S&P: magic of the cycles
There is a lot to learn about the behavior of the stock market. Let's go deeper into the S&P dynamics and see how we can benefit from our discoveries.
Trading instruments
2020-08-07 • Updated
Every FBS trader has an opportunity to open positions on different financial assets such as stocks, indices, currencies and commodities – everything in one platform.
Currency pairs
In the Forex market, you buy and sell in currency pairs. The first currency in a pair is a base currency, and the following - a quote currency. When you place an order for a currency pair, you buy the base currency and sell the quote one. For example, EUR/USD= 1.122 means that you can exchange 1 euro for 1.122 US dollars. The major currency pairs always contain USD and are considered to be the most popular in Forex. Minor currency pairs or crosses do not involve US dollars yet staying liquid (EUR/GBP, GBP/JPY, and EUR/CHF). Exotic currency pairs offer wider spreads but deal with less popular and more volatile global currencies. If you are no expert, do not try trading exotics.
Commodities
Commodities are raw materials that can be bought and sold. FBS offers the most popular ones such as precious metals (gold – XAU/USD, silver – XAG/USD, platinum and palladium), oil (WTI and Brent) and natural gas. If you open a Metatrader, you will see WTI Oil and Brent Oil. For example, to trade WTI during July of 2020 you need to choose WTI-20Q. This is the contract for difference (CFD), the last letter means the month of the expiration. WTI-20Q is expired in July. To trade Brent oil during August of this year you should pick BRN-20V.
Stocks
In the market, everything costs something. When a company goes public, it lets the market decide how much it costs. To do that, it divides its ownership into a certain number of fractions and offers the public to buy them. These fractions are called shares, while the total list of shares is company stock. FBS offers most a huge variety of popular stocks such as Amazon, Apple, Tesla, Google, Facebook and so on. You can check the full list on our website.
Indices
Indices are baskets of individual stocks, which are often ranked by independent institutions like major banks or financial companies. The most well-known stock index is the S&P 500. It includes 500 large US companies. This index reveals the performance of the stock market by risks and revenues of these companies. Most traders use it as a primary gauge of the whole market sentiment. There are also other stock indices such as Nasdaq, Dow Jones and etc. To trade indices mentioned above, you should choose contracts for difference (CFDs), as well as with oil CFDs.
The bottom line
Now you have all information you need for a basic understanding of trading instruments. If you are a complete beginner, start trading with major currency pairs. Follow news and read analyses to get always updated. When you feel confident, add gold (XAU/USD) and most widespread stock indices. Check our guidebook to get more knowledge. Also, you will find useful forex strategies in our tips for traders section. Good luck!
Kseniya Medik
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