Category: How to Start Trading – Beginners

How is Beyonce as an Investor – Celebrity Investors

2 min read

Beyonce Knowles-Carter

Beyonce Knowles-Carter is a singer. But, also, she is a worldwide brand. You can find her name on fashion marks, cosmetic industries, and Pepsi commercials.

Her career began with girl-group Destiny’s Child and her destiny is incredible. Beyonce became one of the most popular singers in the world. She earned 23 Grammy awards. Also known under the nickname, Queen Bey.
She is a businesswoman too. Beyonce owns a strong portfolio of real estate in the US and all over the globe. Most of them she owns in partnership with Jay-Z, her life partner. But some investments she holds by her own.

Beyonce invested in tech.

Just like Ashton Kutcher, Queen Bey is interested in the tech world. Beyoncé started the management company Parkwood Entertainment that have invested $150,000 into Sidestep. It is an app for purchasing concert merchandise. In the beginning, Sidestep was selling t-shirts and posters for Queen Bey. After some time, when Beyonce saw its profit and potential, she invested in Sidestep. According to Sidestep’s CEO Eric Jones, the idea of “a tiny scrappy startup doing the biggest tour in the world” was great.

That was the first step as an investor

Then, 2015. Uber came with an offer of $6million to perform on the company’s event in Las Vegas. But Beyonce had an offer too. Instead of cash, she asked to be paid in Uber’s shares. After Uber went public that $6 million were turned into to profit $300 million from her shares.

Beyonce isn’t the only celebrity who invested in this company before it got in IPO.

Apart from profits in the musical industry, Beyonce surely recognizes the point of diversifying her investment portfolio. Her investments are also in Dereon Clothing, deals from General Mills, L’Oreal DirecTV, Pepsi, Samsung, Ford, American Express, etc. Queen Bey released: “I have a lot of property. I’ve invested my money and I don’t have to make any more, because I’m set. I’m now able really to be free and just do things that make me happy.”

Beyonce as an investor, not only as a singer or actress, proved that she is not just a hype.

Together with Jay-Z, she is part of Hip Hop’s first billionaire couple into several investments, revenue, and endorsements.

Beyonce as investor thinks ahead

She made about $4 million from the 2018 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. She was the first African-American woman to headline the festival. Her performances were a tribute to the culture of black colleges and universities but also inspired by black feminism.

She also signed a $60 million worth deal with Netflix which brought Homecoming, a documentary about that show.

Beyonce supported to start a vegan food company 22 Day Nutrition. She’s also a stockholder in streaming service Tidal.

Queen Bey is widely recognized as a smart business icon. She has earned hundreds of millions of dollars with conservative investments. And she spends her money on extravagant gifts like Bugatti Veyron Grand, private jet, $88 million purchase of a Bel Air mansion, etc. She earns, she spends.

Musicians aspiring to get rich off royalties are fooling themselves. The real money comes from smart investing.

Beyonce Knowles-Carter is a smart investor.

23rd August 2019
Ashton Kutcher Investor – Celebrity Investors

3 min read

Ashton Kutcher is one of the most popular actors of the 21st century.

Everyone knows his role as Michael Kelso on the well-known sitcom That 70s Show. But in real life, Kutcher isn’t even like Kelso. This actor and model is at the same time, a very successful investor.

Ashton Kutcher is an investor too.

He builds a financial portfolio worth more than his acting career has yielded to him.

Ashton Kutcher’s current net worth is approximately $200 million. According to contracts available, about $25 – $30 million he was able to earn from his acting. The rest of his wealth comes from tech investments.

Ashton Kutcher’s earnings from movies & TV

Ashton Kutcher has surely earned a lot of money from his acting. But the majority of his income doesn’t come from that. Unfortunately, we have some information available, but most of it is private. Okay, we know, for instance, Kutcher had a role in the movie Valentine’s Day that earned $110.4 million.

The movie Dozen earned $136.6 million, No Strings Attached and Killers earned $70.6 million and $47.0 million earned at the box office.

