What Are American Depositary Receipts?

Trading or Investing?

American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) are stock in foreign companies that are traded in the U.S., just as you would buy and sell stock in America, and are valued in U.S. currency, thereby also paying money in U.S. dollars. American Depositary Receipts represent the acquisition of American Depository Shares, otherwise known as ADSs. Both ADR and ADS are often used interchangeably. What Are American Depositary Receipts? An ADS shows that you own a piece of equity in a company outside the U.S. Therefore, the certificate supplies individuals in the U.S. with an easy way to invest in overseas companies. Certificates are bought and sold in the same way that stock is traded on Wall Street. A slight variation of an American … Read more

How to Get Off the Sidelines and Start Investing Again – It’s Not Too Late

How To Get Off The Sidelines And Start Investing Again

The stock market has had an amazing run lately, but too much money is still on the sidelines waiting. According to a recent survey conducted by Kiplinger’s magazine, almost half of all Americans do not even know that we have had a fantastic run in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 index for the past 15 months. People need to get off the sidelines and start investing again. They thought that the stock market had been down in 2012 instead of realizing it was up 13%. And, still, others know about the stock market’s great and are still sitting on the sidelines waiting to get in the market or think that they have missed the boat. Many … Read more

What Is Quadruple Witching and How To Invest During It?

What Is Quadruple Witching and How To Invest During It?

What Is Quadruple Witching and How To Invest During It?If you’re like me, you’re always looking for the best return on investment. Can trading around quadruple witching help you earn more?

What is quadruple witching and can you use the phenomenon to your advantage when trading stocks? Should you even bother? Quadruple witching is the expiration of stock options and stock futures at the same time. And, it only takes place only four times throughout the year. 

When is quadruple witching? Quadruple witching takes place in March, June, September, and December on the 3rd Friday of the month. It requires options and futures investors to close out their trading positions across stock options, single stock futures, stock index futures, and stock index options on the exact same da. And, the phenomenon is often associated with higher than normal trading volumes on the stock exchanges in the United States.

What Is Quadruple Witching?

Quadruple witching is a calendar phenomenon whose name may be far worse than its actual occurrence. The name conquers up thoughts of witches casting spells of doom and gloom on Wall Street. But, that’s not quite what’s going on of course. 

During quadruple witching, many options and futures investors must let go of their futures and options positions before the contracts expire at the end of the day. Investors may notice a fury of investing activity if you watch CNBC, Fox Business News, and the other business television news networks, especially during the final hours of market trading in the United States. 

The strange sounding phenomenon often forces investors to repurchase contracts and/or sell their market positions closing our their contracts. Investors must finish their futures and options contracts on the expiration day. They have the option to repurchasing – or rolling over their positions – or closing out all of their options and futures positions.

All of this market activity by the options and futures traders often leads to a very noticeable increase in trading volumes for the day on the NYSE, NASDAQ, and other stock markets in America. Many estimate that trading volume during quadruple witching days can be a high as 50% more than a normal trading day. There can often be an increase of intraday volatility as well.

At the end of the day, the name quadruple witching is a lot more bark than bite. For the typical investor, you may barely even notice when the day is or the spike in trading volume on the stock exchanges. For most investors who practice dollar cost averaging in the 401k retirement plans and the like, they will barely notice. And, that’s a good thing! 

The secret to taking advantage of quadruple witching when #investing - here's how to do it!Click To Tweet

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How To Learn To Invest With Wall Street Survivor

How To Not Let Investing Intimidate You with Wall Street Survivor

Investing in the stock market is a great way to retire comfortably and make your money work for you. However, there are some risks involved, and it is crucial to learn as much as possible about the stock market before you get started. And, that’s where the Wall Street Survivor comes in! Wall Street Survivor teaches investors how to invest in the stock market and how to buy stocks by playing their stock market game. Their virtual stock market game is the best way to learn to invest initially without risking any of your own hard-earned money.  Wall Street Survivor Courses Teach Investing Wall Street Survivor has step-by-step courses that each you how to invest using fundamental and technical analysis. Ever wonder what Jim Cramer … Read more

A Look At The Difference Between Investment And Gambling

Difference Between Investment And Gambling

Difference Between Investment And GamblingInvesting in the stock market and gambling at a casino are often compared and deemed to be very similar ventures. Both the difference between investment and gambling involve risk and choice in hopes of future profit. Investors and gamblers have to decide how much they are wanting to risk.

Some traders typically risk between 2% and 5% of their capital base. Long-term investors often spread their money across different investments in order to try and minimize potential losses as a form of risk-management.

Risk-management in gambling is also proficiently sought after by professional gamblers. They look at whether odds are in their favor before they make a bet. A key comparable principle in both gambling and financial investing is to minimize risk while maximizing profits.

Difference Between Investment and Gambling 

However, there is a huge difference between investing and gambling when it comes to stopping losses. In gambling, particularly in sports gambling, there are no loss-mitigation strategies due to the activity being so speculative.

Stock investors however can set up stop losses on a stock investment which is the simplest way to avoid unnecessary risk. If stock drops 10% below its purchase price there is an opportunity to sell that stock to someone else and still retain 90% of the risk capital.

However, if you put a bet on that states that Tottenham Hotspur Football Club will come first in the Premier League, you cannot get any money back if they come second. You will lose everything you’ve put on, which isn’t the case when it comes to stock investment. Gambling is mainly to do with pure chance, and there are a lot more loss-mitigation strategies when it comes to financial investments.

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You’re Wasting Money Investing in Stocks

You're Wasting Money Investing In Stocks

There is a right way and a wrong way to begin investing in stocks. But sometimes new investors have to learn the hard way. A coworker recently talked to me about investing in stocks for the first time. He was proud of himself for finally taking the plunge into the market to buy a few shares. And, then I asked him what he had bought. He said that he had bought a couple of shares of Ford Motor Company (Stock Symbol: F). He also bought a few shares of some other well-known blue chip stocks like General Electric, Dow Chemical, Walt Disney, Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, and others. These are some great companies and a few that I own … Read more