Category: Investment

As you will realize, stock investment, when done well, can be the best long-term wealth creation vehicle. It’s gratifying to its investors, provided they can follow the fundamental principles involved in making intelligent investment decisions.

As much as no one was born with the expertise needed to invest in stocks successfully, mistakes cost money, and it’s essential to avoid them as much as possible, and when you make one, learn and keep improving performance.

Investing in top companies is an excellent idea for a novice trader. Such a company has a solid foundation and a financial track record. You’ll also find it easier to get its trading, financial information and follow their performance. Some of the top famous companies worldwide include:

• Saudi Aramco at $2458 B
• Apple at $2458 B
• Microsoft at $ 1653 B
• Amazon at $1596 B
• Delta at $ 1435 B
• Alphabet at $ 1203 B
• Tesla at $834 B
• Facebook at $ 757 B
• Tencent at $ 738 B
• Alibaba Group at $ 620 B

Investing in index ETFs is another intelligent way to invest in stock. An ETF stock Investment fund is a marketable security that tracks an index, a commodity, bonds, or a basket of assets like an index mutual fund. ETFs trade like stocks on exchanges and can be sold short or margined. Some common types of ETFs include:

• Equity ETFs
• Specialty ETFs
• Currency ETFs
• Commodity ETFs
• Bond ETFs
• Sustainable ETFs
• Factor ETFs

You can trade Real Shares on the R Trader platform from $0.0045 per share with a minimum trading fee of $ 0.25. The demo account on robomarkets.com is an excellent starting point. To learn more on how to trade in stocks as a beginner, check the infographic below. You’ll know how to do it right and the top companies in the stock market. Check below:

Infographic Design By RoboMarkets

The stock market is a very complex place. It’s not as simple as buying and selling stocks for profit, but it can be done with the right broker. Finding an online brokerage that will help you make confident investments in your portfolio is essential to making sure you get the most out of your money. Here are some things to consider when choosing an online broker:

Technology

In the era of mobile devices, having access to your accounts wherever you go has become essential. That’s why many firms now provide apps for smartphones and tablets. With these tools, you don’t even have to log onto your computer anymore. Instead, you can download the app and enter your login credentials whenever needed. When selecting an online broker, ask which platforms they support. Most firms today allow users to trade through both desktop computers and mobile phones. However, some only work on PCs. By going for an online broker with enhanced technology capabilities, you increase your chances of investing confidently anywhere, anytime.

Check for Reviews Online

It’s essential to check reviews posted by previous clients. The best way to do this is through Google. Doing so will bring up results showing past client feedback. It’s always good to see if people had problems with the service provided. 

Likewise, read testimonials written by current users. Look for comments regarding the quality of support staff, trading conditions, etc. As mentioned at ReviewBrokers.org, it will be best to go through all the positive and negative reviews. That way, you’ll have an idea of what others think of the company. One good thing about going through online reviews is that you won’t need to pay anything extra to access them.

Customer Service

Customer service is always crucial when dealing with investment products. It doesn’t matter how good your product is; people tend not to succeed without proper guidance. Therefore, choose a broker whose staff members are knowledgeable and helpful. Ask yourself if they give clear explanations regarding each step involved in trading stocks. Do they explain risks clearly? Are they willing to assist you with anything you might encounter during your first few trades? How responsive are they to email queries? The more positive responses you get from their representatives, the better you can make confident stock investments.

Fees & Charges

Fees play a significant role in determining what kind of returns you earn. Some brokers charge fees based on the amount invested, while others levy flat-rate monthly payments regardless of how much money you put in. Others still impose additional charges for certain services. For example, most firms charge extra for margin calls. Margin calls occur when traders borrow funds against their positions to make larger purchases or sell off smaller ones. If there isn’t enough cash available to cover such expenses, the brokerage will automatically liquidate the position. As a result, you may lose all gains made up until that point. Before signing any contract with a broker, be sure to check out their fee structure. You should avoid paying excessive commissions because doing so could reduce your profits significantly.

Trading Platforms

Trading platforms refer to software programs used by investors to buy and sell securities. There are two main types: web-based and downloadable. Web-based systems enable clients to place orders via the internet. They also offer real-time quotes and charts. Downloadable applications, however, are usually designed specifically for use on specific operating systems like Windows or Mac OS X. 

