Archive for February, 2012

As Greece is finally rescued… at least for the time being I thought it was a good idea to buy EUR/USD.

Bought EUR/USD at 1.3270 with a stop loss 400 points away… not sure when I’m ready to take the profit… this trades makes me feel that I’m making a mistake.

UPDATE (23/02/2012): Closed the position 50 pips up.

Online investment resource IndependentInvestor.co.uk is helping share traders nationwide to learn more about the markets they trade, providing comprehensive tutorials and articles on best-practice trading and investment skills.

The site, one of the web’s leading authorities on financial trading, is managed and maintained by experienced traders to help demystify the financial markets and give new and inexperienced traders access to easy-to-follow, step-by-step trading techniques.

With full tutorials covering the basics of share trading right through to advanced trading strategies and investment techniques, IndependentInvestor.co.uk is helping traders across the UK improve their market knowledge and increase the effectiveness and profitability of their trading.

A spokesperson for IndependentInvestor.co.uk said that through helping share traders increase their knowledge, IndependentInvestor.co.uk was make the financial markets more accessible to ordinary retail investors.

“The financial markets, particularly share markets, are often considered too complicated for most people with capital to invest profitably – so much so, in fact, that entire industries have been built off the back of investing private wealth for shared returns. In reality, the stock markets can’t be traded lightly, and they do require a degree of knowledge and understanding to avoid falling into the all-too-common, all-too-costly pitfalls. What’s more, the training content that is available online is often pitched at experienced traders who are comfortable with jargon and direct references to complex financial concepts, making it virtually impossible for ordinary would-be traders to know where to turn.”

“At IndependentInvestor.co.uk, we’re determined to fill this gap.  All our resources are completely free to use, and are written in a plain, clear way to ensure that everyone who reads our tutorials will benefit from them.  Whether you’re looking at investing in shares or trading alternative instruments, our broad base of know-how makes financial trading more straightforward and more attainable for traders nationwide.”

IndependentInvestor.co.uk provides tutorials and resources for share traders, in addition to content on financial spread betting, contracts for difference and forex trading.

Furthermore, it is one of the leading online broker comparison sites, helping traders find the most suitable broker for their trading and investment needs.

Five of the top options that one can undertake when it comes to financial spread betting and CFD trading strategies are the long call, long straddle, bear put spread, covered call and the bull put spread strategies. These are also applications for options trading as well as share dealing. So, what do these strategies tell us?

Long Call Option Trading

On the one hand, the long call options trading refer to the strategy that involves the buying call option wherein the outlook for trading is what they call as the bullish. This means that the expectation must be that the prices of stocks will rise. The advantage of this is that the trader will be able to enjoy unlimited potential profits without worrying about too much risk.

Long Straddle Options

On the other hand, the long straddle option is another special strategy in options trading. Wherein the position is long but it requires the investor to purchase both the call option as well as the put option of different derivatives. One can make profit from this kind in the CFD trading, for instance, if the prices of the underlying instruments move a long way relative to the strike price.

Bear Put Spread Strategy

Furthermore, the bear put spread is another strategy in share dealing and options trading that is being used when the trader is assuming that the price of the underlying assets will most likely go down in the near future. What this means is that the period is not a long period, but not a short term as well. Aside from that, another things that you must learn about the bear put spread strategy is that this is being done by buying a put option with a higher striking and then you will sell it for a lower striking put option under the similar expiration date.

Covered Call

Another strategy in options trading is the covered call. Unlike the first three mentioned above, this one is a kind of call option that is written relative to the holding of an underlying stock or security. This is being done in order to get or earn premium writing calls as well as enjoy the benefits of underlying stocks.

Bull Put Spread

Lastly, the bull put spread is the opposite of the bear put spread in share dealing. This is because, in here, the prices of the underlying assets being traded are expected to go up gradually in the coming days or months. The period is also medium term instead of either short or long.