Forex vs Options & ETF's; which would be better to invest on?
967793
What you have just asked is tantamount to asking :\n"Beef vs Fish & Pork, which would be better to eat?"\n\nThese are completely different financial instruments that serve very unique and different purposes and it largely depends on what you are trying to achieve. For example, if you want to invest or trade on your opinion that the US dollar will continue to weaken against the Euro, you would of course do FOREX, right? If you want to invest in a certain market or sector movement, you would of course not invest in forex but go for an ETF that represents what you want to speculate in, right?\n\nSo, the thing is, it all starts from you, yourself. You need to understand and choose what works for you. There are pros and cons in ALL kinds of financial instruments and people usually specialise deeply in the one that they understand and are able to attain consistent success in. \n\nI know a lot of very rich forex traders and I also know a lot of broke forex traders. I know a lot of very rich option traders and I also know a lot of broke option traders. What is the difference? The difference is knowledge. Those that has deep enough knowledge and experience in a chosen field usually becomes successfull and those lacking of knowledge will usually go broke. The markets is a merciless place where the more knowledge you have, the less risk you will run into. \n\nSo if you ask me, the starting point is not in deciding what instrument works for you and trying to gamble your $3000 away but instead continue to invest in more knowledge until you are certain of what you want to do.\n\nI have personally chosen to trade options and have made it my life long career. It has taken me from completely broke to stock market millionaire by the age of 28 and I list some of the books that took me down this path many years ago at http://www.bestoptiontradingbooks.com . \n\nHope these information helps.\n\n\n\nhttp://www.mastersoequity.com\n\n\n\n.
288128
I suggest stocks, mutual funds and ETFs.\n\nDrop me a line if you need more detailed information.
754451
It depends. A good stock will perform better than a good mutual fund.  A good mutual fund will perform better than an ETF.  Stocks are subject to more specific risk than a mutual fund or an EFT.  Unless you have a diversified portfolio of about 10 to 20 stocks, there will be less risk investing in a mutual fund or an ETF.  ETFs have lower expense ratios.  They have become very popular lately and there are hundreds of different ones available.  Mutual funds are available in the thousands.  They have a somewhat bad reputation lately because 70% underperform the market in general.  And many have very high expenses.  I do believe there are many mutual funds worth owning, especially investing in those areas where an individual has difficulty investing on his own, such as in small cap stocks, mirco cap stocks, and foreign stocks.  \n\nA good investment plan is to invest in some of each.
989736
1) ETFs are essentially "static" as to buying and selling costs, whereas mutual funds are constantly turning over shares.\n2)  ETFs and foreign stocks:  Since ETFs are relatively static, the "set-up" commissions paid are one-shot costs
166936
Forex traders or any market trader make money from riding the trend and by controlling risk. There is no gambling involved. It is all about discipline and following a plan. \n\nThe best way is to simply ride along a long term trend. Day trading is riskier and take up more time - although I participate in this to make a little more pocket money if I'm bored.\n\nThe means by which you can make money is simply with any movement in the currency pairs. You can make money on an uptrend or a downtrend.
353839
Learn stochastic calculus and maths modelization first. It's your only way to making consistent profit on the FX. Charts are a great way to "learn" except they have no PREDICTIVE value whatsoever... sounds familiar? ;)
661594
Forex trading is just like stock trading, only here you try to benefit from the change in the value of a currency in respect to other. I have started a blog where I am telling free information on a daily basis and am also posting trades I place along with the analysis on why I placed the trade. This all is free. You can check out there to gain more info -\n\nhttp://the-forex-trading.blogspot.com
995102
I trade stocks and options for my main source of income.  Flutuations are caused by too many variables to list.   Keep in mind that stock price is based upon whatever the market will provide at that exact moment in time.    There has to be someone willing to buy and someone willing to sell all the time and this number changes constantly.  Based upon there being differences in the trading volume this can fluctuate the price and so can world events like crude oil prices or the value of the dollar.   Bottom line is you need to buy for the medium to long term into a few stocks about 10 in different sectors to spread out your risk and you can change your weighting according to which sectors you think are going to do well currently or in the future.  I'd prefer investing in stable companies which you can look at their S and P star rating if you don't have time to do this research yourself.  4-5 star stocks with a  good outlook for future growth are a really good way to start.
575487
Hi\n\nThe reason is simple, One must understand that the very purpose of using derivatives is to manage risk ( apart from speculation and arbitrage) Therefore many funds and large investors buy in to futures as a measure to hedge portfolios than buy options because the number of lots required to make an effective hedge if ur buying options will be huge. Also futures is more easy to trade and to understand than option pricing, having said that the risk and return is very high in futures.\n\nOptions are generally traded by the retail investors. If you would have observed only index options are traded more than stock options again for the reasons stated above.\n\nHope this helps
1050996
I'm asumming you are referring to purchasing stocks on different exchanges.  Sometimes there is a small spread difference, but arbritragers usually eliminate that very quickly.  Also, the fees may be slightly different.