These programs come with preloaded data sets and other features. In addition, many firms provide free trial periods before charging customers. This way, potential clients can test drive the platform before committing to it. Once satisfied, they can sign up for a subscription plan.

Security Features

Security measures help protect your personal information. While this is important, it shouldn’t stop you from investing. After all, security breaches happen every day. So, look into whether your chosen firm has adequate safeguards in place. Does it encrypt sensitive customer details? Is its website protected using SSL encryption technology? What about anti-fraud tools? All these factors determine how secure your account is. 

Also, ask them about their privacy policy. Most online brokers maintain strict policies concerning the collection, storage, and disclosure of private information. However, some firms don’t disclose everything. Be wary of those who fail to mention cookies, IP addresses, and third-party tracking devices.

How it’s Easy to Deposit and Withdraw Funds

After all, if you want to invest, you need access to capital. Fortunately, most online trading sites allow users to deposit and withdraw funds easily. The process typically involves filling out an application form. Then, you wait for the approval. Finally, you receive instructions on where to send payment. It takes time but not too long. It doesn’t have to take more than 10 minutes.

Trading Tools & Charts

Most websites include essential charting tools. These let you track market movements over time. Some even give you historical price trends. Others show technical indicators. Still, others display news headlines. 

Whatever type of tool you prefer, know that each one offers different benefits. For instance, while trend lines might work well for stocks, they aren’t as useful for commodities. Likewise, bar graphs may be better suited for currencies. That said, there isn’t any right or wrong choice when selecting a charting system. Just make sure yours meets your needs.

Advanced Options

Most online brokerages offer advanced options such as margin accounts. Margin accounts let traders borrow money against their investments. As a result, they can increase leverage without having to pay additional fees. Leverage enables you to trade more significant amounts of stock at lower prices. But, keep in mind that higher levels of leverage also mean more substantial risk. If things go south, you could lose much more than what you invested. Therefore, only consider leveraging your portfolio after carefully weighing the pros and cons.

There are plenty of reasons why choosing an online brokerage is beneficial. For starters, most firms allow traders to invest without having to leave home. Moreover, they make it easy to trade stocks, bonds, options, ETFs, mutual funds, forex pairs, commodities, futures contracts, and more. Additionally, they give you complete control over your investments. Lastly, they charge reasonable fees, which makes it possible for everyone to get started. If you’re looking for a broker that offers excellent services, then consider opening an account today! 

It’s important to always stay updated when it comes to money-making and currency. Cryptocurrency is the new gold rush. As a product of blockchain technology, this type of digital currency has quickly grown in popularity and power in recent years. Though it has made many new millionaires, it has also caused many people to lose their investments. The latter can happen when you don’t properly prepare yourself. Just like any other asset, investing in cryptocurrency requires a certain mindset, strategy, and fortitude. If you’re thinking of buying crypto, rely on these 11 important things to help you make sound investments.

1. Budget Accordingly

The first rule of any investment, whether it’s stock, real estate, forex, etc, is to only invest what you can afford to lose. Every investment is a risk, and crypto is a lot riskier than others due to its volatility. If it was a surety, then everyone would be doing it and making millions. Sadly, it’s not.

You’re more likely to lose your first few trades as a beginner, so budget with that in mind. Sure, there’s beginner’s luck, but you don’t want to rely on luck; rely on trading smartly. The last thing you want to do is bet your life’s savings and lose everything.

2. Do Thorough Research

Want to know the next way to not lose money? Research. It’s unwise to invest in something you know nothing about. Familiarize yourself with everything crypto. Read many articles and books about digital currency before you even invest your first dollar. This Bitcoin guide for beginners is a good resource to start with. Knowledge is power.

There are so-called gurus out there who promise to do everything for you. Run away from them. Anyone who promises unrealistic gains or one-stop solutions never delivers and doesn’t really care if you gain or lose after they’ve sold you their snake oil. Again, run! Run home and do your own research.

3. Know When To Miss Out

Let’s talk a little bit more about safety for a minute. There’s a lot of hype now surrounding new coins that promise great gains. Most of these are promoted by celebrities who we trust, but it hasn’t turned out well.

