Year: 2019

The Questions You Want to Ask Your Broker about Start Trading

This is the full explanation of what you have to do in your first contact with the broker.

By Guy Avtalyon

We assume you already made your decision to start investing or trading but you don’t know how to start and what to ask a broker. That is the situation where you would need a broker’s help. You already examine and find several and it is time to contact them.

What you have to do that before you open an account.

Before you open an account, you should use the internet browser. Traders-Paradise’s advice is to visit the web pages of every brokerage company you want to analyze. That first feeling about the brokerage’ site will be maybe the most important part if you want to start trading online. You must feel comfortable while you are checking section after section and it has to be user-friendly for you and you will find if the broker has a free demo account and how long you can use it before the switch to the real.

Some websites may be slower at the first visit but try them again, maybe when you first visited them the traffic was high. A large number of visitors can make the website operate slower sometimes. This doesn’t mean the broker isn’t good.

OK, you picked several brokers. So what is the next step?

First of all, you have to make the first contact. The best way is to make some phone calls or to fill a contact form and let them call you.

Be prepared, on the first call, they will tell you precisely what you like to hear. It will be so good but also, it might not be a truth. You must be aware. So, never play on the first hint. Try them more.

Always keep in mind, you need to find the right broker for you. So, you have to talk.

What to ask the broker?

You will pay for financial advice, and you will entrust your hard-earned money to some person who will act as a genuine servant of your financial future. So, you have to ask, you have to talk.

Ask if the firm has possible conflicts of interest regarding reasons to sell particular funds or products. Just ask. If you get a precise response, then the answer will satisfy many of the next questions.

Ask the broker about trading commissions.

It might be surprising but lower commissions are not always the better.

Take care of it and examine all the information you can get.

The price per trade may explain the level of customer service. If you don’t want to trade so often it shouldn’t be the subject of your consideration. In such a case it isn’t the primary if you need 30 seconds or 3 minutes to execute your trade, so the difference in commissions isn’t important too much. Will it be $5 or $25 per trade isn’t important if you don’t plan to trade very often, for example, 15-20 trades per year. But if you plan to trade on a daily base it is important.

Training and education

Also, you would like to know what kinds of training and education do they provide.

Traders and investors, both advanced and novice need constant training and education to stay up to date with the laws and practices in the trade. This includes mentorship and copy trading. Mentorship is extremely important. The legal field is changing and you would need a good mentorship to follow the best practices in order to keep mistakes minimal. On the other hand, copy trading is good for novice traders and investors but leading traders may make mistakes too. At the beginning level, they are good. After you master the trading, you should build your own strategy and approach to the trade. That will depend on your personal goals, risk tolerance, and character.

Also, important information is about other fees.

Ask the broker about them. That is information about costs of account-maintenance and inactivity fees. So, it is good to make a list of services and transactions you might need before you start the conversation with the broker. Ask them how much all of them will be a charge.

Ask a broker about the minimum initial deposit

Minimum initial deposit is something you should know before you open the trading account. We assume you know how much you can invest but does it meet the broker’s regulation? Some brokers have account minimum and you have to know is it adequate for you. This minimum has to matches your budget.

Withdrawals

You need to know how much you can withdraw and how much time it will take. On some websites, you will find wonderful information about it but once when you talk with a live person you might find there are so many differences for almost every case. For example, on the website brokerage can write the withdrawals take a few days. That is true but sometimes it isn’t. Very often it depends on how big withdrawal is or in which circumstances you want to withdraw. Ask for every single detail about it.

Customer support

This is a huge question. Ask a broker’s about customer support and services before you sign up. Is it easy to find what you want on their website or you will need to spend the whole day and click through 100 pages? Can you access to their customer support fast? Does your broker have live chat? Is there any possibility to talk face-to-face?

Banking services

Maybe this isn’t a big deal but still, you have to know all about payment methods.

The best choice is a brokerage account that can serve your banking need. The brokers now offer Visa or Master cards, direct deposit, ATM cards, etc.

Ask a broker about investment assets selection

All brokerages offer stocks traded on the major exchanges. But if you’re interested in options, bonds, currencies, cryptos ask if certain brokerages offer them. They’re not available in all brokerage.

A good broker will set realistic expectations in front of you. They will provide some valid information from their experience. They will be based on the current market and on details about your goals.

Beating the market is hard but at the same time exciting. Since it is hard for the majority, you need to add some weights to your portfolio. Without a broker, it is even harder. Statistics show that only 5% of market participants are successful. It is smart to use the best brokerage to be one of them.

Traders-Paradise recommends you to ask these questions as far as possible. Your broker has to truly serve you well. So, they should have no problem to give you honest answers.

To get started on your broker research, use our Walls

Traders-Paradise Team wishes you successful trading and investing.

24th June 2019
Slack Technologies Inc rose 48% on Thursday after its Wall Street debut

2 min read

This start-up company started in a direct listing rather than an initial public offering.

The company decided to appear on a direct listing on the stock market, refusing the use of conventional advisers to manage the price of new stocks.

That initiated the chance of wild swings in the price. The traders always try to estimate where the shares force settle.

This increase in the share price placed the value of the company at $25bn.

In an interview on CNBC, Slack chief executive officer Stewart Butterfield said:

“The big thing for us was in the traditional IPO, it’s the company that’s offering shares, you might raise, you know, a billion dollars or something like that. When you raise a billion dollars, you dilute existing shareholders, by issuing new shares. So, we are not doing that. We’re just opening it up for trading.”

This approach takes some risk

We must say that listing shares straight brings some risks. For example, Slack chose not to engage underwriters to hold shares that a company is incapable to sell through its IPO to guarantee a triumphant debut.

Shares of Slack began trading above the $26 reference price. The price was settled by the NYSE. As of 1:23 p.m. ET, the shares were higher by 60.15% and jumped to $41.62. Still, the stock reversed to close the session with up $12.62, or 48.54% to $38.62 a share.

