I'm trading for 11 months with pretty good success. I never traded metals and forex before, just stocks. Today when gold started to consolidate at the last hour, I decided to scalp short it with a large amount, so I opened 100 lots. I haven't realised, in forex 100 (lots) doesn't mean "100 pcs", because I used to stocks and I went full retard without knowledge. Seconds later, I realised it means 10 million dollars (1 lot = 100.000, and I had 500x leverage). It moved up a bit and immediately I was down £4000. I scared as fuck and rather than closing the position quickly I hoped maybe I could close break even. The market closed, and I waited for the Asian session. The gold popped like never before, and I lost all my life savings (£55000) in less than two hours. (including the 1-hour break between sessions). If I count that I lost all my earnings as well, I lost around £85000. Here is the margin call https://imgur.com/a/XY5m4ZA https://imgur.com/a/VSgmCSs https://imgur.com/pRWl5g9 IC Markets closed my position partially in every 1-2 minutes until I shut it myself at £35. You know the rest of the story. I'm depressed, crying and shouting with myself. Yes, I know I was stupid, thanks. I just wanted to share this with you. Edit: WOW THANK YOU, GUYS! I haven't expected this, but you help me. Many of you asked the same questions, I answer it here: - I live in Europe, and we usually trade CFD's, not futures. - Currency in GBP. - As you can see, this account made on IC Markets. They not just allowing you a 500x leverage, it's the default. - You can ask me why I went against the market. Because gold is way oversold? Because I expected institutions would sell their shares before gold is hitting £2000, leaving retails hanging there. Also, as I said, I wanted to scalp, not riding the gold all the way down. If I had a loss of £100, I would close the position immediately. But when I saw the £4000, my heart is stopped, and my brain just freezes. - I went for a revenge trade with my last £2k, and I don't have to say what happened. I uninstalled the app, and I give up trading for a while. - Again, in the past months, I was cautious, I lost a significant sum in March, but I managed to recover. Made consistent gains, always with SL. This is just an example of how easy is to fuck up everything you did. - I didn't come here for some shiny digital medals. I can't tell about my losses to anyone who I know in real life. I would make a fool of myself. - Anyone who attacking me that it is a scam. Well, think what you want. I feel terrible and the last thing is to answer all the messages saying "You fucking karma whore". I don't give a shit about karma.
Hi guys, I have been using reddit for years in my personal life (not trading!) and wanted to give something back in an area where i am an expert. I worked at an investment bank for seven years and joined them as a graduate FX trader so have lots of professional experience, by which i mean I was trained and paid by a big institution to trade on their behalf. This is very different to being a full-time home trader, although that is not to discredit those guys, who can accumulate a good amount of experience/wisdom through self learning. When I get time I'm going to write a mid-length posts on each topic for you guys along the lines of how i was trained. I guess there would be 15-20 topics in total so about 50-60 posts. Feel free to comment or ask questions. The first topic is Risk Management and we'll cover it in three parts Part I
Why it matters
Position sizing
Kelly
Using stops sensibly
Picking a clear level
Why it matters
The first rule of making money through trading is to ensure you do not lose money. Look at any serious hedge fund’s website and they’ll talk about their first priority being “preservation of investor capital.” You have to keep it before you grow it. Strangely, if you look at retail trading websites, for every one article on risk management there are probably fifty on trade selection. This is completely the wrong way around. The great news is that this stuff is pretty simple and process-driven. Anyone can learn and follow best practices. Seriously, avoiding mistakes is one of the most important things: there's not some holy grail system for finding winning trades, rather a routine and fairly boring set of processes that ensure that you are profitable, despite having plenty of losing trades alongside the winners.
Capital and position sizing
The first thing you have to know is how much capital you are working with. Let’s say you have $100,000 deposited. This is your maximum trading capital. Your trading capital is not the leveraged amount. It is the amount of money you have deposited and can withdraw or lose. Position sizing is what ensures that a losing streak does not take you out of the market. A rule of thumb is that one should risk no more than 2% of one’s account balance on an individual trade and no more than 8% of one’s account balance on a specific theme. We’ll look at why that’s a rule of thumb later. For now let’s just accept those numbers and look at examples. So we have $100,000 in our account. And we wish to buy EURUSD. We should therefore not be risking more than 2% which $2,000. We look at a technical chart and decide to leave a stop below the monthly low, which is 55 pips below market. We’ll come back to this in a bit. So what should our position size be? We go to the calculator page, select Position Size and enter our details. There are many such calculators online - just google "Pip calculator". https://preview.redd.it/y38zb666e5h51.jpg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=26e4fe569dc5c1f43ce4c746230c49b138691d14 So the appropriate size is a buy position of 363,636 EURUSD. If it reaches our stop level we know we’ll lose precisely $2,000 or 2% of our capital. You should be using this calculator (or something similar) on every single trade so that you know your risk. Now imagine that we have similar bets on EURJPY and EURGBP, which have also broken above moving averages. Clearly this EUR-momentum is a theme. If it works all three bets are likely to pay off. But if it goes wrong we are likely to lose on all three at once. We are going to look at this concept of correlation in more detail later. The total amount of risk in our portfolio - if all of the trades on this EUR-momentum theme were to hit their stops - should not exceed $8,000 or 8% of total capital. This allows us to go big on themes we like without going bust when the theme does not work. As we’ll see later, many traders only win on 40-60% of trades. So you have to accept losing trades will be common and ensure you size trades so they cannot ruin you. Similarly, like poker players, we should risk more on trades we feel confident about and less on trades that seem less compelling. However, this should always be subject to overall position sizing constraints. For example before you put on each trade you might rate the strength of your conviction in the trade and allocate a position size accordingly: https://preview.redd.it/q2ea6rgae5h51.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=4332cb8d0bbbc3d8db972c1f28e8189105393e5b To keep yourself disciplined you should try to ensure that no more than one in twenty trades are graded exceptional and allocated 5% of account balance risk. It really should be a rare moment when all the stars align for you. Notice that the nice thing about dealing in percentages is that it scales. Say you start out with $100,000 but end the year up 50% at $150,000. Now a 1% bet will risk $1,500 rather than $1,000. That makes sense as your capital has grown. It is extremely common for retail accounts to blow-up by making only 4-5 losing trades because they are leveraged at 50:1 and have taken on far too large a position, relative to their account balance. Consider that GBPUSD tends to move 1% each day. If you have an account balance of $10k then it would be crazy to take a position of $500k (50:1 leveraged). A 1% move on $500k is $5k. Two perfectly regular down days in a row — or a single day’s move of 2% — and you will receive a margin call from the broker, have the account closed out, and have lost all your money. Do not let this happen to you. Use position sizing discipline to protect yourself.
Kelly Criterion
If you’re wondering - why “about 2%” per trade? - that’s a fair question. Why not 0.5% or 10% or any other number? The Kelly Criterion is a formula that was adapted for use in casinos. If you know the odds of winning and the expected pay-off, it tells you how much you should bet in each round. This is harder than it sounds. Let’s say you could bet on a weighted coin flip, where it lands on heads 60% of the time and tails 40% of the time. The payout is $2 per $1 bet. Well, absolutely you should bet. The odds are in your favour. But if you have, say, $100 it is less obvious how much you should bet to avoid ruin. Say you bet $50, the odds that it could land on tails twice in a row are 16%. You could easily be out after the first two flips. Equally, betting $1 is not going to maximise your advantage. The odds are 60/40 in your favour so only betting $1 is likely too conservative. The Kelly Criterion is a formula that produces the long-run optimal bet size, given the odds. Applying the formula to forex trading looks like this: Position size % = Winning trade % - ( (1- Winning trade %) / Risk-reward ratio If you have recorded hundreds of trades in your journal - see next chapter - you can calculate what this outputs for you specifically. If you don't have hundreds of trades then let’s assume some realistic defaults of Winning trade % being 30% and Risk-reward ratio being 3. The 3 implies your TP is 3x the distance of your stop from entry e.g. 300 pips take profit and 100 pips stop loss. So that’s 0.3 - (1 - 0.3) / 3 = 6.6%. Hold on a second. 6.6% of your account probably feels like a LOT to risk per trade.This is the main observation people have on Kelly: whilst it may optimise the long-run results it doesn’t take into account the pain of drawdowns. It is better thought of as the rational maximum limit. You needn’t go right up to the limit! With a 30% winning trade ratio, the odds of you losing on four trades in a row is nearly one in four. That would result in a drawdown of nearly a quarter of your starting account balance. Could you really stomach that and put on the fifth trade, cool as ice? Most of us could not. Accordingly people tend to reduce the bet size. For example, let’s say you know you would feel emotionally affected by losing 25% of your account. Well, the simplest way is to divide the Kelly output by four. You have effectively hidden 75% of your account balance from Kelly and it is now optimised to avoid a total wipeout of just the 25% it can see. This gives 6.6% / 4 = 1.65%. Of course different trading approaches and different risk appetites will provide different optimal bet sizes but as a rule of thumb something between 1-2% is appropriate for the style and risk appetite of most retail traders. Incidentally be very wary of systems or traders who claim high winning trade % like 80%. Invariably these don’t pass a basic sense-check:
How many live trades have you done? Often they’ll have done only a handful of real trades and the rest are simulated backtests, which are overfitted. The model will soon die.
What is your risk-reward ratio on each trade? If you have a take profit $3 away and a stop loss $100 away, of course most trades will be winners. You will not be making money, however! In general most traders should trade smaller position sizes and less frequently than they do. If you are going to bias one way or the other, far better to start off too small.
How to use stop losses sensibly
Stop losses have a bad reputation amongst the retail community but are absolutely essential to risk management. No serious discretionary trader can operate without them. A stop loss is a resting order, left with the broker, to automatically close your position if it reaches a certain price. For a recap on the various order types visit this chapter. The valid concern with stop losses is that disreputable brokers look for a concentration of stops and then, when the market is close, whipsaw the price through the stop levels so that the clients ‘stop out’ and sell to the broker at a low rate before the market naturally comes back higher. This is referred to as ‘stop hunting’. This would be extremely immoral behaviour and the way to guard against it is to use a highly reputable top-tier broker in a well regulated region such as the UK. Why are stop losses so important? Well, there is no other way to manage risk with certainty. You should always have a pre-determined stop loss before you put on a trade. Not having one is a recipe for disaster: you will find yourself emotionally attached to the trade as it goes against you and it will be extremely hard to cut the loss. This is a well known behavioural bias that we’ll explore in a later chapter. Learning to take a loss and move on rationally is a key lesson for new traders. A common mistake is to think of the market as a personal nemesis. The market, of course, is totally impersonal; it doesn’t care whether you make money or not. Bruce Kovner, founder of the hedge fund Caxton Associates There is an old saying amongst bank traders which is “losers average losers”. It is tempting, having bought EURUSD and seeing it go lower, to buy more. Your average price will improve if you keep buying as it goes lower. If it was cheap before it must be a bargain now, right? Wrong. Where does that end? Always have a pre-determined cut-off point which limits your risk. A level where you know the reason for the trade was proved ‘wrong’ ... and stick to it strictly. If you trade using discretion, use stops.
Picking a clear level
Where you leave your stop loss is key. Typically traders will leave them at big technical levels such as recent highs or lows. For example if EURUSD is trading at 1.1250 and the recent month’s low is 1.1205 then leaving it just below at 1.1200 seems sensible. If you were going long, just below the double bottom support zone seems like a sensible area to leave a stop You want to give it a bit of breathing room as we know support zones often get challenged before the price rallies. This is because lots of traders identify the same zones. You won’t be the only one selling around 1.1200. The “weak hands” who leave their sell stop order at exactly the level are likely to get taken out as the market tests the support. Those who leave it ten or fifteen pips below the level have more breathing room and will survive a quick test of the level before a resumed run-up. Your timeframe and trading style clearly play a part. Here’s a candlestick chart (one candle is one day) for GBPUSD. https://preview.redd.it/moyngdy4f5h51.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=91af88da00dd3a09e202880d8029b0ddf04fb802 If you are putting on a trend-following trade you expect to hold for weeks then you need to have a stop loss that can withstand the daily noise. Look at the downtrend on the chart. There were plenty of days in which the price rallied 60 pips or more during the wider downtrend. So having a really tight stop of, say, 25 pips that gets chopped up in noisy short-term moves is not going to work for this kind of trade. You need to use a wider stop and take a smaller position size, determined by the stop level. There are several tools you can use to help you estimate what is a safe distance and we’ll look at those in the next section. There are of course exceptions. For example, if you are doing range-break style trading you might have a really tight stop, set just below the previous range high. https://preview.redd.it/ygy0tko7f5h51.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=34af49da61c911befdc0db26af66f6c313556c81 Clearly then where you set stops will depend on your trading style as well as your holding horizons and the volatility of each instrument. Here are some guidelines that can help:
Use technical analysis to pick important levels (support, resistance, previous high/lows, moving averages etc.) as these provide clear exit and entry points on a trade.
Ensure that the stop gives your trade enough room to breathe and reflects your timeframe and typical volatility of each pair. See next section.
Always pick your stop level first. Then use a calculator to determine the appropriate lot size for the position, based on the % of your account balance you wish to risk on the trade.
So far we have talked about price-based stops. There is another sort which is more of a fundamental stop, used alongside - not instead of - price stops. If either breaks you’re out. For example if you stop understanding why a product is going up or down and your fundamental thesis has been confirmed wrong, get out. For example, if you are long because you think the central bank is turning hawkish and AUDUSD is going to play catch up with rates … then you hear dovish noises from the central bank and the bond yields retrace lower and back in line with the currency - close your AUDUSD position. You already know your thesis was wrong. No need to give away more money to the market.
Coming up in part II
EDIT: part II here Letting stops breathe When to change a stop Entering and exiting winning positions Risk:reward ratios Risk-adjusted returns
Coming up in part III
Squeezes and other risks Market positioning Bet correlation Crap trades, timeouts and monthly limits *** Disclaimer:This content is not investment advice and you should not place any reliance on it. The views expressed are the author's own and should not be attributed to any other person, including their employer.
