2016: Make This Your Year To Become A Forex Pro

With increased globalisation, economies and currencies are more interdependent on each other than ever –– presenting an opportunity for investors to become savvy forex professionals. Becoming a pro forex trader will probably take some time and needs a great deal of effort, but you should not be discouraged because ups and downs are normal. The best part is that you can sit in the comfort of your home with your laptop to trade in forex and still make a ton of money. Once you get the basics right, you’ll soon realise that forex can make you a lot of money, so give it a shot in 2016 and become a forex pro with these simple steps:

Learn The Basics

If you’re new at forex trading, then learn the market before undertaking any trading. Understand the concepts of currency trading and how existing traders sell and buy currencies. You need to learn about currency trading and the currency market. Watch online videos, read articles, talk to existing forex traders to dig deeper into the forex trading industry.

Understand Trading Systems And Platforms

You must understand trading systems and platforms used to analyse currency markets for locating trade setups. As a beginner, you’ll ideally want platforms with user-friendly information and depths of information for analyzing price charts and trade setups, backed by strong support and competitive pricing. Learning and understanding these trading systems and platforms will help tune your mind to your goal of ultimately becoming a forex pro.

Start Demo Trading

You will need to practice trading with a demo account. Demo trade for at least a few months before you are ready to undertake live trading. You must build your forex confidence with demo trading before opening a live trading account with your broker or trading platform.

Begin Live Trading

If you’re confident with your demo trading, then it’s time for you to enter the real world and start live trading. It’s important to choose a good platform and broker because you’ll want access to large numbers of currency pairs and emerging market currencies. Keep in mind that you should trade with your live account in the same way as you would trade with your demo account. If you start making real money, stick to what you’ve been doing and don’t deviate because you could end up losing money eventually.

Enjoy What You Do

While the thought of handling money can be stressful to some people, it’s important that you enjoy what you do. Remember to keep your calm and treat this as impartially as you can, so that you end up making sound decisions based on facts and not emotions.

If you’re looking for a reliable online trading platform to begin your forex trading career, then check out CMC Markets to meet your every forex need. They have over 330 currency pairs that are also available for trading as CFDs.

source: 20smoney.com

PH stocks face worst drop since Feb, energy shares hit

BANGKOK - Southeast Asian stock markets fell on Monday as worries about global economic growth dented sentiment across Asia and weak crude oil prices fueled more selling in energy-related shares.

The Philippine main index slipped 2.0 percent, facing its worst one-day drop since Feb. 4. Top losers included shares of electricity producer Aboitiz Power Corp. and Energy Development Corp.

Asian stocks slumped to seven-month lows on Monday while crude oil prices were pinned near a four-year trough as promising trade numbers out of China failed to cheer a market still worried about faltering global growth.

"The U.S. market was down significantly last Friday and that's one of the major drags," said April Lee-Tan, vice-president and head of research at COL Financial Group Inc in Manila.

"I think it's still a healthy correction. Everybody has been saying the valuation of the market is a bit elevated," she said.

The Philippine main index trades at an earnings multiple of 19.5, compared with a historical average of 15-16 times. It had risen 19.3 percent so far this year, Southeast Asia's second-best performer after Vietnam's 21.8 percent.

Across the exchanges, Singapore-listed offshore and marine firm Keppel Corp. extended losses for a sixth session to the lowest since September 2013 and Malaysia's Petronas Gas dropped 3.3 percent to the lowest since August.

PTT, Thailand's biggest oil and energy firm, hit the lowest since Sept. 30 and Indonesia's coal shares were among underperformers, with shares of Adro Energy down 4.6 percent to the lowest since April 23.

In Bangkok, selling also hit bank stocks on expectations of weak fourth-quarter earnings due to be released over the next two weeks. Bangkok Bank fell 1 percent and Siam Commercial Bank was down 0.6 percent.

Broker Krungsri Securities said nine banks under its coverage would post a 1 percent drop in average July-September earnings from a quarter earlier due to weaker investment gains and slowing domestic economy during the quarter.