Slack is not the first company that chose this method. It is the second big tech firm to go the shortest path. Spotify used this way to appear to the market last year.

Slack is the unicorn

Slack is one of the unicorns that surpassed market expectations on their first day of trading. Beyond Meat (NASDAQ: BYND), Chewy (NYSE: CHWY), CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD), Fiverr (NYSE: FVRR), Pinterest (NYSE: PINS), and software company Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ: ZM) also went public in past several weeks and had solid debuts.

Following the example of many tech companies, Slack debuted with a dual-class structure. Class B shares holding 10 votes per share to consolidate voting power among its top shareholders. According to Slack’s prospectus, Accel is the largest shareholder at 24%. The other is Andreessen Horowitz with a 13.3% stake and Social Capital at 10.2%. Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield holds an 8.6% stake and SoftBank holds 7.3%.

Slack has never made a profit.

Although revenue rose 80% to $400m in 2018, losses were $144m.

Slack announced a net loss of $138.9 million on the income of $400.55 million for the last year. From the beginning of this year, Slack told it had over 10 million daily active users and that number of paid clients increase 49% year over year. Slack also has large growth from its highest-paying customers. Their customers pay over $100,000. The number of customers in that class increased 93% last year in comparison with fiscal 2018, according to the prospectus.

Slack’s profile

Slack Technologies Inc is a business technology company. Its offer is Slack app that supports people, devices, and data to cooperate and run the businesses.

Slack is useful to overcome communication and coordination works in order to manage the company’s activity. It provides to diversified industries: Engineering, IT, Customer Support, Project Management, Sales, Marketing and Human Resources.

Slack started as an in-house tool for Butterfield’s company Tiny Speck through the development of Glitch, an expired online game.

risk disclosure

21st June 2019
Forex market today: Mario Draghi has guts

4 min read

EU Forex market

Mario Draghi, the ECB President, declared that the asset purchase program still has significant capacity. Draghi is well-known as a man who talks down the euro even when Interest rates could drop more. The euro is dropping a 1/3 of 1% against the dollar which is around 50 pips. The stock markets are moving healthily into the green.

On the 4-hour chart from Wednesday, 19/6/2019, we can see a break of the 61.8 fib level. This may submit the downtrend continues but after this a downturn, it wouldn’t be surprising that an early reversal correction may hit the 78.6 fibs, around 1.1150.

Symptoms of trend exhaustion could be attractive.

The bond yield is falling, and the German 10-year running record is low. This trend is continuing from early October last year.

Mario Draghi said that the Eurozone economy would need new expansionary actions if its future growth and inflation forecasts turned out to be just as weak. The ECB is ready to reduce interest rates and resume asset purchases.

UK market

The British pound is still suffering due to the possibility of “hard” Brexit. The attitude of financial markets will depend on upcoming economic events. Today, the Bank of England will decide on the interest rate.

US Forex market

The US dollar dropped lightly against the basket of major currencies. It is expected the regulator to hold the interest rate at the current level of 2.25-2.5%. Yet, it is likely that in July the Fed will decrease the interest rate due to the situation in the global economy which shows all signs of weakness. The US dollar index was closed in the negative zone (-0.25) on Wednesday.

US President Donald Trump accused the ECB, and the Chinese government, for the effort to reduce their national currencies to obtain a rival advantage over the US.

Many people are asking themselves is Forex market a scam. We provide you the answer from a professional trader.

The Forex market isn’t a scam it is an important part of our lives

by Hans Stam

Many people are asking if Forex is a scam, so it might be a good thing to take a look at this Question.

Currency Trading in itself is not a scam, however, that answer really is too short.

There are some things you really should know.

Forex trading is a way to trade currencies against each other and that in itself is Legit.

This is just a matter of Trading Currency value against each other.

Then there are Brokers who offer you the Platforms to actually Trade.

All I really like to say about that in public is that there really is a reason the FCA regulations are in place.

Once you have opened and funded an account, you are ready to go

Then why?

… do people think it is a scam.

Many, many Traders lose a lot of money and I do know why.

Most of the time you will get answers like, you really need to work hard, or you have to study until you drop.

But really, where are their credentials?!

And once they are starting to make some money, most blow it by becoming too confident and greedy.

You do not have to be one of them.

As you may have read in the previous post about mentorship, you can skip all the nonsense and go right for the profit.

Unfortunately not many are actually prepared to do what needs to be done and rather stay ignorant and keep on trying to let others think for them.

It’s a waste of your time and money!

Action!

There is an incredible amount of information about Trading Forex, but it all starts with you taking action.

What do you want to do, and how would that influence your life?

Will you set up a plan of action? Who will you contact, and what are you prepared to do to reach your goals?

In previous articles, there are already a lot of tips on how to start, and it would take you less than a day to read and understand it.

It will change your life if you take yourself seriously and take action.

I advise you to look for the best info you can gather and make a decision, is this for you or not?

If it’s not, then don’t do anything, but if it is, start making contact and go from there.

Help!

There are good people here willing to help you, so why not take advantage of the opportunity presented to you?

You can always decide later if this is a golden opportunity for you or that you have lost faith in the jungle of opinions.

Right now, all the articles you can read here are free, all it takes is a bit of your focus and time to help yourself.

Will you become one of the few percents of people who have read this information, and actually took the help that’s here for you?

Most of you don’t so, let this be a very personal question to you.

Are you the one?

Are you the one of the very few that is ready to go for it?

Are you ready to spend the next 20 years creating something amazing?

Time will pass no matter if you do or don’t. So it really is a matter of you choosing today what you will be tomorrow.

If Forex is not for you, are you already satisfied with the research you have done to base your opinion on?

Will you join the crowd that thinks Forex is a Scam or will you start your plan to change?

I do realize this will take you out of your comfort zone, and not many have the courage to do that, but if you want to change, that’s exactly what you will need to do.

Educate yourself, read the articles, take action.