Margin is something we normally see in Forex, like 50:1 margin trades. I was thinking though, and wondering, why we don't see it in stock investments? Not that big of a margin though obviously. Say I wanted to buy Amazon at, to make things easier, 2000 a share. What if I used a 2:1 margin, and that way, was able to buy twice as many shares and make twice as much over the long run. Isn't it safe to assume that Amazon ( or any other big fast growing company) won't suffer a 50% drop? Is there something that I'm missing here?
I made a home-made bar replay for MT4 as an alternative to the tradingview bar replay. You can change timeframes and use objects easily. It just uses vertical lines to block the future candles. Then it adjusts the vertical lines when you change zoom or time frames to keep the "future" bars hidden. I am not a professional coder so this is not as robust as something like Soft4fx or Forex Tester. But for me it gets the job done and is very convenient. Maybe you will find some benefit from it. Here are the steps to use it: 1) copy the text from the code block 2) go to MT4 terminal and open Meta Editor (click icon or press F4) 3) go to File -> New -> Expert Advisor 4) put in a title and click Next, Next, Finish 5) Delete all text from new file and paste in text from code block 6) go back to MT4 7) Bring up Navigator (Ctrl+N if it's not already up) 8) go to expert advisors section and find what you titled it 9) open up a chart of the symbol you want to test 10) add the EA to this chart 11) specify colors and start time in inputs then press OK 12) use "S" key on your keyboard to advance 1 bar of current time frame 13) use tool bar buttons to change zoom and time frames, do objects, etc. 14) don't turn on auto scroll. if you do by accident, press "S" to return to simulation time. 15) click "buy" and "sell" buttons (white text, top center) to generate entry, TP and SL lines to track your trade 16) to cancel or close a trade, press "close order" then click the white entry line 17) drag and drop TP/SL lines to modify RR 18) click "End" to delete all objects and remove simulation from chart 19) to change simulation time, click "End", then add the simulator EA to your chart with a new start time 20) When you click "End", your own objects will be deleted too, so make sure you are done with them 21) keep track of your own trade results manually 22) use Tools-> History center to download new data if you need it. the simulator won't work on time frames if you don't have historical data going back that far, but it will work on time frames that you have the data for. If you have data but its not appearing, you might also need to increase max bars in chart in Tools->Options->Charts. 23) don't look at status bar if you are moused over hidden candles, or to avoid this you can hide the status bar. Here is the code block.
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+ //| Bar Replay V2.mq4 | //| Copyright 2020, MetaQuotes Software Corp. | //| https://www.mql5.com | //+------------------------------------------------------------------+ #property copyright "Copyright 2020, MetaQuotes Software Corp." #property link "https://www.mql5.com" #property version "1.00" #property strict #define VK_A 0x41 #define VK_S 0x53 #define VK_X 0x58 #define VK_Z 0x5A #define VK_V 0x56 #define VK_C 0x43 #define VK_W 0x57 #define VK_E 0x45 double balance; string balance_as_string; int filehandle; int trade_ticket = 1; string objectname; string entry_line_name; string tp_line_name; string sl_line_name; string one_R_line_name; double distance; double entry_price; double tp_price; double sl_price; double one_R; double TP_distance; double gain_in_R; string direction; bool balance_file_exist; double new_balance; double sl_distance; string trade_number; double risk; double reward; string RR_string; int is_tp_or_sl_line=0; int click_to_cancel=0; input color foreground_color = clrWhite; input color background_color = clrBlack; input color bear_candle_color = clrRed; input color bull_candle_color = clrSpringGreen; input color current_price_line_color = clrGray; input string start_time = "2020.10.27 12:00"; input int vertical_margin = 100; //+------------------------------------------------------------------+ //| Expert initialization function | //+------------------------------------------------------------------+ int OnInit() { Comment(""); ChartNavigate(0,CHART_BEGIN,0); BlankChart(); ChartSetInteger(0,CHART_SHIFT,true); ChartSetInteger(0,CHART_FOREGROUND,false); ChartSetInteger(0,CHART_AUTOSCROLL,false); ChartSetInteger(0,CHART_SCALEFIX,false); ChartSetInteger(0,CHART_SHOW_OBJECT_DESCR,true); if (ObjectFind(0,"First OnInit")<0){ CreateStorageHLine("First OnInit",1);} if (ObjectFind(0,"Simulation Time")<0){ CreateTestVLine("Simulation Time",StringToTime(start_time));} string vlinename; for (int i=0; i<=1000000; i++){ vlinename="VLine"+IntegerToString(i); ObjectDelete(vlinename); } HideBars(SimulationBarTime(),0); //HideBar(SimulationBarTime()); UnBlankChart(); LabelCreate("New Buy Button","Buy",0,38,foreground_color); LabelCreate("New Sell Button","Sell",0,41,foreground_color); LabelCreate("Cancel Order","Close Order",0,44,foreground_color); LabelCreate("Risk To Reward","RR",0,52,foreground_color); LabelCreate("End","End",0,35,foreground_color); ObjectMove(0,"First OnInit",0,0,0); //--- create timer EventSetTimer(60); return(INIT_SUCCEEDED); } //+------------------------------------------------------------------+ //| Expert deinitialization function | //+------------------------------------------------------------------+ void OnDeinit(const int reason) { //--- destroy timer EventKillTimer(); } //+------------------------------------------------------------------+ //| Expert tick function | //+------------------------------------------------------------------+ void OnTick() { //--- } //+------------------------------------------------------------------+ //| ChartEvent function | //+------------------------------------------------------------------+ void OnChartEvent(const int id, const long &lparam, const double &dparam, const string &sparam) { if (id==CHARTEVENT_CHART_CHANGE){ int chartscale = ChartGetInteger(0,CHART_SCALE,0); int lastchartscale = ObjectGetDouble(0,"Last Chart Scale",OBJPROP_PRICE,0); if (chartscale!=lastchartscale){ int chartscale = ChartGetInteger(0,CHART_SCALE,0); ObjectMove(0,"Last Chart Scale",0,0,chartscale); OnInit(); }} if (id==CHARTEVENT_KEYDOWN){ if (lparam==VK_S){ IncreaseSimulationTime(); UnHideBar(SimulationPosition()); NavigateToSimulationPosition(); CreateHLine(0,"Current Price",Close[SimulationPosition()+1],current_price_line_color,1,0,true,false,false,"price"); SetChartMinMax(); }} if(id==CHARTEVENT_OBJECT_CLICK) { if(sparam=="New Sell Button") { distance = iATR(_Symbol,_Period,20,SimulationPosition()+1)/2; objectname = "Trade # "+IntegerToString(trade_ticket); CreateHLine(0,objectname,Close[SimulationPosition()+1],foreground_color,2,5,false,true,true,"Sell"); objectname = "TP for Trade # "+IntegerToString(trade_ticket); CreateHLine(0,objectname,Close[SimulationPosition()+1]-distance*2,clrAqua,2,5,false,true,true,"TP"); objectname = "SL for Trade # "+IntegerToString(trade_ticket); CreateHLine(0,objectname,Close[SimulationPosition()+1]+distance,clrRed,2,5,false,true,true,"SL"); trade_ticket+=1; } } if(id==CHARTEVENT_OBJECT_CLICK) { if(sparam=="New Buy Button") { distance = iATR(_Symbol,_Period,20,SimulationPosition()+1)/2; objectname = "Trade # "+IntegerToString(trade_ticket); CreateHLine(0,objectname,Close[SimulationPosition()+1],foreground_color,2,5,false,true,true,"Buy"); objectname = "TP for Trade # "+IntegerToString(trade_ticket); CreateHLine(0,objectname,Close[SimulationPosition()+1]+distance*2,clrAqua,2,5,false,true,true,"TP"); objectname = "SL for Trade # "+IntegerToString(trade_ticket); CreateHLine(0,objectname,Close[SimulationPosition()+1]-distance,clrRed,2,5,false,true,true,"SL"); trade_ticket+=1; } } if(id==CHARTEVENT_OBJECT_DRAG) { if(StringFind(sparam,"TP",0)==0) { is_tp_or_sl_line=1; } if(StringFind(sparam,"SL",0)==0) { is_tp_or_sl_line=1; } Comment(is_tp_or_sl_line); if(is_tp_or_sl_line==1) { trade_number = StringSubstr(sparam,7,9); entry_line_name = trade_number; tp_line_name = "TP for "+entry_line_name; sl_line_name = "SL for "+entry_line_name; entry_price = ObjectGetDouble(0,entry_line_name,OBJPROP_PRICE,0); tp_price = ObjectGetDouble(0,tp_line_name,OBJPROP_PRICE,0); sl_price = ObjectGetDouble(0,sl_line_name,OBJPROP_PRICE,0); sl_distance = MathAbs(entry_price-sl_price); TP_distance = MathAbs(entry_price-tp_price); reward = TP_distance/sl_distance; RR_string = "RR = 1 : "+DoubleToString(reward,2); ObjectSetString(0,"Risk To Reward",OBJPROP_TEXT,RR_string); is_tp_or_sl_line=0; } } if(id==CHARTEVENT_OBJECT_CLICK) { if(sparam=="Cancel Order") { click_to_cancel=1; Comment("please click the entry line of the order you wish to cancel."); } } if(id==CHARTEVENT_OBJECT_CLICK) { if(sparam!="Cancel Order") { if(click_to_cancel==1) { if(ObjectGetInteger(0,sparam,OBJPROP_TYPE,0)==OBJ_HLINE) { entry_line_name = sparam; tp_line_name = "TP for "+sparam; sl_line_name = "SL for "+sparam; ObjectDelete(0,entry_line_name); ObjectDelete(0,tp_line_name); ObjectDelete(0,sl_line_name); click_to_cancel=0; ObjectSetString(0,"Risk To Reward",OBJPROP_TEXT,"RR"); } } } } if (id==CHARTEVENT_OBJECT_CLICK){ if (sparam=="End"){ ObjectsDeleteAll(0,-1,-1); ExpertRemove(); }} } //+------------------------------------------------------------------+ void CreateStorageHLine(string name, double value){ ObjectDelete(name); ObjectCreate(0,name,OBJ_HLINE,0,0,value); ObjectSetInteger(0,name,OBJPROP_SELECTED,false); ObjectSetInteger(0,name,OBJPROP_SELECTABLE,false); ObjectSetInteger(0,name,OBJPROP_COLOR,clrNONE); ObjectSetInteger(0,name,OBJPROP_BACK,true); ObjectSetInteger(0,name,OBJPROP_ZORDER,0); } void CreateTestHLine(string name, double value){ ObjectDelete(name); ObjectCreate(0,name,OBJ_HLINE,0,0,value); ObjectSetInteger(0,name,OBJPROP_SELECTED,false); ObjectSetInteger(0,name,OBJPROP_SELECTABLE,false); ObjectSetInteger(0,name,OBJPROP_COLOR,clrWhite); ObjectSetInteger(0,name,OBJPROP_BACK,true); ObjectSetInteger(0,name,OBJPROP_ZORDER,0); } bool IsFirstOnInit(){ bool bbb=false; if (ObjectGetDouble(0,"First OnInit",OBJPROP_PRICE,0)==1){return true;} return bbb; } void CreateTestVLine(string name, datetime timevalue){ ObjectDelete(name); ObjectCreate(0,name,OBJ_VLINE,0,timevalue,0); ObjectSetInteger(0,name,OBJPROP_SELECTED,false); ObjectSetInteger(0,name,OBJPROP_SELECTABLE,false); ObjectSetInteger(0,name,OBJPROP_COLOR,clrNONE); ObjectSetInteger(0,name,OBJPROP_BACK,false); ObjectSetInteger(0,name,OBJPROP_ZORDER,3); } datetime SimulationTime(){ return ObjectGetInteger(0,"Simulation Time",OBJPROP_TIME,0); } int SimulationPosition(){ return iBarShift(_Symbol,_Period,SimulationTime(),false); } datetime SimulationBarTime(){ return Time[SimulationPosition()]; } void IncreaseSimulationTime(){ ObjectMove(0,"Simulation Time",0,Time[SimulationPosition()-1],0); } void NavigateToSimulationPosition(){ ChartNavigate(0,CHART_END,-1*SimulationPosition()+15); } void NotifyNotEnoughHistoricalData(){ BlankChart(); Comment("Sorry, but there is not enough historical data to load this time frame."+"\n"+ "Please load more historical data or use a higher time frame. Thank you :)");} void UnHideBar(int barindex){ ObjectDelete(0,"VLine"+IntegerToString(barindex+1)); } void BlankChart(){ ChartSetInteger(0,CHART_COLOR_FOREGROUND,clrNONE); ChartSetInteger(0,CHART_COLOR_CANDLE_BEAR,clrNONE); ChartSetInteger(0,CHART_COLOR_CANDLE_BULL,clrNONE); ChartSetInteger(0,CHART_COLOR_CHART_DOWN,clrNONE); ChartSetInteger(0,CHART_COLOR_CHART_UP,clrNONE); ChartSetInteger(0,CHART_COLOR_CHART_LINE,clrNONE); ChartSetInteger(0,CHART_COLOR_GRID,clrNONE); ChartSetInteger(0,CHART_COLOR_ASK,clrNONE); ChartSetInteger(0,CHART_COLOR_BID,clrNONE);} void UnBlankChart(){ ChartSetInteger(0,CHART_COLOR_FOREGROUND,foreground_color); ChartSetInteger(0,CHART_COLOR_CANDLE_BEAR,bear_candle_color); ChartSetInteger(0,CHART_COLOR_CANDLE_BULL,bull_candle_color); ChartSetInteger(0,CHART_COLOR_BACKGROUND,background_color); ChartSetInteger(0,CHART_COLOR_CHART_DOWN,foreground_color); ChartSetInteger(0,CHART_COLOR_CHART_UP,foreground_color); ChartSetInteger(0,CHART_COLOR_CHART_LINE,foreground_color); ChartSetInteger(0,CHART_COLOR_GRID,clrNONE); ChartSetInteger(0,CHART_COLOR_ASK,clrNONE); ChartSetInteger(0,CHART_COLOR_BID,clrNONE);} void HideBars(datetime starttime, int shift){ int startbarindex = iBarShift(_Symbol,_Period,starttime,false); ChartNavigate(0,CHART_BEGIN,0); if (Time[WindowFirstVisibleBar()]>SimulationTime()){NotifyNotEnoughHistoricalData();} if (Time[WindowFirstVisibleBar()]=0; i--){ vlinename="VLine"+IntegerToString(i); ObjectCreate(0,vlinename,OBJ_VLINE,0,Time[i],0); ObjectSetInteger(0,vlinename,OBJPROP_COLOR,background_color); ObjectSetInteger(0,vlinename,OBJPROP_BACK,false); ObjectSetInteger(0,vlinename,OBJPROP_WIDTH,vlinewidth); ObjectSetInteger(0,vlinename,OBJPROP_ZORDER,10); ObjectSetInteger(0,vlinename,OBJPROP_FILL,true); ObjectSetInteger(0,vlinename,OBJPROP_STYLE,STYLE_SOLID); ObjectSetInteger(0,vlinename,OBJPROP_SELECTED,false); ObjectSetInteger(0,vlinename,OBJPROP_SELECTABLE,false); } NavigateToSimulationPosition(); SetChartMinMax();} }//end of HideBars function void SetChartMinMax(){ int firstbar = WindowFirstVisibleBar(); int lastbar = SimulationPosition(); int lastbarwhenscrolled = WindowFirstVisibleBar()-WindowBarsPerChart(); if (lastbarwhenscrolled>lastbar){lastbar=lastbarwhenscrolled;} double highest = High[iHighest(_Symbol,_Period,MODE_HIGH,firstbar-lastbar,lastbar)]; double lowest = Low[iLowest(_Symbol,_Period,MODE_LOW,firstbar-lastbar,lastbar)]; ChartSetInteger(0,CHART_SCALEFIX,true); ChartSetDouble(0,CHART_FIXED_MAX,highest+vertical_margin*_Point); ChartSetDouble(0,CHART_FIXED_MIN,lowest-vertical_margin*_Point); } void LabelCreate(string labelname, string labeltext, int row, int column, color labelcolor){ int ylocation = row*18; int xlocation = column*10; ObjectCreate(0,labelname,OBJ_LABEL,0,0,0); ObjectSetString(0,labelname,OBJPROP_TEXT,labeltext); ObjectSetInteger(0,labelname,OBJPROP_COLOR,labelcolor); ObjectSetInteger(0,labelname,OBJPROP_FONTSIZE,10); ObjectSetInteger(0,labelname,OBJPROP_ZORDER,10); ObjectSetInteger(0,labelname,OBJPROP_BACK,false); ObjectSetInteger(0,labelname,OBJPROP_CORNER,CORNER_LEFT_UPPER); ObjectSetInteger(0,labelname,OBJPROP_ANCHOR,ANCHOR_LEFT_UPPER); ObjectSetInteger(0,labelname,OBJPROP_XDISTANCE,xlocation); ObjectSetInteger(0,labelname,OBJPROP_YDISTANCE,ylocation);} double GetHLinePrice(string name){ return ObjectGetDouble(0,name,OBJPROP_PRICE,0); } void CreateHLine(int chartid, string objectnamey, double objectprice, color linecolor, int width, int zorder, bool back, bool selected, bool selectable, string descriptionn) { ObjectDelete(chartid,objectnamey); ObjectCreate(chartid,objectnamey,OBJ_HLINE,0,0,objectprice); ObjectSetString(chartid,objectnamey,OBJPROP_TEXT,objectprice); ObjectSetInteger(chartid,objectnamey,OBJPROP_COLOR,linecolor); ObjectSetInteger(chartid,objectnamey,OBJPROP_WIDTH,width); ObjectSetInteger(chartid,objectnamey,OBJPROP_ZORDER,zorder); ObjectSetInteger(chartid,objectnamey,OBJPROP_BACK,back); ObjectSetInteger(chartid,objectnamey,OBJPROP_SELECTED,selected); ObjectSetInteger(chartid,objectnamey,OBJPROP_SELECTABLE,selectable); ObjectSetString(0,objectnamey,OBJPROP_TEXT,descriptionn); } //end of code
