How to Soften the Blow of Trading Losses in 2022 (For Beginners)

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Trading Losses|How to Soften the Blow of Trading Losses in 2022 (For Beginners)2022 has so far been a year of misery across all sectors, economies, and life in general. And investments are no different. While some are doing well, there have been some unexpected dips. But you can soften the blow of trading losses with some due diligence, awareness, and making sure you keep your cool. Here are some professional tips to help get you through.

Have a Plan for All Trades

You can’t wing it when trading. Unlike the movies, it just doesn’t work that way. Maverick traders always lose money. As a result, their reputation ends up in tatters. So don’t go thinking you can approach trading without a plan. First, you must be mentally prepared to deal with the trade and how much time and money you can commit. But you also need a strategy. And there are many you can use when trading. Common trading strategies include EOD and Order Flow trading. In addition, sites like JumpstartTrading.com offer solid strategies that work at all levels.

Stick to Your Plan No Matter What

As a trader at any level, you need to begin with solid discipline. And one of the most disciplined things you can do is stick to your plan. A concrete action plan reduces the need to think too quickly about what you are doing because you have a cushion for dealing with movements. If you fail to make a plan, you can find your emotions will get the better of you. And for a trader, this only ends in disaster as you frantically chase profits to cover increasing losses. Of course, this takes time to develop as a beginner. But planning your trades lets you trade to your plans.

Soften the Blow of Trading Losses by Minimizing Risk

Shockingly, over 90% of beginner traders lose a significant amount of money early in their careers. For some, this is inherently unavoidable. However, you can cushion the blow by using a plan that seeks to minimize all risks involved. This way, the damage won’t be as bad as it could be in your crucial early days. You should develop a strategy as a trader. And your system should always include win-loss percentages and averages. Using the data available through trading software, you can avoid some of the worst disasters that could cost you dearly.

Continuously Educate Yourself

As a trader, you cannot hope for success unless you keep yourself informed and educated. Correct trading procedures are crucial. Yet there is much more to the industry than that. You also need to be aware of the latest movements in the markets, trading news, and even world events that will affect the stocks. Fortunately, this is easier than ever with new channels like Bloomberg and CNBC. And you can sign up for alerts with apps like Stock Alert. However, you should also be aware of broader economic issues like interest rates and business news.

Invest Small Amounts in Minimal Stocks

When starting out, it helps to focus on no more than two stocks in one trading session. This makes finding and keeping track of them much more accessible. For example, you could invest in fractional shares for small amounts of money as you learn how trading works. For example, you can use specific brokers to invest a fraction of a share rather than a whole share. So rather than buying a stake in Apple for $1000, you could buy one one-hundredth of a share for $10 instead. While you won’t make much money, you get a solid real-world trading experience.

Make Trade Timing a Priority

Price volatility is primarily determined by the number of trade orders when the markets open in the morning. With practice and experience, you will begin to see the patterns that allow you to make profits with careful timing early on. However, it’s best to analyze the movements of trades for the first half hour or so of the market before making any moves yourself. Therefore timing is essential. However, there is an overall pattern that can help you as a beginner trader. The markets are frantic at the opening, more stable mid-day, and more excited about closing.

Avoid Risky and Volatile Assets

All trades come with risk. However, some are far more volatile than others. Making moves on volatile stock means greater rewards. But there is a massively increased risk. So unless you have enormous amounts to lose, stay away from risky and volatile assets:

  • Consider the recent colossal dip in cryptocurrency and ask if it’s a good investment.
  • Diversify your portfolio if dipping into risky assets to offset losses against drops.
  • Stay away from swing trading until you have the skills for deep data analysis on a trade.
  • Avoid specific industries, such as:
  • Oil and gas
  • Limited partnerships
  • Cryptocurrency
  • Penny stocks
  • IPOs
  • Learn how to monitor your trades so you can act quickly on damage limitation.
  • Don’t go all in on an emerging market that looks good on paper.
  • Set aside money you can afford to lose on a risky investment as a separate venture.
  • Be wary of investing in a startup that looks to be too big to fail (Theranos, WeWork).

Any trade or investment can go wrong at any time. For instance, you may have been tempted to spread $10,000 across cryptocurrencies a couple of months ago. Then you will have lost a significant amount of money a few days later. So always consider the risk of any investment.