The bottom line

The forex market is the biggest, most liquid global market with an average daily trading volume exceeding $5 trillion. All the world’s stock markets together can’t even come close to this. The tremendous number of $5 trillion covers the complete global foreign exchange market. But daily trading volume from retail traders makes up between 5-6% of overall volume, or between $300-400 billion. So, you see, there are so many spaces for new traders.

Bookmark Traders Paradise for new articles, contact whoever can help you, start today or put it back on the shelf to forget about it. And don’t forget to follow the Educational series by Hans Stam

To your success!

20th June 2019
Facebook’s Libra – Is it Cryptocurrency at all?

The doubts due to Facebook “Project Libra” are understandable because it looks Libra won’t be decentralized as a regular cryptocurrency.

Facebook’s Libra could be the new digital currency. Facebook finally announced its cryptocurrency plans. “Project Libra,” a new variety of digital money created for Facebook’s apps and social network users. That means we would be able to make purchasing and send the currency Libra on Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. Also, MasterCard, Uber, and Spotify should give such a possibility.

Some other merchants are involved too.

But, Libra isn’t as decentralized as a regular cryptocurrency. Hence we can talk about trust in new crypto. We all know that crypto is all about trust.

Satoshi Nakamoto wrote about the Bitcoin system. “The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that’s required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust.”

The basic sense of using crypto is that we don’t trust financial authority.

Libra is a totally Facebook project. Facebook experts created the blockchain and selected the associates that will handle it. Libra wallets will be installed in Facebook apps.

What does it mean?

The trust in Facebook’s Libra

After all, we experienced it? Don’t we? Facebook has a lot of problems with trust. But let’s stay with Libra.

Libra is announced as crypto, which should mean full decentralization. That is the power of cryptocurrencies. But Libra will be under Facebook’s control, under the control of one of the most powerful companies in the world. Can we still talk about the essence of crypto nature if Libra scores success in the future? From our point of view, it may be the end of one of the most important characteristics of cryptocurrencies – decentralization.

Further, this new crypto operates via licensed blockchain which will cause that the right to mine Libra will have only companies included in Libra Association. So, what we have there? Libra Association as a central bank? The developers tried to explain that as an intention to avoid Libra to use so much power needed for bitcoin mining. The nice intention, but at the same time, it will provide the Libra Association in controlling the currency’s stability supported by a reserve of bonds and liquid money.

The implementation of blockchain technology has sense. It will provide clear transactions fast.

But, here is the point where the matter of trust in Facebook’s Libra arises.

If you don’t trust your local central banks, why should you trust Mastercard?

Libra will change its nature. It will not be permissioned forever, says the separated document, where the further plans are revealed. Libra Association will be open to more members. After five years, Libra would switch to the permissionless mode. That would happen after some problems with scalability have been solved. Can you point any example that blockchain has ever gone from permissioned to permissionless? This explanation looks more like buying time to solve the problem in the hope that the future will bring new solutions in technical improvements. That promise seems like a trick. Why?

When you start using the centrally managed blockchain you must face that users will not trust you.

This promise is actually selling the fog

Why? Unlike Bitcoin and other public blockchains, only foundation members will be permitted to run a node.

Facebook’s ambitious plan to bring cryptocurrency to the masses is recognized, and we don’t have a problem with that. But we have plenty of reasons to be skeptical. Why they are launching this crypto knowing that the problem of trust will arise? On what they are counting? Yes, they promise that the problem with centralized crypto will be solved later. So, if they are aware of it and know how to solve, why this rush? Guys, fix it, you already have a trustworthy model, just implement it.

Facebook did not present specifics regarding when and how users will get ahold of the currency. All we have is the executive’s confirmation it will first be shared on Messenger and WhatsApp in 2020.

The company also said something about a new digital wallet called Calibra. The digital wallet will be managed by Facebook as a separate subsidiary. It will have the possibility for users to store and spend Libra.

Calibra won’t be accessible to the people for months

Moreover, this digital wallet will not show you the value in Libra currency, the value will be displayed in your local fiat. The design will be similar to Venmo.

According to David Marcus, who is on the head of Project Libra for Facebook, one of the main goals is to approach to 1.7 billion people globally who don’t have access to the banking system.

“It’s an anomaly that the Internet has no protocol for money,” Marcus said.

“You’ll see banks on this between now and next year, because if we bring on another billion people, they’ll need savings accounts, loans, and things banks are very good at,” Marcus says. Facebook also plans to reduce money transfer fees and transaction fees through Calibra.

As a conclusion, it is very questionable if the Libra is cryptocurrency at all. It will have a very strong connection with the fiat. Moreover, it is backed by a reserve of low-risk assets to avoid volatility, as Facebook’s representatives explained. These “low-risk assets” are actually fiat: dollar, euro, Swiss coin.

The point is that we can transfer our dollars or whatever to Libra, but the amount will ever be shown in given fiat, never in Libra. So we couldn’t talk about true crypto. It is digital money only because it is not tangible.

And there is a wallet named Calibra where the Libra is supposed to be stored.

Behind this, according to some experts, this system could provide Facebook access to extremely large financial information. Having Facebook’s reputation on our mind, can we trust that such information will not be misused? With very strong reason we have some doubts.

On the other hand, we are dealing with the most powerful company in the world.

Is it worth to take part?

Libra can be useful for purchasing via FB apps and associates. We all can expect some discounts or something similar for users in order to promote the new digital money. And the other powerful participants are in play, as we mentioned above. So, for short term or periodical used, Libra is useful. As a long-term investment, we are not sure. But we are very sure that Facebook’s Libra is a manifestation of banks’ blemishes.