Hi there, My husband and I have been working on forex trading for a few years, and we are getting rather close to using trading to "retire" from traditional 9-5 jobs. Our concern, though, is that it looks like just about every US broker is uninsured and state that if the company becomes insolvent, they may liquidate all margin accounts. Oanda, for instance, states "In the event OANDA should become insolvent or file for protection under the bankruptcy laws, it is possible that you would lose the entire amount in your Margin Account. " My question is if anybody here has found a way to "insure" the account to avoid this problem. The last thing we want is to pour our lives into it and rely on it, only to fall victim to a companies failure. I know, I know, its unlikely. But so was Lehman Brothers, and call me paranoid, but I am not one to want to rely on a corporation to put its customers first. Thoughts?
ATO Australian tax treatment for options trades 🇦🇺
I am posting this as I hope it will help other Australian options traders trading in US options with their tax treatment for ATO (Australian Tax Office) purposes. The ATO provides very little guidance on tax treatment for options trading and I had to do a lot of digging to get to this point. I welcome any feedback on this post.
The Deloitte Report from 2011
My initial research led me to this comprehensive Deloitte report from 2011 which is hosted on the ASX website. I've been through this document about 20 times and although it's a great report to understand how different scenarios apply, it's still really hard to find out what's changed since 2011. I am mainly relating myself to the scenario of being an individual and non-sole trader (no business set up) for my trading. I think this will apply to many others here too. According to that document, there isn't much guidance on what happens when you're an options premium seller and close positions before they expire. Note that the ATO sometimes uses the term "ETO" (Exchange Traded Option) to discuss what we're talking about here with options trading. Also note: The ATO discusses the separate Capital Gains Tax ("CGT") events that occur in each scenario in some of their documents. A CGT event will then determine what tax treatment gets applied if you don't know much about capital gains in Australia.
ATO Request for Advice
Since the Deloitte report didn't answer my questions, I eventually ended up contacting the ATO with a request for advice and tried to explain my scenario: I'm an Australian resident for tax purposes,I'm trading with tastyworks in $USD, I'm primarily a premium seller and I don't have it set up with any business/company/trust etc. In effect, I have a rough idea that I'm looking at capital gains tax but I wanted to fully understand how it worked. Initially the ATO respondent didn't understand what I was talking about when I said that I was selling a position first and buying it to close. According to the laws, there is no example of this given anywhere because it is always assumed in ATO examples that you buy a position and sell it. Why? I have no idea. I sent a follow up request with even more detail to the ATO. I think (hope) they understood what I meant now after explaining what an options premium seller is!
Currency Gains/Losses
First, I have to consider translating my $USD to Australian dollars. How do we treat that? FX Translation If the premium from selling the options contract is received in $USD, do I convert it to $AUD on that day it is received? ATO response:
Subsection 960-50(6), Item 5 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (ITAA 1997) states the amount should be translated at the time of the transaction or event for the purposes of the Capital Gains Tax provisions. For the purpose of granting an option to an entity, the time of the event is when you grant the option (subsection 104-20(2) ITAA 1997).
This is a very detailed response which even refers to the level of which section in the law it is coming from. I now know that I need to translate my trades from $USD to $AUD according to the RBA's translation rates for every single trade. But what about gains or losses on translation? There is one major rule that overrides FX gains and losses after digging deeper. The ATO has a "$250k balance election". This will probably apply to a lot of people trading in balances below $250k a lot of the FX rules don't apply. It states:
However, the $250,000 balance election broadly enables you to disregard certain foreign currency gains and losses on certain foreign currency denominated bank accounts and credit card accounts (called qualifying forex accounts) with balances below a specified limit.
Therefore, I'm all good disregarding FX gains and losses! I just need to ensure I translate my trades on the day they occurred. It's a bit of extra admin to do unfortunately, but it is what it is.
Credit Trades
This is the scenario where we SELL a position first, collect premium, and close the position by making an opposite BUY order. Selling a naked PUT, for example. What happens when you open the position? ATO Response:
The option is grantedCGT event D2 happens when a taxpayer grants an option. The time of the event is when the option is granted. The capital gain or loss arising is the difference between the capital proceeds and the expenditure incurred to grant the option.
This seems straight forward. We collect premium and record a capital gain. What happens when you close the position? ATO Response:
Closing out an optionThe establishment of an ETO contract is referred to as opening a position (ASX Explanatory Booklet 'Understanding Options Trading'). A person who writes (sells) a call or put option may close out their position by taking (buying) an identical call or put option in the same series. This is referred to as the close-out of an option or the closing-out of an opening position. CGT event C2 happens when a taxpayer's ownership of an intangible CGT asset ends. Paragraph 104-25(1)(a) of the ITAA 1997 provides that ownership of an intangible CGT asset ends by cancellation, surrender, or release or similar means. CGT event C2 therefore happens to a taxpayer when their position under an ETO is closed out where the close-out results in the cancellation, release or discharge of the ETO. Under subsection 104-25(3) of the ITAA 1997 you make a capital gain from CGT event C2 if the capital proceeds from the ending are more than the assets cost base. You make a capital loss if those capital proceeds are less than the assets reduced cost base. Both CGT events (being D2 upon granting the option and C2 upon adopting the close out position) must be accounted for if applicable to a situation.
My take on this is that the BUY position that cancels out your SELL position will most often simply realise a capital loss (the entire portion of your BUY position). In effect, it 'cancels out' your original premium sold, but it's not recorded that way, it's recorded as two separate CGT events - your capital gain from CGT event D2 (SELL position), then, your capital loss from CGT event C2 (BUY position) is also recorded.In effect, they net each other out, but you don't record them as a 'netted out' number-you record them separately. From what I understand, if you were trading as a sole tradecompany then you would record them as a netted out capital gain or loss, because the trades would be classified as trading stock but not in our case here as an individual person trading options. The example I've written below should hopefully make that clearer. EXAMPLE: Trade on 1 July 2020: Open position
SELL -1 SPY 85 PUT, exp 30 August 2020
Collect Premium USD$1 per unit, and brokerage USD$5
= USD$100 premium collected, minus USD$5
= Net amount of USD$95 collected
FX Translation rate on the date of the trade: AUD $1.00 = $USD 0.70
Net Premium Collected in $AUD
= USD$95 x (1/.7)
= AUD$135.71
CGT Event D2 triggered and a capital gain of $135.71 is recorded
Trade on 15 July 2020: Close position
BUY 1 SPY 85 PUT, exp 30 August 2020
Pay Premium $0.50 per unit, and brokerage $5
= $50 premium paid, plus $5
= Net amount of USD$55 paid
FX Translation rate on the date of the trade: AUD $1.00 = $USD 0.60
Net Premium Collected in $AUD
= USD$55 x (1/.6)
= AUD$91.66
CGT Event C2 triggered and a capital loss of $91.66 is recorded
We can see from this simple example that even though you made a gain on those trades, you still have to record the transactions separately, as first a gain, then as a loss. Note that it is not just a matter of netting off the value of the net profit collected and converting the profit to $AUD because the exchange rate will be different on the date of the opening trade and on the date of the closing trade we have to record them separately. What if you don't close the position and the options are exercised? ATO Response:
The option is granted and then the option is exercisedUnder subsection 104-40(5) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (ITAA 1997) the capital gain or loss from the CGT event D2 is disregarded if the option is exercised. Subsection 134-1(1), item 1, of the ITAA 1997 refers to the consequences for the grantor of the exercise of the option. Where the option binds the grantor to dispose of a CGT asset section 116-65 of the ITAA 1997 applies to the transaction. Subsection 116-65(2) of the ITAA 1997 provides that the capital proceeds from the grant or disposal of the shares (CGT asset) include any payment received for granting the option. The disposal of the shares is a CGT event A1 which occurs under subsection 104-10(3) of the ITAA 1997 when the contract for disposal is entered into. You would still make a capital gain at the happening of the CGT event D2 in the year the event occurs (the time the option is granted). That capital gain is disregarded when the option is exercised. Where the option is exercised in the subsequent tax year, the CGT event D2 gain is disregarded at that point. An amendment may be necessary to remove the gain previously included in taxable income for the year in which the CGT event D2 occurred.
This scenario is pretty unlikely - for me personally I never hold positions to expiration, but it is nice to know what happens with the tax treatment if it ultimately does come to that.
Debit Trades
What about the scenario when you want to BUY some options first, then SELL that position and close it later? Buying a CALL, for example. This case is what the ATO originally thought my request was about before I clarified with them. They stated:
When you buy an ETO, you acquire an asset (the ETO) for the amount paid for it (that is, the premium) plus any additional costs such as brokerage fees and the Australian Clearing House (ACH) fee. These costs together form the cost base of the ETO (section 109-5 of the ITAA 1997). On the close out of the position, you make a capital gain or loss equal to the difference between the cost base of the ETO and the amount received on its expiry or termination (subsection 104-25(3) of the ITAA 1997). The capital gain or loss is calculated on each parcel of options.
So it seems it is far easier to record debit trades for tax purposes. It is easier for the tax office to see that you open a position by buying it, and close it by selling it. And in that case you net off the total after selling it. This is very similar to a trading shares and the CGT treatment is in effect very similar (the main difference is that it is not coming under CGT event A1 because there is no asset to dispose of, like in a shares or property trade).
Other ATO Info (FYI)
The ATO also referred me to the following documents. They relate to some 'decisions' that they made from super funds but the same principles apply to individuals they said.
The ATO’s Interpretative Decision in relation to the tax treatment of premiums payable and receivable for exchange traded options can be found on the links below. Please note that the interpretative decisions below are in relation to self-managed superannuation funds but the same principles would apply in your situation [as an individual taxpayer, not as a super fund].