734077
A stock broker will charge you commission on trades, which may be several percentage points of what you invest.  The commission fees generally make this an unacceptable option when you are investing small amounts of money.  You have to remember with a stock broker that the broker doesn't make money unless he's making trades for your account (unless there is a fee arrangement of some sort).  For small amounts of money, mutual funds are probably more reasonable.  The pros of mutual funds is that they are a generally low-cost way to invest across several different companies, and there are professional investors who get paid well to make good investment decisions.  The cons to mutual funds is that they also charge high fees, generally 1-2% and often have really high turnover which can leave you with a hefty tax bill.  Further, it is proven that professional investors rarely beat the stock indices (S&P 500, Russell 2000, etc) over the long term.  My best advice for you would be to explore low cost ETF (Exchange Traded Funds) products that would give you exposure to the market.  Vanguard is well known for a very low cost fund that tracks the S&P 500, which is roughly the largest 500 stocks by market capitalizaiton.  There are also funds that track bond indices, like the Lehman Aggregate index, but assuming that you are younger, you don't really need to have much exposure to bonds right now.  If you can't invest directly with Vanguard or a similar firm that offers low-cost exposure to the market, then you could open an account with a low-fee online broker like Etrade or Ameritrade and then buy broad market ETFs that track something like the S&P 500, etc.  You would also want to consider putting about 10% of your portfolio (assuming again that you are young) in international stocks, which could also be accomplished through low-cost ETFs.  \nThis probably sounds kind of confusing, but the key point here is that stock brokers and mutual fund companies charge high fees and rarely beat the broad market indices.  If you are being charged 2%, then your fund needs to return 2% more than the market for you to come out ahead.  That's much easier said than done.
956391
I have a great trading pair for you.  Basically you pick 2 stocks that are very similar, but you think one is better than the other.  So you short the one you don't like (Sell-short) and go long on the one you do like.  I think wind energy is going to be a better investment than coal, so I want to go long on Florida Power and Light (FPL), because they are the nation's largest owner of wind farms.  I want to sell-short TXU, because they are planning on building up to 10 new coal-fired power plants.  \n\nNow, even if both stocks go down, as long as FPL goes down less than TXU, you will make money.\n\nIf you are looking for other strategies, and to see what the best traders are buying and selling, I would suggest http://www.top10traders.com - this is a free site that lets you create a portfolio of stocks with $100,000 in "play" money.  Each day the site ranks the best performing portfolios, so you can see how your picks perform compared to other investors.  You can also read posts on investing from the best traders, as well as share your own investing ideas.\n\nHere are this month's best traders:\n\nhttp://www.top10traders.com/Top10Standings.aspx\n\nGood luck!
131847
In US stocks, most academic studies show that a broad index fund will have the lowest risk.  If you add in foreign stocks, studies differ, but a mix of ~80% US stocks and ~20% foreign stocks is optimal for lowest risk.\nI would suggest:\n80% Vanguard Total Stock Market Index fund\n20% Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund \nHowever, unless you are very young, you should put some money in bonds, and increase this percent as you get close to retirement.  The bonds will further minimize risk, but they lower your overall return.
91557
Cubes just because they are more volatile.  I go short and long so volatility is good if my stomach can stand it.  If you want diversified ETF's though, IWM (Russell 2000) is doing well now, and Japan coming out of depression looks good (EWJ).
308217
FXI - it's an "exchange traded fund" that tracks the FTSE Index of Chinese companies... It has actually come in (fallen in price) a bit recently... I'm thinking about buying it and holding it - to take advantage of the inevitable growth (currency and assets) coming out of that country.
412739
I think you want to enter the stock market but afraid of losses.You are  cautious and that mean you don't know which way the  stock would go and still you want to enter the market and trade! In that case buying a put and a call which  is known as straddle is the  the best way to go.This will work both ways and protect you in  ups and downs of market not only that but your risk is limited to the amount of buying a put and a call. If you buy the put you have no liability and if stock falls dramatically down below the put strike price it will give you a very good return on your investment.If you are taking a risk you can  buy a call. Buying a call is less liability then selling a put. If you buy a call, you will make money as  stock goes up.In case of stock going down you lose only the purchase price of a call. Balancing of calls and puts need some training, reading and experience of market situation. Be careful!
672553
Stock Derivatives: Options and Futures\nArguably the most volatile and risky investments possible, options and futures are "derivative" securities, meaning their value is "derived" from that of another security or commodity. Options and futures are both very volatile because they often carry an incredible amount of leverage. For instance, each option contract on an individual stock controls 100 shares of that stock for a fraction of the stock's current value. Since option traders have only invested a small percentage of the stock's price, any move in the price represents a big percentage change for their investment. Say they paid $5 per share for an option on a stock that sells for around $50 a share. If the price of the stock goes up $5, that's a 10% move in the price of the stock, but it's 100% of the option trader's investment. So a relatively small upward movement in the stock can be a huge upward movement for the option.\n\nThis potential for gain is offset by the fact that the entire purchase price of an option is at risk. If an investor holds an option and the underlying stock does not exceed the target price within the given time period, the option expires worthless and the entire purchase price is lost. (Most options end up worthless on their expiration date.) Traders also have to cover the price of the option. That five-dollar increase in the value of the stock wouldn't actually make the trader any money if the option expires at that point. It would just have covered the cost of the option. And if you think this is getting complicated, we've barely scratched the surface!\n\nThe Motley Fool does not consider options and futures to be worthwhile investments. Some people make a living trading derivatives -- they make their living trading against people like you. The chance of losing money with derivatives is much too high for options to be considered a useful part of any completely nutritious investment strategy.