Make Trades with a Logical Approach

Trading requires nerves of steel. Because money is involved, sometimes in massive amounts and perhaps not yours, it’s hard not to become emotional. Therefore, you need to ask yourself, “what would Spock do?”. A logical approach to trading can be a massive help when you keep your emotions in check. It’s only human to feel the pinch of greed, the gutting of fear, and the excitement of hope. But they are essentially useless for making decisions that act in the best interests of yourself or clients. This is why a plan is so helpful, so use it and stick to it.


Learn How to Analyze Trading Data

Success in trading relies on analyzing data. Modern trading software and new channels allow you to get all the data you need in real-time. But how and why would you use the data available to you? Of course, an analysis will enable you to build a strategy, formulate accurate insights and identify trading fraud at the least. But you will usually use data to make better future trades or trades in real-time. A standard method of trading data analysis is the price-to-earnings ratio. To do this, you divide an asset’s per-share market value by its per-share earnings.

Test Different Trading Strategies

Like most professional pursuits, there are many strategies for trading. And you can begin using more and more for diversification as you gain experience. However, it’s best to play it safe as a beginner. Some of the best trading strategies for beginners include New Trading, Trend Trading, and Scalping as a day trader. There isn’t much difference in the various trading strategies available to you. For the most part, the only difference is the lengths of time between movements you initially act upon or hold. Different approaches will fit your style or availability.

Soften the Blow of Trading by Hedging

As mentioned, you can use various trading strategies as a beginner, amateur, or professional. And unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. So you need to learn how each system works to find the best one for you and your clients. Further, it helps to use multiple strategies depending on the markets. Yet no matter your proficiency, you will lose money at some point. An honest trader loses money. Fortunately, you manage risk by hedging your positions to minimize losses or increase gains when one stock moves against another, offsetting the damage.

Don’t Expect Massive Returns

Trading can be a lucrative business. However, you need to make a large investment in a short period for significant returns quickly. And in most cases, for most people, this is not feasible. Typically, wealthy people invest large amounts for potentially massive returns. However, as a beginner or day trader, you shouldn’t expect huge returns. In the USA, the average annual earnings of a professional day trader are around $75,000. As a beginner, this will be substantially lower, only increasing as you get better and improve your experience.

Understand Your Responsibility

Finally, but by no means any less important, you must understand that you alone are responsible for your trades. Becoming emotionally involved and playing the blame game after a loss doesn’t do any good. You can use all trading data available to you. But even then, things can go wrong. Yet rather than panic or become frustrated at the markets, it’s helpful to own the responsibility of the trade. Accept that it happened. Then go back and analyze your data and records to understand exactly what went wrong and where to manage future risk.

Summary

Trading is one of the most exciting jobs in the world. It’s full of drama, action, and adrenaline. In addition, trading will challenge your intellect, creativity, and real-time skills. However, it comes with the inherent risk of losing money at any time. Fortunately, you can soften the blow of trading losses by planning all trades, avoiding the riskiest assets, and learning from mistakes.

How to Pick Stocks For Beginner Investors

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |How to pick stocks|How to Pick Stocks For Beginner InvestorsYou have been saving for a long period of time and you decided to try out stock investing but you just know some basics about stock trading. The first step before picking a stock to invest in is research.

Researching a company to understand its business operations is a good start. This is critical because if you do not know how a company generates money, it is difficult to track the performance of your investment.

There are a number of questions to answer before you put faith in a company and here are three of them:

Do the company’s profits generally grow over time?

If the answer is yes, then this is a good sign that the company is doing something right. Companies that show positive earnings growth tend to have financial and operational stability. You should regularly check the company’s financials to examine whether the growth in revenue and earnings are positive or negative.

It’s a challenge to look for very specific data, interpret it, and then come to a conclusion. Imagine yourself trying to deal with financial reports, digging out for more information, trying to find trustworthy and accurate sources, and deciding if the data is valid or not.


What is the company’s relative strength in its peer group?

When investing, the industry a company operates in can be a crucial screener. The initial point to start would be to look at how an industry is represented in the market and what growth potential is likely in that space.

What is its share in the market? Is there a competitive advantage that allows to company to stand out?

To make a fair comparison, list up the players (competitors) of the same size (market capitalization) and compare their profitability and stock performances over a period to figure out how they stack up next to each other.

