The Realm of High Finance

Today, it does not take very much to enter the financial world. To be sure, all one needs is a user name, a password, and a valid bank account or credit card. The rest, as they say, is a piece of cake. To learn to trade does not necessarily require anything more than being able to interpret the market trends and making the right trade at the right time, with the right stock, of course.

If its seems like I am being facetious, I apologize, but often this is the mentality of the Joe Palooka day trader who succeeds at doing little more than frittering away his hard-earned life savings. For the unskilled day trader, this is tantamount to a half-drunken night in Las Vegas. Effectively growing your financial nest egg will entail much more than an E-Trade account, though, like a hand of blackjack, there is always an element of timing and luck involved.

The optimal day trader will have learned a great deal from a qualified financial training course — or at the very least, an online course or two. Jumping, cold turkey, into day trading would be no different than waking up, showering, slipping on a pair of trainers, and running the New York Marathon. Best of luck, see you in the infirmary.

Any kind of financial future requires a bit of planning and good deal of patience — to say nothing of some common sense. Do not begin this foray lightly. Moreover, do not begin by reallocating your grandfather’s $30,000 trust into Apple stocks — no matter how well Mr. Jobs happens to be doing. Begin with a modest amount, perhaps a fourth or less of your total portfolio.

The fatal flaw of the majority of amateur (and indeed some professional) traders is a complete lack of discipline. Of course, this entails a healthy dose of patience. Wait before you trade. Weigh as many factors as possible. Trading too soon or too late will never amount substantial gains. You need stay the course and ride out fluctuations in the market that could well prove to be temporary.

For joy — now you too can learn to trade online like a professional trader. To be sure, with the proper amount of training and insight, you could well grow your nest egg. But beware the downfall of most traders — be patient and keep your composure.

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Exchange to Exchange

The term “trade” is a curious one when applied to our modern financial institutions. Indeed, by definition nothing is traded, per se. Rather, stocks and financial investments are paid for and sold. It is an exchange, hence the name: the New York Stock Exchange. It is not called the New York Stock Trading Center. Perhaps this could be reduced to semantic gamesmanship, but it should be kept in mind that when dealing with one’s financial portfolio, you are dealing with gains and losses, purchases and value.

With approximately $29 trillion worth of capitalized wealth invested, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is the largest exchange on the planet. It is not, however, the oldest. Indeed, it can only trace its origins back to 1792. The honor of the oldest exchange belongs to the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, founded in 1602. The London Stock Exchange, by contrast, was founded in 1801.

The world of the screaming floor trader flashing any number of fingers, a billet in hand, has been supplanted by online trading technologies. To be sure, you will still find brokers on the floor of the exchange, but the billet has been replaced by a touch screen and instead of screaming, they are all wired with earpieces and communication devices. Moreover, though still a profession dominated by men, you can now find a fair share of female brokers.

The NYSE, though not the oldest exchange, is the wealthiest. It enjoys the brisk buying and selling of approximately $1 billion in stocks, bonds and mutual funds a day. Its tech-centric cousin, the NASDAQ, can only muster a measly $50 million a day. The NYSE, for all intents and purposes, is the king of the exchanges — for now, and perhaps the foreseeable future, but it is worthy noting that the rise of some Asian markets does pose a challenge to this supremacy.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange enjoys the distinction of being the second largest exchange in the world. Founded in 1891, it has ballooned to incorporate approximately $4 trillion in aggregated wealth. Granted a roughly $4 trillion, it is approximately $25 trillion short of the American mark, but given that the Chinese government has only dabbled with a free market for 20 or so years, it is a phenomenal example of unprecedented growth. The future is indeed bright for the land of the dragon.

The world of online trading need not be relegated to the dominion of Wall Street. Remember, have laptop will travel. You can begin to day trade along with the best of them.

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The Profit Prerogative

On a long enough timeline, a financial portfolio, unless properly managed, will drop to nil. Indeed, even the most diversified, well-planned investment strategy will be found to be lacking if a very lucrative aspect of the market is not accounted for. What is this market linchpin? What cold possibly generate billions of dollars of revenue in a single day? Yes, that’s right, the currency trade.

The forex market (an abbreviation of foreign exchange currencies), this extremely lucrative field is best left to those who know a yen from a euro. This is not to say the yeoman trader is a rare find in the field, but success, as with all investment fields, is most frequently enjoyed by those who have some kind of training in leveraging foreign currencies against one another. This is no day trader’s paradise.

To characterize these markets as a kind of grand strategy game is not overstating the obvious. Indeed, strategy is key. Forex markets, unlike other markets, never rest. If one had the wherewithal, physically, one could trade in currencies twenty-four hours a day. You see, the sun never sets on foreign markets, or their currencies. Their sheer liquidity makes them extremely tantalizing.