These celebrity endorsements are often bought to make the new coin look good. You should invest based on the research you have done and not on your emotions. Instead of going with the upcoming trend, thoroughly analyze what this new coin has to offer. The last thing you want to do is hop on a hype train only to end up regretting it.

Every coin has pumpers, people who shamelessly promote possibly failing coins, spot them, and avoid them. 

4. Know Your Crypto Exchange

Whether you are buying Bitcoin, Ether, or altcoins, you’re going to need an exchange for transactions. If you want to buy, sell and swap cryptocurrency, then you need to choose a crypto exchange that works for you. Each exchange has different terms, rates, and benefits. Since it is going to be where your coins are stored, this decision is quite important. If the location of the exchange is a big factor for you, then choose one that is based in your region. Other factors to consider are if that particular exchange supports the cryptocurrency you’re interested in and what payment methods can be used.

5. Anticipate Volatility

Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile. Besides some stable coins, it’s commonplace to see their values fluctuate wildly. This requires you to have a high-risk tolerance and a strong mindset. You must first come to terms that whatever you have invested can crash at any moment. Then you need to master patience.

Though there are many day-traders in the market, most of its value is seen over the long term. If you’ve done proper research about your coin, you’ll know when to hold or when to sell. Don’t freak out when you see a major dip, sometimes they can have huge rallies. Prepare yourself for the ups and downs and you’ll rarely be caught off-guard.

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6. Join A Community

They say if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together. That certainly applies to cryptocurrency investment. While we’re not saying you should pool funds to buy crypto, being part of a community will be one of the best decisions you could ever make.

Most investors communicate online via Reddit and other platforms, but some still meet in person if they can. A community will help you stay up-to-date with the cryptocurrency market. You can also get advice about trades, terms, and market moves. Join the discussion; you’ll learn many new things and forge valuable friendships.

7. Verify Everything

So we have to talk about safety again. Scammers like to take advantage of any situation they can. They either piggyback off celebrity promotions, impersonate trusted authorities, or set up fake altcoins that suck you dry. If something sounds too good to be true, it likely is.

It’s important to know how to spot these scammers so that they don’t get you. Examine their claims, research their origins, and dissect their offerings. The moment something smells fishy, move on. This crucial step can save you from huge losses. Whatever claim, promise or opportunity comes your way, scrutinize and verify everything.

8. Diversify Your Portfolio

If you really want to make profitable investments, do what the experts do: diversify. Bitcoin is the juggernaut of the cryptocurrency family; the heavyweight with the highest growth to date. But the other members shouldn’t be ignored. 

Even though Bitcoin is doing great right now, it has taken huge dips. You need to prepare for that. Invest in other cryptocurrencies so that if one falls, you have others to rely on and all your money doesn’t go down the drain. Most investors follow the 6:3:1 rule. That’s 60% Bitcoin, 30% Ether, and 10% altcoin. There are other ratios you can use, and you can choose which coins you want to apply them to.

9. The Keys Secure The House

Would you trust a stranger with your house key? Hopefully, your answer is no, otherwise, we need to talk. With cryptocurrency, holding the keys for your coins is very important. Since crypto is a bearer asset, anyone who possesses them is considered to be the rightful owner. This means that if your crypto is lost or stolen, you’d be completely out.

Seasoned investors will safeguard their keys by using either a hardware device or paper. Yet, there’s still room for error here. Firstly, do you really trust yourself with keeping that device or piece of paper safe? It’s not like losing a pen; it’s losing a possibly huge investment. If you lose your keys and your key phrase (a backup password to regain access to your wallet) then you’re doomed.

Admittedly, this one is a bit tricky. You can either choose to have a third-party custodian hold your keys or keep them yourself.

10. The Government’s Due

No matter what you earn or how you earn it, the government will be coming for its due. Unfortunately, taxes are unavoidable (if you want to stay out of jail). Despite the crypto industry’s efforts, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires you to report capital gains and pay taxes on them. This is because they consider cryptocurrency to be property and not currency, for federal tax purposes.