The benchmark SET index was down 0.6 percent at 1,542.92. The trading range for the SET index is expected to be between 1,540 and 1,560 on the day, said broker Phillip Securities.

"Even though the Thai economy would get a boost from the government's recently launched stimulus measures, we believe much of the good news appears to have already been baked in," the broker said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Dollar Cost Averaging: Should You Buy Stocks Over Time To Save Money?

You’ve heard of dollar-cost averaging before, but you’re not sure it’s the right thing to do. Right now, you just buy investments as you see fit and when you can afford to invest money. But, your broker is putting a bug in your ear to save money over the long-term by making regular purchases. Should you?










The Pros:

• It’s Affordable – This is a big one. Most people find that dollar-cost averaging is an affordable way to invest in stocks. With dollar-cost averaging, you choose three parameters. First, you decide how much money you want to invest. Then, you decide the frequency you want to invest. Finally, you decide for how long you want to invest. So, for example, you might choose to invest $500 (the amount) every month (the frequency) for 12 months (the time horizon). This makes it easy to make a budget and stick to it. You just add the dollar amount to whatever you’re spending right now and it’s sort of like investing on autopilot.
  
• It’s Convenient – There’s not a heck of a lot to think about once you’ve decided on the three parameters. You just keep investing every investment period until you’ve invested all of the money you previously decided to invest.

The Cons:

• Lump Sum Investing Might Improve Your Returns – One major drawback with dollar-cost averaging is that you’re not taking advantage of cheap stocks when they’re cheap. In fact, the whole idea is that you pay an average price for the stock over time. This is supposed to optimize what you pay so you don’t have to guess at what the cheapest price is. 

• But, this tries to shortcut an important premise in value investing. Namely, that your job, as an investor, is to buy cheap stocks and then hold them until their intrinsic value has been achieved. If you’re dollar-cost averaging, you can’t do this. All you can do is get an average price. It muddles your returns.
  
  
  On the other hand, if you invested lump sum amounts, you would be able to realize the full profit on a good investment.
  
• There’s More Fees – Because you’re making regular purchases over an extended period of time, you’re going to rack up more fees with your broker. That’s good for the broker, but not so good for you. You can use sites like BrokerStance to help you navigate the mine-field of online brokers so that you can hopefully avoid the ones that are out there to maximize their earnings off of you, but most brokers are of the opinion that dollar-cost averaging is “smart.” At the end of the day, all it really does is lower your total return. That doesn’t sound so      smart, does it?

What Should You Do?


You’re looking for a broker that has your best interests at heart. There’s a lot you can do to make sure you end up with someone you like and that’s good for you.

First, try to work with an online broker. These brokers offer the same service as traditional brokers, but they charge lower commissions. Find one that also offers additional assistance – some of them will do it at no additional charge.

Ask about the broker’s investment philosophies. This could clue you into how the broker will steer you in regards to investing strategy. While many brokers do recommend dollar-cost averaging, some don’t. Some brokers are focused more on helping you find long-term plays that will pay off in a big way.

These brokers are value investors and are more concerned about getting you into a stock at a good price instead of getting you into a stock over time.

Can Dollar-Cost Averaging Ever Be A Good Idea?


Believe it or not, there are times when dollar-cost averaging makes sense. Usually, it’s when you’re hunting for the bottom of the stock’s price but you don’t know where it is. If a stock starts to fall, in price, you want to buy it at the moment it rebounds and not a second too late. But, this can be an almost impossible task.

Dollar-cost averaging allows you to get close to an ideal price, especially if the stock is falling slowly and is expected to make a recovery soon. Keep in mind that this strategy works well when you expect a major recovery in a company’s stock price – you’re paying commissions on every trade you make. So, the recovery has to be enough to make the entire investment profitable.

Jarryd Harden has years of experience working in finance. He greatly enjoys blogging about his insights into smart investing and money management.

source: 20smoney.com