There is a lot of chance that Kutcher took a big part of the earning. Also, he was paid $800.000 per episode in the sitcom Two and a Half Men. And so that and so long. The information about how much an actor earned for a film or television role is private for many reasons. Even the information is made public, it is still difficult to tell precisely how much was paid. Let’s say that from the total net worth of Ashton Kutcher, around $30 million comes from television and movie roles.

Ashton Kutcher as an investor

This guy is fairly unusual in the acting society. He has made clever investments and brought the attention of the investment community. Ashton Kutcher investor is very interested in science and technology. In the first place, the high-tech industry is very interesting to him

One of his investments had a great influence on rideshare. Yes, you are right. Kutcher with his parents invested $500.000 in Uber on its beginning. Today, that $500,000 investment is worth $50 million.

Kutcher, with Guy Oseary and Ron Burkle, founded a company named A-Grade investments. They invested $30 million and turn it into more than $250 million. According to Kutcher, he and his two other buddies like to invest in tech companies that show promise.

Just to mention a few, they already have invested in companies like Uber, Spotify, Airbnb, Muse, Soundcloud.

The interesting thing about Ashton Kutcher is that he is using Uber’s service. Practical? Marketing? Well, everything is possible but the truth is that he made a smart investment.

A-Grade investments own some other companies too. We will point several: Nest, Gyft, Katango, GroupMe, Bufferbox, Summly, Socialcam, Interaxon, SmartThings. The fact is that A-Grade, owned by Ashton Kutcher, Guy Oseary and Ron Burkle, has approximately 100 various important investments.

Kutcher is still a young investor but he has a lot of years ahead to continue his investing.

He has also co-founded the investing tool Acorns that is connected to PayPal. The main benefit is that connection enables people to transfer their money once a month into the Acorns portfolio. Acorns portfolio further provides the software which buys investments shared with other investors. Why this is a benefit? Using this tool people can build a portfolio with very little money.

The Net Worth of Ashton Kutcher

Ashton Kutcher’s net worth is about $200 million today. His portfolio is something that even more experienced and an older investor could boast. Also, with his wife, Kutcher is dedicated to charity.

We can admire him for his acting, but the true admiration comes for his sense of business. Respect!

HERE you can find his advice about investing.

20th August 2019
Short Selling For Profit

What to do with stocks when the price starts to decline? Bet that a stock will fall more.

By Guy Avtalyon

Short selling for profit is a trading strategy that attempts to profit from an expected decrease in the price of a security. Basically, a short-seller wants to sell at a higher price and buy at lower.

How does short selling for profit work?

Let’s you are a trader and you have some information that some stock will decrease in value by the expiration date. Ofc, you don’t hold that stock but you can borrow it from a broker. For example, you borrow 100 stocks at $10 market price. And you open the position, meaning you want to sell them at market price by their expiration date. And you succeed. Then you close your short position and sell your borrowed stocks for $1,000. But before you give back that 100 stocks to your broker you are betting that their price will decrease in value before the expiration day. That happens. Now, you are buying these stocks at a lower price, it is called covering the short position.

Let’s say, the price of your borrowed stocks declines at $6 each.

You sold them at $1,000, bought them at $600. Return 100 stocks to the broker and you pocket $400.

(100x$10) – (100x$6) = $400

The risk in this kind of trading is literally unlimited because the price may rise and rise to infinity.

But, the profit can be huge, also. The previous example showed a short-selling for profit. Well, by using short selling you may gain loss too.

Example of making loss while using short selling.

The vice versa case is when stock price increase in value during the time while you are holding them.

Let’s say their market price rose at $14 each and you are holding 1oo stocks. The equitation will be

$1,000 – $1,400 = – $400

You borrowed those stocks at a $10 market price. But despite your expectations, the price increased which means you made a wrong bet. But you have an obligation to return those to the broker, hence you have to buy them back at that higher price. In this transaction, your loss is $400.

Short selling for profit is a method for traders to benefit from a drop in a stock’s price.

Short selling is only possible by borrowing stocks. The problem is they are not always available because when they are you may be faced with a crowd of other traders that already massively trade them.

Is short selling for profit risky?

