Profiting from short term investments

Profiting from short term investments is a question of how involved the investor wants to be in the decision making process.

There are a number of advantages to investing short term with the most important being that profits or losses can be observed almost immediately. Also short term investments don’t lock up your money for very long and if you see that an investment is not doing well you don’t need to wait too long before you can reinvest elsewhere.

Profiting from Short Term Investments:

Short-term investments typically are about investments with more prospects for big profits, but also potential for additional risk. The assets that can be invested in short term investments are options, forex, futures, commodities and stocks. Sometimes realized profits for these investments reach double digit proportions per day! Alas, if you are not careful losses can be that high also. However, there are ‘safe’ or less risky short term investments such as money market funds or treasury bonds which do not offer a big return and are for the conservative investor.

To profit from a short term investment you must decide which time frame you are comfortable with. For example investments in the currency markets might be for a length of several hours or even one day especially if you intend to day trade.

Other types of short term investments such as options, futures, or stocks may last a few days or a few weeks. Investments such as bonds or treasury notes may have a short term horizon of several months. In general the shorter the time period the more involved in the investment you need to be to profit more successfully from it.

You should decide the risk level you feel comfortable with before you decide to invest your money. If you are investing money that you can’t afford to lose don’t invest in the high risk investments such as currencies, stocks or commodities, options and futures. You might have a chance to make a killing but you are just as likely to make a big loss. You should be looking at investing in low risk assets such as CD’s, treasury notes and short term bonds.

If your investment money is spare cash and not earmarked for anything in the future then you are free to choose a higher risk investment and an asset class that can give you a higher return on your investment.

Short term investments require a lot of on-going decisions and also need more knowledge of markets as well as more than passing knowledge of fundamental and technical analysis, especially assets such as currencies, stocks and commodities. Either you learn and acquire the right knowledge or you get advice from a qualified investment advisor.

However, short term low risk investments such as money market instruments or bonds which are held until they mature don’t require a lot of study and skill as your profits can be estimated in advance and you can choose the return on investment you desire from the options you have.

To profit from short term investments you need to decide whether high risk, high return, short term investments suit you or whether you are more comfortable with short term low risk, low return safe investments.

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Trading Psychology - Control your emotions

Trading is less a work, than a psychology, on which your success or failure on Forex market depends on. If you decided to switch to systematical trading, it does not unload emotional pressure at taking a trading decision entirely.

Frequently, Forex traders incline to the opinion that only complete absence of emotions can help while trading. Though, fear, suspense, greed, hope, belief, regret and happiness accompany the trading process inevitably. Suppressing emotions at the moment of feelings overwhelming you means disregarding the sixth sense, intuition, and finally, insight.

It is known that emotions are also transmitting a flow of information to us. We are guided by this information, act under impressions from it. But this is given to us in order to control our emotions and to change one sentiment for another.

There are a number of ways to control emotions:

Firstly, it is possible to change your emotions by switching to another object of your concentration. As a rule, this method is very effective. The thing which draws our careful attention becomes real for us. You can consider suffering losses, or vice versa render an opportunity of gaining profit.

Secondly, having changed your convictions and believes you can alter your emotions. Every belief that we attain during our life time is a sort of a filter for us, influencing all the information perceived. All views accumulated during our life affect the interpretations which we are admitting into our consciousness.

And finally, the third way to change our emotions is by modifying physiology. A change of breathing, mimics, body position, the tone and tempo of our voice, all this has a direct influence on the emotive part of not only a Forex trader, but of any person.

Attention concentration

A concentration of attention is one of the most significant constituents of our emotional condition. Because the thing you are focused on in the process of Forex trading becomes not only an object of happening reality, but also a perception of factual reality. All actions influence your interpretation of events and consequently, affect your emotions. All this manipulates your behaviour, and decisions get emotional connotation. In this case it is needed to define priorities: what are you waiting for? Are you entertaining a possibility of losses? Or are you expecting gains only?

Those who see only losses are likely to hesitate for too long entering the market or can even skip a trade. But once having decided to enter the market, they are gaining profit quickly.

