Tag: trading

All trading related articles are found here. Educative, informative and written clearly.

  • How I Lost 10.000 dollars On A Trading Platform

    How I Lost 10.000 dollars On A Trading Platform

    How I Lost 10.000 dollars On A Trading Platform
    Lost money in trading isn’t a big deal. But lost self-confidence is the disaster.

    How I lost 10.000 dollars on a trading platform? It was a painful experience and I want to share that with you. When you hear that somebody lost $10,000 on a trading platform, what is your first thought? How stupid he/she must be!

    Thank you. I’m that one. I lost! So, what?

    My entire savings were gone. Don’t even think that I traded without knowledge. I went through all the forex courses available to the time and I’ve spent a lot of money to pay for them.

    Let’s go back to that moment in my trading history.

    Only a few hours ago everything was fine. But what happened? Let’s take a look. I lost! OMG, I lost all my savings!

    First of all, I was so-called, “day trader”. There was no reason I couldn’t have made a billion dollars day trading. Actually, I was the exception. I made a nice sum of money before stopping. The secret was that I treated the thing with respect. I did not plan to get rich overnight, but in a reasonable time, yes. My plan was to become indecently rich in 2-3 years. And I was on my way to becoming so. In fact, I was like many others. Becoming filthy rich for 2-3 years?

    How stupid I was!

    Fun fact: I was trading without proper preparation and education.

    Ha? What do you think about me now?

    I never listened to what my father told me:

    “Don’t gamble, it is not worth it. Build up your assets with honest work and time. There is a time and a place for everything. With gambling, enough is never enough.”

    I thought I knew everything and I have the holy grail in my hands. Just because I bought a trading robot. Yeah, that was very smart of me. Well, after 6 months, my trading account was gone. 

    Kaboom! It exploded and disappeared in its own smoke! That’s how I lost 10.000 dollars on a trading platform.

    I lost everything! How it was possible? I believed marketers and some guys with their “track records”, and hundreds, thousands of testimonials. It is hard to resist when you read or hear some of them.

    Would you really like to know how I lost 10.000 dollars on a trading platform?

    How I Lost 10.000 dollars On A Trading Platform

    Take a look at the image above. What can you see? Stop-loss levels. My trading strategy didn’t have stop-losses. I didn’t see the point of using it! The truth is, with a stop loss, you’d get sold out at a loss, and then the market would move back and you would have ended up making money if not sold. But I didn’t see that opportunity, I just wanted to earn a big sum of money.

    I had no strategy except to make money

    And I really believed that the robot knows what it is doing. I started investing slowly. It was fun. I checked the price of my investment, followed the news on Twitter, and talk about the company’s products. Then the stock price plummeted and I didn’t have a stop loss and that ruined me. Can you understand how I lost 10.000 on ta trading platform now?

    Only then I realized that I had chosen the wrong stock, the wrong company.

    My skipping of stop-losses and liquidating my position at a very low price. That triggered a chain reaction with all my positions being liquidated in a few minutes. The market was having one of its ‘corrections’. I’d received multiple margin calls overnight that had gone unanswered, so my CFD provider sold my positions out.

    The people I was playing against were in many instances the big financial institutions. These institutions’ employees aren’t so many traders as risk managers.

    I didn’t realize that trading is like a game of tennis.

    You need to know who your opponent is

    Today I know what was obvious, that this would never have worked. Do you really think that some rich guy believes in some trading robot account to make his buying decisions?

    Of course NOT! But  I have seen a number of miracles happen.

    And the truth is only ONE! Trading without the right knowledge leads to a deep disaster.

    When I see people who are day traders and they are following some crap newsletter or some coach with a fudged up track record, I am going crazy.  I can’t even see someone watching FOREX algorithm sales pitch or sniveling over some poor stock report.

    I have that one desire, I just want to say to them: you are guaranteed to lose money in any period of time unless you learn to trade well. If you trade without the proper education you should go to some casino or play the lottery. You would have better chances to win. Not to lost.