The short-selling for profit can be risky and questionable. When a huge number of traders choose to short some stocks, their actions will make a great influence on the stock price. With such big traders’ interest, the price will decline sharply. That is not a good situation for companies. Their market value decreases. Sometimes the markets forbid short-selling, especially during the economic crisis.

As I said, short selling is risky for plenty of reasons. You can make a great loss if the stock price increases instead to decrease.

The other reason is that the sharp increase in selected stock may cause traders to cover the position all at once. Moreover, short-covering usually force the price to go up. Then you have a situation that more and more short-sellers are covering their positions and such stock is grasped in a so-called short squeeze. So, like a chain of unfortunate events, right?

The main purpose of short selling for profit is when you borrow the stocks from the broker to sell them instantly and buy them back at a lower price. And return them to the broker. When the whole process is finished you should profit from the difference in stock price.

Risks of short selling

Short selling involves a magnified risk. When you buy a stock you can lose only the money that you have invested. For example, if you bought one share at $300, the maximum you could lose is $300. Stocks can fall to $0 and that is the maximum, there is no stock that may fall below zero. The maximum in your potential loss will stop at your initial capital invested.
In short selling, you can potentially lose an infinite amount of money. Stock can increase its value for an infinite time to an inconstant price. So, you’ll have an infinite loss.
For example, let’s say you enter a short-selling at $200, and suddenly the stock price increases by 300% to $800. You’re obliged to buy the stock back and return them at $800, essentially losing 400% of your capital. actually, you are in incredible debt.

Just be careful when you bet against stock price.

16th August 2019
Golden Cross is extremely powerful pattern

2 min read

(Updated Oct. 21)

by Gorica Gligorijevic

A golden cross is a technical indicator appears when a faster-moving average crosses a slower moving average. That is the simpler explanation. More important are the moving averages which create the cross.

To find this pattern you have to observe the 50-day and 200-day. Only these two periods are valid in forming this pattern. When you notice a golden cross happen you will something like this

This pattern is an extremely powerful sign of a strong bull market. It is an uptrend and traders like when seeing this on the daily charts.

On the chart above you can see the point where the lines of 50-day and 200-day periods touch each other and make a cross.

Traders always see the golden cross as a Sangraal pattern. Their opinion is that the golden cross pattern is one of the final signs of a bull market. That is a definite buy signal.

Traders-Paradise wrote about Bitcoin golden cross. But it occurs in stock trading too. For example, last time when this pattern was seen in the S&P 500 Index, the index has risen by more than 50%.

The opposite indicator is the death cross. The death cross happens when a 50-day moving average crosses from above to under its 200-day moving average. The death cross shows a bear market going ahead. When death cross appears you will see this pattern on your charts.

But our topic is a golden cross.

This cross pattern has three explicit stages. The first stage is the point where a downtrend is but you can see it is on its last legs. Why is that? The selling interest is defeated by a stronger buying interest. More traders are willing to buy.

The second stage includes the development of a new uptrend. The breakout of that uptrend is noted when the short-term MA crosses from below to above the long-term MA. And you can see the point of the golden cross.

The third stage is when the new uptrend is extended, and more gains verify a bull market. During the third stage, the golden cross’ two MA acts as support levels when occurring corrective downside retracements. The bull market is intact while the price and 50-day MA stay above the 200-day MA.

How to use the pattern

The golden cross is useful to discover the right time to enter or exit the market. This indicator is a good tool that can help you to know when it is reasonable to sell and when it is better to buy and hold.

When you are looking to buy an asset, it can happen to enter the market when the asset’s price increases above the 200-day moving average. Sometimes it is better than waiting for the 50-day MA to secure the crossover. How this can be better, you may ask?

The pattern is usually a lagging indicator. What does it mean? This means it may not happen until the market has already changed from bearish to bullish. It may be used as a sign that the bear market is finished. So, it is time to exit your positions.

The golden cross is used to trading individual assets as well as market indexes, for example, the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Also, you can use different MAs to notice a golden cross. For instance, you may use the 100-day MA instead of the 200-day. This pattern can also be viewed for an hourly chart, for example.

The bottom line

Some traders and market analysts don’t think the golden cross, also the death cross, are strong trading signals. The cross pattern is usually a very lagging sign, as we mentioned. The Cross pattern has short predictive importance but it is more relevant as proof of an uptrend.