Price-Earnings (P/E) Ratio

P/E is the ratio of valuing a company that measures its current market capitalization relative to its trailing earnings. In short, this valuation metric shows how well a price of a stock reflects the earnings of the company.

When conducting fundamental analysis and value investment strategies, the P/ E ratio is one of the metrics that show whether a stock is overvalued or undervalued by the market. The rate is a key indicator to compare companies in the same industry. A company with a lower P/E ratio is not valued as highly as one with a higher P/E ratio in the market. As a conscious investor, it is your task to determine whether the stock deserves a lower valuation or whether the market is undervaluing it- which could make it a good stock pick.

Conclusion

Whether you are a beginner or a senior in stock investment and company research, EquityRT Financial Market Analysis and Research platform addresses the need for information and analysis that investors seek for.

10 Great Tips for a Great Night’s Sleep

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Tips for a great night's sleep|10 Great Tips for a Great Night's SleepTip 1: Make sure your bedtime is sacred. It needs to stay the same every single day even on weekends. This will help guarantee a better night’s sleep on a consistent basis.

Tip 2: Create a routine before bed that calms you down. This could be a bath, a book, meditation, yoga, anything that lets you relax and come down from the day.

Tip 3: Cooler bedrooms are better. Make sure to bring down that temperature before throwing on the quilts.

Tip 4: No one sleeps better with noise. White noise from a fan or rain, maybe, but not from a TV, music with lyrics, etc. Get quiet in your room to sleep better.

Tip 5: If you don’t have blackout shades for the room, buy them. It’s a life-changing purchase based on what it does to sleep patterns.


Tip 6: Find the right pillow and mattress combination for you whether that’s soft, medium, or harder for more support. Sturdy bed frames are a must for a good night’s sleep.

Tip 7: Don’t eat in the 3 hours before bed.

Tip 8: Exercise regularly, but do it early in the day. A good evening walk is fine as long as it doesn’t come right up before your bedtime.

Tip 9: Limit the caffeine and try to keep it before noon.

Tip 10: Don’t underestimate the negative effects alcohol and nicotine have on your sleep.

7 Best Financial Ideas To Make Money In 2022

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Ideas to make money|7 Best Financial Ideas To Make Money In 2022This year, we’re all beginning to feel the pinch as the cost of living rises rapidly, which means more of us are looking for ways we can make money in 2022. There are various ways that you can give your bank account a boost, from choosing a rewards credit card to investing, changing jobs, or gaining a new skill – we’ll look at some of the ways you increase your income below.

If you’re struggling to make your money go further, and you’ve been hit with an unexpected expense, payday loans online can help in an emergency – with a fast approval process and money in your account within days.

1. Cashback sites

If you’re looking to make a little bit of money on your purchases this year, using a cashback site could be advantageous to you. Becoming a member of a cashback site means that when you purchase a product or service through that website, you are given a percentage of the money earned via the website’s affiliate links. This allows you to buy online anything from broadband to car insurance and you’ll be rewarded with a sum of money being paid into your account.
The cash will appear in your bank anywhere from one to three months from when you made the purchase, so it may not be the best idea if you’re looking for a quick fix, however, if you use them regularly and allow them to build up, you’ll end up with a healthy sum of money.

2. Reward Credit Cards

Choosing to apply for a reward credit card means that you can make money by spending on essential items. There are many types of reward credit cards to choose from, but they all offer you a percentage of what you spend back – whether that is straight back into your account or subtracted from the bill you receive every month. You will earn more cashback depending on how much you spend but be sure that you’re meeting the repayments every month! You can compare these cards online to find the best option for you.


3. Switch Bank Accounts

Switching to a different bank is a great way of earning a little bit of extra cash. Most banks offer rewards for new customers, whether that’s a cash bonus or vouchers. You may think that this is a lot of effort to go to for a cash reward – but it couldn’t be easier! The switching service that a lot of banks use means that it takes just a week to make the swap. You can research various bank accounts and the perks they have to offer online, and simply choose which looks best for you.