Images Credit: Libra Association official website

19th June 2019
Clients are Fleeing Neil Woodford Amidst Scramble for Liquidity

2 min read

Neil Woodford has frozen his flagship fund, the Equity Income Fund after it shrunk by £600m during May and the Kent County Council attempted to pull out its £263m investment

Since May 3, when Neil Woodford has decided to suspend his flagship equity income fund, shares of the sister fund, the Patient Capital Trust Fund, have dropped for 25%. This underperformance of the stock market-listed fund was caused by concerns over bad market bets of the suspended equity income fund. Bad performance of Woodford’s healthcare investment, combined with more than £187m in redemptions, has shrunk the value of the fund’s portfolio from £4.3bn to £3.7bn. To those familiar with health-care investments records of once-lauded UK investor this may seem as expected. But for the general public, it comes as surprise news about the fund which was valued at one point in 2017 as much as £10.2bn.

Surprising news

According to regulatory fillings Woodford has found himself under mounting pressure to cash in investments in a scramble for liquidity. But already underperforming stocks see their prices pushed downward by these sales, which in turn forces Woodford to sell more. In the 6 months before the suspension of equity income fund, companies in which Woodford has positions have performed abysmally. E-Therapeutics has fallen 75%, Circassia 69%, Autolus 54%, Theravance 41%, IP Group 30%.

And there are indications that other investors in these entities have planned to cut their positions in them even before Woodford’s sale pushed prices down. Market participants seem to be expecting a wave of forced sales from Woodford, with reports of some hedge fund managers taking short positions against his investments. Troubles for Woodford are very likely to get worse before it gets better.

Troubles for Neil Woodford

And those troubles are spilling over to the patient capital trust fund, FTSE 250-listed fund, in which at least three UK local government pension funds have investments. Around £10m in investments which contribute to funding retirement benefits for former local government employees, such as school teachers, councilors, and so on. While the investments of council pension funds of Derbyshire, West Yorkshire, and Dyfed; are small compared to the overall size of their pension schemes, £21.7bn, there is a considerable risk of posting a loss if the councils decide to sell before the price recovers. This risk is raising public concern over whether the local councils should be making decisions concerning large, risky investments. The concern which is in large informed by the experience of more than £1bn lost in investments by local councils into Iceland banks in 2008.

The Woodford’s reputation is questionable

The suspension of equity income fund means that, for at least 28 days, the retail investors will be unable to cash out their investments. This development has prompted the stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown to remove Woodford’s fund from their Wealth 50 list of suggested funds. This move is a considerable blow to Woodford’s reputation as Hargreaves Lansdown only six months ago owned around 30% of fund’s shares.

Many industry experts say that two reasons are to be blamed for Woodford’s malaise. First being the bad bets on UK stocks, which have taken a hit after the Brexit vote. One such is the investment in outsourcer Kier, whose stock fell by 41% on June 3 causing Woodford’s equity income fund £37m loss. The second cited reason is an investment in illiquid stocks. A situation which Woodford is attempting to rectify. According to the Reuters analysis of Woodford’s firm has already sold or transferred at least £808m in the UK listed companies.

You would like to READ George Soros – The Man Who Broke the Bank of England

18th June 2019
Bitcoin rose and hit One-Year High

2 min read

Bitcoin rose and hit over $9,000. This is its highest since May 2018.

This new high is perhaps caused by Facebook’s reveals to launch its crypto. Such an event added more optimism and confidence about the future of cryptocurrencies in general because it showed that digital money is going to be adopted by big companies.

The biggest cryptocurrency climbed as much as 9.4%. Other crypto coins also rose: Litecoin for 4.4% and Ethereum for 4%.

Cryptocurrencies price chart

Let’s stay with Bitcoin.

Bitcoin rose more than 130% in 2019 and has almost doubled in value. How did it happen?

The big companies like Facebook expanded or revealed that have plans, to their offering of cryptocurrency services.

It seems that Facebook’s plan to launch a digital currency is pushing people toward Bitcoin.

June 18th is tomorrow ( the date that Facebook planned to reveal more details about new digital asset) and we will have full public information. Previously, Facebook announced the plan to release a white paper for “Libra” or “Globalcoin”. This should be on June 18th as they said.

FOMO effect

Jeremy Allaire, the chief executive of Circle, tweeted the launch of Libra (whitepaper) will be a “massive inflection point in the global adoption of cryptocurrency.”

This entrepreneur said that by June 21st, he expects for Bitcoin to be valued at $10,000, “marking [the] start of Crypto Summer.”

Yes, $10,000 is a fine number, but many see it as a pivotal level for the Bitcoin price.

When Bitcoin rose to this level, and that time isn’t so far, FOMO will favor the crypto market.

Bitcoin chart

If you can recall the time when BTC went over $4,500 you know what we are talking about. This means that the price of Bitcoin and other cryptos will go higher, more above $10,000 and they will do it very fast.

For proponents, this is great news and event worth waiting for. There are so many emotions in the game. Just try to read everything on Twitter. Bitcoiners will be glad to see the opponents frustrated and to see FOMO from those who celebrated when BTC dropped about 90 %.

What will they feel about those who believed that Bitcoin is dead forever?

The Wall Street analysts stated that once $10,000 is broken trough, there will be a “fast and furious” progress to $20,000. Taking that new value as the new position, it looks more obvious that Bitcoin can double the price in the following several months.

The price of $40,000 sounds pretty good, don’t you think?

Some have a different opinion

However, there are some that deny this pleasant emotion about Libra and bright influence on Bitcoin.

Peter Schiff, investor, and libertarian-leaning economist speculated that Facebook’s Libra project will be “bad news” for Bitcoin.

This famous cryptocurrency critic, who claims that BTC has no intrinsic value and thus is not better than hard gold (Schiff is a prominent gold investor), calculates that Libra will be much stabler, cheaper, and more easy-to-use than Bitcoin.

And yes, that is exactly what Facebook promised about Libra,

low fees, fast transfer and a level of stability not seen with Bitcoin.

Behind this promise is the idea that the new cryptocurrency will be secured with traditional currencies and other ‘steady’ assets.

The bottom line

All is math. Bitcoin was $2,634 on June 16, 2017. Say you bought some BTC at that time. Now, you have an almost tripled return after 2 years. Bad investment? Never dare to say that. Sudden and fast ups and downs, yes. That’s the nature of Bitcoin and any other cryptocurrency.