5th August 2019
Is the Usage of Robo Advisors a Good Choice?

3 min read

For many investors, robo advisors are the future.

That’s because the robo-advisers give an investment chance that grows in reputation and popularity.

First of all, there is no need to have financial education if you want to use robo advisors. They are available online and all you have to do is to fill out a brief application regarding your investment intentions. An algorithm will take care of the rest.

Moreover, they are not expensive, and you will have an all-in-one: a diversified portfolio with assets you want and according to your risk sensitivity.

But still, you can find a lot of many robo-skeptics. The question is why? There is no reason. The robo advisors supported by advanced platforms, provide you many advantages, more than human advisors. As we said, they cost less and, moreover, you will pay fewer taxes.

Robo advisors employ high-quality portfolios

But let’s make a brief comparison between human and robotics. When you choose a human advisor, that person can advise you based on his/her experience and very individual knowledge which can be questionable sometimes. For example, you are new in the market and they can advise you a very complex portfolio by experts. And adjusted for different investor plans. But every investor is unique and you would like advice adjusted to your goals, your temperament, your personal aims.

A traditional investment manager will guide your investment to particular stocks and that could not be in your best interest. Also, you have to pay a substantial sum for that opportunity. Yes, you can find a fiduciary adviser, such will work in your best interest.

But all they can give you are portfolios backed by historical data of previous investment. Also, a human advisor has limited time for the clients and for the research.

But robo-advisor will give you a high-quality portfolio made with someone like you in mind. For example, the best robo-adviser will use low-cost ETFs with a powerful experience.

Robo advisor never trade based on emotions

Humans will follow their abilities and wish a risky investment. It may be successful but it might be a disaster. A human can not avoid emotions while investing. Are you able to recognize when the price of some asset is enough low to be worthy of buying? Or high enough to sell it and profit from it? Evry of these decisions are led by emotions. Very often they are guided by the emotion on what you like or not, what you suppose to happen.

The computer doesn’t have emotions when making decisions for you. So, be honest, which is better for your money?

Even beginners know that emotional investing can produce big losses. With robo advisors, you don’t have that problem. They will pick the best investment suitable for you.

Will robo advisor predict the market downturns? Some are able, we are preparing the advanced algorithm for you. In a few weeks, you will be able to test it.

Yes, robo advisor will predict the turbulence in the market but it will suggest you hold your investment until the market recovers. As you already know, when the market is a downturn you should not sell in panic, it is the worst thing you can do. Robo advisor will never tell you to do that. Rather it will advise you to stay in your investment and wait for the price swing back up when the recovery comes.

Robo-advisers use low-fee funds to build your portfolio and low-fees to handle it

The fund’s that robots uses have fees from 0.10% to 0.23%.

The majority of robo-advisers invest only in low-cost ETFs. That provides your portfolio with low fees and high liquidity.

When a computer manages your investments, you will pay a lot fewer fees. Also, you can find fee-free robo-advisor that charge nothing for advising assistance.

Instead of paying about 1% for a human advisor for managing your portfolio, the robot will charge you from 0,25% to 0,35%.

Moreover, robo advisors provide automated tax-loss harvesting.

A human can’t actually follow this action the way a processor can manage tax-loss harvesting. The best part is that for more extensive portfolios, robo-advisor can add up to notable tax savings.

Robo-advisers and automated trading are the future of investing

The high-quality providers grant you investments suitable to your individual requirements.

Robo advisors perform notably better than human financial advisers. The added advantage, they will cost you less and your all-in costs are more economical with this automated investment option.

Don’t diminish this difference. It can be worth thousands to your portfolio.

Think about it. Maybe this is the right time for you to get in this developing trend. We, in Traders-Paradise, truly believe that automated trading and robo advisors are the future of investing.

So, don’t be too conservative and take your place here. It is time.

21st July 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
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
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.

You might like to know who are the best UK investors

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
Question everything, it is a vital part for your trading

Forex Education Part 5

by Hans Stam – Trader, Mentor, Author

Interview

You must question everything.

Recently I received a request for an interview.