4. Invest

Investing your savings has never been easier, with digital investment platforms making it an accessible and easy way to make money. Whilst there is always a risk with investing that you may stand to lose a sum of money, investing in the right places means you can give your savings the chance to grow, without having to do anything. Although safe investment tends to mean that you have to be in it for the long-term, this means you’re more likely to make a return. So, if you’re looking to add to your retirement fund, or save for a property, you could consider investing your money.

5. Apply for Promotions

If you enjoy your job, and you’ve been working with the same company for over a year, applying for a promotion could be just what you need to increase your income. Look for an opening within your company, or chat with a manager to see if there is any way you could work your way up the ladder, and to a more prominent position. If you are good at your job, and you’re a loyal member of staff, a promotion should be well within your reach, all you must do is take a chance!

Similarly, if you have been receiving the same wage for a while, and your income is not stretching as far as it used to, asking for a pay increase could be useful. If you’re a valued employee, it is well within your rights to ask – the worst that can happen is that your employers don’t agree. Trying to make changes where you can is important when it comes to increasing income.

6. Turn Hobbies into Jobs

A lot of us have side jobs along with our full-time jobs now as a way of making more money. It is beneficial if you have a hobby that you enjoy that others can benefit from and pay for. For example, if you enjoy photography, why not start a blog, or take steps to become an event photographer in your local area. If you enjoy the beauty, you could take a beauty course and start your own business in your own time, from the comfort of your home. You must choose a hobby that you enjoy so that your second job doesn’t become monotonous.

7. Learn a New Skill

If you don’t have a hobby that you could turn into a job on the side, you could learn a new skill to get you to a better position either within your current job or help you towards a new one. There is a variety of courses online to choose from depending on the area of work you’re in.

If you’re ready for a new challenge and have a career path in mind that is going to pay you a higher income, you could take a course that will help you to be successful and allow you to stand out in the application process. Gaining a certificate or qualification that you can put on your CV is a way of boosting your credentials and getting you to where you want to be financially.

Creating A Versatile Home Office

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Home Office|Creating A Versatile Home OfficeAs many as 30% of professionals believe they are more engaged when working from home, but this number could increase even more if they design their home office correctly. For many, the home office is a makeshift setup. Usually, professionals set up their laptops on the sofa or in the kitchen or dining room. While this is convenient, it lacks the versatility entrepreneurs and employees need to stay on task and boost productivity. If you’ve not yet renovated your home office for maximum productivity, here are a few ideas to help you create a versatile workspace.

Decorate It to Reflect Your Business

Every successful brand has filled its office with decor and essentials that reflect the business, so you should do the same if you want to maximize productivity and remain on course for your company’s growth.

This all starts by choosing furniture that reflects your business and your personality. If your brand is innovative, bold, bright colors and sleek, tidy lines are essential. You can hang artwork or arrange furniture that inspires you to maintain our vision and makes it easier for clients to understand what your company does.

Set Up a Meeting Space

Entrepreneurship means you will have a lot of meetings with clients. But, without a dedicated office, it’s challenging to determine a designated space to meet and discuss projects.

With exclusive penthouses, you have enough space to maximize your office’s reach. While you have a desk area where you work, you can set up another room specifically for meetings, ideally one with a view if possible. If this isn’t possible, research local coworking spaces or even cafes.


Keep It Separate from the Rest Of Your Home

You will fail to stay productive if you have a constant stream of distractions, whether from your partner, kids, or pets. Because of this, you must keep your home office separate from the rest of your house.

This is easier said than done, of course, but it isn’t impossible. Sometimes, it’s as simple as closing your office door during work hours, maybe even with a Do Not Disturb sign on the handle. If you have outdoor space, a garden room could be another solution, but this represents a considerable investment and requires power access.

Master Organization

By now, you know that organization is crucial for successful remote working. If your desk or larger work area is cluttered, you’ll struggle to remain on task. To overcome this, you can make a habit of tidying up at the end of each day and organizing all the papers and information you need for the following morning.

This is useful when partaking in meetings over Skype, Zoom, or Teams, as it means you have everything you need in one space. Your organizational skills reduce time searching around for specific details and keep the meeting flowing, which encourages efficiency for everyone.

Versatility

A versatile home office is key for boosting engagement and productivity. Although many basic remote working setups can be effective, they lack the distinction that adds an extra layer of efficiency. By designing a space that matches your typical office as closely as possible, you will not need to worry about interference or disruptions from the rest of the household.