And speaking about Bitcoin’s future, as Nelson Mandela said: “It always seems impossible until is done.”

risk disclosure

17th June 2019
Can I start Forex trading with $100?

Forex Education Part 7

5 min read

by Hans Stam Trader, Mentor, Author

Can I start Forex trading with $100?

Forex trading can be started with a small amount, don’t worry. Brokers usually have a minimum deposit to serve the large group of people who want to deposit as little as possible.

That definitely is a huge market for them.

In all fairness, I think the minimum deposit is not helping you.

What it does is make you think you can make a quick profit, and it’s true, sometimes you can.

The other side of that is, you don’t have much buffer to work with, so you could very easily lose your deposit.

Due to the leverage, taking the lowest amount into a trade would be 0,01 LOT also called a mini-LOT by some, and that would already take you down several percentages in Margin Used.

Then you probably are negative right away due to the Spread which varies per Broker.

When your trade goes against you, and you reach a total drawdown of about 50% of your account, some Brokers will close your trade called a Margin Call.

You would not have enough money to sustain your trade.

I’m not saying it’s impossible, but chances are that even though you managed to get your account up to $200,- it would not take you out of the danger zone.

When it does go your way, you are most likely going to take too much risk which can crash your months of hard work and stress in 5 minutes if you take the wrong trade.

What is the alternative?

When people ask me to mentor them, or if I can help grow their small accounts, the answer I have to give is just as frustrating as it is for them.

I can only tell them to keep demo trading where they can’t lose any money.

It would be unethical of me to tell them to pick a trade which I know will not work in the long run.

The best thing people can do is to gain knowledge and experience, read the articles and create a plan on how to come up with a proper account to make a start.

Career

What most do not understand is that once you really want to go for Trading the Forex (Foreign Exchange) market, it is nothing less than becoming a doctor, dentist, bookkeeper or any other occupation.

Forex trading takes dedication, patience, time and money to start that career.

Same goes for Forex Trading, it would be misleading to tell you it’s easy to do while I know how difficult simplicity can be, and often you are your own worst enemy.

You can’t become a doctor overnight, no matter how dedicated you are but you can make a start educating yourself.

Even a mentor can not magically make you a top trader in a few hours as you would still have to come up with a reasonably sized account.

It’s not that mentors do not want you to help you, but they have gone through the same education most others have and also made all the mistakes before which made them smarter over the years.

Often mentors have made all the mistakes unless they too had a mentor guiding them.

How would you feel if you lost $25.000,- in just 15 minutes and accept that as an expensive lesson? Many mentors have been in that position so you can imagine “losing a patient” on the operating table is really something else to deal with.

So if you apply to become a Forex Trader, please understand it would be similar to asking your doctor to help you to become a surgeon. If all you have is a kitchen knife, what is your doctor to do with your request?

So Forex trading is not for me?

Maybe not, maybe it is.

It really depends on who you are.

Some people have a better position in life to start than others.

I was one that had to struggle all the way and although I was set back a lot of times, I just kept learning and investing in my goals.

To me, that meant making a lot of sacrifices and thinking back, that sometimes still hurts.

Perhaps I was better off doing something completely different, but this was my goal and here I am. Who is to say what would have happened if I took another route.

Right now I just feel blessed to be where I am but it really is your choice to make a decision and do whatever it takes to become what you want to be.

People and circumstances may try to keep you away from your goals so it really takes strength to go after your dreams and there’s nothing dreamy about that.

Why would Forex be my choice?

Often I hear stories about why people start trading.

Some have a nice career but want to do something else, others want another income, some need to take care of their families or children, some are selling their business and want to move elsewhere so they need a new income. But not many of them will actually succeed in the short term.

Still, those people will work on becoming a Forex Trader.

My best guess is that those people are really dedicated to making it work, and I am working with some of them to achieve that goal.

I also know those people will be working with me for the years to come, as they will need solutions in all kinds of Market conditions.

What some do is buy a course and then they are on their own, the best they can get is some live Signals or live chatroom, but before they are there already a lot of money has been spent. I think that doesn’t work as they will not grow to a point where they can anticipate the changing Markets themselves.

It takes the experience to do that and a course alone doesn’t provide that.

When it comes down to business, you will have to go with the information you have and make it your own.

Yes, courses can help understand certain things, but in the end, it’s your money on the line and your decisions that determine the outcome.

Misleading in Forex trading

Hopefully, this gave you a little insight.

It’s misleading to accept the image of fast expensive cars and tropical beaches.

Many traders are down to earth people, realistic about the profits, and those that step out of that zone, usually are being smacked into reality within months.

So yes, there is a lot of misleading going on, but you have to be smart enough to skip through the nonsense and make sense of it all.

I will not say you can’t have those things, but it sure is a long way there starting from scratch. It’s not unusual traders are constantly learning during decades of trading.

On the other hand, it really is possible to become a very good Trader and it really comes down to who you are and what you are willing to learn and do.

Success!

So far this sounded sobering but there is, of course, the other side of the medal too.

I know some traders and others related to trading in the supporting sector, who are really hard working smart people willing to help you.

Like this article you’re reading right now at Traders Paradise, it’s all here to help you get smarter.

Many devoted people are willing to support you on your journey and it took them sacrifices to get to this point where they can.

We’re here to your benefit, serving you the best we can, so one day you too will be successful and have changed your life.

We’re not selling you a glamorous picture, but the reality of what it means to be a Trader.

Most traders still have jobs on the side and some really made this their career, and I admire those people no matter where they are on their journey.

A common characteristic is, they will not give up on their goals and the rewards will be worth it eventually for them.

It’s up to you if you will join that group or not but hopefully, this article has given you a fair look at both sides of success.

Sincerely,

Hans Stam

risk disclosure

13th June 2019
Introducing the Australian Stock Market

The Australian stock market history begins with six exchanges in Sydney (1871), Hobart (1882), Melbourne (1884), Brisbane (1884), Adelaide (1887) and Perth (1889).

