Posts Tagged ‘stock market’

What Are Contracts for Difference?

A CFD (Contract for Difference) is an arrangement between two investors to trade on the difference between the start price and finish price of a contract at the end of an agreed timescale without either party needing to buy the shares themselves. Sounds complicated, but its not really. Institutions and hedge funds have utilised CFD Trading in the UK stock market for just over ten years instead of regular stock market trading. CFD trading is similar in many ways to spread trading in that the both of them are margined products so you can gear yourself up or actually take a decision that is a multiple of your available funds.

 

If, for example, the margin on a firm youre interested in was 10%, establishing a position of £100,000 would only require a deposit of £10,000. Any running profits that you make can actually be used as margin to esablish new positions but any losses would have to be made good by reducing your position or by providing extra funds.

While stamp duty of 0.5% on all UK share purchases has in the opinion of some traders reduced the cost effectiveness of ‘day-trading’ traditional stocks and shares, both CFDs and spread betting are exempt and this has added to their appeal. CFDs are liable to capital gains tax whereas spread bets are tax free, but losses incurred from spread bets are gone for good while CFD losses can be offset against any future profits for the purpose of tax. When you trade in CFDs, you purchase those contracts in almost the same way that youd buy shares. Let’s say you wished to invest on a thousand shares in a business – with CFD trading you would need to sell 1,000 units at eg 494p per share, whereas with spread betting you would just place a bet of £10 per point to get an equivalent return.

A lot of CFD providers allow you to post orders anywhere within the bid offer spread whereas spread betting firms post their own two-way, take it or leave it price in the same way a bookie would. Most CFD providers allow you to post orders anywhere within the bid-offer spread whereas spread betting firms post their own two-way take it or leave it price exactly as a bookie would. CFDs do not enfold the costs of financing a position within the spread (as does spread betting) but charge those costs and commissions separately. With CFDs the charges and commissions involved in a trade are not part of the spread, which is the case with financial spread betting. Because of this, the CFD spread quote will always be very close to the underlying price of the share or commodity that you are following. CFDs also mimic nearly every aspect of owning the underlying share or market, so if you hold a position for a long enough time period you will recieve the benefit from any dividends being paid on the shares.

CFDs and spread betting have particular features that will appeal to different trading styles and there is no one best instrument to use. It’s important to note that they should not be regarded as substitutes for long term investment or saving, as more citizenry seek to take control of their financial destiny, theres been a growing realisation that going short is a legitimate means of trading in market thats become increasingly difficult to profit from in a traditional sense.

How To Examine Stocks

Brought to you by ETF trend trading review.

As with gamblers in Las Vegas so it is with stock investments, ‘everybody’s got a system’. The goal of research, however, is to make the activity a lot less like gambling and a lot more like investment.

For those without the time or temperament to carry out research themselves, there are full time research services available – for a fee, of course. Full-Service brokerages, such as Merrill Lynch and other large, well-established firms offer research as part of their value to clients.

But there are firms, both traditional and the newer online variety, that offer research without the advice available from the broker. Whether the research (and the advice) are worth what it costs is an ongoing debate.

For those who see research not as a necessary evil or time-consuming burden, but as part of the process or even an adventure, there are now more sources than could be used in a lifetime.

Starting with the source of data is always a safe bet, since it’s the most unbiased, thoroughly audited information around. That source is the legally required filings of individual publicly traded companies.

In the U.S. those are 10-K’s – more or less equivalent to lengthy annual reports – which can be viewed or downloaded from the SEC’s website (www.sec.gov). (10-Q’s are filed quarterly, 8-K’s for significant financial changes in between.) Other countries have their equivalents, such as the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission (HKSRC).

In those reports you’ll find recent (as of the filing date) financial data about income, expectations, competition and lines of business, current senior management listings and other information useful to those inclined toward Fundamental Analysis. 

