Introduction to TradingTopLists.com
Our role is to guide both aspiring and veteran traders in the world of online trading. We offer information about the popular trading options done on the Internet today such as CFD, stocks, commodities, forex, and even cryptocurrencies.
Primarily, we review the most popular and trustworthy online brokers, and then we give our visitors an easy way to know and choose the best one for them. We include crucial information such as minimum deposits, payout procedure, trading assets, customer service quality, and license and registration details.
Secondarily, we provide online guides and tutorials to give our guests an excellent start in the world of online trading.
Introduction to Online Trading
You might have already heard some tidbits about online trading. To sum it in a few words, online trading is the process of buying and selling assets through a broker or brokerage’s online platform. It is a more convenient and faster way to trade in the financial trading industry.
Before online trading and Internet became a “thing,” traders needed to connect with brick and mortar brokerage firms or independent brokers. This is usually done through the phone. If you have seen movies like the Wolf of Wall Street (2013) or Wall Street (1987), people call brokerages so they can manage their trades on their behalf.
When the Internet was not accessible to the common people, trading through landline phones was the only convenient way to trade. The alternative was floor trading, which means you need to be in the exchange, and trade as if you are in the middle of hundreds of auctions pits. If you want to have a clue about this method, you can check out the Trading Places (1938) film, particularly the orange juice trading scene.
Going back to the present, online trading is considered the better option. Of course, big traders tend to connect to both online and brick and mortar brokerages. After all, the biggest difference between online and traditional brokers is that the latter also acts as an investment advisor.
It sounds nice to have a traditional broker by your side, but they often to prefer to have clients who can call in big investments. If you wish to start small or do not have a huge capital to play with, you can try online trading. With online trading, you can start with capital as low as $100 to $200. In comparison, day trading with a stock broker in the United States requires the trader to have a minimum of $25,000 to $30,000 balance.
Another advantage of online trading is information. Even though traditional brokers provide you with informative reports about your trading activities and portfolio, online trading platforms give you all the current information about your trades and markets you are monitoring.
A traditional broker may eventually become your friend and an excellent help in your trading career; however, he is still doing business with you. What that means is that every call or request you make will cost you. For example, if you suddenly thought of getting information about a market you suddenly had interest on and called your broker, he can charge you at least $10 on that.
Of course, it does not mean that the money you pay is not worth it. But $10 can be a hefty fee for a task that you can do your own, a task that will not even take five minutes. Thanks to the Internet, you can get the information you need without too much effort. And if you are using an online broker’s platform, the information you need, particularly the movement of the market and trends, will be right in front of you.
Also, online trading will give you a lot of trading options. CFD trading is currently seen as the most popular trading option online.
Lastly, you do not need to make an effort to contact your broker if you trade online. No need for lunch meetings and lengthy calls. And you can trade anywhere and anytime you want as long as you have an Internet connection. And thankfully, you can even do it using your mobile phone.
Trading Options on the Market
Here, we will list brokerages and provide guides focused on cryptocurrencies, CFDs, commodities, stock, and forex. They are the most popular trading options online. And they are the ones more suited for aspiring traders to start on.
Here are some pieces of information on those trading options:
Forex
Short for foreign exchanges, this is an option or market where you can profit from the rising and falling of currency values. For example, if you focus on trading in the EUR/USD market, the basic strategy is wait for either currency to depreciate. Let us say that the exchange is 1.00 EUR per 1.50 USD. If the USD value drops to 1.00 EUR per 2.00 USD, it can be a good time to buy USDs.
Say that you bought 100.00 USD (or 50.00 EUR worth), you must then wait for the value of USD to appreciate or rise again. After a few months of waiting, the exchange returns to 1.00 EUR per 1.50 USD. You can sell your USD back, which, at that point, will have a value of 66.67 EUR. In that trade, you basically profited 16.67 EUR or 25.00 USD. It might seem small, but you can raise the value of your returns by getting more units of the currency you chose.
To simplify, you earn from forex by buying low and then selling high. This is the same method you will do with other trading options. Of course, there are other methods you can do to earn from trading, but this is the simplest way.
Cryptocurrency
This trading option is similar to forex. The main difference is that cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETC), and Litecoin (LTC), are added to the mix. Also, you should know that not all foreign currencies will be available in cryptocurrency trading. After all, cryptocurrency behavior is different from regular currencies, and these make real life currencies unable to play well with them. And you should know that cryptocurrencies are not included in regular forex and stock exchanges as well.
