Trading - ABC Group Ltd.

Trading Forex Commodities Indicies Stocks

Introduction

If you are new to trading the fnancial markets your frst thought will be «Where do I start?», many new traders may be overwhelmed when they open their demo trading account for the frst tme and might try to run before they can walk.

Understanding the basics of trading is an essental startng point and in this the two-part artcle we will cover the key characteristcs of trading, the various fnancial instruments we can trade, the concept of going long and going short, trading platorms, startng capital and what it takes to succeed.

Page navigation: investing as a «Investor» investing as a «Trader»

Understanding the difference

Investing and trading are two diferent ways that we can proft from the fnancial markets. Many people new to the world of finance can be confused over what is the diference between the two. Here we will describe what we mean for each.

Read each section carefully before you start
working with the system.

Investing as a «Investor»

Investing as a «Trader»

Investor

The aim of an investor is to gradually build up their net worth by buying and holding a portfolio of stocks, bonds, mutual funds or other investable instruments.

Investments are often held for years or even decades. Investors take advantage of certain perks such as dividend payments, coupon payments and/or interest during this time. When the markets fall in value, many investors will hold on to their investment in the expectation that the price will rebound.
Investors are therefore looking at the long-term value of their investment and aren’t too concerned with the day to day volatility in the market.

Investor

Investors take physical ownership of the instruments they have purchased. So for example, if an investor buys shares in a company they will physically own a portion of that company and will receive a certificate of ownership. A shareholder can carry certain privileges such as voting rights on certain corporate actions, as well as benefit from dividend payments on the profits.

While investors are often satisfied with annual returns of up to 15% depending on the risk element of the investment, some traders seek to make returns that are a multiple of this, as they can benefit from the dips in the market as well as the increases because of the ability to short sell. The length of time a trader has a position open for can range from seconds to years. This timeframe is entirely up to them and relates to their objectives, account size, risk profile and time they can commit to trading. Trading requires a more hands on approach than investing and regular assessment of market conditions is essential when traders have open positions.

Trader

Trading initially implies a more frequent conclusion of short-term transactions and, accordingly, regular assessment of market conditions. Naturally, in this case there is no ownership of the underlying asset, so traders are speculating on price movements. Thanks to this, traders can make profits both in the growth of markets and in the fall. A trader can buy an asset, just like an investor, but has the ability to sell an instrument without owning it. This is known as short selling or selling securities without coverage, and this is why many people are especially partial to trading. (We will discuss buying and selling in more detail later)

Trader

A trader, in the narrow sense of the word, is a trader who trades on an exchange. Moreover, he can trade also as a businessman, with his own money or with money that investors have entrusted to him. Or he can work as a hired trader for a salary, for example, in a bank. In this case, his employer trusts his money and all the profit goes to the employer, and the salary is paid to the trader.

What can we Trade?

A financial instrument is a tradable asset of any kind i.e. it is an asset we can buy or sell at a monetary value on a financial market. Examples of financial instruments include currency pairs (i.e. the foreign exchange/FX market), commodities, stock indices and the stock of companies (also known as individual equities). As we do not take ownership of these assets when we are trading we are actually speculating on the price of futures contracts for FX instruments.

The price of these contracts is directly related to the price of the underlying instrument. So any movement in price of the physical asset will see a similar move in the price of the contract.

Indicies

Choose from a comprehensive selection of indices, and join the action investing on exchanges spanning every continent, from the Hong Kong Hang Seng, to the US Nasdaq, or the German Dax.

Commodities

Pick from ABCFX’s broad selection of commodities. Trade raw energy products, such as crude oil and natural gas, agricultural commodities like sugar and corn, or metals such as gold and silver.

ABC Group Limited Useful article

Check out our next beginner articles where we will cover the concept of going long and going short, trading platforms, the cost of trading and what it takes to succeed:

Forex

ABCFX offers an exceptionally wide variety of major, minor and exotic currency pairs. Invest on the global forex markets, benefiting from narrow spreads and versatile leverage reaching 200:1.

Market

Add variety to your trading portfolio with our diverse suite of trading tools.

Crypto

Like Forex, cryptocurrencies trade against other currencies in a pair, such as Bitcoin against USD, or against EUR. abc-fx.eu offers cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash.

The term "market" is sometimes used for what are more strictly exchanges, organizations that facilitate the trade in financial securities, e.g., a stock exchange or commodity exchange. This may be a physical location (like the NYSE, BSE, LSE, JSE) or an electronic system (like NASDAQ). Much trading of stocks takes place on an exchange; still, corporate actions (merger, spinoff) are outside an exchange, while any two companies or people, for whatever reason, may agree to sell stock from the one to the other without using an exchange.

Trading of currencies and bonds is largely on a bilateral basis, although some bonds trade on a stock exchange, and people are building electronic systems for these as well, similar to stock exchanges. Financial markets attract funds from investors and channel them to corporations—they thus allow corporations to finance their operations and achieve growth. Money markets allow firms to borrow funds on a short term basis, while capital markets allow corporations to gain long-term funding to support expansion (known as maturity transformation).

The following table illustrates where financial markets fit in the relationship between lenders and borrowers:

Relationship between lenders and borrowers
Lenders	Financial Intermediaries	Financial Markets	Borrowers
- Individuals	- FBanks	- Interbank	- Individuals
- Individuals	- Insurance Companies	- Stock Exchange	- Stock Exchange
	- Pension Funds	- Money Market	- Central Government
	- Mutual Funds	- Bond Market	- Municipalities
		- Foreign Exchange	- Public Corporations

Without financial markets, borrowers would have difficulty finding lenders themselves. Intermediaries such as banks, Investment Banks, and Boutique Investment Banks can help in this process. Banks take deposits from those who have money to save. They can then lend money from this pool of deposited money to those who seek to borrow. Banks popularly lend money in the form of loans and mortgages. More complex transactions than a simple bank deposit require markets where lenders and their agents can meet borrowers and their agents, and where existing borrowing or lending commitments can be sold on to other parties. A good example of a financial market is a stock exchange. A company can raise money by selling shares to investors and its existing shares can be bought or sold.