Quarterly reports and annual reports are sent automatically to share holders, even those with only one share (though they’re usually traded in lots of 100 or more.) But, they’re often available free by calling or emailing the Investment Relations department; after all, companies want you to buy their stock. They contain the same factual data as 10-K’s and 10-Q’s but occasionally wording differs, for those interested in subtle details.

For a modest annual or one-time fee, a blizzard of chart data is available that matches any produced by the in-house research departments of the large brokerages. (Sometimes they’re produced by the same people.)

Newsletters are another potentially good source of information, though opinions about the market vary so widely that researching whom to believe takes as much time and care as researching individual stocks. Sometimes they’re a few dollars per year, sometimes many hundreds – and price is no indicator of quality here.

One direct source of one kind of information are the in-person, on TV, or on the Internet interviews of company senior managers, usually by one or a panel of analysts.

CEOs, CFOs, and others often talk to the financial press and brokerage share analysts to give their views on where their company stands, what challenges they face, and where they expect to be in the near to long-term future. Often they’re asked about specific pending lawsuits or legislation and to assess its potential impact.

Of course, executives have an interest in painting a rosy picture, but analysts have often heard it all and are very adept at keeping the ’spin factor’ to a minimum. If nothing else, it tells you what the executives want you to believe, which in itself is useful.

Even armed with nothing more than an inexpensive online trading account, the average investor has access to charts of historical and current data, future expectations, and a wide variety of statistical information which would keep even the most technically inclined busy for quite some time.

Be sure to use it all, or as much as you can absorb in the time available, when formulating a trading strategy. And remember, opinions ‘on the street’ are a dime a dozen – including mine.

For more please see What Are ETF Trends? and ETF Trends.

How To Evaluate Stocks

Brought to you by What Is The Best Trend Trading System.

Stock picking is akin to weather prediction – no one can predict with certainty five hours from now if the price will rise or fall, much less five years from now.

Nevertheless, there are indicators that help to reduce the risk and increase the odds of profiting over the long term. After all, historically stocks have returned over 10%, as measured by the growth of the S&P 500.

The first step is to get educated. Learn not only about dividends yields and earnings per share, but also some basic accounting. Reported figures have an air of authority but the sad fact remains that those numbers are arrived at, in part, by accounting methods which are not cut and dried. 

The Enron case (case in which the executives of Enron manipulated their earnings figures to appear to be much more
successful than they were) is extreme, but even ordinary procedures involve judgment calls on the part of financial officers and auditors.

Next, commit to continuing research about stocks both inside and outside your intended portfolio, and update it as you buy and sell. There’s a broad spectrum between exact prediction and throwing darts blindly. In the long run, those who do their homework do far better and almost all day traders lose money.

Research both prospective buys and intended sells. Many investors put considerable time and effort into analyzing a buy, but then only watch for some price to be reached in order to sell. Knowing when to sell is just as important, and a target should be selected before the stock is bought.

RESEARCHING BUYS

Obtain the latest, and some historical, financial statements. The SEC provides these free (www.sec.gov) in their EDGAR database, but other exchanges have similar arrangements.

Analyze the quarterly statements covering two to three years, looking for EPS (earnings per share) and revenue trends. Calculate dividend yields, if the company pays dividends.

Compare the company’s P/E (Price to Earnings) ratio to others in the same economic sector. Look at P/S (Price to Sales) ratios, too. Sales growth is easier to predict than earnings and less volatile than P/E ratios. 

Examine general economic factors. Interest rates affect stock prices as well as bonds (though less directly), since almost every company borrows money. Even when they don’t, their competitors, suppliers, and customers do. Interest charges reduce profits for all but the lenders, for whom it’s income. 

Even when researching a bank, though, high interest rates increase short-term profits, but can reduce the number of loans and cause certain current ones to be repaid early. High interest rates aren’t necessarily good for banks either, therefore.