Key quote from this decision: CGT Event D2will apply on the writing of an ETO by the Fund. The Fund as grantor of the option will make a capital gain (or loss) of the difference between the capital proceeds (that is, the premium receivable) and the cost of granting the option (for example, brokerage fees) at the time the option is granted
My take on this is that you will realise a capital gain on issuing of the selling position. I don't see how you could realise a capital loss in that scenario? Or maybe if you sell a position and the brokerage is so high that it outweighs the premium received (a dumb trade) then that would be a capital loss (a rare scenario).
Key quote from decision: When the Fund opens a position by buying an ETO, no immediate taxation consequences arise.CGT Event C2will happen to the Fund when its position under an ETO is closed out where the close-out results in the cancellation, release or discharge of the ETO
Some tips
Don't forget to declare your trades on your tax return and keep a nice spreadsheet
Keep track of the exchange rates for each day you make a trade. You could do as you go and check the RBA exchange rates website for the daily number, or just do it all at once at the end of the financial year
Finally - I recommend ensuring that you save a portion of your income to pay the capital gains tax at the end of the year so you don't have to withdraw it from your portfolio and pay exchange rate fees to convert it back to Australian dollars. It will depend on your marginal tax rate what that percentage will work out to be in the end.
Factset: How You can Invest in Hedge Funds’ Biggest Investment Tl;dr FactSet is the most undervalued widespread SaaS/IT solution stock that exists If any of you have relevant experience or are friends with people in Investment Banking/other high finance, you know that Factset is the lifeblood of their financial analysis toolkit if and when it’s not Bloomberg, which isn’t even publicly traded. Factset has been around since 1978 and it’s considered a staple like Bloomberg in many wealth management firms, and it offers some of the easiest to access and understandable financial data so many newer firms focused less on trading are switching to Factset because it has a lot of the same data Bloomberg offers for half the cost. When it comes to modern financial data, Factset outcompetes Reuters and arguably Bloomberg as well due to their API services which makes Factset much more preferable for quantitative divisions of banks/hedge funds as API integration with Python/R is the most important factor for vast data lakes of financial data, this suggests Factset will be much more prepared for programming making its way into traditional finance fields. According to Factset, their mission for data delivery is to: “Integrate the data you need with your applications, web portals, and statistical packages. Whether you need market, company, or alternative data, FactSet flexible data delivery services give you normalized data through APIs and a direct delivery of local copies of standard data feeds. Our unique symbology links and aggregates a variety of content sources to ensure consistency, transparency, and data integrity across your business. Build financial models and power customized applications with FactSet APIs in our developer portal”. Their technical focus for their data delivery system alone should make it stand out compared to Bloomberg, whose UI is far more outdated and complex on top of not being as technically developed as Factset’s. Factset is the key provider of buy-side portfolio analysis for IBs, Hedge funds, and Private Equity firms, and it’s making its way into non-quantitative hedge funds as well because quantitative portfolio management makes automation of risk management and the application of portfolio theory so much easier, and to top it off, Factset’s scenario analysis and simulation is unique in its class. Factset also is able to automate trades based on individual manager risk tolerance and ML optimization for Forex trading as well. Not only does Factset provide solutions for financial companies, they are branching out to all corporations now and providing quantitative analytics for them in the areas of “corporate development, M&A, strategy, treasury, financial planning and analysis, and investor relations workflows”. Factset will eventually in my opinion reach out to Insurance Risk Management a lot more in the future as that’s a huge industry which has yet to see much automation of risk management yet, and with the field wide open, Factset will be the first to take advantage without a shadow of a doubt. So let’s dig into the company’s financials now: Their latest 8k filing reported the following: Revenue increased 2.6%, or $9.6 million, to $374.1 million compared with $364.5 million for the same period in fiscal 2019. The increase is primarily due to higher sales of analytics, content and technology solutions (CTS) and wealth management solutions. Annual Subscription Value (ASV) plus professional services was $1.52 billion at May 31, 2020, compared with $1.45 billion at May 31, 2019. The organic growth rate, which excludes the effects of acquisitions, dispositions, and foreign currency movements, was 5.0%. The primary contributors to this growth rate were higher sales in FactSet's wealth and research workflow solutions and a price increase in the Company's international region Adjusted operating margin improved to 35.5% compared with 34.0% in the prior year period primarily as a result of reduced employee-related operating expenses due to the coronavirus pandemic. Diluted earnings per share (EPS) increased 11.0% to $2.63 compared with $2.37 for the same period in fiscal 2019. Adjusted diluted EPS rose 9.2% to $2.86 compared with $2.62 in the prior year period primarily driven by an improvement in operating results. The Company’s effective tax rate for the third quarter decreased to 15.0% compared with 18.6% a year ago, primarily due to an income tax expense in the prior year related to finalizing the Company's tax returns with no similar event for the three months ended May 31, 2020. FactSet increased its quarterly dividend by $0.05 per share or 7% to $0.77 marking the fifteenth consecutive year the Company has increased dividends, highlighting its continued commitment to returning value to shareholders. As you can see, there’s not much of a negative sign in sight here. It makes sense considering how FactSet’s FCF has never slowed down: https://preview.redd.it/frmtdk8e9hk51.png?width=276&format=png&auto=webp&s=1c0ff12539e0b2f9dbfda13d0565c5ce2b6f8f1a https://preview.redd.it/6axdb6lh9hk51.png?width=593&format=png&auto=webp&s=9af1673272a5a2d8df28f60f4707e948a00e5ff1 FactSet’s annual subscriptions and professional services have made its way to foreign and developing markets, and many of them are opting for FactSet’s cheaper services to reduce costs and still get copious amounts of data and models to work with. Here’s what FactSet had to say regarding its competitive position within the market of providing financial data in its last 10k: “Despite competing products and services, we enjoy high barriers to entry and believe it would be difficult for another vendor to quickly replicate the extensive databases we currently offer. Through our in-depth analytics and client service, we believe we can offer clients a more comprehensive solution with one of the broadest sets of functionalities, through a desktop or mobile user interface or through a standardized or bespoke data feed.” And FactSet is confident that their ML services cannot be replaced by anybody else in the industry either: “In addition, our applications, including our client support and service offerings, are entrenched in the workflow of many financial professionals given the downloading functions and portfolio analysis/screening capabilities offered. We are entrusted with significant amounts of our clients' own proprietary data, including portfolio holdings. As a result, our products have become central to our clients’ investment analysis and decision-making.” (https://last10k.com/sec-filings/fds#link_fullReport), if you read the full report and compare it to the most recent 8K, you’ll find that the real expenses this quarter were far lower than expected by the last 10k as there was a lower than expected tax rate and a 3% increase in expected operating margin from the expected figure as well. The company also reports a 90% customer retention rate over 15 years, so you know that they’re not lying when they say the clients need them for all sorts of financial data whether it’s for M&A or wealth management and Equity analysis: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/factset.asp https://preview.redd.it/yo71y6qj9hk51.png?width=355&format=png&auto=webp&s=a9414bdaa03c06114ca052304a26fae2773c3e45 FactSet also has remarkably good cash conversion considering it’s a subscription based company, a company structure which usually takes on too much leverage. Speaking of leverage, FDS had taken on a lot of leverage in 2015: https://preview.redd.it/oxaa1wel9hk51.png?width=443&format=png&auto=webp&s=13d60d2518980360c403364f7150392ab83d07d7 So what’s that about? Why were FactSet’s long term debts at 0 and all of a sudden why’d the spike up? Well usually for a company that’s non-cyclical and has a well-established product (like FactSet) leverage can actually be good at amplifying returns, so FDS used this to their advantage and this was able to help the share’s price during 2015. Also, as you can see debt/ebitda is beginning a rapid decline anyway. This only adds to my theory that FactSet is trying to expand into new playing fields. FactSet obviously didn’t need the leverage to cover their normal costs, because they have always had consistently growing margins and revenue so the debt financing was only for the sake of financing growth. And this debt can be considered covered and paid off, considering the net income growth of 32% between 2018 and 2019 alone and the EPS growth of 33% https://preview.redd.it/e4trju3p9hk51.png?width=387&format=png&auto=webp&s=6f6bee15f836c47e73121054ec60459f147d353e EBITDA has virtually been exponential for FactSet for a while because of the bang-for-buck for their well-known product, but now as FactSet ventures into algorithmic trading and corporate development the scope for growth is broadly expanded. https://preview.redd.it/yl7f58tr9hk51.png?width=489&format=png&auto=webp&s=68906b9ecbcf6d886393c4ff40f81bdecab9e9fd P/E has declined in the past 2 years, making it a great time to buy. https://preview.redd.it/4mqw3t4t9hk51.png?width=445&format=png&auto=webp&s=e8d719f4913883b044c4150f11b8732e14797b6d Increasing ROE despite lowering of leverage post 2016 https://preview.redd.it/lt34avzu9hk51.png?width=441&format=png&auto=webp&s=f3742ed87cd1c2ccb7a3d3ee71ae8c7007313b2b Mountains of cash have been piling up in the coffers increasing chances of increased dividends for shareholders (imo dividend is too low right now, but increasing it will tempt more investors into it), and on top of that in the last 10k a large buyback expansion program was implemented for $210m worth of shares, which shows how confident they are in the company itself. https://preview.redd.it/fliirmpx9hk51.png?width=370&format=png&auto=webp&s=1216eddeadb4f84c8f4f48692a2f962ba2f1e848 SGA expense/Gross profit has been declining despite expansion of offices I’m a bit concerned about the skin in the game leadership has in this company, since very few executives/board members have significant holdings in the company, but the CEO himself is a FactSet veteran, and knows his way around the company. On top of that, Bloomberg remains king for trading and the fixed income security market, and Reuters beats out FactSet here as well. If FactSet really wants to increase cash flow sources, the expansion into insurance and corp dev has to be successful. Summary: FactSet has a lot of growth still left in its industry which is already fast-growing in and of itself, and it only has more potential at its current valuation. Earnings September 24th should be a massive beat due to investment banking demand and growth plus Hedge fund requirements for data and portfolio management hasn’t gone anywhere and has likely increased due to more market opportunities to buy-in. Calls have shitty greeks, but if you're ballsy October 450s LOL, I'm holding shares I’d say it’s a great long term investment, and it should at least be on your watchlist.
The scene: I receive an email from my father. He sent me this link: https://cayarekylajules.gitlab.io/julescayarek/?placement=silverprice.org&creative=476738494285&campid=11533504265&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIu-_F-aH27AIV8QFoCB3HOQY8EAEYASAAEgKq6fD_BwE This was my response: --- If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. If your "investment" strategy seems akin to placing a bet in a casino, then you're not really investing. You're gambling. The significance of seeing a world government backing a cryptocurrency is high. Presumably it would be a cryptocurrency designed and supported by that country's central bank. Many countries (including Canada) are currently working on such projects. The catch though is that governments are not interested in careless speculation. They want stability in their national currencies. There are already several cryptocurrencies out there that are designed as "stablecoins," ie. they are designed to try to be pegged to the USD or Euro. So obviously a cryptocurrency that is designed to be pegged to fiat will not see any significant appreciation, save for marching in lockstep with the pegged national currency. There are still a lot of good uses for digital stable-coins, as opposed to traditional fiat. They would work very similar to current fiat currencies, and their stability would be an asset to certain classes of investors. Currently, they are used when investors/speculators think that other cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin are about to drop in price. The traders move their funds out of bitcoin and into the stablecoin, so the value is preserved, and then if the cryptocurrency actually drops in price, they can sell their stablecoin and buy the cryptocurrency again, ending up with a greater quantity of the cryptocurrency than they had when they started. The thing about cryptocurrencies that concerns me the most is that so few people understand how they work, and for those people, there is a serious risk of losing funds. Does anyone think that it's a good idea for someone with a grade 8 education to have access to a trading account where they can trade margined forex or leveraged derivatives? No. And for a lot of people, a true understanding of the characteristics and value of cryptocurrencies requires a good deal of financial and banking acumen, plus a solid grounding in economics. And perhaps it would help to have some mathematics and coding experience on the side. Edit: And to be clear, that site is also a scam.
Former investment bank FX trader: news trading and second order thinking
Thanks to everyone who responded to the previous pieces on risk management. We ended up with nearly 2,000 upvotes and I'm delighted so many of you found it useful. This time we're going to focus on a new area: reacting to and trading around news and fundamental developments. A lot of people get this totally wrong and the main reason is that they trade the news at face value, without considering what the market had already priced in. If you've ever seen what you consider to be "good" or "better than forecast" news come out and yet been confused as the pair did nothing or moved in the opposite direction to expected, read on... We are going to do this in two parts. Part I
Introduction
Why use an economic calendar
How to read the calendar
Knowing what's priced in
Surveys
Rates decisions
First order thinking vs second order thinking
Introduction
Knowing how to use and benefit from the economic calendar is key for all traders - not just news traders. In this chapter we are going to take a practical look at how to use the economic calendar. We are also going to look at how to interpret news using second order thinking. The key concept is learning what has already been ‘priced in’ by the market so we can estimate how the market price might react to the new information.
Why use an economic calendar
The economic calendar contains all the scheduled economic releases for that day and week. Even if you purely trade based on technical analysis, you still must know what is in store. https://preview.redd.it/20xdiq6gq4k51.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=6cd47186db1039be7df4d7ad6782de36da48f1db Why? Three main reasons. Firstly, releases can help provide direction. They create trends. For example if GBPUSD has been fluctuating aimlessly within a range and suddenly the Bank of England starts raising rates you better believe the British Pound will start to move. Big news events often start long-term trends which you can trade around. Secondly, a lot of the volatility occurs around these events. This is because these events give the market new information. Prior to a big scheduled release like the US Non Farm Payrolls you might find no one wants to take a big position. After it is released the market may move violently and potentially not just in a single direction - often prices may overshoot and come back down. Even without a trend this volatility provides lots of trading opportunities for the day trader. https://preview.redd.it/u17iwbhiq4k51.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=98ea8ed154c9468cb62037668c38e7387f2435af Finally, these releases can change trends. Going into a huge release because of a technical indicator makes little sense. Everything could reverse and stop you out in a moment. You need to be aware of which events are likely to influence the positions you have on so you can decide whether to keep the positions or flatten exposure before the binary event for which you have no edge. Most traders will therefore ‘scan’ the calendar for the week ahead, noting what the big events are and when they will occur. Then you can focus on each day at a time.
