The world of online trading continues to grow in popularity with nearly 300,000 online traders in the UK alone, and it’s easy to see why, as there is something very satisfying about being in control of your own financial gains whilst working on your own terms. With a plethora of online brokers and trading educator platforms making it easier than ever to get a slice of the trading pie, there is nothing to stop any of us making some serious cash without setting foot outside of our own front doors.
At a time where awareness of online scams, fraud, data protection and security breaches are in the news every other day, it’s fair to ask if the notoriously risky business of investing is safe to do online.
Everything in life comes with some element of risk and it’s true to say the stakes are somewhat higher in trading online compared to ordering a new pair of trainers from Amazon but online trading is absolutely fundamentally safe as long as you know what you are doing and providing you take the same precautions you would when embarking on any other online activity.
There are great trading educators out there including the team here at Trade Room Plus to ensure you do know exactly what you’re doing when it comes to trading safely online.
As knowledge is definitely power when it comes to trading, we advise taking the time to learn as much as possible from those who can prove they are a reliable source of knowledge on how to make your money work for you, the pitfalls to be aware of, and the fundamental rules to follow for a profitable journey into the world of online trading.
Is Online Trading Safe?
Online trading is an excellent place to sell and earn money and in this article we will focus on simple steps you can take to ensure your online trading activity is safe in order to reap the benefits of mastering your financial future in the midst of the digital era where technology has made everything available to us at the click of a button, including making your fortune in trading.
Simple Ways To Ensure Your Online Trades Are Safe
Use Reputable Brokers
It sounds obvious but always ensure you work with a reputable broker. Pay attention to the security measures they have in place regarding transactions, the quality of their website, customer reviews and whether they’re rated by independent industry commentators.
There will always be a section on the brokers website dedicated to customer care, usually under the terms and conditions where you can find the measures they take to protect your transactions and their approach to data privacy and security. Always choose a brokerage that uses high-end encryption to scramble data that only the receiver can handle when trading online.
Always Trade In Regulated Markets
When learning how to trade online, we recommend always trading in regulated markets. If you can trade successfully and make a profit in this environment, only then should you consider trading in riskier unregulated markets. These offer more flexibility but far less protection. Find out more about both in this article.
Check Regulatory Bodies
Always check where your trading platform or online broker is registered – which is often in the legal information in the footer of a website. There are regulatory bodies established by governments and other organisations to oversee the functioning and fairness of financial markets and the firms that engage in financial activity.
Employ Online Safety Best Practice
There are basic computer best practice you can employ to protect yourself when trading online including:
- Choose a secure password and never share this password with anyone.
- Only use trading platforms on a device you own.
- Log out of trading platforms when you have finished using them.
- Check for the security padlock in the left hand corner of the website’s URL. This means your transaction is occurring in a secure sockets layer and the data is encrypted.
- Don’t store your credit card details in online browsers.
Use Practice Accounts Wisely
One of the brilliant things about online trading is that you can use practice accounts to learn your craft and try out trades without any risk. They are designed to be identical to real brokerage accounts except you are trading with fake money.
When used in conjunction with trading educators they can be an invaluable way of getting ready to trade live by ironing out simple beginner mistakes like adding one too many zeros to your order and practicing the basics like entering orders to buy and sell stocks.
We would advise you to be wary of building false confidence in your trading ability especially if you get lucky with a risky trade in a practice environment. This does not mean you’re the next big trader or that the same risky trade will work again, so you shouldn’t dive straight into trading live with risky trades.
If your practice success was a fluke, the results could be disastrous when your own money is involved so only go live when you’re confident you have built up the knowledge to comfortably trade within your trading strategy at a level of risk you are happy with.
It’s very easy when sitting behind a computer trading online to forget you’re using real money – your money! So always know your limits, have a get out plan and follow a trading strategy.
Educate yourself
Risks come from not knowing what you’re doing and at Trade Room Plus we aim to ensure our customers know exactly what they are doing when it comes to trading.
We pride ourselves on providing an immersive trading education by putting our money where our mouth is and showing you exactly how to make trading work in real time with our LIVE trading room.
Here we use the very same strategies we share with you so at Trade Room Plus we don’t just tell you what to do, we show you what we do and how to make it work for you.
Online Trading Is As Safe As You Make It
Investors are solely responsible for the investment decisions they make and those decisions should always be based on the careful evaluation of their own financial circumstances, investment objects, tolerance to risk and liquidity needs.
As ultimately you and only you are in control of the decisions you make in life you need to make sure you know enough to be able to make a competent one either in person or behind a computer in order to trade online safely. For example, you could be driving the safest car in the world but if you drive it badly, the consequences could be catastrophic and trading is no different.
The best things you can do to trade safety online, aside from following the simple points covered in this article above, is to educate yourself to a point that you know what you’re doing, then educate yourself some more!
Always have a trading plan to base your trade decisions on as well as maintaining consistency in your strategy. Learn how to position size, use stop losses, what to do when the unexpected happens and how to manage risk. The more charts you look at, tutorials you follow and experts you talk to, the more knowledge you will have at your disposal to make the best trading decisions possible.
We hope we have reassured you that online trading is perfectly safe when armed with the correct tools and knowledge. So If you’re ready to dive into trading with the support of experts who can show you exactly how they trade live in front of you visit Trade Room Plus for a FREE 14 day trial and check out our Master Trader training series which is also packed full of trading education videos and guides bursting with insider trading knowledge and tips to get you trading online safely in no time.
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