Use some of the more common technical indicators, such as MA (moving averages) and RSI (Relative Strength Index, which compares the number of days a stock finishes up versus down). An RSI of 70, or above, for example, does tend to indicate a stock which is overbought and due for a fall in price.

RESEARCHING SELLS

Pick a target price, which amounts to deciding how much profit (in dollars or percentage terms) you seek then sell at that price, unless your continuing research has turned up significant new information.

Consider selling if the price has dropped substantially or remained unchanged for several months. Losses are hard to bear, but consider that you can’t always pick winners and while you’re invested in one stock, you’re forgoing potential profit from another. That profit could help reduce or more than make up for the loss from the sale.

Continue to monitor the company’s fundamentals by obtaining updated filings. Re-evaluate them by updating earnings trend calculations, significant management or general economic changes.

You can ease the difficulty of performing calculations (which is a useful exercise at least once) by finding Internet sites that provide objective data and go easy on the “here’s how to pick winners” sales talk.

And remember, ‘on the street’ opinions are a dime a dozen – including mine.

For more please see trend trading stocks and What Types of ETFs Are There?.

Is CFD Trading an Effective Alternative Financial instrument?

A Contract for Difference, or CFD is an two way trading deal between two different parties based on the rise or fall in the trading price of an agreed number of shares in a company over an agreed time – no actual share purchase is necessary. Although sounding complicated, it isn’t. Major hedge funds have been making use of CFD Trading in the UK stock market for just over ten years instead of regular stock market trading. There are many points of similarity between CFDs and financial spread betting in that both of these are margined products so you can gear yourself up or actually take a decision that is a multiple of your available funds.

 

If, for example, the margin on a firm youre interested in was 10%, establishing a position of £100,000 would only require a deposit of £10,000. Any running profits you make can be used as margin to establish new positions but any running losses would have to be made good by reducing your position or providing additional funds.

While stamp duty of 0.5% on all UK share purchases has in the opinion of some traders reduced the cost effectiveness of ‘day-trading’ traditional stocks and shares, both CFDs and spread betting are exempt and this has added to their appeal. CFDs are quite liable to capital gains tax whereas spread bets are tax free, but losses incurred from spread bets are gone for good while CFD losses can be offset against future profits for tax purposes. When you actually trade in CFDs you purchase those contracts in nearly the same way you buy shares. Let’s say you wished to invest on a thousand shares in a business – with CFD trading you would need to sell 1,000 units at eg 494p per share, whereas with spread betting you would just place a bet of £10 per point to get an equivalent return.

Most CFD providers allow you to post orders anywhere within the bid-offer spread whereas spread betting firms post their own two-way take it or leave it price exactly as a bookmaker would. Most CFD providers allow you to post orders anywhere within the bid-offer spread whereas spread betting firms post their own two-way take it or leave it price exactly as a bookie would. CFDs do not wrap the costs of financing a position within the spread (as does spread betting) but charge those costs and commissions individually. With CFDs the charges and commissions involved in a trade are not part of the spread, which is the case with financial spread betting. Because of this, the CFD spread quote will constantly be very close to the underlying price of the share or commodity that you are following. CFD’s also mimic almost every aspect of actually owning the underlying share or market, so if you hold a position long enough, you receive the benefit of any dividends being paid on the underlying shares.

CFDs and spread betting have particular features that will appeal to different trading styles and there is no one best instrument to use. Although they should not be regarded as substitutes for long term investment or saving, as more people seek to take control of their financial destiny, theres been a growing realisation that going short is a legitimate means of trading in market thats become increasingly difficult to profit from in a traditional sense.

Forex Market

Forex Trading Robot – IvyBot  

I don’t know about you, but I remember when my father used to work double shifts at his job in a synthetic rubber factory, trading shifts, working stock, putting himself on autopilot, working like a robot.  He worked way too hard to make better futures for his 4 children, wife and himself.   All his family really wanted was him not more currency.He would work himself so hard just to make extra money but every two weeks that check would come and it always disappointed him.  All he did was get broker and broker and broker.