The first Australian convention was held in 1901. At first, the exchanges attended on an unofficial base. In 1937 the Australian Associated Stock Exchanges (AASE) was founded. Every exchange had its representative. Over time the AASE set consistent listing laws, broker practices, and commission charges.

Trading was handled by a call system. An exchange worker called the names of each company and brokers bid or offered on each.

In the 1960s this turned to a post system. Exchange representatives called ‘chalkies’ wrote bids and offers in chalk on blackboards. They also registered transactions made.

The start of the modern Australian Stock Exchange history was in 1980 when the Melbourne and Sydney stock exchange indices were replaced by Australian Stock Exchange indices.

After that date, many changes followed. Very fast. So we can say that Australian stock exchange history is full of changes and improvements.

You might be interested in Leading Stock Exchanges In The World

Today, the Australian stock market is one of the most important.

This country with a small population became one of the biggest players in the global market.

There are a lot of facts about the Australian stock exchange that might be valuable for you. For instance, the Australian stock exchange is opened between 10 am and 4 pm AEST on working days.

The market opens in phases through the first ten minutes of trading.

To prevent the precise forecast of the first trades on the given day they established a chance factor into the opening.

The ASX closes between 4.10pm and 4.11pm with a single price auction. That price determines the closing prices on the given day.

The largest ASX broker is Macquarie Bank, one of the biggest Australian banks. Also, the dominant broker’s companies are Goldman Sachs, CSFB, UBS, Citigroup.

The man who broke the Bank of England

The ASX is a public company too. Its shares are traded on the ASX, of course. However, the corporation’s license limits the highest individual holdings to a small part of the company.

ASX is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Average daily turnover in ASX is A$5,6 billion and a market capitalization of approximately A$1.9 trillion. That makes it one of the world’s highest 15 listed exchange groups.

ASX is, let’s say that, similar to the Canadian markets. It has commodities focus. So, we can say that the Australian stock market is ‘heavy’ because of the high volumes of natural resources, such as minerals and metals, are traded.

Of the 2185 stocks listed on the ASX, approximately 33% are junior metals and mining stocks by number, but the whole Materials sector is about 15% of the ASX by index weight.

As a difference, financials are estimated for 5% of the number of stocks listed. But it is the biggest sector in the sense of market capitalization, and it is 36% of the index.

Stocks are classified into sectors according to their major business type: financials, materials, health care, industrials, etc.

How to buy and sell shares in the Australian stock market

The most common way to buy and sell shares is on the share market using a broker or service.

Also, you can buy shares through a prospectus when they are first placed on the market. You can buy or sell stocks indirectly over a managed fund. There is also always a way to buy shares through an employee share system.

If you are looking for the cheapest fees, an online trading account could be the right choice. The fee to buy or sell a package of shares starts from around $30. You are charged when you buy or sell a share.

Why modern German investors are rioters? Read HERE

If you use a full-service broker you will be charged more. But you will have some financial advice. For example, what to buy or sell and so.

Australian law dictates brokers to give fair recommendations. Brokers must inform you about any interests they may have in investment arrangements they suggest to you.

Brokerage fees are regularly expressed as a percentage of the price of the purchase or sale. For example, the fee on a transaction of up to $5000 will be 2.5%. For huge trades, it may be 0.1%.

Small trades worth a few thousand dollars can be moderately costly.

Companies may choose to offer their shares as a way of raising capital. This is an “initial public offering” or IPO.

In order to find if investing in IPO suits you, it is recommended to read the prospectus. There you can find all the important details about the company.

This document must be lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). You can check it through ASIC’s OFFERlist database.

All prospectuses must include data on the features of the securities being offered. That includes how many are for sale, how you can demand to buy them. Also, the information about the company must be included. For example, its progress, and financial situation, and also, the risks connected with the offer.

You can sell the shares you hold by placing a trade online or over your broker.

When you sell your shares store a copy of the trade acceptance or receipt for tax purposes. That will be smart.

Arrangement for the sale and transfer of ownership befalls 2 business days after the trade takes place. This is well-known as T+2.

If you own shares in a managed fund and want to sell them, check if there are any withdrawal costs.

Who are the best Australian investors of all time

risk disclosure

11th June 2019
Mentorship is an important part when trading

Mentorship

by Hans Stam – Trader, Mentor, Author

From the Author.
I’d like to take the opportunity to say Thank You to

Traders Paradise quality trading Publishing and the awesome PsyQuation Team for giving you the Best Trading experience and knowledge !!!

Remember to bookmark this website for your convenience and more quality content.

This is how a new star is born, and it could be you too!

Instead of writing in book style, why not actually let you read a learning experience from one of my students. To show you how mentorship works.

This is not a passive “Try This stuff” but really intensively training.

I will post part of the emailing that has been going on between George and me…

If you like to start trading yourself or want to know more, you will find all the info you need right here at Traders Paradise.

If you like to support my work, you can show your appreciation by clicking here

George has agreed on letting me use part of our communication to benefit you,

if you like to support him and want to open an account, you can sign up using his link

by clicking here

The Program George is talking about is the A.I. tracking your trading and gives you advice, this is also an open door to get funds to trade up to $ 350.000 AUD.

If you want your account linked for Free, here’s the link which benefits George too.

PsyQuation Link, Click here

Thank You George,

I appreciate your approval.

Are you in the Matrix?

Hi Hans,

I have read your post on how to make pips profit on forex every day as a day trader.

Can you please teach me your system?

I am George from South Africa, I need to learn how to trade every day on Forex successfully and start making money with it over time. If you know in South Africa it is hard to find work. So I must learn how to make money with Forex.

Kind regards

George

—————————–

Yes, of course, I will help you George.

To do my system it does take money to do it properly.

Can I ask how much you currently have in your trading account?

Regards,

Hans Stam

—————————–

Currently, I am trading now with a 100 pips move I make a Dollar or lose a Dollar I know it it is very low but until I can get a good system in place I can up the risk

I have a $100 that I play now with and trying to learn as much as I can. I am looking for a good system that can work long term.

