Trading for Beginners

The MACD (Moving Averages Convergence Divergence) is one of the core indicators in technical analysis, second in popularity only to the Moving Average. Often referred to as “trend oscillator” it serves as a basis for numerous trading strategies, both as a standalone indicator or combined with other indicators. Read our MACD trading strategies guide to learn more.

Learn about the global FX market, currency pairs and how a trade works. Here you’ll also find descriptions of some of the common online forex trading concepts such as order types, rollovers and hedging.

Contracts for Difference – more commonly known as CFDs – are an important financial instrument that allows traders to speculate on the rising and falling value of currencies, indices, commodities and stocks without owning the underlying asset. Find out more here about CFDs.

Price moves in Forex trading are counted in pips or pipettes, but what does this mean? Pips and pipettes are smallest units of change in an exchange rate, pip is equivalent to a change of 1 in 4th decimal place, and pipette is 1/10th of a pip.

Leverage trading or margin trading, describes the process that allows the trader to open positions investing only a fraction of the position price, while borrowing funds from the broker to cover the rest. It is expressed as a ratio between total position worth and the trader’s investment.

Vanilla Options are contracts giving traders the right to buy or sell a specified amount of an instrument, at a certain price on a pre-defined time.The traders control when and at what price they trade.

MetaTrader is a platform provided by MetaQuotes Software that allows online trading in the CFD, Futures and forex markets. The software is licensed to AvaTrade for your convenience. There are two types of platforms: MetaTrader4 and MetaTrader5.

Learn about different types of price charts: line, bar and candlesticks. Assess market conditions like buying/selling pressure, highs and lows of the price during a given time frame by analysing the graphs. Learn graphical analysis patterns and meaning to become a better trader.

At Avatrade you can trade a range of popular cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin & Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Ethereum. Learn how to trade cryptocurrency without the need for maintaining e-wallets and without the exposure to cyber threats associated with cryptocurrency exchanges.

Both new and advanced traders can benefit from copy trading where trades are executed by seasoned professional traders with top track records. AvaTrade offers four distinct copy trading platforms enabling traders to take advantage of this breakthrough offering.

In this section we go a little deeper into how different currencies interact together in currency pairs – the basis of forex trading. You’ll also learn about the difference between major, minor and exotic currency pairs.

What’s a stock exchange? What are the primary and secondary markets? How shares are issued, bought and sold? Here you’ll find information on stock market structure, main regional stock exchanges, different life cycles of issued shares, and ways to profit from them.

Learn how to trade forex online. AvaTrade have all the basics covered as well as a step-by-step trading guide for beginner traders.

The rise in popularity of online CFD trading has made it simpler and more convenient to trade the rise and fall of major global companies, such as Apple, Google and Alibaba. Read an overview of how CFD share trading works and learn about factors to consider when trading stocks.

Find out what derivatives are and how they could be useful to you in trading, how their value is determined by various market fluctuations in the underlying assets. Learn all about the most common derivatives, including Futures, Forwards, Options, CFDs and Swaps.

Short Selling refers to a process of borrowing an asset from your broker and selling it during bearish market conditions, then buying it back at trend reversal and returning back to the broker, while pocketing the price difference as profits. Click for information and example.

Are you a day trader, a swing trader or a scalper? Explore your trading style. In this section we take a look at the various trading styles that are adopted by traders in today’s markets. Discover which is best suited to you, your risk tolerance and your knowledge of the trading market.

Knowing how to manage your money especially on the forex markets is, possibly, the very first discipline to learn before entering the markets. Here you can find valuable information on the basic terms and illustration of how to best manage your capital

AvaTrade provides its clients with a range of trading platforms: proprietary and third party. Read about all available trading platforms and choose a platform best for you. Learn the features of other available manual and automated trading solutions like ZuluTrade & Duplitrade.

Paper trading also known as demo account trading allows traders new to the Forex market and CFDs the ability to trade for free on a practice account before trading for real. By building up skills and confidence ‘paper trading’, plays an invaluable role in a trader’s education.

Not every trader is the same and there is no perfect trading plan. But there are universal rules and elements to consider when building a specific trading plan to suite your trading style. Want to know what should be included in your trading plan?

Technical analysis is an important factor in making smart trading decisions, whether you’re trading forex, commodities, stocks or indices. Read about tools and techniques you need to understand and analyse live charts so that you stand the best possible chance of succeeding.

How much money do you need to start trading? What are the risks of being undercapitalized and how to avoid them? What’s the proper leverage based on your available balance? How to avoid a margin call and properly size your positions? Read our guide and find the answers.

Fear, greed, hope and regret are normal human emotions, but they can seriously impact the performance of a trader. Read about psychological aspects of trading, learn to identify and manage emotions that can influence your decisions and develop a winning trader’s mindset.