He’d work and work, double shifts, any extra shifts he could, but the harder he worked the less money he came home with because it would put him into a hight tax bracket.Dad needed and expert adviser to help him see that all the extra work wasn’t worth it. 

Working hard was what his generation did.  Now don’t get me wrong I’m not saying there is anything wrong with working hard, but there wasn’t a choice then, we have a choice now.  Forex trading robots. IvyBot

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Put Options Used In The Collar Strategy Can Protect Your Stocks

Hoping and praying that the stocks that you just bought will go up is not the best strategy to use, however it is the one very often used by the average Joe stock trader who is stock trading internet. The only salvation they have is that in bull markets most stocks will go up.

Statistics show that in a bull market approx 75% of the stocks will follow the general trend and go up, and in a bear market 75% will also go down. Trading with the trend is the best way to trade as 8 out of 12 stocks will follow the trend and give you the best chance of making gains on your stock purchases.

But what if you own some good stocks and don’t want to sell when the market is clearly going down, or about to go down?. There are a couple of tactics that you can consider, both of which involve the use of options, CALL options and PUT options. There is the well known strategy called Covered Calls, and the much lesser known one called the Married Put.

If you are going to trade options it is important that before you start trading you get the best option trading education that you can. You should also practice stock trading until you are comfortable with the process. This is a very important point that must be taken seriously, if you don’t understand the terminology and theory then you should not be trading options. If the terms Put option, Call option, Married Put and Covered Call are new to you then don’t trade until you have studied sufficiently.

Selling calls against your stock in 100 share increments is the basis of the covered call strategy and it can provide about a 2-7% buffer against the loss in stock price. However a bigger drop in the stock price will not be compensated for using the covered call strategy, in general.

Stocks in a bear market, and even in a bull market, can drop quickly on news or earnings releases, as much as 10 to 40% within a month. Using covered calls to protect your stocks will only provide limited protection of less than 7% at best and so will not save you if the stock takes a 40% tumble.

The better solution to providing downside stock protection is the option strategy called the Married Put. As the name suggests the PUT that you buy is used to provide protection when the stock goes down because Put options increase in value when the stock decreases in value. The term married is used because the option that is selected has to be a good fit with the stock, in other words a good match, if the strategy is to work.

The selection of the best Put option is not straight forward and involves several criteria which are listed below:

1. The strike price of the option

2. The current stock price

3. Choice of options, in or out of the money

4. Put expiration time

Even though the married Put protection only has a short life span if offers much more protection than the covered call. It can provide as much as 95% loss recovery in the event of a significant drop in the stock price.

The downside of the good protection is that you have buy the Put which is a cash debit whereas the covered call is a credit. But there are ways of offsetting this expense and there is much more to this strategy when executed correctly. The Married Put can be made to just about pay for itself and used to generate very good gains if the market, or stock to be specific, moves a lot.

The general idea of the Collar Trade is to combine the covered call and married Put strategy into one, this is what is called the Collar Trade. In effect you put a collar around the stock, sell a call and buy a PUT. If you do this correctly most of the cost of the Put can be offset by the credit from the covered call so you can protect your stock at almost no cost. Yes this is a great strategy which the general public is unfortunately ignorant of, and most brokers don’t understand.

The strategy that I have outlined above is unknown to the average stock market trader but is one of the best trading systems you could have.

A675438906

Collar Strategy Can Protect Your Stocks

Hoping and praying that the stocks that you just bought will go up is not the best strategy to use, however it is the one very often used by the average Joe stock trader who is stock trading internet. The only good point they have is that in bull markets most stocks will go up.

Statistics show that in a bull market about 75% of the stocks will follow the general trend and go up, and in a bear market 75% will also go down. Trading with the trend is the best way to trade as 8 out of 12 stocks will follow the trend and give you the best chance of making gains on your stock purchases.