Before you engage in this type of trading, you should be more familiar with cryptocurrency itself. First of all, they are completely virtual and is created by “mining”, a process wherein a chain or network of computers generates the code needed for one cryptocurrency to be produced. Second, they are limited. Once the set maximum count for the cryptocurrency is reached, no more will be created. Third, they are too volatile — meaning, their exchange values spike up and down in a short amount of time.
Stock
Stock trading starts when companies start to go public or complete IPOs (Initial Public Offerings). An IPO is basically the company or shareholders telling the traders that its and their shares will be available for the public or traders to buy and sell.
Why do companies make their stocks available? There are multiple reasons, but the primary one is to get more funding or investors. Aside from what the company is earning, when it opens its stocks to the market, the money that was used to buy shares will be directed to the company and its primary shareholders. With the company’s income and the sold stocks, they will have more capital that they can use for any reason they have. It could be for expansion, product development, or restructure.
In stock trading, the main way to get a profit is to get stocks from a company or source that increase its value or create continuous income. Take note that when you buy a company’s stocks, you will own a part of the company. If the company earns, you will receive a part of it depending on the type and number of stocks you have.
Of course, as the company profits, the value of its stocks also appreciate. If the difference of the buying price of the stock and its current value is high, you can sell it for a quick profit — just like with forex.
Commodities
Instead of stocks and currencies, commodity trading focus on common every day products and materials. A few of those are metals, energy, agricultural products, and meat and livestock. Unlike stocks, however, typical commodity trading focuses on speculating the movement of the commodities or futures trading.
Future trading protects the commodity producers and users against the volatility of the supply and demand that comes with the commodity.
For example, this is scenario 1: say that chicken costs $10.00. If the supply for chicken goes over the amount that is demanded, the price of chickens will cheapen, say $8.00. The situation is favorable to chicken buyers but not to the chicken sellers.
On the other hand, this is scenario 2: if there was a sudden bird flu epidemic and it reduced the population of chickens drastically, the supply will not be able to meet the demand. This will also make chickens more valuable, say $15.00. The situation will not be favorable to buyers, but favorable to providers.
Those are the situations commodities trading and investors come in. Basically, if you buy future contracts for commodities, you become an investor and a contract holder.
If scenario 1 happens, the price of chickens will drop by $2.00. You as a future contract holder will need to pay for that $2.00 from your investment to secure the supplier’s business.
If scenario 2 happens, the price of chickens goes up by $5.00. The supplier, by contract, will pay you that excess $5.00 from the normal price.
The future contract works opposite for the chicken buyer.
CFD
Contract for difference trading is derivative and speculative. It requires you to get a feel of the amount of the difference between the entry point price and exit price of the asset you are trading. The difference will affect the amount you may gain or lose. In CFD, trading safely and small will earn you miniscule amounts. Trading large will exponentially enlarge your potential loss. Also, CFD trades come with fees and commissions, but this depends on the broker you will choose.
How to Start Trading Online
The great thing with online trading is that you can start as soon as you want. How? You can start with choosing an online broker that you wish to deal with. Familiarize yourself more with the type of trading you want to go with.
Once you finish choosing the trade you want, register with the broker of your choice. Registration to broker websites only take a few minutes. After that, deposit the minimum amount into your account. As soon as they receive the deposit, which is usually instant, you can go start trading.
You must feel that the first step, which is finding the broker, will cost a lot of time and effort. Well, that is why we are here to make that step much simpler and faster. In this site, we have a list of online brokers that we meticulously reviewed and profiled.
Each broker page and review contain all of the information that you need to know about each and one of them. It includes details like license, regulation, location, accounts offered, platform, and many more.
Do note that there are literally hundreds of brokers online, and some of them are infamous for going into devious transactions on behalf of their clients. That is why we made sure that we will only present ones that have the cleanest track record and the safest to deal with.
On a different note, if you feel that your knowledge about trading is still lacking for you to start, do not worry: we still got you covered. This site holds extensive information, guides, and tutorials for each of the popular trading options mentioned a few sections before.
Why You Should Start Trading Online
For one, it is an opportunity — an opportunity that nobody’s going to take it away from you or deny you from it. And there is no reason you should not trade online.
If you think that trading online is time consuming and too risky, then you might be getting the wrong idea. The good thing about trading online is that you have a lot of options; each of those options have differences that will surely suit your life.
For example, if you do not want to actively monitor and predict market movement, then stock trading is ideal for you. All you need to do is to invest your money on companies you would trust to perform. Keep track of them by checking the news from time to time and view their performance on the market. You do not need to actively trade. If they earn, you earn. If their stocks appreciate, your stocks gain value. It is like keeping your money on the bank. Leave your money there, and let it accumulate interests.