    Yes, how I lost 10.000 dollars on a trading platform? I faced that beast.

    The nature of the beast is that even if you are financially educated and you think you know everything about trading, investing or markets at all, you still haven’t guaranteed to win.

    For you to know, I’m not selling anything. It didn’t even cross my mind to teach you how to trade. Hm, maybe I could sell my ideas, I could run some newsletter and give you trading ideas? That kind of person makes a lot of money, indeed. And they are generous when they have some secret ideas to share with you for free.

    How I lost 10.000 dollars is true BS! 

    I am not saying all that information is bad, you just have to be careful and try not to follow anyone uncritically.

    The Forex systems and robots stirred by internet marketers are a joke. Especially if you think that’s how they make money on Wall Street. And believe me, they DO make tons of money. The markets are full of sharks and they will eat you quickly if you don’t stick to simple and reasonable rules instead of their predatory advice.

    Forget about making 20% per month. That’s how poor people like to think.

    I learned a few key points when I lost on a trading platform exactly $10,000. My risk tolerance was pretty high. I never felt the need to sell. I regret losing the money, but I never regret making the investment.

    The lesson to myself was: you have to know whether it will move up or down and markets must agree with your judgment and you also need to know when the stock will move.

    To be successful with individual stock investing, you must predict its future movement AND when that movement will come. You’ve got to be fluid as a trader and there are no guarantees.

    The Forex market is the most volatile market in the world and therefore it cannot be manipulated.

    KISS, live long and prosper, and trade smartly!

     

  • Stock Market Is Going To Crash? Where Could You Put Your Money?

    Stock Market Is Going To Crash? Where Could You Put Your Money?

    Do you believe that the market will crash or you know? There is a big difference between what you believe and what you know.

    2 min read

    market crash

    Market crash or market not crash. If you truly believe the market is going to crash, there are a lot of sorts of places where you can put your money.

    You could buy gold or real estate or you could take an aggressive approach. And try to capitalize on stocks’  by loading up on investments designed to rise when the market falls or you could move it all into cash.
    But be honest.

    Do you really believe in such a scenario? Market, crash!

    There is a big difference between what you believe and what you know. Do you know that the market crash is close? When? Tomorrow? Next week?

    On the other hand, I can understand that someone can recognize market crash in this uproaring and uncertain times.

    We all remember, OK most of us, March 2009 and market crash.

    Everyone was extremely agitated about the falls in the stock market. And people were feared that the stock market might continue falling. Many people wanted to sell the holdings in his investment portfolio, move the proceeds to cash and sit out the market turbulence.

    And you know that emotions have an important influence on investor behavior and how do they make decisions.

    This can often lead to investors failing to capture the returns that are there for the taking. And as a result, suffering poor financial outcomes and according to some research, we are twice as sensitive to financial losses as we are to making gains.

    But is it so today?

    Is this the same situation? Will the market crash? Or it may not be. Think about it.

    The ones who like to predict disasters pointed to any numbers of reasons why they believe the market is headed to a crash.

    You have the choice to pick. From the growth-slowdown scare in China that sent stock prices down 12% in the summer of 2015; Brexit and the election of Donald Trump. Anything is supposed to be catalysts for a market rout. Obviously, some prediction of the market’s downfall is going to turn out to be right. But after the turnaround began in March 2009, it’s not as if investors knew the bear had run its course.

    While we believe we know where stocks are headed, we actually don’t.

    The same goes for market pros who may speculate and prognosticate (sometimes even provide valuable insights into what’s driving the market). 

    But they don’t really know what the financial markets are going to do in the near term. They don’t know will the market crash. 

    I don’t think it makes sense to shift your money around in an attempt to outguess the markets, whether that means going to cash to avoid a setback or moving to an investment you think will thrive while the market drop.
    That doesn’t mean you should sit back and do nothing.

    You can do the following things:

    The most important thing you want to confirm is your asset allocation or the percentage of your holdings that are invested in stocks.

