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Don’t Become A Statistic: 10 Reasons Why Traders And Investors Fail

All the old and bold traders and investors will tell you – there are just some things a trader or investor shouldn’t do.

That’s right – you may know a trader or investor who has made these mistakes and become the “statistic”: a recent study found that over 82% of traders made significant losses and closed their accounts after 9 months. For the long term investors it is slightly better, but that doesn’t account for the thousands of retiree who had to return to work after the 2008 bear market.

So here is a list of 10 killer reasons reasons why traders and investors fail. What does it mean for you? Well you can enjoy more success in the market simply by doing the opposite of everything on this list – and you will know what to look out for and avoid in the future. And then click on the link at the bottom for even more things to watch out for!

Ready? Let’s get started!

1: They Don’t Have A Plan. A trading plan is the fundamental place you should start when trading or investing – and yet many people don’t have the time, don’t realize the importance of them, or just couldn’t be bothered.

2: They get attached to a particular stock. Your parents hold the stock. Your boss holds the stock. Your friends are all in the stock. The only thing is – it is sinking faster than the titanic. Don’t get attached! And have a pre-determined point of exit. It could save your account.

3: They don’t have the discipline to stick to their strategy. For example a long term investor who gets shaken out of the market by a short term price fluctuation. If you have a strategy, stick to it. If it really doesn’t suit you, change it.

4: They think the market will stay “this way” forever. If there is anything that’s true about the markets, it is they are ever changing. What works today may not work tomorrow, and today’s bull market will become tomorrow’s bear. The market will never “stay this way forever”. Be prepared, and never stop learning.

5: They over-diversify. Most financial planners will advocate diversification. But the truth is if you are over diversified you become at risk of under performing the overall market. The best investors and traders focus on a handful of great stocks or companies. In fact, it has been proven that between 6 and 12 stocks is optimum, and anything over that, your diversification is wasted.

6: They aren’t prepared for a string of losses. Mathematicians will tell you that even if your win percentage is 70%, probability states that you could still have a run of 10 losses in a row. And if you are investing for a long time, you will experience this in your lifetime. Be ready when it comes, and stick to your trading plan.

7: They put too much emphasis on predicting the future. Traders who predict the future find all sorts of reasons to back it up – but when it doesn’t turn out like they planned, sometimes it can be hard to stay objective in making decisions. Take forecasts with a grain of salt.

8: They don’t watch the trend. Some of my best friends are extremely successful fundamental investors. But even the most successful fundamentalists lost money in 2008 (and some of the best fund managers got absolutely hammered), because they didn’t keep an eye on the trend. The stock market will lead the overall economy by approximately six months, so watch for a trend to emerge regardless of company balance sheets.

9: They pay too much in brokerage. Brokerage can have a devastating effect on a small account. If you are using a full service broker at around $60 one way, making 50 trades a year will cost you $5,000. This is a big drag on your account, especially when you are trying to use compounding to grow it faster. Larger accounts are not so bad, but it still pays to be aware of this pit fall.

10: They want to become millionaires overnight. Becoming a millionaire takes time – time for your compounding to grow your account, and time for your expectancy to show a consistent result. The truth is that people who want to be millionaires straight away usually go bust sooner.

Get 31 MORE reasons why traders and investors fail and things to watch out for at Dave’s free site www.ASXmarketwatch.com.

How to Reduce Your Investment Risk

When it comes to investment, hedging is not a strange word. Though many of you have already heard of the name hedging, not many of you may be able to explain what hedging is. Without the ability to explain the term, I guess you have not yet participated in the hedging world, which actually can be useful to protect yourself. Let us now understand it.

Why there are so many people and well established enterprises use hedging? You need opportunities from investments. But no free lunch, there are risks linked to such investments. To reduce the risks on such investments, many of them choose hedging as one of the methods. There are many different types of hedging products available to cover different types of investments. You can find foreign currency ones, interest rate ones, future ones, options ones and stock price ones.

You have to remember the golden rule that hedging is not a way to help you earn more money. It is a tool to help you reduce the risk. By that, you will invest in two different products that are negatively correlated. The risk is reduced by the offset between the gain and the loss from each of the investment. Or, when investment A is in a gain position, investment is on the contrary a loss position. The gain offsets the loss.

When the risk is higher, the earning or opportunity is likely to be higher, too. But, by hedging, the risk is reduced, therefore, the highest possible earning is also reduced. That means, when you are gaining on investment A, the gain is reduced by the loss in investment B. On the other hand, if you are making loss on investment A, the loss is reduced by gain in investment B.