This was a rare invitation going out to the best traders available to share some wisdom.

Most of the questions were easy for me to answer, but there was one I had to think about for a while, and I would like to share it with you as this might be useful to you.

You see, I’m not a wealthy man at the time of this writing, so let me be an inspiration to you.

Patience is better than a quick fix, experience and knowledge are greater than gambling your way to success.

Best advice

One Question that stood out for me was,

What is the best advice you gave give to other traders?

My answer was…

Question Everything, then make up your own mind!

This may not be advice about how to spot a trend, or how to manage funds, but it really is an answer I like to explain.

You see, in my years of trading, I have tried a lot of ways to make a decent profit.

You may recognize yourself trying to make it all work for you.

As in many cases, the most talented people are also the ones that have made a lot if not all mistakes possible.

The thing that stands out is the way they solved those problems.

Question Everything...

Especially in trading, you can’t just accept what you are being told without any credentials.

There is a lot of misleading going on in the Forex Industry, I rather see proof.

Of course, there are many ways to trade, but even the fancy guru’s don’t always provide you the insight on how to do it yourself.

What I’ve learned in my years of trading is to question everything, and to make up my own mind.

I suggest you do the same.

Example

I’ll give you an example of how to apply this to your trading.

Let’s pick a random scenario.

Some guy tells you he found a great strategy but conditions apply.

And every time it fails, you didn’t understand the conditions or this was a rare case of where you had to take a loss.

Let’s say he claims to win by watching a combination of candlesticks, and whenever that pattern emerges, you have to buy or sell.

When you investigate the claim, and compare it to a monkey pressing buttons, who would win?

Then, I don’t care about the times it works, I’m more concerned about when it fails.

What happens when it fails and why? Is it really worth it or could I just as easy trade the other way around and get the same results?

Does it make any sense to you and are you willing to lose your money on that claim?

It’s up to you to decide.

Make up your mind

Keep in mind, no one on the other side of your trading cares when you lose.

Also, keep in mind, there are people ready to take your money and even might provide you with false signals just because they have to give signals they are selling.

Whatever signals or tools you are being given to work with, ask yourself the question, is this really benefitting me?!

Can this tool cause me to lose? Can this signal be explained and what causes the failing trades?

You have to be very skeptical about everything you hear or read.

Does it make sense to you, does your own trading make any sense to you.

I have provided some serious advice to some people around me, and even though they knew it was working, they still used their gain to waste it on trying something else.

To me, that was frustrating to see, but on the other hand, it’s their money and they too can try and question everything, including what I tell them.

Success ratio 1:5

I had a question earlier by someone who asked how to get a 1:5 success ratio.

While understanding what he was trying to achieve, this question also was a bit silly to me.

Why would you want to have 20% failure in your trading?

Wouldn’t you rather have less losing trades than that?

What causes the 20% losing trades?

Why would you take those trades anyway?

No one can predict the market?

If that would be true, then why are some more successful than others?

Don’t you think that when other traders are consistently winning their trades, they have another mindset?

In this article, I’m asking a lot of questions rather than give you the answers right away.

I do that to make you think for yourself, to question everything and to let you make up your own mind.

To me, this is the basis of becoming successful.

This has to work for you because You will need to make the decisions which trade to pick.

Something to think about

Hopefully, this has given you something to think about, because nothing will change if you stick to being ignorant.

You could read all the articles in the world, pay for whatever service, or follow a stock picking money,

as long as you don’t start to Question Everything and make up your own mind, it will lead nowhere, and nothing changes for you.

Dedication

The chapter most of you will want to read has come.

How do I make money?!

I hear a lot of people telling me, this is my dream, I really want to do this, etc.

Unfortunately, statistics show dedication sticks to words and not often become a reality.

Some people seem to forget it took me about 30 years to figure out what works and what doesn’t.

Also, a lot of people think they can start at $100 and hopefully be rich next week.

Their way of doing that is gambling which most likely will blow their account.

Be smarter than that, do whatever it takes and make educated decisions.

As mentioned before, this really is a career, and you can decide to do it or not.

But it does take action and patience, that seems contradictory but it is what you will need to do.