    That will determine how your portfolio holds up if the market takes a major dive.

    Take this time to go over your holdings and tally up how much you have in stocks and how much in bonds and you’ll see how your portfolio is divided up between stocks, bonds, and cash.

    Second, figure out where your asset allocation should be.

    I’m sure you want a blend of stocks and bonds that will generate high enough returns so you can reach your financial goals but at the same time isn’t so risky that you’ll sell stocks in a panic during a major stock rout.

    Think back about how you handled past downturns or how you reacted when stocks began to dip and dive. You want to come as close as you can to a blend of stocks and bonds that you’ll be okay holding in a variety of market conditions. And then make all necessary adjustments.

    Then you feel you’ve got a portfolio that will provide sufficient gains during rising markets and enough protection during routes.

    You’ll be able to hang on until the eventual recovery, regardless of what’s going on in the market. The idea is to make sure your portfolio doesn’t become too aggressive during market upswings. Or too conservative when stocks take a hit.

    Making dramatic changes such as fleeing to cash or switching to different investments altogether, may be challenging at times when every news story or TV show you see seems to suggest that the market is on the edge of Armageddon.

    But you don’t want to let fear and emotions dictate your investing strategy and lead you to make impulsive decisions.

    Can I guarantee that this approach can provide you with the best results during the long – term? Of course not.
    This is just another  ”what would be if it were” scenario.

    Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)



  • What Is better: Trading or Investing and what are the differences?

    What Is better: Trading or Investing and what are the differences?

    2 min read

    Let us explain the differences between traders and investors, at first.

    Stock traders are individuals (or entities) engaged in the trading of equity securities, or the transfer of other financial assets.

    They work either for themselves or on behalf of someone else.

    They may operate as agents, hedgers, arbitrageurs, speculators, or investors.

    Stock investors are individuals (or entities) who use their own money to buy equity securities. The goal of the stock investor is to gain returns, which come in the form of income, interest, or appreciation in value also known as capital gains.

    DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TRADING AND INVESTING

    Investing and trading may often be classified together.

    But, they are both different ways of attempting to profit from the financial markets.

    The goal of making investments is to progressively increase wealth over a long period of time by using the buying and holding of a portfolio of stocks, mutual funds, bonds and other methods of investment.

    Trading involves short-term buying and selling of stock and commodities such as currency pairs and other instruments. The goal is earning profitable returns which outperform a traditional buy and hold investing.

    For example, while most investors may be satisfied with a 10% annual return, traders may seek to achieve this per month.

    Period of acting

    Return on investment and payback period seem to be the two most commonly used financial metrics for making sustainability investment.

    Trading is a method of holding stocks for a short period of time. It could be for a week or more often a day! The trader holds stocks until the short term high performance.

    On the other hand, investing is an approach that works on buy and holds a principle.

    Investors invest their money for some years, decades or for the even longer period. Short-term market fluctuations are irrelevant in the long-running investing.

    Growth of capital

    Traders look at the price movement of stocks in the market. If the price goes higher, traders may sell the stocks.
    So we can say, trading is the skill of timing the market but investing is an art. 

    The real art of creating wealth by compounding interest and dividend over the years by holding quality stocks in the market.

    Risk of both fields

    Both, trading and investing, include risk on your capital.

    But trading involves higher risk and higher potential returns. The price might go high or low in a short while.

    Investing takes a while to develop. It involves comparatively lower risk and lower returns in the short run. But might deliver higher returns by putting together interests and dividends if held for a longer period of time.

    Daily market cycles do not affect much on quality stock investments for a longer time.

    Essentially differences

    Trading is a one day match while investing is a championship.  

    Similarly, traders are skilled, technical individuals, they learn market trends to hit higher profits in the stipulated time. It is related to the psychology of the market.

    Investors, on the other hand, analyze the stocks they want to invest in. Investing also includes learning business fundamentals and commitment to stay invested for a longer-term.

    It is related to the philosophy that runs the business.