The government treats crypto much like how they treat stocks. You need to track the value of your coin when purchased and then when it’s either traded, spent, or exchanged. Different rates apply for short-term and long-term gains. Read up on the stipulations for paying taxes so that the government doesn’t scoop you up and put you in a box.

11.  You Don’t Even Have To Go All In

If you’re a newbie, this is important. In fact, this would be the preferred way to get your feet wet. You don’t have to go all-in when buying crypto. You don’t need to buy a whole coin or spend large sums of money. Crypto can be bought in fractions.

For example, Bitcoin is divisible to the eighth decimal. So you can start with $10, $20, or $50 worth of it. This is great if you want to test the market of a particular coin and see how it trends. This also ties in perfectly with our first tip, budgeting accordingly. Use these small amounts to experiment with trading and develop your instincts. This will prepare you for larger investments and develop you into a competent trader. If you can successfully trade $10, you can successfully trade $10,000.

Cryptocurrency has created some amazing new opportunities. As you take advantage of them, you must be aware of the risks involved. To reduce potential losses, you need to invest what you can afford to lose. On top of that, research the market thoroughly as it will help you avoid scams and failing hype trains. There are many exchanges you can choose from and many currencies you can buy fractions of to get started. Armed with these tips, you’ll confidently make your first cryptocurrency investment.

Is it better to build custom software or buy an existing one is a question that every business owner asks, especially when they’re intending to expand their business. Whether you’re a start-up in business or an established company, you need to estimate your needs in order to invest in the right solution. Taking the right decision of intensely investing in long-term initiatives or off-the-shelf software is always a challenging one. There is countless business software that already exists in the market, which serves many basic and advanced requirements in almost every field. Nowadays, even digital businesses need a software solution to run data in a successful way, update internal processes, and develop customers’ observation and exposure, in the best technical methods. Business owners and companies’ leaders have always searched for the best solutions to develop their business and increase its efficiency, eliminating errors and mistakes in the most practical ways. Many comparisons have been carried to weigh efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and worth of software solutions. Since technological developments are accelerating rapidly, it’s impossible for any professional IT team to cope with such an exponential rate of development. Read through our article to find out which is better, to build custom software or buy an existing tool?

Reasons To Consider Custom Software

It is true that building custom software for your company or online business is an expensive solution, but the decision totally depends on your perspective and the demands of your business expansion in the future. Most people consider off-shelf software at the beginning of their business mainly for financial reasons, but as the challenges grow while expanding a business, it becomes hard to work efficiently with the lack of customization of a canned solution. Operating a day-to-day business using a manual process is quite inefficient, giving room to more mistakes, errors, and malfunction. Building custom software provides a variety of benefits that work best for enhancing the strategy of your workflow and contributes to customer satisfaction, the ability to reach out to more clients, and excelling among competitors. Being capable of enlarging your business will help cover the costs of custom software dedicating all the resources and energy to generating a better outcome while saving more time and money for future success.  

Compatibility To Other Programs

Off-the-shelf solutions are rigid; they cannot comply with all your business needs. Most canned solutions do not have the ability to be modified according to the features required, many functions offered will not be used while others needed do not exist. By the time you realize that adding and removing features is not applicable, you will be left with a meaningless tool that fails to fulfill your business necessities. Unfortunately, other programs needed to complete tasks can be incompatible with the software you’re using since it is not customized to work with other technologies. If two programs cannot work together to perform an essential task, it will hinder the efficiency of your specialized business. 

When To Consider Canned Solutions?

Small businesses usually rely on existing software in the market, which makes more sense when considering budget limitations. For a business with a small budget, having a professional IT team that can operate such a great project of building custom software is near impossible. The lack of technical skills is a very important factor to consider a canned solution, you can not build something that you don’t have the tools for. Building custom software does not only require money; it takes time to proceed with such a project. So if your business can not operate effectively with less time invested, do not consider this solution. In the software industry build vs buy has always been a great issue. The folks over at divbyzero.io/blog/build-vs-buy suggest that if you don’t need custom software for competitive advantages that helps to refine your business then it’s better to choose the most suitable one in the market. Some business projects require a lot of integration with other essential platforms, which can create better opportunities for business development in the long term. In this case, you need to evaluate your strategy to make a decision that you will not regret later.