Trading is an attempt to balance the opposites. A trader should focus on profit and loss and try to balance them. A trader should concentrate on probability of his methods, and on information provided by the market, as it is the only accurate and reliable one.

Physiology

It is proved that our body manages our emotions, and emotions affect the thoughts. The easiest and the most correct way to change emotional condition is to change your physiology - tempo and depth of your breath, voice or even your pose.

Pay attention to your position, the way you sit, breathe, whether the muscles of your face, shoulders and of all body are tense. If you feel discomfort, you should only sit cosily.

Absolutely simple physiological manipulation can serve an effective instrument to control your feelings.

Control your emotions, and this will definitely make a more successful trader out of you!

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Forex Cross Currency Pairs

On Forex there are cross currency pairs, which do not include the US dollar, unlike major currency pairs.
The analysis of the US dollar movement is of crucial importance in trading major currency pairs. The analysis of the second currency quoted in a pair (EUR - the euro, JPY - the Japanese yen, CHF - the Swiss franc, GBP - the British pound) is not that essential. Trading major currency pairs is quite a profitable strategy. Still, dealing with such pairs is worth trying, once you have gained some experience on Forex.
Cross currency pairs. The value of a currency in such pair is denominated in other currency units - not in USD. The rates of these pairs are called cross rates.
The most-traded pairs are those with euro, for instance, EUR/CHF, EUR/GBP, EUR/JPY. These pairs are distinctive due to their high liquidity. A currency pair can sometimes be more liquid than USD/CHF because of institutional players, willing to work with the Swiss franc.
The yen is an integral part of another cluster of cross currency pairs: CAD/JPY - the Canadian dollar and yen, NZD/JPY - the New Zealand dollar and yen, as well as GBP/JPY - the British pound and yen. This cross currency cluster is quite popular with investors and traders, as they can engage in carry trade with its pairs. Carry Trade is selling a certain currency at a relatively low interest rate (for example, the yen) and then buying a currency at a higher one. This scheme enables a trader to gain profit from the difference between two rates.

The highest interest rates are those of the following developed countries: Canada, New Zealand and Great Britain. The currencies of these countries are thus the most widely used in carry trade against the Japanese yen.
A trader dealing with major currency pairs can face a situation, when the US dollar is just as strong as the second currency quoted in pair. The situation is tricky as USD is rather unpredictable.
 If both the USA and Eurozone show persistent economic growth, it is unclear what decision to make - either to open or close a trade. Trading in EUR/JPY is optimal when the yen is under pressure of geopolitical factor, for example.
The most popular cross currency pairs are as follows:

EUR/CHF - Eurozone is Switzerland`s major trade partner. The Swiss franc has rather low interest rate, which makes this currency preferred for carry trade operations. The pair has been showing a positive trend since 2006.

EUR/JPY - A much-used cross currency pair owing to its interrelation with USD/JPY and EUR/USD. Traders often speculate on its movement, relying upon interest rates and differences between the growth rates of Japan and Eurozone.

NZD/JPY - This pair is in great demand among cross currency pairs at carry trade dealing, as it has the widest difference between the interest rates. The pair is good for long positions, particularly if general fundamental and technical indicators are favourable for its growth.

EUR/GBP - Eurozone is the second important trade partner for Great Britain. So, if a trader takes into account fundamental factors related to England and the British pound, he is sure to work with this particular pair since GBP/USD is most affected by USD movement in the market.

CAD/JPY - One can use the ability to foresee the upcoming oil prices trend trading with this cross currency pair. Canada is the second on the list of largest oil reserves in the world. This country is a net oil exporter, so that it gains profit from rising oil prices, whereas the major oil importer, Japan, suffers losses. Thus, opening long positions with this pair is the most profitable ahead of oil price spike.
Working with cross currency pairs, a trader can open carry trade deals. Difference between two countries is a good advantage in trade. Each cross currency pair has its characteristics, interest rates differences; it is dependent on certain political and economic events determining its trend.

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