Reading the economic calendar
Most calendars show events cut by trading day. Helpfully they adjust the time of each release to your own timezone. For example we can see that the Bank of Japan Interest Rate decision is happening at 4am local time for this particular London-based trader. https://preview.redd.it/lmx0q9qoq4k51.jpg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c6e9e1533b1ba236e51296de8db3be55dfa78ba1 Note that some events do not happen at a specific time. Think of a Central Banker’s speech for example - this can go on for an hour. It is not like an economic statistic that gets released at a precise time. Clicking the finger emoji will open up additional information on each event.
Event importance
How do you define importance? Well, some events are always unimportant. With the greatest of respect to Italian farmers, nobody cares about mundane releases like Italian farm productivity figures. Other events always seem to be important. That means, markets consistently react to them and prices move. Interest rate decisions are an example of consistently high importance events. So the Medium and High can be thought of as guides to how much each event typically affects markets. They are not perfect guides, however, as different events are more or less important depending on the circumstances. For example, imagine the UK economy was undergoing a consumer-led recovery. The Central Bank has said it would raise interest rates (making GBPUSD move higher) if they feel the consumer is confident. Consumer confidence data would suddenly become an extremely important event. At other times, when the Central Bank has not said it is focused on the consumer, this release might be near irrelevant.
Knowing what's priced in
Next to each piece of economic data you can normally see three figures. Actual, Forecast, and Previous.
Actual refers to the number as it is released.
Forecast refers to the consensus estimate from analysts.
Previous is what it was last time.
We are going to look at this in a bit more detail later but what you care about is when numbers are better or worse than expected. Whether a number is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ really does not matter much. Yes, really. Once you understand that markets move based on the news vs expectations, you will be less confused by price action around events This is a common misunderstanding. Say everyone is expecting ‘great’ economic data and it comes out as ‘good’. Does the price go up? You might think it should. After all, the economic data was good. However, everyone expected it to be great and it was just … good. The great release was ‘priced in’ by the market already. Most likely the price will be disappointed and go down. By priced in we simply mean that the market expected it and already bought or sold. The information was already in the price before the announcement. Incidentally the official forecasts can be pretty stale and might not accurately capture what active traders in the market expect. See the following example.
An example of pricing in
For example, let’s say the market is focused on the number of Tesla deliveries. Analysts think it’ll be 100,000 this quarter. But Elon Musk tweets something that hints he’s really, really, really looking forward to the analyst call. Tesla’s price ticks higher after the tweet as traders put on positions, reflecting the sentiment that Tesla is likely to massively beat the 100,000. (This example is not a real one - it just serves to illustrate the concept.) Tesla deliveries are up hugely vs last quarter ... but they are disappointing vs market expectations ... what do you think will happen to the stock? On the day it turns out Tesla hit 101,000. A better than the officially forecasted result - sure - but only marginally. Way below what readers of Musk's twitter account might have thought. Disappointed traders may sell their longs and close out the positions. The stock might go down on ‘good’ results because the market had priced in something even better. (This example is not a real one - it just serves to illustrate the concept.)
We know that interest rates heavily affect currency prices. For major interest rate decisions there’s a great tool on the CME’s website that you can use. See the link for a demo This gives you a % probability of each interest rate level, implied by traded prices in the bond futures market. For example, in the case above the market thinks there’s a 20% chance the Fed will cut rates to 75-100bp. Obviously this is far more accurate than analyst estimates because it uses actual bond prices where market participants are directly taking risk and placing bets. It basically looks at what interest rate traders are willing to lend at just before/after the date of the central bank meeting to imply the odds that the market ascribes to a change on that date. Always try to estimate what the market has priced in. That way you have some context for whether the release really was better or worse than expected.
Second order thinking
You have to know what the market expects to try and guess how it’ll react. This is referred to by Howard Marks of Oaktree as second-level thinking. His explanation is so clear I am going to quote extensively. It really is hard to improve on this clarity of thought: First-level thinking is simplistic and superficial, and just about everyone can do it (a bad sign for anything involving an attempt at superiority). All the first-level thinker needs is an opinion about the future, as in “The outlook for the company is favorable, meaning the stock will go up.” Second-level thinking is deep, complex and convoluted. Howard Marks He explains first-level thinking: The first-level thinker simply looks for the highest quality company, the best product, the fastest earnings growth or the lowest p/e ratio. He’s ignorant of the very existence of a second level at which to think, and of the need to pursue it. Howard Marks The above describes the guy who sees a 101,000 result and buys Tesla stock because - hey, this beat expectations. Marks goes on to describe second-level thinking: The second-level thinker goes through a much more complex process when thinking about buying an asset. Is it good? Do others think it’s as good as I think it is? Is it really as good as I think it is? Is it as good as others think it is? Is it as good as others think others think it is? How will it change? How do others think it will change? How is it priced given: its current condition; how do I think its conditions will change; how others think it will change; and how others think others think it will change? And that’s just the beginning. No, this isn’t easy. Howard Marks In this version of events you are always thinking about the market’s response to Tesla results. What do you think they’ll announce? What has the market priced in? Is Musk reliable? Are the people who bought because of his tweet likely to hold on if he disappoints or exit immediately? If it goes up at which price will they take profit? How big a number is now considered ‘wow’ by the market? As Marks says: not easy. However, you need to start getting into the habit of thinking like this if you want to beat the market. You can make gameplans in advance for various scenarios. Here are some examples from Marks to illustrate the difference between first order and second order thinking. Some further examples Trying to react fast to headlines is impossible in today’s market of ultra fast computers. You will never win on speed. Therefore you have to out-think the average participant.
Coming up in part II
Now that we have a basic understanding of concepts such as expectations and what the market has priced in, we can look at some interesting trading techniques and tools. Part II
Preparing for quantitative and qualitative releases
Data surprise index
Using recent events to predict future reactions
Buy the rumour, sell the fact
The trimming position effect
Reversals
Some key FX releases
Hope you enjoyed this note. As always, please reply with any questions/feedback - it is fun to hear from you. *** Disclaimer:This content is not investment advice and you should not place any reliance on it. The views expressed are the author's own and should not be attributed to any other person, including their employer.
RBI & how its policies can start to affect the market
Disclaimer: This DD is to help start forming a market view as per RBI announcements. Also a gentle reminder that fundamentals play out over a longer time frame than intraday. The authors take no responsiblity for your yolos. With contributions by Asli Bakchodi, Bran OP & dragononweed! What is the RBI? RBI is the central bank of India. They are one of the key players who affect India’s economic trajectory. They control currency supply, banking rules and more. This means that it is not a bank in which retailers or corporates can open an account with. Instead they are a bank for bankers and the Government of India. Their functions can be broadly classified into 6. · Monetary authority · Financial supervisor for financial system · Issuer of currency · Manages Foreign exchange · Bankers bank · Banker to the government This DD will take a look at each of these functions. It will be followed by a list of rates the RBI sets, and how changes in them can affect the market. 1.Monetary Authority One of RBI’s functions is to achieve the goal of “Price Stability” in the economy. This essentially means achieving an inflation rate that is within a desired limit. A monetary policy committee (MPC) decides on the desired inflation rate and its limits through majority vote of its 6 members, in consultation with the GoI. The current inflation target for RBI is as follows Consumer Price Inflation (CPI): 4% Upper Limit: 6% Lower Limit: 2% An increase in CPI means less purchasing power. Generally speaking, if inflation is too high, the public starts cutting down on spending, leading to a negative impact on the markets. And vice versa. Lower inflation leads to more purchasing power, more spending, more investments leading to a positive impact on the market. 2.Financial Supervisor For Financial System A financial system consists of financial markets (Capital market, money market, forex market etc.), financial institutions (banks, stock exchanges, NBFC etc) & financial assets (currencies, bills, bonds etc) RBI supervises this entire system and lays down the rules and regulations for it. It can also use further ‘Selective Credit Controls’ to regulate banks. 3.Issues of currency The RBI is responsible for the printing of currency notes. RBI is free to print as much as it wants as long as the minimum reserve of Rs 200 Cr (Gold 112 Cr) is maintained. The RBI has total assets or a balance size sheet of Rs. 51 trillion (April 2020). (1 Trillion = 1 Lakh crore) India’s current reserves mean our increase in currency circulation is well managed. 4.Manages Foreign Exchange RBI regulates all of India’s foreign exchange transactions. It is the custodian of all of foreign currencies in India. It allows for the foreign exchange value of the rupee to be controlled. RBI also buy and sell rupees in the foreign exchange market at its discretion. In case of any currency movement, a country’s central bank can directly intervene to either push the currency up, as India has been doing, or to keep it artificially low, as the Chinese central bank does. To push up a currency, a central bank can sell dollars, which is the global reserve currency, or the currency against which all others are measured. To push down a currency, a central bank can buy dollars. The RBI deciding this depends on the import/export and financial health of the country. Generally a weaker rupee means imports are more expensive, but are favourable for exports. And a stronger rupee means imports are cheaper but are unfavourable for exports. A weaker rupee can make foreign investment more lucrative driving up FII. A stronger rupee can have an adverse effect of FII investing in markets. 5.Banker’s Bank Every bank has to maintain a certain amount of reserve with the RBI. A certain percentage of a bank’s liabilities (anywhere between 3-15% as decided by RBI) has to be maintained in this account. This is called the Cash Reserve Ratio. This is determined by the MPC during the monetary policy review (which happens every six weeks at present). It lends money from this reserve to other banks if they are short on cash, but generally, it is seen as a last resort move. Banks are encouraged to meet their shortfalls of cash from other resources. 6.Banker to the government RBI is the entity that carries out ALL monetary transactions on behalf of the Government. It holds custody of the cash balance of the Government, gives temporary loans to both central and state governments and manages the debt operations of the central Government, through instruments of debt and the interest rates associated with them - like bonds. The different rates set & managed by RBI - Repo rate The rate at which RBI is willing to lend to commercial banks is called as Repo Rate. Banks sometimes need money for emergency or to maintain the SLR and CRR (explained below). They borrow this from RBI but have to pay some interest on it. The interest that is to be paid on the amount to the RBI is called as Repo Rate. It does not function like a normal loan but acts like a forward contract. Banks have to provide collateral like government bonds, T-bills etc. Repo means Repurchase Option is the true meaning of Repo an agreement where the bank promises to repurchase these government securities after the repo period is over. As a tool to control inflation, RBI increases the Repo Rate making it more expensive for banks to borrow from the RBI with a view to restrict availability of money. Exact opposite stance shall be taken in case of deflationary environment. The change of repo rate is aimed to affect the flow of money in the economy. An increase in repo rate decreases the flow of money in the economy, while the decrease in repo rate increases the flow of money in the economy. RBI by changing these rates shows its stance to the economy at large whether they prioritize growth or inflation. - Reverse Repo Rate The rate at which the RBI is willing to borrow from the Banks is called as Reverse Repo Rate. If the RBI increases the reverse repo rate, it means that the RBI is willing to offer lucrative interest rate to banks to park their money with the RBI. Banks in this case agree to resell government securities after reverse repo period. Generally, an increase in reverse repo rate that banks will have a higher incentive to park their money with RBI. It decreases liquidity, affecting the market in a negative manner. Decrease in reverse repo rate increases liquidity affecting the market in a positive manner. Both the repo rate and reverse repo rate fall under the Liquidity Adjustment Facility tools for RBI. - Cash reserve ratio (CRR) Banks in India are required to deposit a specific percentage of their net demand and time liabilities (NDTL) in the form of CASH with the RBI. This minimum ratio (that is the part of the total deposits to be held as cash) is stipulated by the RBI and is known as the CRR or Cash Reserve Ratio. These reserves will not be in circulation at any point in time. For example, if a bank had a NDTL (like current Account, Savings Account and Fixed Deposits) of 100Cr and the CRR is at 3%, it would have to keep 3Cr as Cash reserve ratio to the RBI. This amount earns no interest. Currently it is at 3%. A lower cash ratio means banks can deposit just a lower amount and use the remaining money leading to higher liquidity. This translates to more money to invest which is seen as positive for the market. Inversely, a higher cash ratio equates to lower liquidity which translates to a negative market sentiment. Thus, the RBI uses the CRR to control excess money flow and regulate liquidity in the economy. - Statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) Banks in India have to keep a certain percentage of their net demand and time liabilities WITH THEMSELVES. And this can be in the form of liquid assets like gold and government securities, not just cash. A lot of banks keep them in government bonds as they give a decent interest. The current SLR ratio of 18.25%, which means that for every Rs.100 deposited in a bank, it has to invest Rs.18.50 in any of the asset classes approved by RBI. A low SLR means higher levels of loans to the private sector. This boosts investment and acts as a positive sentiment for the market. Conversely a high SLR means tighter levels of credit and can cause a negative effect on the market. Essentially, the RBI uses the SLR to control ease of credit in the economy. It also ensures that the banks maintain a certain level of funds to meet depositor’s demands instead of over liquidation. - Bank Rate Bank rate is a rate at which the Reserve Bank of India provides the loan to commercial banks without keeping any security. There is no agreement on repurchase that will be drawn up or agreed upon with no collateral as well. This is different from repo rate as loans taken with repo rate are taken on the basis of securities. Bank rate hence is higher than the repo rate. Currently the bank rate is 4.25%. Since bank rate is essentially a loan interest rate like repo rate, it affects the market in similar ways. - Marginal Cost of Funds based Lending Rate (MCLR) This is the minimum rate below which the banks are not allowed to lend. Raising this rate, makes loans more expensive, drying up liquidity, affecting the market in a negative way. Similarly, lower MCLR rates will bring in high liquidity, affecting the market in a positive way. MCLR is a varying lending rate instead of a single rate according to the kind of loans. Currently, the MCLR rate is between 6.65% - 7.15% - Marginal Standing facility Marginal Standing Facility is the interest rate at which a depository institution (generally banks) lends or borrows funds with another depository institution in the overnight market. Overnight market is the part of financial market which offers the shortest term loans. These loans have to be repaid the next day. MSF can be used by a bank after it exhausts its eligible security holdings for borrowing under other options like the Liquidity adjustment facilities. The MSF would be a penal rate for banks and the banks can borrow funds by pledging government securities within the limits of the statutory liquidity ratio. The current rate stands at 4.25%. The effect it has on the market is synonymous with the other lending rates such as repo rate & bank rate. - Loan to value ratio The loan-to-value (LTV) ratio is an assessment of lending risk that financial institutions and other lenders examine before approving a mortgage. Typically, loan assessments with high LTV ratios are considered higher risk loans. Basically, if a companies preferred form of collateral rises in value and leads the market (growing faster than the market), then the company will see the loans that it signed with higher LTV suddenly reduce (but the interest rate remains the same). Let’s consider an example of gold as a collateral. Consider a loan was approved with gold as collateral. The market price for gold is Rs 2000/g, and for each g, a loan of Rs 1500 was given. (The numbers are simplified for understanding). This would put LTV of the loan at 1500/2000 = 0.75. Since it is a substantial LTV, say the company priced the loan at 20% interest rate. Now the next year, the price of gold rose to Rs 3000/kg. This would mean that the LTV of the current loan has changed to 0.5 but the company is not obligated to change the interest rate. This means that even if the company sees a lot of defaults, it is fairly protected by the unexpected surge in the underlying asset. Moreover, since the underlying asset is more valuable, default rates for the loans goes down as people are more protective of the collateral they have placed. The same scenario for gold is happening right now and is the reason for gold backed loan providers like MUTHOOT to hit ATHs as gold is leading the economy right now. Also, these in these scenarios, it also enables companies to offer additional loan on same gold for those who are interested Instead of keeping the loan amount same most of the gold loan companies. Based on above, we can see that as RBI changes LTV for certain assets, we are in a position to identify potential institutions that could get a good Quarterly result and try to enter it early. Conclusion The above rates contain the ways in the Central Bank manages the monetary policy, growth and inflation in the country. Its impact on Stock market is often seen when these rates are changed, they act as triggers for the intraday positions on that day. But overall, the outlook is always maintained on how the RBI sees the country is doing, and knee jerk reactions are limited to intraday positions. The long term stance is always well within the limits of the outlook the big players in the market are expecting. The important thing to keep in mind is that the problems facing the economy needn’t be uni-dimensional. Problems with inflation, growth, liquidity, currency depreciation all can come together, for which the RBI will have to play a balancing role with all it powers to change these rates and the forex reserve. So the effect on the market needs to be given more thought than simply extrapolated as ‘rates go low, markets go up’. But understanding these individual effects of these rates allows you to start putting together the puzzle of how and where the market and the economy could go.
