These days almost everyone is looking for that extra source of income. It doesn’t necessarily have to be anything big, but every little bit helps and and internet is full of such opportunities. One such opportunity comes in the form of online investments which offer traders a chance to get some substantial profit in just a few clicks. If you’re a person looking for those extra few dollars with which to take your family to a nice vacation or simply make your life just a little bit easier, this may seem very attractive to you. But mistakes can be made, so here are a few pointers what to be mindful of if you want to start trading online.
How to start trading online?
First of all, there is a wide variety of assets you can invest in online. Stocks, currencies, indices, commodities and lately even cryptocurrencies provide plenty of choices. So, try to see which area could be your strong suit, which type of assets you know the most about and then focus on that. Maybe you know a lot about the political situation in the UK or the US and can predict how that could impact their respective currencies; maybe you’re a follower of the stock market and know which companies are doing well or maybe you’re into tech and cryptocurrencies. Focusing on the area you know much about will significantly increase your chances for a successful prediction.
However, you can’t just connect to the internet and make an investment. You need an intermediary for that, and intermediaries come as online brokers or, in the case of cryptocurrencies, crypto exchanges (mind you, some brokers also double as cryptocurrency exchanges). These websites will ask you to create an account with them and then make a deposit before you can make your first trade. This is where informing yourself becomes pretty important because not all brokers and exchanges offer the same assets nor do they have the same financial requirements. Some may ask for more than 200$ from you initially, while others may need you to deposit just a few dollars at first. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to differences.
Sign up with a good broker
But to save you the time of going through countless reviews and analyses, I’d recommend you simply sign up with IQ Option. It is a company that is widely regarded as the best in the industry, and it offers a whole bunch of assets, cryptocurrencies included. You will only need to deposit 10$ to get started, so trading here is pretty much accessible to everyone. Furthermore, you can invest only 1$ per trade, which really reduces the financial impact an unfavourable trade can have on you down to its very minimum. Obviously, you can invest much more than that if you have a good feeling about an asset and make the most of the high returns IQ Option has – these are actually some of the highest in the whole online trading industry! In short, you don’t have to make a big commitment if you don’t want to.
And if you don’t want to start investing real money right away, that’s perfectly fine too. Thanks to the fact that this broker has a demo account you can access without ever having to sign up with them (something very few companies offer), you can trade incognito with virtual money and see how you’re doing. Sometimes there are even bonuses you can acquire, which act as real money without you ever having to deposit anything. That’s also something worth looking out for. Once you become convinced this is something you will want to do you, you can always easily switch from a demo to a real trading account. Easy as 1,2,3!
Inform and educate yourself
So how should you behave once you get on the market? Well, first you should be aware that no trader can be successful 100% of the time. Losing trades WILL happen, but it’s up to you to make sure they happen as rarely as possible and that they do as little financial damage. Remember, we’re looking for a potential secondary source of income here, so the main objective is to be profitable at the end of the day.
To correctly predict market trends, information is vital. Without information, you’re simply going in blind, and that won’t do you much good in the long run. Therefore, before you make an investment, try to inform yourself. You don’t have to go in very deep, but some general knowledge about the situation in countries whose economies have the biggest impact on a global scale will help a lot. Just keeping an eye on everyday news, especially on the business section, will give you a pretty good idea about how things could develop.
Apart from that, education is also quite important and can be quite beneficial to you. There are many tools that can help you, many principles that can show you what to expect next on the market. Finally, you would also do well to dedicate a certain amount of time to getting a firm grasp on every feature your trading platform has to offer because that will help you track market movements and identify trends much more easily. So, as you can see, there is a lot of room for growth for you as a trader, which means that with time the chances for your success will only increase if you decide to make an effort and dedicate yourself to this activity.
Be ready mentally
Psychology of trading deserves its own part of this article. The market can be incredibly tempting, so when you’re on a roll you can sometimes feel like you can’t lose and you start investing more and more. This is dangerous and will likely lead to losses. Create a plan, your own trading strategy, and stick to it. Don’t let success get to your head. If you’ve decided that you’ll only invest 10$ per trade, STICK TO THE PLAN. Likewise, if you’re going through a rough patch, but you’ve invested a lot of time into creating a detailed strategy, stick by your guns and persevere. The market will eventually turn and you’ll have your five minutes.
Preparing yourself mentally is extremely important. You need to know which assets you want to be trading, what your goals are and how to achieve them. But, most importantly, you need to know when to quit. Designate which amount of profit will satisfy you and determine which is the limit of losses you don’t want to cross and then trade accordingly. Draw these lines before you start trading, while you’re still fresh, when the picture is the clearest. Exact amounts vary from person to person, obviously, depending on how big your account is, but these principles are generally the best ones to follow. Personally, I find that the saying “slow and steady wins the race” suits this line of work perfectly. Patience is needed.
What are these “trading signals”?
If all of this seems a bit too much work to you, there is another way you can trade and try to make money from your online investments. You can sign up to receive some trading signals.
Trading signals are essentially predictions issued by trading experts (or those who think of themselves as such) and specialized websites which tell you how an asset’s price is going to behave. So, if for example the person issuing the signals believes the price will go up, they will issue a CALL signal, otherwise they will send out a PUT signal. Signals tell you a lot: how the price is going to behave, what is the entry price (the threshold after which a signal becomes active, i.e. applicable) and when you should set the expiry time. Therefore, they can provide you with all the info, with everything you have to do when opening a trade.
However, remember, these are just predictions, so they are not necessarily correct. Therefore, it is important to find a reliable source of signals to maximize your chances for profit. Do not expect any signal provider to be right 100% of the time, though, that’s just not possible. Rather, if you can find someone whose accuracy rate is about 80%, you’re in business. Make sure you can check the history of the signals you’re signing up for to be certain that you’re dealing with someone who knows what they’re doing.
The good thing about trading signals is that they can often be acquired for free, so you’re not risking anything and they can only provide added value. But by no means does that mean you have to listen to everything they say. Think of them as trading tips, a piece of advice you can use to check your own predictions and maybe get an inspiration what to look out for if you don’t know which asset you should turn to next.
A few final words
As you can see, there are several ways you can approach online trading and consequently earn from it. First and foremost, however, you will need to find yourself a good broker (and they really don’t come any better than IQ Option, to be honest). Once you have that, you will see that there is plenty of room for you to grow as a trader, both mentally and when it comes to general knowledge about the market. Investing some time into preparing yourself before you face the trading challenges and before you are ready to invest your hard-earned money will improve your chances significantly and pay off in the end, so don’t ignore that step. Keep in mind that the market is constantly changing, meaning you always need to try to stay calm and collected, no matter what situation you’re facing. That’s the most important key here. Sure, you can sign up for some signals and trust them to do the work for you, but these sometimes turn out to be incorrect, too. In the end, everything comes down to you and the decision you make. Do your best to make sure it’s the right call.