    Traders put money in a stock for a short-term,  buy and sell fast to hit the higher profits in the market. Missing the right time may lead to the loss.

    They look at the present performance to hit the higher price and book profits in the very short term.

    Investors keep themselves away from the trends and invest in value.

    They invest for a longer period of time keeping the attention of the stocks they hold. They wait till the stock reaches its potential.

    You are the one to decide is your goal  trading at a higher price making a smaller profit in a short time. Or holding/investing on and sell at much higher price in the long run is what you aim for.

    A key rule of trading is to only do so when you are certain that there is an upcoming future event which is predicted to drive the stock value of an organization or entity higher.

    When trading, there are certain strategies which must be put in place.

    Traders should take note of the news and use it to make an educated decision which will hopefully enable them to make a profit afterward. This shows the difference between trading as a short-term investment and investing as a long-term method of gaining wealth.

    When investing, the goal is to bank profits over the long term.

    With dips in value simply providing the opportunity to buy more of the commodity in question. Investing means sitting it out when the commodity rises in value as there will likely be more good news ahead for the company and more profits to be made.

    If you are new to the world of investing and trading, it’s important to know which you are going to choose.

    The imperative to increase your financial gain is what defines it.

    Knowledge of the subject is important. 

    If you are knowledgeable about the stock market but have little idea about how to trade Forex, for example, you will naturally head over to the stock market for your first investment.

    General advice: Don’t get investing and trading confused – it could seriously hurt your portfolio!

  • Millennials Have Nothing Saved For Retirement

    Millennials Have Nothing Saved For Retirement

    1 min read

    Hey, millennials! What are you trying to do? Are you saving for retirement?

    You have really upped your game when it comes to saving for retirement: only 1 in 6 millennials reportedly have $100,000 socked away.

    In fact, most millennials are not on track when it comes to saving for retirement. Statistics show that 66% of people between the ages of 21 and 32 have absolutely nothing saved for retirement.

    I know, you are not surprised. I’m not either. Young people do not have leftovers for savings. Many have started to work at a time of stagnant salaries and high unemployment. 

    Pensions are disappearing, the future of social security is uncertain.

    It’s likely we’ll live forever.

    Millions of millennials have little or no savings.

    In the first place, they believe they’d be better off by putting their money elsewhere. Some have to pay off student loans.

    Some are trying to build up their own business.

    Many started to work at low-wage jobs for a few years and then went back to school to improve their employment chances. And some have more immediate costs like childcare and rent.

    We can recognize the ruthless pressure to save more for a distant future.

    And it is completely disconnected from your reality.



    We each face different circumstances and desire different things in life.

    But supposed experts continue to implore this entire generation to save in retirement accounts.

    Do they know that only focusing on saving for the future means the possibility to neglect more pressing financial issues?

    Such common sense rule about savings disregards life cycle priorities that differ from those of the generations past.

    Instead of cashing out after working at the same job for 40 years, many of millennials would rather enjoy a more entrepreneurial career while earning well beyond typical retirement age.

    Let me be clear!

    There’s nothing wrong with saving for the future and using the tax advantages of retirement plans. It’s mathematically true that starting to save early in the life improves our odds of having enough later.

    But, it’s necessary to recognize the cost of missed opportunities. Saving reflects the safest choice, that’s true.

    But doing as experts try to advise, might hold back millennials from taking any financial risk to pursue more entrepreneurial efforts now.

    Many young people have finance-related fears of an uncertain future and how to make their career choices.

    This is not to say everyone should avoid stable jobs or great retirement plans.

    No, that means that millennials avoid sacrificing but they are taking risks.

    And that makes sense.

    Taking a risk by investing in yourself to build a business could not only lead to greater wealth but could provide a far more fulfilled life along the way.

    Their different needs and preferences should define their financial plans, not any of the many generalized “rules” we often hear. But they shouldn’t completely abandon long-term savings, they should think about how best to use their extra dollars, both to establish their financial security and to find more fulfilling careers and happier lives.