Forex Trading Basics Reddit - Forex Glossary Terms For Beginners
What is Forex - Terminology
https://preview.redd.it/pmjpy8sqh1x51.jpg?width=580&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b02715d6d6f153592a967f577c18578363ca731c The FOREX market is the largest financial market in the world. On a daily basis, trillions of dollars are traded in different currencies around the world. Being FOREX the basis for international capital transactions, its liquidity and volume are much greater than any other financial market. It is estimated that the average volume traded by the world's largest stock exchange, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in a full month, is equal to the volume traded daily in the Forex currency market. In addition, it is estimated that this volume will increase by 25% annually. 80% of transactions are between the US dollar (USD), the euro (EUR), the yen (JPY), the British pound (GBP), the Swiss franc (CHF), and the Australian dollars (AUD) and Canadian (CAD).
What is traded in the Forex market?
We could just say that money. Trading in FOREX simultaneously involves buying one currency (for example euros) and selling another (for example US dollars). These simultaneous purchase and sale operations are carried out through online brokers. Operations are specified in pairs; for example the euro and the dollar (EUR / USD) or the pound sterling and the Yen (GBP / JPY). These types of transactions can be somewhat confusing at first since nothing is being purchased physically. Basically, each currency is tied to the economy of its respective country and its value is a direct reflection of people's perception of that economy. For example, if there is a perception that the economy in Japan is going to weaken, the Yen is likely to be devalued against other currencies. In other words, people are going to sell Yen and they are going to buy currencies from countries where the economy is or will be better than Japan. In general, the exchange of one currency for another reflects the condition of the health of the economy of that country with respect to the health of the economy of other countries. Unlike other financial markets such as the stock market, the currency market does not have a fixed location like the largest exchanges in the world. These types of markets are known as OTC (Over The Counter). Transactions take place independently around the world, mainly over the Internet, and prices can vary from place to place. Due to its decentralized nature, the foreign exchange market is operated 24 hours a day from Monday to Friday. >>> Forex Signals With Unbeatable Performance: Verified Forex Results And 5° Rated OnInvesting.com|Free Forex Signals Trial:CLICK HERE TO JOIN FOR FREE
The 8 most widely used currencies (USD, EUR, JPY, GBP, CHF, CAD, NZD, and AUD) are known as “ major currencies ”. All other currencies are called " minor currencies ." You don't need to worry about minor currencies, as you probably won't start trading them for now. The USD, EUR, JPY, GBP, and CHF currencies are the most popular and most liquid currencies on the market.
• Base currency
The base currency is the first currency in any currency pair. It shows how much the base currency is worth against the second currency. For example, if the USD / CHF has a rate of 1.6350, it means that 1 USD is worth 1.6350 CHF. In the forex market, the US dollar is in many cases the base currency to make quotes, the quotes are expressed in units of $ 1 on the other currency of the pair. In some other pairs, the base currency is the British pound, the euro, the Australian dollar, or the New Zealand dollar.
• Quoted currency
The quote currency is the second currency in the currency pair. This is often referred to as a "pip-currency" and any unrealized gains or losses are expressed in this currency.
• Pip
A pip is the smallest unit of the price of any currency. Almost all currencies consist of 5 significant digits and most pairs have the decimal point immediately after the first digit. For example EUR / USD = 1.2538, in this case, a pip is the smallest change in the fourth decimal space, which is, 0.0001. A notable exception is the USD / JPY pair where the pip equals $ 0.01.
• Purchase price (bid)
The buying price (bid) is the price at which the market is ready to buy a specific currency in the Forex market. At this price, one can sell the base currency. The purchase price is displayed on the left side. For example, in GBP / USD = 1.88112 / 15, the selling price is 1.8812. This means that you can sell a GPB for $ 1.8812.
• Sale Price (ask)
The asking price is the price at which the market is ready to sell a specific currency pair in the Forex market. At this price, you can buy the base currency. The sale price is displayed on the right-hand side. For example, at EUR / USD = 1.2812 / 15, the selling price here is 1.2815. This means that you can buy one euro for $ 1.2815. The selling price is also called the bid price.
• Spread
All Forex quotes include two prices, the bid (offer) and the ask (demand). The bid is the price at which the broker is willing to buy the base currency in exchange for the quoted currency. This means that the bid is the price at which you can sell. The ask is the price at which the broker is willing to sell the base currency in exchange for the quoted currency. This means that the ask is the price at which you will buy. The difference between the bid and the ask is popularly known as the spread and is the consideration that the online broker receives for its services.
• Transaction costs
The transaction cost, which could be said to be the same as the Spread, is calculated as: Transaction Cost = Ask - Bid. It is the number of pips that are paid when opening a position. The final amount also depends on the size of the operation. It is important to note that depending on the broker and the volatility, the difference between the ask and the bid can increase, making it more expensive to open a trade. This generally happens when there is a lot of volatility and little liquidity, as happens during the announcement of some relevant economic data.
• Cross currency
A cross-currency is any pair where one of the currencies is the US dollar (USD). These pairs show an erratic price behavior when the operator opens two operations in US dollars. For example, opening a long trade to buy EUR / GPB is equivalent to buying EUR / USD and selling GPB / USD. Cross-currency pairs generally carry a higher transaction cost.
• Margin
When you open a new account margin with a Forex broker, you must deposit a minimum amount of money to your broker. This minimum varies depending on each broker and can be as low as € / $ 100 at higher amounts. Each time a new trade is executed a percentage of your account margin balance will be the initial margin required for a new trade based on the underlying currency pair, current price, and the number of units (or lots) of the trade. . For example, let's say you open a mini account which gives you a leverage of 1: 200 or a margin of 0.5%. Mini accounts work with mini lots. Suppose a mini lot equals $ 10,000. If you are about to open a mini lot, instead of having to invest $ 10,000, you will only need $ 50 ($ 10,000 x 0.5% = $ 50).
• Leverage
Leverage is the ratio of the capital used in a transaction to the required deposit. It is the ability to control large amounts of dollars with relatively less capital. Leverage varies drastically depending on the broker, it can go from 1: 2 to even 1: 2000. The most common level of leverage in Forex can currently be around 1: 200.
• Margin + leverage = dangerous combination
Trading currencies on margin allows you to increase your buying power. This means that if you have $ 5,000 in account margin that allows you a 1: 100 leverage, you can then buy $ 500,000 in foreign exchange as you only have to invest a percentage of the purchase price. Another way of saying this is that you have $ 500,000 in purchasing power. With more purchasing power you can greatly increase your potential profits without an outlay of cash. But be careful, working with a high margin increases your profits but also your losses if the trade does not progress in your favor. >>> Forex Signals With Unbeatable Performance: Verified Forex Results And 5° Rated OnInvesting.com|Free Forex Signals Trial:CLICK HERE TO JOIN FOR FREE
If you're looking for a way to earn free trx, there are many ways that you can go about doing so. These ways, in order from easy to hard, are: Sign up for a reliable trx webste. Setup an online private wallet. Earn free trx via an iPhone application. In this article, I'm going to describe each of these methods and how they can help you make free trx! If you don't already have a reliable coin trading community, it's important to take the time to do so before you start looking for a place to get involved in this exciting industry. You'll quickly realize that the more people you know in this field, the more likely it is that you'll be able to trade freely. This is one of the most important reasons to become part of a community. My first tip is to join a great place to learn about trading. There are literally dozens of great sites out there that cover every aspect of this industry. If you want to earn free trx, you should definitely do your research and find a great place to learn about it. My second tip is to set up your very own online private wallets to earn free trx. You can do this in two ways. Either get a software program that allows you to trade for free with no risk or create your own wallet with your personal details and generate income with it. Both methods work well and can produce some good income. My third tip is to buy some free trx from people that you know. This can be a very lucrative way of making some extra money on the side. If you don't want to spend too much money initially, buying a few coins and selling them off again can work really well. Hopefully, after reading through this article you'll have a much better idea of how to get started earning free trx. If you follow my advice, you should soon be seeing some nice profits! Online trading is a very fun way to earn money online and it's a great way to learn the ins and outs of how to become an expert in this field. Once you're used to it, you can also set up your own website to help you sell other people's cryptos and profit as well. When you're trading with other currencies, your margins tend to be lower compared to the ones you would get in Forex trading, but you'll make a lot more money in this industry. The reason for this is because you trade multiple currencies on a daily basis. The great thing about this is that you can get started trading Forex on autopilot with just a few mouse clicks. It's very convenient and very fast. Plus, there are literally hundreds of Forex traders out there willing to help you.
TD Ameritrade warning of increase in volatility around election could increase margin reqirements without warning.... Something to keep in mind regardless of broker, yall!
