends long before anyone else could which blissfully ended up building him a reputation as a sharp contrarian. Rogers retired at the age of 38 to pursue his love of motorbike riding around the globe, and since his retirement he has also been a treasured guest professor of finance at Columbia Business School.

Rogers is known for the huge gains in commodity he made back in the early 2000’s, but he really became a living legend after correctly forecasting the collapse of the housing market, ending up making millions.

A Look into the Early Life of the Rogers

Rogers always had a fondness or affinity rather, for business, beginning from an early age. In fact, Rogers first started stepping on the trading floor in the financial world at the age of 5 and used to sell peanuts and gather empty bottles that were left behind by baseball fans in Alabama. Rogers graduated from Yale University back in 1964 and has a Bachelor’s degree in history. After his studies, he went on working as an investment banker on Wall Street which eventually led him to meeting another billionaire stock market legend, George Soros.

It was him and Soros that founded the exceptional Quantum Fund in 1973 which made a stupendous amount of money in its first 10 years, enjoying up to 4200% in returns. His early success allowed him to retire earlier than most traders. But that wasn’t the end of his career. Rogers still trades as a private trader and an astute investor, securing massive gains on the way. Moreover, he is also the author of the book “Investment Biker”, published in 1990, and is about his trip around the world on his motorbike.

Rogers’ Investment Methodologies and Massive Gains

Rogers has a timely approach to investing and employs a top-down model when analyzing the economy, which according to him is instrumental in guiding his investment methods and style. Rogers also said he has never been able to time the markets. So, instead he has adopted a long-term approach to investing.

Jim is a popular contrarian investor and his eagerness and assertiveness has led him to always go against the tide of the buck and grain and has allowed him to form some diligent ideas. He is also well-known for his ability to spot particularly long-term trends faster than any other trader or investor. After being instrumental in the success of Quantum Fund in the early 70’s and 80’s, he was able to call the commodities boom a decade later  allowing him to establish the Rogers International Commodity Index in 1998 before the boom of the commodities market in the 2000’s.

The key feature in the way Rogers invests and trades is nothing but patience. Irrespective of whether he was predicting the early boom of the commodities market in the 2000’s or shorting the market in the 2008 stock market collapse, he has always focused on being patient and has emphasized its importance to follow through a successful investment. To sum it all up, this is what Jim Rogers said about being patient in the market, “I just wait until there is money lying in the corner, and all I have to do is go over there and pick it up. I do nothing in the meantime.”

Jim Roger’s Investment Portfolio: What Does He Hold Now?

Rogers has his target set on what he believes to be the greatest of all opportunities that happened to have landed on his lap: the food and agriculture industry. He is also big on bullish commodities and analyzes that the ceasing process of the central bank will sustain hard assets. He also invests in precious metals like gold and silver and is particularly fond of these metals. Back in 2011, he mentioned that in 1987, gold and silver stock fluctuated from 40% to 80%, but compared to what’s going to happen now, that era seems like a blip.

In 2007, Rogers moved to Singapore with his family to further take advantage of the growth of the nation’s economy. Rogers even started his the Rogers Global Resources Equity Index, an index primarily designed to capitalize on the most liquid companies pertaining to agriculture, mining and metals and alternative energy industries in 2011.

- Advertisement -

Top 10 Successful Traders Ever

0
Traders Analysis

There are a number of fundamental differences between a trader and an investor. The only similarity they may share is that both investors and traders can lose money just as easily as they make it. We can learn from the successful traders.

To start trading though, you don’t need an investment or apply for a loan. You’d be surprised to know some of the world’s most brilliant and legendary traders themselves went through a lot of trial and tribulations before they became what they are today and before their names were immortalized in the history of trading.

Mentioned below are the names of the top successful traders who managed to beat others in the market through their skill, their diligence, tenacity and instincts. So, get ready to get some inspiration.

Top Ten Successful Traders of the World

1.  Jesse Livermore – The Master of Speculation

The skill of speculation that Jesse possessed thrived when he accurately predicted the 1929 stock market collapse. Livermore began trading as a 15-year old, trading at various gambling houses and through his studies and research he rose to fame and power when forecasted the 1907 and the 1929 markets collapses and made $100 million (which in today’s terms amounts up to $6 billion), in the blink of an eye. Having been associated with various industrialists at the time, Jesse proved to be instrumental in contributing towards America’s industrial revolution.

2. Paul Tudor Jones – Understanding the Core Dynamics of Trading

Paul Tudor Jones, another trading genius, called on the 1987 stock market crash because of that the day became labelled as Black Monday. Tudor accurately predicted the fall of the market by recognizing and understanding a series of events that led him to success. He understood at the time if the market started to descend rather than dry up, selling in the market would actually cascade. Jones understood an overvalued market would definitely give birth to more selling. Gambling on this, Paul went on making $100 million faster than you could say ‘I want to be rich!’

3.  George Soros – Defeating the Bank of England

As if this man needs any introduction at all, George Soros is the trader who broke the Bank of England without breaking a sweat. He predicted that the pound was going to fall and shorted it, making an easy $1 billion. Although many other traders deemed this gamble as nothing short of reckless, Soros was pleased about it. Well, of course, he would be. It was a ridiculously rewarding gamble! George forced the Bank of England to withdraw from the ERM (European Exchange Rate Mechanism).

4.  John Templeton – Betting on Japanese Assets and Winning

Templeton was the master of mutual funds. He invested $100,000 in Japanese assets when Japan was undergoing an economic change for the better, Templeton ended up making $55 million on a $100,000 investment. And in 1999, when Japan was starting to achieve it economic goals, Templeton decided to invest 60% of his funds into Japanese assets, which was again a spectacular success.

