Margin Trading For Beginners
While it is true that you can trade in margins to make more money in less time, it is not generally advised to be a good bet for beginners. However if you are familiar with the stock market and how it works, you have to start somewhere with margin trading. So let's take a look at some of the basics and go from there.
With normal trading you trade using things you own. But with margin trading you are borrowing what you trade with from your broker. This means that there is more potential for things to go wrong. It's easy to borrow more than you can afford to pay back because you don't have to pay for it initially. But be aware that if anything goes wrong you could end up owing a lot of money in a very short amount of time.
This is why margin trading for beginners is not strictly a good idea. With other forms of stock trading you can only lose what you have. So if you have $1,000 in shares and it all goes horribly wrong you only lose that $1,000. If you are involved in margin trading though you could end up losing a lot more than that.
The best way to start is to find out all you can about how it works. You also need to be very aware of the potential for losses. Getting involved without having this understanding is liable to make you head for disaster.
Leverage is another aspect you need to be familiar with. Basically if you are holding $1,000 in shares and you think you are going to be making a good profit on them, you know you could make more profit if you had more shares. By borrowing from your broker you can realize that amount of profit, without holding the shares yourself.
If the market is good you can indeed make more money by margin trading. But if the market doesn't go in your favor it will lead to your losses mounting up a lot more quickly. This is where people go wrong and end up owing a lot of money.
So the trick here is to know exactly what you are doing and not to be tempted by ifs and maybes. If you are tempted in this way then margin trading may not be suitable for you at all.
With normal trading you trade using things you own. But with margin trading you are borrowing what you trade with from your broker. This means that there is more potential for things to go wrong. It's easy to borrow more than you can afford to pay back because you don't have to pay for it initially. But be aware that if anything goes wrong you could end up owing a lot of money in a very short amount of time.
This is why margin trading for beginners is not strictly a good idea. With other forms of stock trading you can only lose what you have. So if you have $1,000 in shares and it all goes horribly wrong you only lose that $1,000. If you are involved in margin trading though you could end up losing a lot more than that.
The best way to start is to find out all you can about how it works. You also need to be very aware of the potential for losses. Getting involved without having this understanding is liable to make you head for disaster.
Leverage is another aspect you need to be familiar with. Basically if you are holding $1,000 in shares and you think you are going to be making a good profit on them, you know you could make more profit if you had more shares. By borrowing from your broker you can realize that amount of profit, without holding the shares yourself.
If the market is good you can indeed make more money by margin trading. But if the market doesn't go in your favor it will lead to your losses mounting up a lot more quickly. This is where people go wrong and end up owing a lot of money.
So the trick here is to know exactly what you are doing and not to be tempted by ifs and maybes. If you are tempted in this way then margin trading may not be suitable for you at all.
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