    About 25% of millennials said they were not eligible to participate in an employer-sponsored retirement plan because of their part-time employment status.

    In terms of preparing for retirement, millennials have three strikes against them from the get-go.

    First, because of limited access to retirement plans at work, millennials will struggle to build retirement savings.

    Second, they are less likely to have bought a home, and home equity is a valuable retirement asset.

    And third, they are more likely to be burdened by student loans.

    That’s why a lot of millennials take chance in trading and investing with low fees.

    As a generation which is forced to plan from day to day, it is not a problem for them to trade on a daily basis.  Or to put their extra incomes in some stock investment.

    That’s good work, guys!

    Your job in this world is not to solve the problems that baby-boomers left to you, but to take care of yourselves and make your life better and easier.

    In that way, the whole world will be better placed.

    But before you start your adventure try some free demo account and learn and test your skills. 

    And you have to be very cautious when you have to decide which brokerage to choose.

    You have a plenty of them to choose from, and for the good start.

    We recommend you to read some of our recommendations and predictions.

    Good luck to all of you, millennials!

    Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

  • Investing or trading Bitcoin? What Is The Difference?

    Investing or trading Bitcoin? What Is The Difference?

    Investing or trading Bitcoin, this choice should depend on the knowledge of Bitcoin and the available property.

    2 min read


    The nature of Bitcoin is extremely volatile and the price can dramatically drop in the span of a few hours.
    Truly roller coaster!

    Because of that, the majority of traders give up after a few months or after the first market crash.

    Each time the Bitcoin bubble creates a hype that puts Bitcoin at the front pages of news, the media becomes more interested.

    Then the price keeps on rising and investors become millionaires. That’s until the bubble crashes and the circle starts all over again.

    That doesn’t mean you cannot get your hands on Bitcoin and own at least a bit of what is believed to be the future of currency. What you do have to understand is the difference between investing and trading Bitcoin.

    One of the greatest advantages of Bitcoin is its decentralized nature, which doesn’t require a  central authority or a middleman to be involved. Therefore, you can send money to anyone living around the world, eliminating banks. Most importantly,  you don’t have to pay extraordinary fees or wait days for the money to arrive at your bank account – it takes minutes.

    All the transactions that have ever happened are recorded in the so-called public ledger. The ledger is based on blockchain technology and allows anyone who’s a member of the Bitcoin network to access the records and see every user’s history.

    Thus, nobody can cheat, steal money or double-spend them.

    If there was anything suspicious happening, the entire network would be notified.

    Bitcoin is exciting and magnificent and unique due to the technology behind it and the idea of being free from governmental control.

    But before you decide to jump into investing or trading Bitcoin, there are few more things you have to know about its nature.

    Bitcoin isn’t a fiat currency, hence its price isn’t directly related to the economy or policies of a single country. It has a difficult history of ups and downs, many of them related to worldwide events.

    BTC will never disappoint when it comes to delivering exhilarating shivers down your spine.

    If you want to, you can spend all day long tracking different exchanges and trading.
    It is a roller coaster!!!

    Bitcoin is well-known for its rapid and frequent price movements, sometimes even throughout a day. For traders, it’s yet another exciting opportunity to gather quick profits.

    There is no official Bitcoin exchange, hence there is no official Bitcoin price. Bitcoin exchanges operate around the clock.

    Trading vs Investing Bitcoin

    Is It Better to invest or trade Bitcoin?

    This choice should depend on the knowledge of Bitcoin and the available property.

    Investing in Bitcoin can start from a small amount which can be increased with time and experience.
    It’s a long-term project, which might lead to accumulating a large amount of money.

    Trading should be reserved for those who know the Bitcoin nature in-depth and aren’t afraid of losing.
    The constant fluctuation of Bitcoin can be an exciting experience for any trader. On the other hand, it can scare away those who do not know how to deal with or handle it.