Ask Yourself Questions To Make The Right Decision

Before getting yourself into the dilemma of Buy vs Build, you need to ask yourself some important questions. Since building software is a very costly choice, you have to evaluate your budget and define the features that you need to run your business effectively. With a better understanding of your business requirements for development, you’ll soon be able to make the right decision that will save you money, effort, and time. Having technological knowledge is mandatory before proceeding with your decision. Building custom software is a complicated process; it’s better to take advice from a reliable source if you lack tech knowledge. After applying the required research, if you realize that ready-made software can manage to perform a number of necessary features while lacking one or two tasks, then it’s wise to go for this solution, saving yourself further complications and money. You need to evaluate your business demands if missing features will affect essential factors like generating profit or customers’ satisfaction. Considering a built custom software in that case is quite mandatory. 

A great deal of making a sound decision for your business relies on focusing on business returns and relationships with customers. The time and money invested in software solutions are fundamental factors to your choice. Evaluating missing and required features based on your business needs will help you understand the pros and cons of both choices. Research and analysis are requisite to decision-making. Software development companies have answers and solutions to all your needs, so ask all the essential questions. Business development needs all your energy, time, and money invested to achieve success, focus on the priorities to reach your goal. Considering customers’ feedback is a key factor to finding the best solution and enhancing the functionality of your business to meet the requirements of your clients. If you are able to provide your IT team with sufficient training and budget will increase their accountability in performing advanced technical projects to develop and enlarge your business.

If you’re thinking of starting a gaming blog or you’ve already got one up and running, you might want to consider monetising your hobby. With the right strategy, you can transform your blog into a lucrative side hustle or even a thriving small business. To get started, below are some top tips for monetising a gaming blog:

1. Identify Your Audience

Gaming is a massive industry, which means your blog is unlikely to appeal to everyone. With more than 2.8 billion gamers worldwide, it’s impossible to deliver value to everyone. By choosing a specific niche, however, you can whittle down your audience and provide genuine value to blog visitors. By doing so, you will increase the number of subscribers you gain and boost the monetary value of your blog.

2. Avoid Being Repetitive

When you are posting content regularly, it’s easy to be repetitive, which puts people off and stops them revisiting your blog. As well as making sure your posts are varied, you’ll also need to ensure that your blog offers something different to other gaming sites out there. Whether you focus on a range of different games, such as Ruby Fortune and FIFA, or feature content that spans different platforms, devices and consoles, make sure you find a way to keep delivering something new and fresh to your readers.

3. Feature Relevant Ads

Advertising can be a great way to monetise a blog, providing adverts don’t have a negative impact on user experience (UX). If you want to generate revenue from your gaming blog, make sure adverts appeal to your core audience. This will increase the click-through-rate (CTR) of ads on your site, which will keep advertisers happy, but users will also be happy to see advertising content that’s of interest to them.

4. Post Affiliate Links

Affiliate marketing is a popular way to monetise any type of blog and it’s a strategy that can certainly be used with a gaming blog. When you post an affiliate link, you’ll receive a commission or flat fee when a user clicks on the link and makes a subsequent purchase. Again, you’ll need to make sure that the links you feature are relevant to your audience if you want to make a profit and optimise the UX.

5. Offer VIP Content

Blogs are typically free to view but there’s nothing stopping you introducing a premium section for paid subscribers on your blog. While you might need to build up a strong subscriber base before this becomes a realistic option, creating content that users are willing to pay for is a sure-fire way to turn your blog into a profit-making endeavour.

Launching a Successful Blog

Blogging might be easy in theory, but it can take quite a bit of work to engage your audience and generate an income from a blog. By creating great content and consistently gaining subscribers, however, you can capitalise on the popularity of your blog and implement a variety of monetisation techniques.

There are quite a few misconceptions about restaurant ownership in those that aren’t all that knowledgeable about this topic.  One of the most common misconceptions is that the success of a restaurant only depends on the quality of food served in it. In fact, the success of a restaurant depends on an immense number of parameters. Location, social skills, and experience of the staff, presentation of food, marketing, and quite prominently – how does the restaurant look like. That’s right, the interior of a restaurant can entirely transform the experience that it offers – be it in a positive or a negative way. Having that said, if you are a restaurant owner, it is incredibly important that you take your time to ensure that the interior design of your restaurants is at a high level.