If you think that is boring, you can try other trading options such as CFD. Test your power of analysis and your luck. You will definitely be crossing your fingers while awaiting the results of your trades, and you will surely giggle with joy when the end result ends up on your favor. And even profiting a dollar every trade can definitely make you feel celebrating.
On the other hand, if you want to earn small, deal with minimal risk, have a stable profit, and be active in the trading scene, then forex is for you. Compared to most trading options, it is versatile and is much more liquid. Also, forex is more accessible to stocks since you can start with a small capital and most brokers offer high leverages and margins.
If you to gain most, if not all of the advantages of forex, but you also aim to have higher returns quick with little risk, cryptocurrency is for you. With the never-ending volatility of these virtual currencies, you will never know when how much higher you can profit from your trades.
And the best thing with online trading is that you can do it anywhere and anytime. All you need is some spare time, a stable data connection, and your smartphone, you can work on your trades and portfolio. There will be always an online trading option that will fit in your lifestyle and your goals.
Online Trading – When to get involed?
It’s very important that you are aware of the pros and cons of online trading. The most crucial part is that you are familiar with the risks, as well. Our advice is to start when you feel ready for it. There are many guides available on TradingToplists.com, but also consider books, blogs and other sources if you are a new trader.
There are three things to keep in mind:
- Online Trading requires a lot of traning. Take your time and study before getting started.
- Online Trading might be accessible on multiple platforms (depending on the broker you decide to trade with), but please pay attiontion to the risks before you sign up with an broker.
- It’s all based on your own decisions.
- In 2017, the financial trading market has peaked on its best performance for the past 50 years. And it is expected that it will perform well in the next decade. Most of the brokers are licensed to operate legally, but there are some less serious brokers as well. We strongly recommend you to only sign up with the ones listed at TradingToplists.com.
How Long Does It Take to Become a Trader?
The amount of time you need to spend to become an expert trader depends on your financial knowledge, experiences, and skills. In spite of the fact that you can become a trader in an instant, thanks to online trading, by just go over a broker’s website, register, deposit, and trade. We know that it is possible, but we do not really recommend it.
We advise you to prepare yourself. Usually, newbies must at least train, study, and practice for at least six months before they deal with three to four-digit investments. Do not think that, for half a year, you will be only be reading tutorials.
Again, thanks to online trading, new traders can have hands on experience. Most online brokers provide new clients with demo accounts, which they can play to get a better grasp of the trading system.
Also, treat the amount of time you spend preparing as time for you to find which kind of trading you want and how much time and effort you will pour into it.
If you are now decided to be a part of the ever-growing markets and industry, here are the things you need to do to prepare yourself.
First, find the broker that you want to work with. You can use this site’s list of brokers to choose the best one for you. As you already know, we have sifted the best from the rest. We do have a lot of information about all the brokers listed here, but we still recommend that you back it up with additional research from your end.
It is best to check out the broker’s website, aggregate reviews, social media accounts, and trading community forums. Get to know about your future broker or brokers. Once you have done your own research and chosen, go ahead and sign up for an account. Do not worry, most brokers allow signups even if the user is not ready to deposit yet.
The second step is to know more about the market or trading option you will trade in. Choose the best trading option that suits your skills, experience, knowledge, capital, attitude, and interest. Be sure to check the markets or assets available on the trading option you picked.
You can use the guides and tutorials on this site and you can use the ones on the broker’s website. Also, it is never a bad idea to get financial and trading books. We assure you that those type of books are not boring and they will definitely introduce you to a different perspective in life.
Third, become more aware of news. News events are major driving force in the market. And you, as a trader, must always be the first one to know about events that could impact the country, economy, businesses, and commodities.
This site also provides the latest and hottest news in the industry, so be sure to check them out time to time to be always updated.
The fourth step is to prepare and plan your investment capitals: money and time. Do you have spare time to work on your trades? How much time are you going to allot in trading and learning how to do it? Can you set aside a set amount of money monthly to use as your investment without touching your savings and budget for day-to-day cost of living?
Fifth, practice. You can practice using a broker’s demo account server or you can go straight up trading — just be sure to avoid trading high amounts. And when practicing and you are losing your investments, always remember to never go by these words, “It’ll be different this time around.”
Know that it is true that trading mostly concerns Math because of the numbers, but it requires you to always consider history. With both, you will be able to determine probabilities, which is actually the trading business revolves around.
So, if you already lost your investment four times a row by using the same tactics, chances are you are doing it wrong. And doing it again will definitely make “this time around” basically the same as last time.