5.  Andrew Hall – Predicting the Oil Prices

In 2003, a barrel of oil was traded at $30. At the time, Andrew Hall predicted the price per barrel of oil is going to reach $100 within the next 5 years. Turned out his gamble was spot-on. He worked for Citigroup, making a ton of money for his employer. The trader made about $100 million.

6.  Paul Rotter – The Master Flipper

An expert in gauging the market’s psychology, his techniques were impeccable and significantly aided him in becoming a master of the markets. Paul being the initiator, his ideas and strategies proved to be instrumental in conducting trades on the Eurex exchange (Bund, Bobl and Schatz) markets.

7.  John Paulson – Shorting Real Estate

John Paulson is known for successfully executing what is known as the ‘greatest trade ever’. Paulson accurately predicted the asset bubble in the real estate market which had the potential for bringing in billions of dollars into Wall Street. Paulson ended up making $15 billion for his employers in 2007 for which he got a dizzying $3.7 billion.

8.  Jim Chanos – The Perceptive Short Seller

Jim Chanos rose to fame in October 2001 shortly after the downfall of Enron. Chanos was a master when it coming to shorting trades and made heavy profits by selling commodity currency and security. His most popular shorts include Baldwin-United and as of late, homebuilders like KB Home.

9.  Louis Bacon – The Gamble on Geopolitical Factors

Bacon is one of successful traders and ended up rightly predicting that Saddam Hussein would invade Kuwait. Just a year after that, he also predicted and gambled on the fact that the US would defeat Iraq when the oil markets were beginning to recover. He was a master at trading using geopolitical motivators and aspects and has made a lot of money doing so.

10. David Tepper – Investing Money in Diminishing Assets

The last on the list, another successful traders is Tepper has a record for investing in distressed assets and has made a lot of money doing so. He predicted the Bank of America along with Citigroup will not be nationalized and he made a fortune. David bought extremely depreciated shares and saw them grow tremendously in value towards the end of 2009.

So, these are the best traders you can learn from and be inspired by.

- Advertisement -

The Power of Social Media: Influencing Trading and the Markets

0
Social Media

It is no surprise that social media is expanding exponentially and it’s influencing trading. Just look at how Facebook has turned out since it was created in 2004. It now has over 1.3 billion users worldwide. Twitter generates over 500 million tweets every day and LinkedIn has over 260 million active users, trying to make new connections and to find jobs every day. If you look at social media from a broader perspective, you will see that it has come a long way and has significantly aided people in accomplishing things that otherwise would not have been easily possible. It has become a vital pipeline for thoughts and actions, and words and decisions pertaining to everything.

As a result of such growth, there are some bullet points that might be important for a trader in order to understand the scale of potential information flow:

Looking at it from another point of view, you will notice that social media has become the combined load and barometer of ideas, thoughts, and impulses in regards to the entire world. It has also served to be a combined source of wisdom, observation, and emotional reactions for those in the financial markets, such as asset managers, traders, investors, and equity analysts.

The Extenuating Effect of Social Media on Daily Trading

Social media has allowed traders to conduct trades privately without being influenced by anything. The main difference between social media platforms for trading and a traditional offline social surrounding is that in the latter, you are more exposed to the decisions and the influence of other traders. Social media saves you from conducting misinformed or ‘low information’ trades or from following bad investment advice and decisions. For example, it helps you not to make rash decisions based on what your friends say about a particular stock, and how you should invest in it.

Social networking platforms provide traders with a complete net of streamlined information, which allows you to analytically consider a wider range of possible trading scenarios. For example, while a couple of your friends made money by investing in a certain stock, the majority of your friends and colleagues lost money investing in the very same stock. So it is likely that this information will suppress your immediate emotional response, which is to buy those shares, and instead, you will decide to forgo this opportunity, which is a considerably better option.

High End Investors Seek to Utilize the Benefits of Social Media

According to a study which was a made a couple of years ago by LinkedIn, with the help of the Cogent Research Group, it was identified that various social media platforms were being used by high trading net worth traders of about $5 million belonging to North America. It was discovered that they used social media to help them with make critical trading decisions. It was also realized that those investors have made social media their prime tool for decision making.

Retail Trading: Becoming One with the Global Investors

While using different social media instruments to predict various market trends, retail investors can depend on various resources for accurate information pertaining to the market. The goals of individual retail traders totally differ from those of professional investors and traders. Retail traders thrive by working as a network which helps share and spread market related information and ideas. And, what better platform is there to share and gather ideas than social media? Thus, it makes for a natural breeding place for retail traders to become an integral part of the trading community.

Just look at Facebook’s trading application for potential investors, called Zecco’s Wall. The application is streamlined to allow investors and traders to monitor their stocks and to buy them via the application anytime they want to. The application has made access to a much larger network of information very easy for all traders.

Also, via social media, there are many online traders who can interact with other online traders with similar trading portfolios. This allows them to improve their trading together while participating in collaborative successes.

No trader in this day and age can say that social media has not helped them attain financial prosperity in one way or another. Social media has had an extremely powerful influence on the way traders choose to analyze and assess potential investment opportunities. With that being said, it is important to realize that one has to iron out the disorganized nature of the trading information available on and attained via social media networks carefully. In order to make effective use of it, it has to be diligently filtered because of the massive amount of information present, which can prove to be misleading if not analyzed properly.

- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -

APPLICATIONS

HOT NEWS

5G: Using technology to plan for the future of work

0
Businesses and the government's capacity to engage in a long-term digital transformation plan – supported by enhanced connectivity – is critical to the future...