George

—————————–

At this point, we went over personal finances and how we can find a way to educate George regardless of his situation. Due to privacy, I will leave that part out.

—————————–

Hi Hans

WOW I have read your email probably 3 or 4 times now. You have told me you need my patience and loyalty. Well Hans I can give it to you 110%

I am a person that’s cup is not half full or half empty for you it is empty I am willing to forget everything I have learned from forex and follow you. I beg you to take the risk and help me.

No matter how long or slow it takes or even if I don’t make money for a year or 3 I don’t care as long as I know I can work towards something great that I can turn one day in something that I can use as my career.

I can make a promise with you today you will have my patience. I think patience comes also, with age I am 42 years old and have learned to be a patient person over the years.

Please take me under your wing and help me.

Kind regards

George

—————————–

Mentorship is on scene

Ok, I’ll help you.

You may have hundreds of questions, and over time I’ll answer everything…

So we’ll go step by step and I’ll try to get you into the Program.

Question, who is your Broker now and do you trade by using the MT4 Platform?

—————————–

Hi Hans

Ok Great I really hope you get me in the program. And yes there is a lot of Questions.

My current Broker where I have the $100 dollars in with is (erased)

the trading platform is a MT5 platform

I am quite new to the platform

I am very used to the MT4 platform but if you like what I can do I get paid every month on the 25th I can easily open a $100 to $150 live account somewhere else if you like?

—————————–

We’ll get to that.

Both MT4 or MT5 is good.

How old is that account approximately? in months/years?

I don’t need an exact date, but an estimate.

—————————–

Again, some personal details are left out from publishing

—————————–

Thanks Hans you have given me hope again in life. Will jump on it right away.

I will read your article now and follow the steps

I will open also the live account with the broker you perhaps mention in the steps.

I will get back to you after I have done this 🙂

Thanks again Hans

—————————–

The basic explanation of how the Market works was given to George with about 30 years of experience and knowledge.

—————————–

This is mind-blowing information Hans

I really never ever realize this or how this actually works.

That is good then when I told you I am emptying my cup and learn from you from scratch.

I am so excited to learn this different way we are going.

This is really mind-blowing what I have just read.

I understand clearly so far.

—————————–

Taking the Red Pill

More info was given to George. Here is where I opened his eyes to what causes losses, and how to make profit

—————————–

Hans this is like the Matrix movie did I just take the red pill?

Sorry for taking so long to respond I read sometimes your lines 10 times over and think about it and then let it settle in.

I understand so far I can not wait to see it on paper when we start to trade.

—————————–

Yes, we will 🙂

Keep that in mind as we will come back to this later.

And yes, you probably did take the Red Pill 🙂

We are going to enter into a whole different way of trading 🙂

If you understand this principle, you are way ahead of 90% of the traders.

On track so far?

—————————–

WOW man I am on track so far

I can not wait that you show it to me when we actually start to trade on a demo account.

But yes I am on track I can not wait to see this on a platform

—————————–

You may understand a lot of info was left out in this article due to sensitive information, but it gives you a taste of how we went through the process.

We have set up his accounts and he is now trading backed up by a lot of information and knowledge. His trading experience was changed in 2 days of which you probably now have read 10% of all communication.

Here is what George had to say after his trades were set and running for him.

—————————–

I have a mentor that is teaching me how to do forex trading.

His name is Hans Stam.

I like to write today a bit of my personal experience working with a mentorship.

I was trying to do forex trading on my own for many years even read some books. Even after years I still make huge mistakes with forex trading and cannot find myself making a profit. I have contacted a Mentor called Hans. I really did not expect him to return my email at all, but suddenly in the same day Hans send me an email back and not just a simple short email but a proper email like you can see this person really wanted to send the email.

Well, my mind was blown away! It is so much different to actually talk to a person that you can see and have 30 years + experience in trading. All of my book training just went out of the window after we have talked a bit nothing can replace dealing with a person one on one and actually learn from a master.

He really knows how to be a mentor. From the start, his explanation is simply awesome. The reason I say this is because everything he explains to me is in real simple terms and in details. Every time I think I have a question he answers it automatically if he knew I will ask that. Even when I ask a question I get instantly quality feedback like he is here right next to me guiding me slowly so that I can understand every part of the training.

What I love the most when it comes actually down to business and we have to start with the trading Hans is taking the lead and show me step by step on my account what needs to be done and then he turns around and say you do it. What better way is there hands on and when I make a mistake or have a question I can just ask him and he will show me and explain to me in detail.

My eyes are clearly open today honestly I wish I have found Hans years ago and working with a mentorship. If I have done this years ago my life would have been much for the better already.

With a mentor, you can learn so much more than a book can teach you. Yes, a book can teach a person but not every person is the same and if you have questions the book will be quiet and you will be lost. I have read trading books where I was lost in the first quarter of the book and I had to put the book down because I don’t understand it and there is no one that can explain things to me.

I will really advise any person that likes to learn trading to get themselves a mentor it is really crucial for your education and your life.

George

risk disclosure

10th June 2019
The best Australian Investors of all time
5 min read

Have you ever asked yourself who are the best Australian investors of all time? We are going to introduce you just a few of them. They are the best Australian investors of all time. They are unique, specific and extraordinary.

Richard “Dick” Fish
- Richard “Dick” Fish, one of the best Australian investors
Richard “Dick” Fish is one of the best Australian investors. He is retired now, but while he was an active trader, he was a legendary pairs trader.

He holds a 10-year track record that is extraordinary and no one has such record before.

Since its origin in 2002, his Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund strategy has yielded investors 10 times their money.

He was trading over Listed Investment Company, so-called LIC.

LIC is a listed investment vehicle that gives investors access to a diversified portfolio of shares in some other companies also listed on the stock market. LICs are listed on the ASX.

Richard “Dick” Fish had a very specific and risky strategy of the fund. How does this fund’s strategy operate?