Rec'd this message yesterday. Saw some other posts asking about how to trade the election. This is something to keep in mind for those who refuse to use stops or close losing trades becasuse 'its coming back'. "In preparation for the upcoming U.S. election, TD Ameritrade Futures & Forex LLC wants to inform you of the potential for increased volatility and reduced liquidity that may result. While we expect the forex market to function as normal, the possibility for increased volatility across all forex currency pairs may cause spreads to widen and affect your ability to execute orders. At this time, we are not increasing margin requirements. However, we reserve the right to increase the margin requirement on any forex pair at any time without notice."...." Sincerely, TD Ameritrade Futures & Forex LLC"
https://preview.redd.it/6my3p5fd0gv51.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=580cd88e1c69d0e2fdd9f0187c8f682159d77ea6 PrimeXBT is a cutting-edge trading platform that bridges the gap between the cryptocurrency and traditional asset markets, providing a range of advanced tools and features for the optimization of the way its users trade and invest. As well as this, PrimeXBT provides a safe and secure environment that is fully compliant with AML and KYC, and that uses advanced bank-grade security features in order to protect the funds of its users. We're taking a look at the 5 best features of PrimeXBT in 2020, beginning with a look at what PrimeXBT actually is and the growth of PrimeXBT, before looking at the top 5 features that users at the platform enjoy. What is PrimeXBT? https://preview.redd.it/caj1fufl0gv51.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=de015bb00a8785dc43fa1e16c11838521acfe1e8 PrimeXBT is the world's leading multi-asset margin trading platform and after launching in 2018 with a waiting list of more than 150,000 traders, PrimeXBT has rapidly grown over the past 2 years to today managing up to $2 billion worth of global trade every day. PrimeXBT's reputation is built around the provision of advanced tools and features that are unique throughout the market and that provide powerful opportunities for traders and investors to reduce the risk and to improve the outcomes of their trading activities. PrimeXBT lists a wide range of cryptocurrencies and traditional assets, provides industry leading margin trading, and packs some of the most advanced security features used in the market into its platform as well. The Growth of PrimeXBT What Distinguishes PrimeXBT from Other Platforms? While there are many trading platforms that provide margin trading in 2020, PrimeXBT provides a safer and more secure environment for cryptocurrency and traditional asset margin traders. Unlike many other platforms which have been hacked over the past few years, PrimeXBT has a clean security track record and has never been hacked, protecting its users with advanced features. As well as this, PrimeXBT is considered to be one of the most innovative trading platforms in the cryptocurrency industry, integrating a range of next generation tools and features into its services and providing new ways of trading and investing for the cryptocurrency market. 5 Best Features of PrimeXBT: Lowest Fees of Any Major Crypto Platform Since its launch, PrimeXBT has provided the lowest trading fees on the market with a flat rate of just 0.05% applied to all trades, irrespective of the size of the trade or the asset class being traded. While some of the major trading platforms provide lower fees than the average, PrimeXBT's fees are significantly lower than any other platforms and up to 10 times lower than the most expensive platforms to use. This has ensured that PrimeXBT’s traders and investors are able to minimize the cost of trading by using the platform, and to maximize the revenue that they generate in the market. Powerful and Reliable Platform PrimeXBT is a powerful and reliable platform that packs a range of professionally-engineered tools and technologies into its systems, ensuring that traders can engage with the market in the most effective way possible. Perhaps the best example of this is PrimeXBT’s trading engine which is strong and robust and that can execute up to 12,000 trades per second with an average trade time of less than 7.02 ms. By providing a combination of ensuring high liquidity on all trading pairs as well as providing powerful trading tools, PrimeXBT ensures that there is minimum slippage on the platform and optimal entry and exit points as well. Covesting For Reduced Risk and Crypto Copy Trading PrimeXBT provides access to the only form of copy trading available in the cryptocurrency space following the integration of covesting into its systems in a partnership with leading crypto copy trading platform, Covesting.io. Covesting allows traders and investors to partner together and to collectively maximize their safety in the market while reducing risk and improving the collective outcomes in the process. Covesting is a revolutionary new way for cryptocurrency traders to engage with the market and is one of the fastest growing trends in 2020. AML/KYC Compliance for Safe Trading PrimeXBT uses Bitfury Crystal's AML compliance software and blockchain monitoring tool set on all incoming transactions to the platform in order to ensure full AML compliance and safety for all users on PrimeXBT. PrimeXBT also restricts citizens from problematic jurisdictions with users confirming their country of residence in order for KYC compliance throughout the platform to be achieved. Using this system, Primax PT not only ensures that it is fully AML/KYC compliant, but also that it is able to monitor and manage transactions that may be fraudulent in real-time throughout the platform. Widest Range of Assets in the Market One of the major draw cards of using PrimeXBT is that it provides one of the widest ranges of different assets in the market with a range of leading cryptoassets as well as some of the world's top traditional assets as well. PrimeXBT lists a range of cryptocurrencies that include BTC, ETH, XRP, LTC, and EOS, as well as a range of traditional assets like stock indices such as the S&P500 and FTSE100, forex pairs such as USD/EUR and AUD/CAD, and commodities such as gold and oil. Traders and investors are able to use PrimeXBT as a bridge between the crypto assets and traditional asset markets, reducing the cost of trading between them, as well as dramatically increasing the efficiency of multi-asset trading in the process. What is the Future of PrimeXBT? In a very short amount of time of just 2 years, PrimeXBT has gone from launching with a waitlist of more than 150,000 traders to today managing up to $2 billion worth of global trade every day. If the trajectory of growth for PrimeXBT continues it will no doubt see the platform expanding into a range of different areas of online financial trading, and will see the platform become one of the largest trading platforms to ever be in operation. Over the past 2 years, PrimeXBT's reputation has only grown in strength and we would expect to see this continue as it integrates more safety and security features into its services and increases its compliance with AML and KYC globally. In Conclusion PrimeXBT has grown to become one of the world's leading crypto trading platforms, and provides access to some of the world's leading cryptoassets as well as many of the world's leading traditional assets as well. PrimeXBT has provided a range of different advantages to its uses, with these essentially boiling down to powerful opportunities for more success in global markets as well as increased security and safety in comparison to other platforms. If you would like to learn more about PrimeXBT, and about the tools and features available on the site, check out this link.
The million dollar question – Why Consider Options Trading
With so many alternative ways of investing in markets, these days, working out which is right for you, can be more challenging than ever. While some areas, such as CFD’s have become fashionable, as we all know, fashion lasts just a season at best! Options, however, are now approaching their 40th Anniversary on the Australian Stock Market – they aren’t fashion, they are style, and real style never dates!
What are some of the key benefits of trading options?
More than any single investment vehicle, options provide flexibility. By that, I mean you can have the potential to profit from a whole range of market conditions – Up, Down, Sideways, Extremely Volatile, not volatile and frankly, no other investment vehicle can offer this kind of opportunity, period! Options can be used to manage risk, or to protect and hedge, or to generate income, or to exploit market moves for leveraged capital gain, or to profit from no move in the market – again – no other investment vehicle is able to offer this!! Perhaps most importantly, for many, they bring leverage to the table in what is a potentially far safer way than other instruments. Specifically, with instruments such as Forex, Margin Lending, CFDs or Futures, it is possible to lose more money than you put down. In other words you become the victim of a margin call. With a bought option this is simply not possible – you cannot lose more than you put in.
What about security?
Options are what is known as an Exchange Traded Instrument or ETO for short. This means that all trades are cleared out through a regulated exchange, be that the ASX in Australia, or in the US, the Nasdaq for example. By trading through an exchange there is an enormous safety net. That safety net is zero counterparty risk. Because all trades are cleared through an exchange, a process called Novation means that if the other person or broking firm on the other side of the transaction is unable to settle, fails financial or has no money, your position is guaranteed by the Exchange themselves, who stand behind the trade. While you may not necessarily appreciate the significance of this, it is huge! By contrast, trading on CFDs or Forex are Over The Counter or OTC products where, as an investor, you are not protected by the Exchange, to effectively guarantee the other side of the trade. In short, if the counterparty fails, you lose your money… Trust me, in today’s market this is critically important and hence why we love Options.
Are there risks with Options trading?
Yes there are but in the majority of cases, these risks can be mitigated. Specifically there are strategies that are lower risk, and others that are higher. As a result, learning which strategies best fit for you and your circumstances, is an important and often missed step. For example, “Naked” or “Sold only” positions in the options market can be extremely risky, hence we encourage our clients to avoid these like the plague! That is of course, until they have built up a good level of expertise. Instead, we far prefer lower risk strategies that have the ability to more consistently offer a steady return.
MAKE MONEY WITH TRADING (Forex, Stocks, Binary Options)
https://preview.redd.it/onvu1owbn2v51.jpg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=63508b4c3653556bc53e4ef2df86a29df5e5dd0b Trading consists of buying and selling assets, such as stocks, futures, currencies or derivatives, in a financial market. To trade, so that we obtain benefits, we will have to speculate with the movements in the price of the assets. This is the first step to making money from trading. The word trading is usually associated with short-term investments, that is, short operations that seek benefits limited to a small time frame. In other words, trading and investing are the same, only the time frame changes. So if you hear terms like "stock trading" or "stock trading" it is the same thing, only they usually refer to different time frames. The person who invests or trades is called a trader. A trader then is someone who invests in the financial markets. Generally, the term trader is usually added to the asset that operates. For example, stock trader, futures trader, forex trader, in short, the asset that operates. As you can see I am adding several concepts so that we all start from the same base. So, trading is basically buying and selling assets, trying to buy at the lowest possible price and sell as high as possible. As simple as that. I want you to understand something, the bases are 70% of your trading. It is amazing to see how advanced traders forget the basics before trading. By advanced trader I mean someone who already knows how to trade but that doesn't necessarily make him a winning trader. In most cases they apply complicated strategies and forget something as simple as the bases. How much can a trader earn? You put the roof on it, there is no limit. I recommend you measure your progress in percentages and not in nominals. It is best to verify your progress. Is it necessary to be in a Trading Academy? Like everything, there are some who like to be social and others who prefer to work in a self-taught way. In trading, it is the same. If you need the constant support of people to not be demotivated, then a Trading Academy is a good option. Now, if you are an already motivated person who only needs to clear up doubts, then the best thing is a mentor, consulting professional, or a trading teacher who clears your doubts. The foundations for making money trading have to be solid if we want to make profits consistently. So today I want to emphasize that, the foundations of being a successful trader. Let us begin!
How to Make Money Trading Reddit - Key Steps
https://preview.redd.it/la3o4919o2v51.jpg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=02e5635985796aa609c9ed4848285b4ce69f1196 1) Buy Supports (and resistances) Buying in supports is buying in a key area where the price exerts a certain friction preventing the price from continuing to advance, for whatever reason. A support is nothing more than an area where the asset finds the confidence of investors, it is the level where they estimate that it is a good purchase price for them, and that is why they buy the asset in question, in such a way that the asset finds help in that level. Most trading systems, at least the ones I know of which are a few, are based on this principle but what happens, they camouflage it with flourishes. Instead of saying, to the purchase in supports, they add colored mirrors so that it does not look so simple. I'm not saying that details are not good, but exaggeration of details can lead to confusion and later paralysis. Systems must necessarily be simple. Buying in stands not only improves your overall entry, but it drastically lowers your risks. The further we move away from a support, the more the risk increases. Many times we end up buying halfway because the price "escaped" us and we think that we will not have another equal opportunity. The reality is that the market always provides opportunities for those who know how to wait. There is a saying that the beginning trader has fun in the market, the professional trader gets bored. This does not mean that the professional trader does things reluctantly, or that he does not like to invest. It means that the professional trader waits crouched, calm, for that opportunity that he is looking for appears, that entry into support that reduces his risk. While the novice trader enters and exits the market euphoric. A professional trader can be in front of the screen all day and not make a single trade. The novice trader, on the other hand, if he spends more than 5 minutes without trading, he already feels bad, anxious and thinks that he is losing opportunities. Without further ado, enter supports. 2) Execute stop loss Holding losses is the biggest mistake of traders. Who in the beginning has not moved the stop loss because the operation moved against him? It's a very common mistake. We enter the market, we put the stop, the operation turns against us and instead of executing the stop, we RUN IT! We are camicaces. The typical phrase "I'm waiting to recover" has burned entire wallets. The market fell 40% and instead of leaving, they began to pray. The great advantage of small portfolios, that is, investors with little capital, is flexibility and speed of reaction. By running the stop loss you are losing the only advantage you have with respect to professionals and large investors. Because they sure have more capital and have wider margins. Please don't take losses, don't run the stop loss. If you miss the stop, distance yourself from the market and analyze why that happened to you for the next better place your stop. 3) Sell in resistonce I want you to remember something. Until you sell, the profits are not yours. Until you sell, you have no money. Until you sell, you cannot say that the operation was successful. Many traders are very good at finding entries. They perfectly see the supports and manage to enter at the best prices. But what happens to them, they don't sell. It hits a key resistance, where price clearly can't break through and what they do, they hold out in case it breaks. The worst, the price does not break or make an upthrust (which would be a kind of professional feint), it returns to support, it bounces, it goes back to resistance and what we do ... we wait again to see if it breaks, because now it is the correct. And there is a worse case. It reaches resistance and we want to apply the phrase "let the profits run", so what do we do, we adjust the stop loss near the resistance in case the price breaks and continues. The price tests the resistance, falls, touches our stop and we run it in case the price returns to the path. Instead of applying the phrase “let the profits run” we apply the phrase “let the losses run”. An old master used to say, when the price reaches resistance, I collect my winnings and go on vacation. It seems silly but it is a way of telling our brain, if you do things well you have a prize. Sell in resistance, the market always gives new opportunities. 4) The Trend is your friend No better elaborated phrase. The trend is your friend. And as we all know, almost no one pays attention to their friends. We ask them for advice and if they don't say what we want to hear, we won't. If the price goes up, where do you have to invest? "It is not that the price was stretched too much and surely now a correction is coming, so I invest against it." You are seeing that the trend is upward in an annual, monthly, weekly, daily, hourly and minute time frame, but just in case you invest against it. Please, the trend is your friend, if it tells you that the price is going up, it is because it is going up. I invested in favor of the trend. You do not want to beat the market because I assure you that it breaks your arm in a blink of an eye. 5) Statistical advantage In the financial markets there are no certainties, only probabilities and whoever tells you otherwise is surely not winning in silver. What we are looking for are windows of statistical opportunities. In other words, we try to turn the odds in our favor. That is why it is always important to ask yourself the question, what is more likely, that the price will go up or down? This is because many times we operate and do not realize that the odds are against us. We can never be 100% certain, but just putting the odds in our favor by making concrete decisions based on logic and not on emotions can earn us a lot of money. 6) Consistency You often see many traders showing one or two of their most successful trades and the occasional loss. This is good for teaching purposes, and it is useful for transmitting teachings. But if you want to become a professional trader you need consistency. And consistency does not speak of an isolated operation, it speaks of sustained profits over time. And when I say time I speak of years. Not a month, not a week, not a semester. 3 years, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years. To give you an idea, ultra-professional traders fight to see who is more consistent. In other words, the first question they ask themselves is how many years have you been winning? A trader who every year earns a tight, modest percentage, reasonable to say the least, but consistently, is a much better professional than one who doubles the capital one year and the other is -90. Consistency is highly treasured as it allows for simulations, strategizing, and even projections. 7) Trading plan The number of traders who invest without having a trading plan is impressive. Something so important, so simple to make, so useful and very few use it. A trading plan allows you to analyze your operations, see what you are doing, and then improve. When we don't have a trading plan, what we did last week goes completely unnoticed because we can't internalize the teaching. And when I speak of teachings, they can be gains or losses. A loss allows us to adjust the plan but a success also. In fact, when we have several successful operations, there is nothing better than taking their teachings and replicating them. The trading plan is the only tool that allows us to do this, learn, improve and be the most objective possible, leaving aside emotions.