One may be inclined to wonder if all this is worthwhile. Take note: foreign currency trading has seen a marked increase in trade volume. Since 2001, the industry has witnessed a doubling of total trades, enjoying a daily volume of $55 billion. To be sure, that is no misprint. Now you can begin to comprehend the sheer scale of profit to be reeled in by savvy traders. Alas, the line between savvy and sorry is very thin. As with all financial manipulations and machinations, the more skilled one is, the better the chances of enjoying boom, and not bust.

Understanding the complexities of foreign exchange markets, and which currencies are pegged as the standards (like the Japanese yen), will help you make the most of your bold investment tendencies. While the market never sleeps, you may take a moment to stop and reflect upon your skill level and your financial portfolio. Short of a mentorship at a powerful firm, your best opportunity to enjoy an immersion in the field is an accredited forex trading course. Enroll wisely.

Currency trader beware. Enroll in the best possible forex trading course available to ensure your future success. Settling for “well-enough” could doom you to second-best.

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Eureka: Stock Trades

To be sure, the great Oz of finance, known collectively as Wall Street, trucks in fortunes. From the acorn of a small investment a veritable fortune can be grown. The lucrative power of the stock market needs not be re-characterized or exaggerated to make this simple point: fortunes are made or undone via global financial markets. Your indulgence is much appreciated as such a statement is tantamount to stating two parts hydrogen to one part oxygen makes for a rather refreshing beverage.

I have stated the most obvious, but I humbly beg your indulgence. The real power of the financial markets is in the trade. An innocuous word, to be sure, but a powerful transaction. The purchase or sale of invested stock in a particular company can make or break a portfolio. In fact, it can make or break a bank account — or several millions of accounts. The key is knowing what to buy, when, and when to sell. So, for all practical purposes, it is a form of gambling.

The covetous tend to hold onto their stock far too long, resulting in ruin. The over-eager tend to sell too quickly, cut short their potential profits. Success, of a long enough timeline, is contingent upon a happy medium. The refrain from a Kenny Rogers song echoing through the halls of your mind, it would behoove you to, in fact, know when to hold them and when to fold them. What tends to foil the best and most clinical of investors is knowing when to sell.

The professional management of stocks has become something of a prestigious affair. Though a great deal of investment strategy can be gleaned and hired professionally, the prestigious financial houses adjacent to Wall Street have come to cater to this demand. But, for a price. The commission on stock sales would make the most overzealous opportunist blush. Accordingly, this has given rise to the most resourceful of characters, the day trader.

The fortunes and falls of a day trader are well documented, thanks in large part to the boom and bust of the Roaring Nineties. Alas, with the collapse of the Dot Com Bubble, so too did many a trader lose his shirt — literally. What your average trader could have learned in a moderately-ranked day trading course today would cause a rash of eureka head-slaps. It is no easy task to successfully trade stocks online. Note, the operative word is “successfully.

If you are one of the bold, who has a deep desire to trade stocks online, take heed. Know your market and know your margins before venturing forth.

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Trader, Know Thyself

Money is nothing if not a fortune waiting to be made. The secret to holding onto your wealth, it seems, is not the long-odds gamble, but the long-term strategy. This means, rather than fritter away your hard-earned cash (all cash is hard-earned, mind you), you should be working to grow your finances. Of course, the lure of investments is a strong one, and for those who have a penchant for the dramatic, it could be the single-best source for making your nest egg spring forth as a resplendent hatchling.

The key to investments is correctly assessing your strengths and weaknesses. This is not exclusively in terms of your portfolio. Rather, it may behoove you to assess your personal investment skills. To be sure, we all fancy ourselves savvy individuals, capable of making the crucial decisions when they need to be made. Unfortunately, few — far too few — of us have the intellectual distance and self-understanding to know we are lacking.

Fortunes are made and lost on the stock market. Indeed, one of the most lucrative opportunities, by all accounts, on the stock market is day trading. Once the fancy of many a 90s-era do-it-yourselfer, day trading has managed to separate the wheat from the chaff. Woe to all the lost fortunes lost on a bad tip or a late trade. Whereas you thought the iPhone would never catch on, a few lucky traders thought otherwise. Now, who is the worse off?

Day trading is not for the faint of heart or the indecisive. To be sure, anyone involved in the stock market should never lack meddle or bold decisiveness. That being said, however, none of the bold few should be so foolhardy as to forget the fact a well-trained trader is far more likely to succeed. This is the case with all things and all occupations. The more knowledgeable, the more inclined to excel.

To excel in today financial climate, you would be well advised to know how the market works, who are the major players, how you can retain what you’ve worked so hard to amass — your cash. Short-shrifting the essentials is a recipe for failure, time and time again. Be wise, be skilled, be trained.

The wise man never leads with is chin in a fight. So too, should the wise investor not rush too brashly into the world of day trading without understanding a few pointers. Tuck your chin in and start understanding the essentials.

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