Let me give you an example on interest rate swap. If you have a loan from the bank of $100,000 and the bank is charging you a floating interest rate (or market rate). You biggest concern must the increase in interest rate (“interest rate risk”), which than you have to pay more interest. To reduce the interest rate risk, you can enter into an interest rate swap with the bank.

When it comes to such hedging instrument, you have a choice to decide if you want to fully hedge or partly hedge. You can enter into a $30,000 hedge or a full hedge of $60,000. Why you want to do so? It is because there is tradeoff between you risks and opportunities. For simple explanation, I assume you have entered into a $60,000 hedge that you receive interest income.

When the market rate goes up, you have to pay more for the loan, but on the other hand, you receive more from the interest rate swap. On the other hand, if the interest rate goes down, you pay less, but you receive less as your interest income. To note that, hedging may not help you eliminate the risk but only reduce, therefore, you cannot expect that the interest pay out should be exactly the same as interest income.

Learn more about investment, visit: forex trading system

Forex Trading Advice – 3 Methods for Selecting the Best Online Forex Trading Platform

Looking for some Forex trading advice? The best way to learn Forex trading is to select and join an online Forex trading platform. In this article we will discuss three methods for selecting the best online Forex trading platform.

#1 – Forex Learning Library

There are a lot of Forex brokers that give you the tools and educational products that you need to have a solid knowledge of Forex. However, some online Forex brokers go above and beyond the others, these are the ones you want to join. You can search the internet specifically for a broker with detailed knowledge and a learning library; that will help you tremendously in the long run.

Key #2 – Practice Trading Account

When you have access to a practice trading account you will be using pretend money; this allows you to make decisions and test your theories and trading strategies without risk. Although everything is practice money, the currency values are real-time, so it is a great place to learn. When you are trying to find an online Forex trading platform, look for one that will allow you unlimited use of a practice trading account.

Key #3 – Responsive Customer Service

Technical support is very important, especially when your money is on the line. So before you join any trading platform make sure that the customer service is impeccable; you want to be able to reach someone quickly 24 hours a day. Live chat options are great too, you want to be able to get answers to all of your questions and reach someone if anything goes wrong with a trade.

Forex trading advice is very important before you get started. There are several Forex trading platform options available, pay attention to which one you select and make sure that you choose wisely and give yourself the best opportunity to learn and grow. It is also very important to choose a company that you can contact quickly and easily in case you need them for anything.

Vince Knightley, an online researcher, is dedicated to helping you learn how to profit from Forex. His website, LearnForexTradingTips.com, offers info. about forex trading education as well as more information about a forex trading tutorial.

Things To Consider For Beginning Investors

The Internet is a great place for people who are uninformed on the stock market to learn. They want to get started, but don’t know how, so they just Google search “stocks for beginners.” Those people who can’t figure out the stock market probably haven’t invested anything in a few years, and as a result haven’t lost anything of consequence due to the markets. There are a lot of people today who are anxious because they’ve lost money in the markets already.

As a result, it’s important to remember that no investment you make is a sure thing. There are those who have lost more than necessary, due to overconfidence and an overabundance of cash in the market, which backfired on them. Some people didn’t have a diverse enough profile, and sunk all their money into one stock that then fell.

Your age should also play a factor in how much money you have in the market. As you can lose money in stocks, it is not a good idea to invest money you will need or might need soon. As we get older, our need for money for healthcare and other things becomes more imminent and you need money for retirement. Having most of your money in stocks at an older age puts yourself at risk if the market falls.

When you invest in the stock market you should always buy a variety of stocks. This is called stock diversification and is important because you do not want to expose yourself to too much risk. When you buy stocks that are in different industries, you make sure that you will not lose everything if one of those industries happens on hard times. Of course, in a down market where all stocks are suffering as we have now, diversification will seem like it is not working that well.

Right now the stock market is still way down from its highs a couple of years ago. Fortunes have been lost as well as many people’s retirement savings. The problem we all face is that the market has headed back up and many people have not had anything to put back in to make up some of the losses. Others have felt scared to put back any of the money they took out and are now losing out on the possible gains as the market rises again.

Do you want to find out how to buy stocks for beginners? If you do, please visit my website.

Stock Market Trading Help Online Trading And Swing Trading

www.todaytrader.com.Day trading in stocks is both risky and difficult. Please consult your financial advisor before attempting to trade actively. todaytrader is not responsible for any content that may be viewed on this channel. These videos are not meant to be recommendations in the market. Day trading equities requires a retail account balance of at least 000 and must remain at or above this level to trade stocks actively. This website is not a solicitation to buy or sell securities, options, or futures. The purpose of this content is educational only.