Forex trading Reddit
https://preview.redd.it/ljyjklqgo2v51.jpg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c50d6af6b81521fbbfe25938c98971e1592de261 When it comes to the currency market, one of the most popular trading markets is Forex. It represents the world's largest decentralized currency market. So we will answer how to make money from forex trading. With only having a computer, tablet or mobile phone, and an excellent internet connection service, you will be able to operate from anywhere in the world in the Forex market. It has the great strength of being flexible and adaptable to all types of investors. Select a prominent broker or intermediary agent, one that is recognized and very professional. Conduct negotiation trials with him, so that you get to know each other and do not put your capital at risk. Develop together the work style that most identifies you and decide to earn money by trading, enriching yourself with all the possible knowledge and strategies. Acquire strengths in detecting the ideal moment to carry out operations. You will achieve this by studying and understanding the graphs and trends of transactions, detecting that unique pattern that tells you when is the right time to proceed. Do not hesitate, it is possible to earn a lot of money with trading! But, make sure, above all things, train yourself with a duly accredited professional, in guarantee of acquiring quality theoretical knowledge, imperative to understand the movement of the market.
How to Make Money Trading Reddit - Final Words
Trading is an “investment vehicle” that can serve your objectives of having financial peace of mind as long as it is part of a broad economic and financial planning in the short, medium and long term. If not, trading can become a fast track to lose your money, if you lack the necessary knowledge, experience and training. Follow the following formula to Make Money in Trading Consistently:
Profitability = (Knowledge + experience) x emotional and mental management
KFC6855/环球潮鞋: The Secrets of Replica Sneaker Selling
Following a post from u/donjonne about a HUGE Weibo story on how to actually start your own 1:1 repsneaker empire, I figured as a native Mandarin speaker I gave it a shot and translated the entire article, since I myself am pretty damn intrigued what the guy's speaking.Do note this article is written in March 2017, lots of stuff may have been outdated, and I translated word-for-word with some pruned paragraphs that seems like the fella repeating himself. I absolutely hate the weird flowery prose Mandarin always carry when I work on translations, so apologies if the in-jokes or general writing gets a bit dry. This is my personal tl;dr without the author's boastful claims, so if you're short on time, here's the quick rundown.
How do replica sneakers get sold?
Taobao: Long history with the reputation for being the single biggest online BST hub, with Tmall and Xianyu Second-hands integrated. Lots of fake reviews and seller reputation ratings. The rep game there got outta hand, CEO of Alibaba stepped in and cleaned house, thus everyone moved to... WeChat: Lots more convoluted, no proper tracking and confirmation like a real shopping app and build quality can vary greatly between sneaker models from the same seller. But through word-of-mouth, standout resellers get recommended more organically, of course you need connections to start with. Agents: Your best friend if you're overseas, usually ran by freelancers merely collecting orders, reporting back to resellers and have them directly ship your kicks to your doorstep. Agents can be a single person, or a huge operation i.e. Wegobuy and Ytaopal.
How's the quality tho?
Depends. Some will try to bait-and-switch, some will bond genuine friendships for simply being a return customer. Factories often cut corners to save some dough and end up with a worse rep, so like the purpose of this sub, dig into forums and guide yourself to trustworthy sellers. Author also goes on a tangent and revealed the numbers and figures of selling reps, along with the sheer gold rush he's in now. Read below for more info.
Anything of note?
We're getting ripped off. Real hard, if you're a Mainlander chances are you're being sold 1/3 of the prices we see here. Part of the reason is that the multi-level reselling jacks up the price a lot, so unless you're buying in bulk for the purpose of selling them, good luck finding GET-passable OW AJ1's for less than $70. If you get caught selling, it's fines upwards of ¥50,000 and your license revoked, but nothing too serious beyond that. Author promised more novel shoes get made in the future, like Uggs and non-hypebeast dress shoes or sumthin. With that outta the way, here's the translation for the whole article, hope you'll learn something for it and if there's any mistakes, feel free to point it out in DMs or just in the comments. EDIT 17/05/2020: punctuation mistakes and missing formatting, also thanks for the kind words repfam _______________
GOD'S HAND: The Secrets of Replica Sneaker Selling
Having been in the rep game for around 4 to 5 years, it all started out of sheer curiosity. I spent ¥1099 for Air Force 1's some celebrity wore, only to had my buddy show up on me with a fake pair of the same sneaker only costs ¥300. Not everyone is some rich parents' spoiled brat where a pair of shoes costing a couple grand is considered pocket change, yet everyone has that sense of envy, the need to follow the hype to really stand out from the crowd, so do I honestly. But then again you'd only wear that pair of grails for only a good couple months and it'll be out of the wave, why not I find myself a more wallet-friendly way to do so? Ever since dipping my toe into the replica community, I'm making connections, meeting new friends and getting scammed in every step I make, keeping contacts of my favorite sellers (looking back yeah they're not the best and cheapest isn't it huh). I'm deep in the rabbit hole now, buying so many pairs I'm starting to be able to tell batches at a glance, and where to hunt down that very best batch at the cheapest price. At this point it's natural that I'm thinking of selling these reps and becoming a middleman with the best of the batches under one roof (which is what's following below). Anyone who has dealt with middlemen know that actually tracking down the direct factory outlets are nigh impossible, and the multiple stages of middlemen-ception where bigger but more discreet resellers selling to more minor, smaller middlemen can only make one dream of the sheer profit you can make for being on the very top of the pyramid, that idea has only been a mere blip in my mind. There was once in a bar my fam hollered at me with "Yo you remember that John Doe went to Putian for two years? Dude gave up college and has been filthy stinkin' rich by now!" I was like bah it'll never work out for me, but with the summer break I'd worth giving it a shot and have John Doe on the line. And boy howdy, ain't he wildin' right now with his business. Some say every Nike you see there's 1/3 chance it's straight outta Putian, some say Nike's LC works by handling a pair of dumb shoes to an uninformed factory worker and have him say "fuck kinda shoes are these, looks cool I guess so it's legit?" The only way is to really tear down the whole sneaker and see the markings in UV, and once we're on the point where we can fake inside tags and its barcodes, ask yourself can call out fakes on feet? A promotion for \"discount\" NB's on Weibo Ever seen promos like these? It's what I saw on Weibo today, and you've seen one like it yourself did you? They all look good on the images and you'd be right that they're photos of the real deal, just that of course the shoes you actually get were reps, and for each pair profits are never above ¥100; I sell ya an NB for ¥165, I'd only make ¥50.
REPLICA SNEAKERS: HOW DO THEY GET SOLD?
TAOBAO Taobao has always been the single biggest hub for BST. Run by the faceless middlemen, sold by the page visits, and reviewed by the bots. And stores with inflated trust scores were used as a front, once costing hundreds of yuan to buy now go for the tens of thousands. As Taobao is taking action to curb counterfeits to make way for legitimate resellers, these fronts are getting more expensive by the day, since then people took it to WeChat later on. Ask anyone who ran a Taobao store, and they'd tell you "you'll never make a cent unless you're selling fakes". A pair of (fake) shoes take some ¥100 to make, and can be sold as a legit like the thousands of yuan you see on their listings, you'd get away with dozens of fakes sold this way, where you can properly guage and adjust said price to match your profit margins. Once the rep game got popular and the snowball kept rolling, the problem got too big for Ma Yun to not ignore it and he went full banhammer on every rep seller. With every media outlet roasting Taobao's ass, everyone wises up to the knowledge that almost every sneaker you see could be fakes. The stigma lived on, and no one would touch any store where its place of origin writes "Putian". When life gives you lemons, you make a whole damn lemonade stand and just circumvent the whole damn thing by appearing that you're not from Putian. Problem solved. As you check your shipping details, it always seems to travel from Shangai, Shenzen, Quanzhou or even goddamn Xiamen of all places, even overseas. Proxy services are very popular due to China's stringent laws When sneakers are labeled as being shipped from Hong Kong, of course the sellers gonna say "it's from Hong Kong" but in fact it's shipping from Shenzhen, and the seller's excuse is that the sneakers are going through HK's borders from Shenzen then to the buyer's location. Even if you bought fakes in Tmall however, it won't be as bad as the ones sold as legit retails in Taobao. There's just too many of these rip-offs anyway! Had a reseller came to me to buy 10 pairs of sneakers, I make ¥10 each pair, but he sold it as retails and went on to make ¥500 each. Of course I'd panicked a jacked a prices a bit so I could have my own slice of extra profit to ¥20 each pair, said the factories jacked the prices themselves as an excuse. Hoe's mad I guess WECHAT While profit margins are no higher than Taobao, they still range around a dozen yuan on bulk. For all the actual friends I have in WeChat, I'd never believe them not having owned a replica sneaker in their whole life, blah blah blah "factory direct", "wholesale prices" my ass, who really can head to the factories and buy direct these days? Rep resellers buying bulk from those factories are truly the "direct from factory" purchases. Resellers then selling the reps to middlemen and agents, that's another step. Said middlemen then resell these reps to quote-on-quote "middlemen". (NB: may have been the very resellers we see on the sub) And it goes on and on and then, to you, the customer.The so-called A-grade reps you see on WC, let's say we buy it from the factory at ¥200 (for example, the real deal won't be this cheap) and sell to the end-user for ¥400~¥500, it does in fact look decent. Heck, retails may get "called out" in forums and reps may sneak under the radar. Chat and forum opinions aren't good indicatiors for a rep's actual quality. Thus you may wonder why buy retails at this point? No one would really hit the New Balance outlets at their local Wanda mall and ask the teeny-bop promoter lady if their kicks are legit anyway, so wouldn't this been the dream job you've wanted, right? SMALL-TIME AGENTS These sort of agents are mostly handling orders from overseas to cater the westerners, mainly Russian, SE-Asian, North/South American countries etc., and will never be some solo project as they always come in groups of a few dozen staff members. These agent groups can also hire decently well-spoken college students to help converse customers in English and pay them good pocket change, which is eerily similar to how Forex scams work before, but this time they're doing legit businesses for a change. Sort of. FREELANCE AGENTS The most common agent you may come across can be your close friends, they get instant payouts for attracting their local classmates to collect orders for reps, and this wannabe hustler reports them back to the resellers to ship to school dorms directly.
REPLICA BUILD AND QUALITY
Replicas reach far, far and wide. You could see your neighborhood cleaner aunt wearing 990v4s, motorbike taxi riders wearing Duck Camo AM90's, your kind old uncle next door exercising in Flyknit Racers and so on. NB, Nike, Converse, Ascis, Kappa; any brand you wanted they got it. ¥100 to ¥500 is what the factories charge, but after it hits resellers with a ¥200 hike, the illusion what seems to be a shoe that'll last breaks down as it wears out after a few wears. Bad stitching? Poorly-tumbled faux-leather? Off-moulded shape? I'd believe you but you sure you can tell if the EVA is fake by just looking on it? Is the gluing pattern underneath it visible even? A good deal of local boutiques sell ¥120 replicas at official retail prices like ¥599, a good ¥400 profit. Putian factories are split into "heavy" and "light" industries. The heavy industries builds the sneaker as a whole from scratch, while the light industries were like CKD vehicles, where parts are purchased and assembled together instead. and quality of each part of the sneaker depends among factories. Lots of them try to cut corners to save every extra cent, which explains the decreasing quality of recent sneakers you see now. Larger factories has always been delivering consistently decent sneakers, as customers who contacted them are much picker and won't slash prices along with quality out of the blue. The stitching (and Nike Air units/Boost soles even!) is close enough to pass off as retails. Some of the more badass factories can make a batch of 100 brand new replicas for you, just hand in a donor retail pair and they'll get to work.The old dogs in Putian has been around for ages, runs most of the resellers you know and love. They buy reps from the factory direct at ¥140, sell to resellers at ¥160 and have the resellers push ¥180, at these prices the shoes are just not enough to satisfy demand. I've gave it an estimate if the factory got his order to 30 dozen pairs of reps, with each pair a ¥20 profit, we're looking at ¥7,000 a day or ¥20,000 a month in gross profit. Of course, the Sales and Commerce Assoc. will still take a heavy hand on counterfeit sneakers till today, basically a few sellers every month get caught in the counterfeit business. The offenders walk into the office, sit down, had "the talk" yet again and pay a good ¥30k~¥50k fine and had their licenses taken away, for just awhile. Factories themselves get raided very seldom, maybe a every 6 months only a single factory gets caught per year. Putian has become the leading worldwide repsneaker operation for the entire world, and outputs around 50% the actual worldwide sneaker market, an estimated ¥20bn yearly. The Nikes and Adidases you wear now has an "OEM" for that. You may have bought a brand sneaker [in China], but it may very well be a fake regardless, to be fair the quality itself is indistinguishable anyway.
REPSNEAKER GRADES
1) The Standard Putian's cheapest offering, pretty much trash tier and a certain Taobao sells them the most often :^) 2) The GET Batch A huge improvement from the Standards, and the so-called 1:1 batch from the mouths of others. It's really not, some of the materials itself is not as fine or accurate as the real deal. Tmall often sells these batches, but often get sold as retails. 3) The 1:1 The absolute tip of the high-end replicas. Take it to HuPu.com and only the eagle-eyed few would call you out. Not everyone can get their hands on them, regardless of price. [eg: similar situation to UABat's Union AJ1's] 4) The Retail Nuff said, just retails. (But really, reps cost just 1/5 of the retail price, why bother lol?) A snapshot of KFC6855's wares
HOW TO TELL FAKES
[The author essentially details how to LC NB998's, so this is best skipped as it adds nothing to the article other than repeating the author's point over and over.]
THE REPSNEAKER FUTURE
If you ever think replica sneakers will only remain within the hypebeast sporty trainer radar, oh you'd be surprised. The replica factories are on full steam, churning out Dr. Martens, UGGS, Tod's and a lot more to come. If you're interested, my WeChat: KFC6855 has them on sale right now, guaranteed to keep ya comfy this winter. With all that said, I hope you learnt something from this, and now that you know if you really wanted a retail pair to sleep well at night, just don't get 'em in online stores. There's no glitz and glamor selling counterfeit sneakers, it's just business after all. If you know, you know.
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