The fund performs this by trading pairs of stocks. They are betting on one and betting against another (well-known shorting). The returns are provided based on how the stocks perform relative to one another.

Here’s an example.

A pairs trader saw that company ABC was a better stock than the company XYZ. So the trader would take a long position in ABC shares and short sell XYZ.

If the market fails off and both shares drop, the trader will still make a profit if XYZ falls more than ABC, because the short position profits will be larger than the loss of keeping the ABC shares.

If the market grows and ABC earns more than XYZ, again the trader will profit because the gains in the “long” ABC position will more than cover the losses from betting against XYZ.

In short, if both stocks are moving in the proper direction, that is ideal, but the investor will make a profit even if just one stock goes up.

This strategy is extremely risky but Richard “Dick” Fish was the master of this game.

The “pairs trading”, is a risky way to make money but very powerful when it serves.

The downside, of course, is that both stocks could move in the opposite direction to what was formerly expected.

The strategy is liberated from the limitations of an index benchmark and the vagaries of global markets.

This the reason why this strategy is defined as stock-picking in its absolute form.

“It sounds trite, but investing is simple and one way of simplifying it is to take out the risk you can’t control,” said Fish.

Sam Shepherd
- Sam Shepherd, one of the best Australian investors
The LIC was managed by Richard Fish and Sam Shepherd who were the fund managers behind the highly successful Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund. That fund produced annual net returns of 18.14% between February 2002 and September 2015. The fund was only open to institutional investors.

Sam Shepherd joined the team in May 2012, after 21 years of Australian equities experience.

Just before he joined the Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund, he was Head of the Melbourne institutional equities desk for Credit Suisse. On this position, he held the research sales, account management, and execution. Earlier, Sam Shepherd was a sales trader and research salesman at JP Morgan.

The first seven years of his career he worked at Norwich Investment Management. He was a dealer, analyst, and portfolio manager. Sam Shepherd has a Bachelor of Commerce and a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment.

Portfolio Manager, Sam Shepherd, retained portfolio management responsibilities and the management of the team after Richard “Dick” Fish departure. Sam has 24 years of Australian equities experience, with the last five workings alongside Richard at Bennelong Long Short Equity Management (BLSEM).

Led by Sam Shepherd, BLSEM has a highly experienced team.

On BLSM official website we found

“There is no change in the approach to the day-to-day management of the portfolio. Portfolio management is clearly defined and is managed in a highly disciplined way. Decision making is team-based, and that has been the case for a number of years.”

Richard “Dick” Fish and his business partner Sam Shepherd are an Australian investors dream-team.

Kerr Neilson
- Kerr Neilson, one of the best Australian investors
Kerr Neilson is an Australian investment manager, the co-founder and managing director of Platinum Asset Management. He was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Cape Town. Also, one of the best Australian investors.

Neilson began his financial management job in the investments division of Courtaulds in London.

But he returned to South Africa in 1973. Ten years later he moved to Australia to become the head of retail funds management for Bankers Trust Australia. Today it is BT Australia.

Georg Soros provided him initial backing to establish the Platinum Asset Management fund in 1994.

Platinum concentrates in international equities and has an estimated $US16 billion in funds under management. Kerr Neilson is a managing director and portfolio manager.

In 2007, Neilson set 20% of Platinum Asset Management on the Australian Stock Exchange. The 57% of the company’s shares he held were valued at A$2.9 billion. That made him one of Australia’s wealthiest people.

Neilson is frequently compared to Warren Buffett for his talent to consistently pick high-performing stocks.

However, in business, not everything is spring and flowers. Bad results during 2012 produced a 16% drop in net profit, essentially due to a 14% decrease in investment income. Neilsen was forced to abstain from a bonus and an increase in his salary. As the major shareholder of Platinum, Neilsen yields A$42 million in dividends during 2012.

The accent was on renewing the prosperous investment strategy he had used before. This required structuring portfolios of the companies that were experiencing change or mispricing. The reasons can be different, the temporary factors or biases practiced by market participants.

By investing in such companies around the world, Platinum held really differentiated portfolios and delivered excellent investment returns.

When his investment philosophy was totally implanted within the team, he resigned as the Chief Investment Officer in 2013. Over time Kerr Neilson stepped out of his various duties and delegate them to other global portfolio managers in the team. With the full approval of the Board, Neilson handed over the role of Chief Executive Officer of the Platinum Group to Andrew Clifford in 2018.

Proceeding to work as a full-time executive director of the Platinum Group and a member of Platinum’s investment team, he is completely involved in the business.

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Robert Dobson Millner
- Robert Dobson Millner, one of the best Australian investors
Robert Dobson Millner was born 4 September 1950.

After leaving the school he acted as a stockbroker for two years. Almost 14 years he farmed in Cowra, New South Wales. In 1984 he entered the family business, Washington H.Soul Pattinson, as a manager. In 1997 he was named deputy chairman of Souls and since 1999 he has been Chairman of the company.

He is the leader of many big Australian organizations. For example, he is chairman of Washington H. Soul Pattinson, as we mentioned, further, New Hope Coal, Brickworks Limited, Choiseul Investments, and NBN Television.

Robert D. Millner is a director of Milton Corporation Limited since 1998 and appointed chairman in 2002. Chairman of the Investment and Remuneration Committees. Millner has vast experience in the investment industry.

Milton Corporation Limited is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm conducts separate portfolios. It invests in the public equity and fixed income markets of Australia. The company also invests in trusts, real estate, and mortgages. Milton Corporation Limited was founded in 1938 and is based in Sydney, Australia.

He is been called the hardest-working man in corporate Australia.

Find who are the most successful Indian investors

Robert D. Millner is also the head of Pitt Capital Partners Ltd. It provides business consulting and advisory services. The Company offers a range of corporate finance advisory services in relation to mergers and acquisitions, equity capital markets, private equity, restructures, and debt funding. Pitt Capital serves customers over Australia.
7th June 2019