“If I wanted to become a tramp, I would seek information and advice from the most successful tramp I could find. If I wanted to become a failure, I would seek advice from people who have never succeeded. If I wanted to succeed in all things, I would look around me for those who are succeeding, and do as they have done."

Joseph Marshall Wade

Along my own trading journey, I have met many intelligent and savvy people who have taught me something about myself and trading. 

Index trading is a popular, easy way to invest in a group of businesses, or a representative sample of a country’s largest companies, without being forced to invest in individual companies.

For forex traders, index trading is an attractive alternative to directly investing in a specific country’s stock market. Typically, indices are designed to offer a reflection of a given country’s economic strength. But these indices can also serve as a high-performing collection of select holdings from a single market, offering a more concentrated investment opportunity in a foreign country’s economy.

Contract-for-difference (CFD) trading is popular for index investments. Of the various indices available around the world, the US30 is one of the best-known options available to traders, offering an easy way to get exposure to 30 of the United States’ largest companies.

If we didn’t have enough issues rattling financial markets, along comes the Coronavirus out of China, which has now infected thousands of people around the world.  As regular updates emerge about the coronavirus and how quickly it is spreading, markets and investors around the world have been gripped by fear with the rapid spread of the coronavirus.  According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Chinese state media, the deadly coronavirus has taken the lives of at least 170 people in China and infected thousands more globally.  As widely expected, the U.S. Federal Reserve kept their benchmark rate steady. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has previously said the rate cuts last year kept the economy on solid footing and no further decreases were needed unless the outlook darkened.  "Uncertainties about the outlook remain, including those posed by the new coronavirus," Powell said at the post meeting media conference. "There is likely to be some disruption to activity in China and globally" from the virus. "It's too early to say what the effect will be" in the U.S. "We are monitoring it carefully.", he added.

Valutrades is excited to offer a new method of payment for our clients -- Trustly! 

Investors of all stripes use hedging as a strategy to protect one position from adverse price movements. Typically, hedging involves the opening of a second position that is likely to have a negative correlation with the primary asset being held, meaning that if the primary asset’s price makes an adverse movement, the second position will experience a complementary and opposite movement that offsets those losses.

In forex trading, investors can use a second pair as a hedge for an existing position they’re reluctant to close out. Although hedging reduces risk at the expense of profits, it can be a valuable tool to protect profits and stave off losses in forex trading.

Why do people trade? For most, their primary motivation is to make money. Sure, there are secondary reasons however they all stem from the undeniable urge to make money.  

I will often ask this question at the beginning of presentations … who trades to make money? Interestingly, most people are shy or reluctant to admit that their primary motivation is to make money.  Almost as if it is something to be ashamed of.  

Let me introduce you to what I think is the great irony in trading. The primary reason why people trade, is to make money. Yet, it is the money that often causes people to make all the mistakes and not make money, because they focus too much on it.

First, we will be launching a new logo and corporate branding: 

The main issue in December was the British election and its possible impact on Brexit plans.  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson returned to Downing Street with a big majority after the Conservatives easily accounted for Labour in its traditional heartlands.  Mr Johnson said it would give him a mandate to "get Brexit done" and take the United Kingdom out of the European Union next month. Earlier in the month, the U.S. Federal Reserve’s (Fed) Federal Open Market Committee had its two-day policy meeting, keeping interest rates steady, as widely expected.  Unlike many previous meetings, the decision to keep rates unchanged was unanimous. After three straight interest rate cuts this this year, the Fed kept the funds rate in a target range of 1.5%-1.75%. More importantly, the Fed indicated that no action is likely next year while there is persistently low inflation.

It is widely accepted that when you start trading, you never consider the most critical issues to becoming a consistently profitable trader.  Often, all you can think of is how much money you are going to make and how you cannot wait to start.

When it comes to managing risk, an often-overlooked component is probability, or the likelihood of something happening.  Even then, I strongly believe that many traders misinterpret the rules of probability. Some believe that if they have an unprofitable trade, somehow this increases the chance that their next trade will be profitable. If they incur a string of losses, they believe that their chance of a profitable trade increases as each unprofitable trade passes.