Now, what does one have to do in order to improve their restaurant’s interior design? Well, that’s exactly the topic of this article, so, if you want to learn more about restaurant interior design – make sure to keep on reading!

Ensure that the entrance is impactful

The entrance into a restaurant plays a huge role in how your restaurant is perceived and evaluated by your clients in the initial stages of entering it. When a potential customer is deciding whether to stay in your restaurant or not, what they see when they enter is crucial. Hence, it is vital that you make sure that the entrance to your restaurant is impactful in a positive manner. Additionally, it is important that your brand is easily identifiable upon entering. So, what does all of this mean in practice – what should you do to make your entrance more impactful?

If your first thought was to make a grand entrance hall with an exorbitant amount of decor – stop right there, that is not the impact that you want to make. Instead, you want to focus on the view from the entrance door of the restaurant from that angle. You want to carefully set up lighting and position decorations. You also want your tables properly arranged and covered with tablecloths printed with your logo to help promote your brand and sell your message. This will impress and invite your potential clients inside. In a way, you want to ensure that the primary perspective in which you design your interior is from the perspective of the client that’s entering the restaurant.

Understand your target audience

One of the most common mistakes in a restaurant’s interior design lies in the fact that people design them so that they appeal to them rather than to the target audience. This is a generally common mistake as you can easily gravitate more towards your own liking, of course. Now, experienced designers know how to tackle this. But, let’s see what should someone without major design experience have in mind. First of all, you need to ensure that you understand the niche of your restaurant. Try to construct a profile of your perfect customer, and make it as extensive as possible. First, focus on the simpler characteristics such as age range. But as you progress, go into more detail – what music do they listen to, do they have kids, are they artistically inclined? 

Once you construct the profile of the perfect customer, you will have a lot to go on from when designing the interior. Remember – your goal here is to ensure that the interior is as appealing as possible to your target audience. This process is extensive, but if done right, will give great results. It truly is important to make your brand distinguishable and relatable to your target audience. If you fail to do so, you end up with a generic restaurant, and there are just too many of those out there.

The impact of lighting

Many people tend to underestimate just how impactful lighting is in interior design, but also in general. Lighting not only dictates how a room looks but also how it feels on many different levels. By changing the tone of light, its dimness, position, and similar parameters, you dictate how people are going to feel in your restaurant. 

Are you shooting for a classy, high-end look, a contemporary and modern one, or an artsy, out-of-the-box look? Whatever the case may be, lighting is an easy shortcut to your goal, as it enhances all the other parameters that impact it. For instance, colder tones may play a better role in a high-end look, while dimmed, bolder colors can work better in an artsy setting. Try different things out, see what works best, but don’t forget about the impact of lighting!

Cohesive materials 

Unless your initial goal is to design your restaurant to look eclectic – it would be best that you stick to a cohesive style. Now, it can be downright boring to make all your furniture borderline the same in order to emphasize the overall concept. A better way to approach making a look cohesive is by employing connected themes in regard to lighting, materials, and colors. For simplicity, let’s focus on the materials. It is important that you ensure that the materials in the restaurant are generally cohesive, and this goes for furniture – but also decor, walls, and flooring.

Additionally, choosing materials tactically can further elevate the look. For instance, many modern establishments opt for avoiding cheap, plastic elements of significance. Instead, using wood in contrast with metal, they ensure a feeling of warmth, enhanced with futuristic, strong metallic elements. In a similar manner, ensuring that you use cohesive materials among furniture pays off as well.

Finally, it is important to have in mind that there are no two restaurants in the world that are the same. Hence, individuality and originality in a restaurant are not only encouraged – but are the key to a successful, well-established brand. Ultimately – there is no true guideline that would be able to tell every restaurant owner how to boost their restaurant’s interior design. But, as you’ve seen, there are some things that are universally important and should be considered by everyone. So, take your time when it comes to the restaurant’s interior – once you establish the overall look, the probability is high that you will not stray away from it that much in the future. Good luck!