But what if you own some good stocks and don’t want to sell when the market is clearly going down, or about to go down?. There are a couple of tactics that you can consider, both of which involve the use of options, CALL options and PUT options. There is the widely known strategy called Covered Calls, and the much lesser known one called the Married Put.

If you are going to trade options it is essential that before you start trading you get the best option trading education that you can. You should also practice stock trading until you are comfortable with the process. This is a very important point that must be taken seriously, if you don’t understand the terminology and theory then you should not be trading options. If Put option, Call option, Married Put and Covered Call are new to you then don’t trade until you have studied sufficiently.

Selling calls against your stock in 100 share increments is the basis of the covered call strategy and it can provide about a 2-7% buffer against the loss in stock price. However a bigger drop in stock price will not be compensated for using the covered call strategy, in general.

Stocks in a bear market, and even in a bull market, can drop quickly on news or earnings releases, as much as 15 to 40% within a month. Using covered calls to protect your stocks will only provide limited protection of less than 7% at best and so will not save your account if the stock takes a 40% tumble.

The better solution to providing down-side stock protection is the option strategy called the Married Put. As the name suggests the PUT that you buy is used to provide protection when the stock goes down because Put options increase in value when the stock decreases in value. The term married is used because the option that is selected has to be very compatible with the stock, in other words a good match, if the strategy is to work.

The selection of the best Put option is not straight forward and involves several criteria which are listed below:

1. The strike price of the option

2. The current stock price

3. Choice of options, in or out of the money

4. Put expiration time

Even though the married Put protection only has a short life span if offers much more protection than the covered call. It can provide as much as 95% loss recovery in the event of a significant drop in the stock price.

The downside of the good protection is that you have buy the Put which is a cash debit whereas the covered call is a credit. But there are ways of off-setting this expense and there is much more to this strategy when executed correctly. The Married Put can be made to pay for itself and used to generate very good gains if the market, or stock to be specific, moves a lot.

The general idea of the Collar Trade is to combine the covered call and married Put strategy into one, this is what is called the Collar Trade. In effect you put a collar around the stock, sell a call and buy a PUT. If you do this correctly most of the cost of the Put can be offset by the credit from the covered call so you can protect your stock at almost no cost. Yes this is a great strategy which the general public is unfortunately ignorant of, and most brokers don’t understand.

The strategy that I have outlined above is unknown to the average stock market trader but is one of the best trading systems you could have.

A675438906

How To Buy Top Stocks

Although it may seem obvious to most stock market swing traders there are a number of simple rules that you can follow which will ensure that you have more success when buying stocks:

In the USA stock market there are 3 major indexes which are each made up of a basket of stocks, they are the S and P 500 (also known as the S&P500), the DOW 30 and the Nadaq 100. These stock indexes generally only contain major blue chip stocks, as long as you buy from these 3 groups you will at least know that you are getting a well known solid stock.

For example the DOW30 contains major industrials and large multinational stocks such as Home Depot (HD) and Johnson and Johnson (JNJ) whereas the Nasdaq 100 mainly contains techical companies such as Apple (AAPL) and Miscrosoft (MSFT).

Always buy a stock that is liquid, this means that it is a highly traded stock, this will enable you to quickly buy and sell at the price you want without having a delay. You will also get a smaller spread, thats the difference between the BID and ASK price of the stock. For a stock to be considered very liquid it should trade at least 500,000 shares per day, ideally even more.

It is best to aviod stocks that are bellow as this usually means the company is in trouble, although with the bear market of 2008/9 there have been a lot of good stocks at bargin prices between and . Avoid buying a stock that is below at anytime.

Another consideration to make is options, does the stock has options?, this will be important if you want to trade options around your stock, such as a covered call, or you may want to buy a PUT option in order to protect your stock.

Be very cautious about buying a stock just before it’s earnings are released, stocks often drop significantly if they come out with a poor report. Earnings are released 4 times a year with one of them being the annual report.

