Bruce Harding

Hello, I wanted to know about risks which come from Forex.

Hey Nick, Making a profit in the long run through Forex trading is a process that takes time, patience and commitment. Simply opening a position without properly managing the trading risk can easily affect your invested capital in a negative manner. Forex risk management is a very popular topic among traders. First of all, traders want to downsize the potential loss, but at the same time, they also want to maximize their profit out of a single trade. It’s well known that bigger profits come with bigger risks. That’s where proper risk management comes in. Knowing certain tools and techniques and how to apply them can easily help you avoid loss and fully commit to your trading activities. The risk/reward ratio is used to measure a potential profit of a trade in relation to the potential loss. In other words, it evaluates the difference between the moment you’ve entered the market to stop-loss and a sell or take-profit order. Comparing the two represents the risk/reward ratio. A useful technique that will help you control risk is knowing when to cut losses. This method can be carried out with a "hard stop", where traders will lock in a stop loss at a specific point. Another way to do it is a "mental stop", where traders decide to limit the drawdown they’re prepared to take on a trade. Basically, it’s telling to yourself that you will quit a certain point. Another way to properly manage risk is to avoid large lot sizes. Inexperienced traders are advised to start with smaller lot sizes, providing them with bigger flexibility in managing trades. Nowadays brokers may advise you to open an account with $200 and use high leverages to facilitate mini lot trades of thousands of dollars and double your profit in a single trade. But this can easily turn out to be a reckless move.

Hi Fernando, thanks for coming here. Price of IOTA (MIOTA/USD) has advanced almost 10% recently following the collapse of the crypto market in March. Additionally, the IOTA Foundation has been selected by the German Federal Ministry as one of the finalists in the competition to work on new technology that will help battle the COVID-19 pandemic. The competition named “The Smart Development Hack” happened on May 14 and May 15. The event had a slogan - “let’s hack the coronavirus”, supported by the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development. Over 150 contestants took part in the competition, presenting more than 1,000 digital solutions. Only 20 parties were selected as finalists, including the IOTA Foundation. The goal of the event was to help fight the Covid-19 outbreak, especially in less advanced countries. Some of the notable names that backed the event include European Union, Team Europe, as well as several other institutions around the globe. The winners of the competition will be working on the so-called “Smart Care Corona Response” in Eastern Europe and Africa. IOTA Foundation took part in similar projects in the past as well. In April, IOTA presented a decentralized app called “Open Marketplace” in the CODEVID19 hackathon and won the competition. The app acts as a decentralized marketplace, facilitating the process of trading during times of crisis. After hitting an all-time low in March, IOTA made significant recovery progress. The coin has advanced 2.3% over the last 24 hours, making no significant movements since Thursday. Currently, IOT/USD is trading at $0.2253, while the recovery is capped by $0.2300. On the other hand, the daily SMA50 and the lower line of the daily BB form the vital support zone. In all likelihood, the support will slow down the bears and act as a springboard for bulls.

Hello Ryan, Day trading refers to buying or selling security over a single trading day. Day trading is regularly employed in Forex and stock markets but in other markets as well. Day traders are usually proficient and well-resourced traders. They trade using high leverages and short-term trading strategies to cash in on small market movements. Swing trading is a trading method used to make a profit over a period of a few days to a couple of weeks. It is a strategy that dwells upon making smaller short-term gains while reducing losses quicker. Using swing trading properly brings constant smaller gains that turn into great returns on an annual level. The greatest difference between swing trading and day trading lies in the time factor. Swing traders and day traders hold positions for a different time period. Day traders engage in the trade only for a couple of minutes or hours while swing traders hold their position for several days or weeks. In most cases, day traders don’t hold their positions overnight, hence they are not exposed to the potential damage of news announcements that hit the wires overnight. Time-limit is regarded as one of the big benefits of day trading. On the other hand, swing traders have to stay alert all the time because the trading pair could change its direction completely if the market is shaken by some unexpected news. This is one of the reasons why swing traders tend to use lower leverages. Several losses or one great loss can be bad enough, but the low leverage minimizes the odds of a total portfolio wipeout. This approach is different from day trading, as these types of traders tend to take larger leveraged positions and greater risks since they are aiming for smaller profits, in the context of points or pips.