OPM

Other People’s Money (OPM) is a way to make money faster, once you built your track as mentioned before, you will want to use your talent to make money using OPM.

The way to do that can vary, and usually is done by attracting investors and trade through a MAM or PAMM, which are basically the same technically speaking.

How does that work?

You have your own trading account, and the software will copy your trading to sub accounts.

These subaccounts are in the investors’ name and you have agreed on a fee or commission.

After both have signed all legal documents, the investor funds his account and trading will be done as you trade your own money.

The agreed earnings are then automatically transferred directly into your trading account.

How to get Investors

You might think to yourself, I don’t have any investors, so now what?!

There’s good news for you if you really are talented or educated.

If you are prepared to deposit a fair amount on your trading account and let your results being tracked by A.I. you can get a Track that can be used by a Broker linked to that specific software, and it will make it possible for you to get funded.

How to get funded?

I will go through this simple process step by step.

Step 1. First, sign up for a Live Trading account by clicking here

Step 2. Then sign up for the Free Tracking software by clicking here

Step 3. You keep on trading the way it works for you, and you will automatically be funded once you have gone through the process of 6 months and if your score is 75 or higher.

Step 4. Progress through the system, and 4 months later you are a Pro Trader if you are doing well.

Step 5. Once you already received funding from the Broker, you are now ready to be introduced to the Investors market. No way to tell where that will lead you but it is Free money for doing the same thing.

If you have questions or need help, then Click Here and I’ll help you the best I can.

Experience

Since I’ve been in the market, this really is the best way I have found to start making money while trading the Forex market.

There are other similar programs, and I have had many discussions with several others, but I couldn’t manage to come to a fair arrangement.

Another reason why I promote this one is that there are a lot of options here to make a solid income.

Sounds like a big commercial but this is my experience, the choice is yours.

If you are serious about making Forex trading your career, these are some good tips to your benefit.

If you like to ask me any other questions, I’m here for you.

Click here to contact me

Best Regards,

Hans Stam

5th June 2019
Track Record

by Hans Stam – Trader, Mentor, Author

Track record – What is it and why do I need it?

A Track Record is an overview of past trading.

For example, it shows what your results were in the past year.

January 2,4%

February 3,1%

March 1,9%

April -2,3%

May 5,0% etc.

But it can also show the percentage of profitable trades and losing trades.

A more detailed Track Record can also advise you on what you are doing right and where you need to be careful.

If you would like to have your Trading Station checked by A.I. and give you an overview of past performances, you can try that out by clicking here.
This gives you insight on how successful you are and it creates value.

How does track record create Value?

First of all, this is valuable information to yourself.

Sometimes in your trading, it might seem you are not going anywhere, but if you take a step back, you might be surprised by how well you are doing.

But there is a second reason.

Others may not be as willing as you are to do the work, or they just don’t know how.

Many still want to make some money and will want to have others trading for them, but that is risky as those people never know for sure who is for real or not.

While doing due diligence, those people will want to see proof.

Having a Track Record creates value for yourself and those people as they can see what kind of results you had in the past and therefore hopefully will continue in future trading getting similar results.

Although this is not a guarantee, it does create some confidence.

Think of track record as going to a movie with actors who are well known, you don’t know if the movie is any good until you went to see it, but going by the actors you have seen before, you do get an idea of what to expect.

Taking another view is where you are the actor, you will need to have some good results to show if you want to be hired for the next movie.

Of course, you can do an audition, but your chances would be a lot less in comparison to when you featured in a few blockbusters.

Brokers

There’s a lot to be said about brokers and although I would want to mention a thing or two, I choose not to.

What I can tell you, that it’s best to check if they are registered with the FCA.

I’m very well aware of IB’s and how Brokers work, and I do realize it’s not easy for Retail Traders to make a consistent profit.

I’ll stick to my end of the line, and will continue with the options we have.

My guess is that the future is not set in stone and that we may see some changes in the near future.

If you like to stay in the loop, You’re invited to join my Community.

Successtory

Why don’t you tell me about a brand new car or trips to the beach?

Or how I can make a million dollars starting from scratch?

First of all, I do not want to you have an unrealistic expectation.