    In other words, the difference between investing and trading Bitcoin lays not only in the technicalities of it but also in somebody’s character and temperament.
    A lot of beginners are deceived with an idea of how much they can make from trading Bitcoin. It surely is a more dynamic environment and rates are changing quicker than in a traditional stock exchange, but that only indicates an even higher risk. The fluctuations in the value of a conventional currency can be measured in a fraction of a penny. Bitcoin prices, on the other hand, rise and fall dramatically throughout one day. 

    This isn’t advice, just notice to you who want to start trading or investing, doesn’t matter. You would never start with all of your capital. You would rather build the experience and understand the market properly.

    Investors can wait through the knockdowns and have the resources to postpone the bad impact.
    Traders, however, are often compared to professional gamblers – they have to act quickly and know when is the right time to leave the game.

    What else you have to know about trading and investing Bitcoin?

    You should never keep all your eggs in one basket.

    What does it mean? But don’t be mislead that the most secure option is to store your Bitcoins on some exchanges wallet.

    Why is that? If you’re thinking about trading, you also have a large amount of money to put on the market.
    Be cautious and invest in a secure and reliable wallet. An exchange can be closed and busted anytime, and so are your money.  It happened in Bitcoin’s early days. The catastrophic collapse resulted in losing over 800,000 bitcoins and customers were never able to receive their money back.

    Some see trading Bitcoin as a Wild West, without any regulations and legitimate backup. While others are sure that it is a manifesto of liberation. Something is well known, it’s a game of which nobody can predict the end result.

    Well, we hope that Bitcoin is gonna win! We are working on it!

    Listen to this guy.

    Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)


  • Broker and You! Fighting or cooperating?

    Broker and You! Fighting or cooperating?

    Broker and You! Fighting or cooperating?
    The broker is known as a market maker and market maker takes the other side of your trade.

    By Gorica Gligorijevic

    Broker and you, what a nice relationship! Okay, you think your Forex broker is on your side. Nice! Wonderful! I’m excited! You have it! You found the best!

    But, are you sure that your broker wants especially you to be the winner? At the same time, 95% of Forex traders lose. And you have special status? Really?

    Do you really think your broker has built his business on the minority 5% who win? C’mon! Don’t be silly!

    Whether you’re already in the 5% elite (congrats) or working your way to it, you must know these three things. It can make the difference between long-term successes or Forex failure.

    How does your broker see you? 

    Really, what does he think about you? Actually, from your broker’s point of view, .you are an “A” group or a “B” group.

    The broker is not emotional. He has numbers and percentages in front of him.

    One group traders make up the 95% who constantly lose and the other traders are people who have been consistently profitable or more than 3 months.

    Group A, group B. 95% or 5%. Nothing else. If you are a newcomer, the broker will automatically add you to the “A” group until you prove otherwise.

    But, WHY?

    You have done nothing to be there, you are beginner!!! You just opened all of this for your first time!

    The answer is simple, your broker knows that 95% of new traders will lose, so he’s 95% sure he’s put you in the right group.
    Well, he isn’t sure 100%, notice that! If you lose, he wins. Only that matters!

    Forex brokers are known as market makers and market maker takes the other side of your trade. Never forget that someone somewhere is holding the other side of your trade.

    Let’s say you decide you sell 1 standard lot of EUR/USD. Now for you to take that trade, someone else has to buy 1 standard lot of EUR/USD. Right?  In other words, there always has to be a buyer and a seller for a trade to take place.

    If your broker is a market maker, he’s holding the other side. In other words, if you win, he loses.

    Simple? Yeah!

    But a bit unpleasant. Brokers make most of their money betting on the fact that you are going to lose. This is the conflict of interest 1/1!

    Honestly and fortunately, the majority of brokers don’t take the other side of your trades.

    Instead, they pass them on to other traders, acting more along the lines of what you had in your mind that a ‘broker’ is. Most of them simply connect buyers and sellers and take a commission on facilitating the trade.

    Your broker, your true and professional broker, will never take the other side of the trade, and he will never bet against you as a client. This secret has been revealed! Share with others!

    And be cautious, it never can be too much.