Hi Anna, Over the past few days, Ethereum(ETH/USD) has been advancing as the bulls are trying to break $250 resistance. Recently, an Ethereum whale paid $2.6 million in transaction fees in an attempt to transfer $130 worth of ETH. This represents the largest-ever transaction fee a person has paid when transferring ETH. The Ethereum user sent 0.55 ETH to an address provided by the cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb and paid 10,668 in transaction fees to perform that transfer. The transaction was mined by SparkPool, a significant Ethereum mining pool. The enormous fee will go to a large number of SparkPool miners. "We are further investigating the incident of unusually high tx fee, and you are welcome to provide clues to [email protected]. SparkPool has had the experience of handling similar issues properly. There will be a solution in the end," according to SparkPool. Co-founder of Ethub and product marketing manager at Set Labs, Anthony Sassano, commented that the transaction fee could be a mistake or a part of money laundering activity. "It could have been a mistake, some form of money laundering or washing. It was mined by SparkPool so they could send that ETH back to the original owner if they wanted to,” he said. As for the user who made the transaction, there is not much information. All that’s known is that the person has made transactions to Bithumb in the past. By the end of May, Ethereum buyers secured around 20% in gains, lifting the price action above $240. However, bears have managed to turn down bulls’ attempts to break the price action above $250, which represents a multi-month high for ETH.

Hi Predrag, thanks for asking the question. Shares of Telefonica SA (EBR: TFA) reached another high this month after Telefonica Deutschland agreed to sell about 10,100 cell towers to global infrastructure company Telxius for roughly $1.7 billion. Major stockholders of Telxius include Telefonica Group (50,01%), private equity group KKR (40%) as well as personal investment company Pontegadea (9.99%), a daughter company of Amancio Ortega. The deal will help Telxius will increase the number of phone masts to 32,800 towers, 80% of which are based in Europe. Concerning Telefonica, the deal will cut the company’s net debt by 500 million euros between 2020 and 2021. A few weeks ago, Markus Haas, the Chief Executive of Telefonica Deutschland said there’s a high demand for the company’s towers and the selling price could account for sales. According to the estimates, Telefonica now has roughly 40,000 phone masts in possession. The cell towers have been a very popular investment lately as they generate high revenues. Last month, the European General Court lifted the block on the sale of the England-based O2 (also a daughter company of Telefonica) to Three UK for $12.6 billion. After that, shares of Telefonica advanced around 20% over the next several days to reach the 3-month high above 5.00. The recent events allowed investors to buy the stock above 4.80, which represents a significant horizontal resistance. Their goal is to reinforce gains by staying above the horizontal resistance and prepare to go for the next target – the 200-DMA at 5.80. The recent launch of Telefonica Infra was part of the new Telefonica reorganization plan announced on November 27, 2019. Hope I’ve helped.

Hi Trevor, thanks for the question. Your question is time-specific but I think still very much relevant given the recent developments concerning L Brands. Near the end of the last month, L Brands reported that sales dropped 46% year-over-year for the fiscal first quarter that ended on May 2. As a result, the fashion brand reported a loss of $300 million for the quarter. Given the deal to sell Victoria's Secret to Sycamore Partners, a private equity firm, for approximately $525 million fell through, and a reported loss, the fashion brand is in urgent need of funding. Therefore, the company has issued a bond offering totaling $1.25 billion for cash to help its struggling business. “We are all focused and energized by our opportunities to drive long-term shareholder value, including implementing a profit improvement plan at Victoria's Secret; separating the Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works businesses; and continuing to drive strong growth at Bath & Body Works,” said Andrew Meslow -- Chief Executive Officer, L Brands / Bath & Body Works. As a result, it’s not a surprise that shares of the company hit 11-year lows in March. Despite the modest recovery in price since March, shares are still trading near lows. Hence, I’d advise staying away from the stock until the long-term security of the company is secured.

Hi Michael, thanks for your question about Uber stock. It seems that the ride-hailing business is recovering now, after being heavily hit by the COVID-19 outbreak and social distancing measures. Uber stock gained around 20% in May due to a few different reasons: - Higher-than-expected quarterly results - Recovering ride-hailing industry - Recovery in the wider stock market as the countries and economies reopen again Uber’s reported bookings were $15.78 billion, higher than the average analyst's bookings forecast of $15.27 billion. Revenue was also higher, coming in at $3.54 billion, compared to the average target of $3.37 billion. However, the earnings came in much worse than expected due to increase in costs. Shares of Uber turned lower this week as the buyers seem to have taken a step back to consolidate recent gains. Remember, Uber stock price gained 150% since the March lows. Therefore, we may see a pullback first before the bulls are able to extend the uptrend higher. I hope this answer was helpful.