If you are going to trade options make sure that you learn how to trade by getting some good education. There are many swing trading strategies that work well with stocks in todays volatile markets.

 A675645879

How To Buy Top Stocks

Although it may seem obvious to most stock market swing traders there are a number of simple rules that you can follow which will ensure that you have more success when buying stocks:

In the USA stock market there are 3 major indexes which are each made up of a basket of stocks, they are the S and P 500 (also known as the S&P500), the DOW 30 and the Nadaq 100. These stock indexes generally only contain major blue chip stocks, as long as you buy from these 3 groups you will at least know that you are getting a well known solid stock.

For example the DOW 30 contains major industrials and large multinational stocks such as Home Depot (HD) and Johnson and Johnson (JNJ) whereas the Nasdaq 100 mainly contains techical companies such as Apple (AAPL) and Miscrosoft (MSFT).

Always buy a stock that is liquid, this means that it is a highly traded stock, this will enable you to quickly buy and sell at the price you want without having a delay. You will also get a smaller spread, thats the difference between the BID and ASK price of the stock. For a stock to be considered highly liquid it should trade at least 500,000 shares per day, ideally even more.

It is best to avoid stocks that are bellow as this usually means the company is in trouble, although with the bear market of 2008 there have been a lot of good stocks at bargin prices between and . Avoid buying a stock that is below at anytime.

Another consideration to make is options, does the stock has options?, this will be important if you want to trade options around your stock, such as a covered call, or you may want to buy a PUT option in order to protect your stock.

Be very cautious about buying a stock just before it’s earnings are released, stocks often drop significantly if they come out with a poor report. Earnings are released 4 times a year with one of them being the annual report.

If you are going to trade options make sure that you learn how to trade by getting some good education. There are many swing trading strategies that work well with stocks in todays volatile markets.

 A675645879

Investing On The Stock Market Tips And Tricks

I am somebody who loves to invest money on the stock market. Some might see this as a bit of a gamble which in a way it is, there are however certain steps people can take to limit this risk which may well help them to make money.

I should point out that I am in no way a professional investor; I am in fact a stuttering therapist and I also work on projects to do with helping people to learn how to play the guitar and an affordable web promotion service.

The stock market is rather like a fair ground rollercoaster ride in the way that it is always going up and down. It has many peaks and troughs which can make it hard to know when it is the right time to invest or to sell. Some people see an event such as the terrorist attacks on September the eleventh, where the stock market fell in a big way, as a good time to invest where as other people may panic and sell all of their holdings in case of another attack.

I personally prefer to buy when the market is going through a bad period as I believe it is likely to eventually pick up and should if history is anything to go by, be even higher in the future. My way of thinking is buy low, sell high.

When purchasing a single stock, such as shares in one of the top companies such as Vodafone, I always remember the price that I bought the shares at and give the stock a target price. This is the price that I will sell at, if it ever reaches that level of course. I have to say that at times I am very tempted to hold onto the shares when they reach these target levels in the hope of even higher profits. I am normally able to keep to my plan of selling high and when I have let temptation get the better of me and have held on to the shares they always seem to end up falling back. I hope that I have now learned my lesson for the future, I think I have!

If the share price after for example three months has fallen by about twenty percent, I then increase my holding by purchasing even more shares. I will then set a new target level and just repeat the process. This in a way is similar to how a unit trust works through the method of pound cost averaging, where you are able to purchase more units when the unit price is lower for your monthly premium.

What I do and have explained above is quite risky and you need to be able to hold your nerve when the stock has a bad run. You also need to have a lot of patience. I certainly would only advise people to invest money that they can actually afford to lose as one day for example I could invest in a stock which does not recover. This plan would then prove to be a disaster and would cost me a lot of money.

So far I have been quite lucky and the plan has been working well for me. I do not invest huge amounts of money and see it as more of a hobby than a way to get rich quick.

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