Second, I do not want you to start chasing after the big money as fast as you can.

Why? Because you would be in very dangerous waters.

My advice is to monitor risk as much as you can and to take small trades and consistent profits.

Make sure you have enough buffer on your account and don’t get greedy or lured into risk-taking based on past successes.

Not all may agree on that, but those people may very well be gone off the market next year anyway.

MT4 / MT5

Many Brokers use the MT4 / MT5 Platforms.

Those are platforms where you can automate your trading, or place your orders manually.

It lets you program your strategy so trading would run by itself.

I do not advice letting trades and orders run without monitoring, but you could preset orders and take only those trades you really want to have.

MT5 has a few more options but in most scenarios, MT4 will do just fine.

Passwords

There are two kinds of passwords available in MT4 / MT5.

Your own to trade, and a read-only password.

The read-only password, also known as Investor Password, can be shared with investors or linked to analyzing tools such as PsyQuation.

It allows them to see your trading and the results so they can see for themselves, but it will not interfere with your trading.

Hedging

Hedging is when you pick a trade and place another trade in the opposite direction.

Wherever the market goes next, one trading is winning, the other loses.

Basically, you freeze up the trade by letting it lose as much as you let it win.

This might be a way to make some money, but don’t forget the opposite trade is in the negative just as much as your gain.

Pitfalls

The most common reason you make a loss are just a few.

Did you pick the wrong direction?

Whatever analyses you use, almost every trader will agree you can’t be right all the time.

And when traders are new to the Market, most traders won’t be.

So try to rethink the reason why you pick a trade and review it once it’s done.

What did you do wrong, and what went right?

Also think of another possibility, even though you won a trade, were you just lucky, or did you really think it through?

Did the trade hit your Stop Loss?

What caused it hitting the Stop Loss?

Was it too close, did you do it right but the spread of the broker hit it anyway, did it hit because it was there in the first place?

Did you not take full advantage of the trades once you were winning?

Taking profits too early or taking them too late is another pitfall.

Once you have picked you trade, you should know where to take your profits.

There are ways to take profits automatically, first is a trailing stop.

A trailing stop can close in the profits when you are following a trend, but it can also kick you out of a trade on the worst possible moment.

The other way to take the profit is by using TP (Take Profit)

Of course, you can always close a trade manually at any time you want.

Did you get impatient or nervous?

Sometimes when you take a loss, or you get impatient you may want a quick trade to make up for it.

Usually, that ends up in losing even more which causes more panic.

If you find yourself caught up in trading like that, and don’t even have a good reason to take the trades anymore, step away from the market and come back the next day.

Do not get bummed out, because now you are your worst enemy if you don’t step away.

Did you get in too heavy or run out of Margin?

Going in too heavy is a common mistake, what is important to know is that trades are done with leverage.

That can really be a benefit, but also takes trades south much quicker.

Be aware you always have enough buffer so whatever trade is done, positive or negative, it will not influence your account too much.

Greed can really mess that up, just as much as fear can. Keep that under control if you find yourself in that place.

That would probably cover the majority of reasons, so if you do not want to lose, you will have to figure out how to deal with that.

Facts

What facts do we have once we enter a trade?

The only facts that I can come up with are even less.

The Market Fluctuates

On any given timeframe on the charts, you can see fluctuations.

You’ll see them on the 5-minute chart, as well on weekly charts.

If there are no fluctuations in price, there would not be a market.

You will not have a Loss until you take it or when you run out of Margin.

Taking a Loss can be manual, or by hitting a Stop Loss.

Also when you ignore a trade which is eating up your Margin can cause a Margin Call.

A Margin Call means the broker will close all your trades due to lack of funds in your account.

Some will warn you up front, others will just Close everything and you basically blew up the account.

Much more facts we don’t have really.

I do not have to wear a fancy suit or go to some guru in a hotel conference to convince me my 100% winning system is wrong.

Going with these facts, it’s possible to create your own 100% winning system. Try it out on a demo first as that takes years of experience!

I truly hope you will benefit from these very simple basics.

Hans Stam

You would like to read Automatic Trading – What Is It

risk disclosure

31st May 2019