Investing

Nothing escapes inflation, not fuel and food prices. Not investments, and definitely not Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Not yet, anyway.

A ‘digital’ asset is simply anything you own that has economic value and only exists digitally. Read more to find out why they’re popular amongst investors.

Fiat currency is money issued by a central bank, cryptocurrency is digital money governed by blockchain, computer code, the crypto community.

A positive return on investment (ROI) is the holy grail of investing. It’s what all investors are after when they place their confidence and money in a certain asset, and has come to be a universally accepted measure of profitability. 

Spread is the difference in price between an ask and a bid.

An index is an aggregated security that tracks the performance of a collection of companies or assets. An example is the FTSE 100, which tracks the performance of the top 100 companies on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

A bear market is the part of a market cycle when prices are trending downwards, generally due to fear that prices will continue to fall. This triggers further selloffs and becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Hedging is a way to reduce the risk of holding an asset. This is done by holding assets that are expected to have price moves in the opposite direction.

A trading strategy is an approach for longing or shorting financial markets with the aim to earn a profit as consistently as possible. There are lots of different approaches for trading that depend on a trader’s objectives

A bull market is when prices are in a rising trend and are expected to continue.

Profit is essentially what’s left over in revenue once expenses, costs and taxes involved have been deducted.

Options allow traders to reserve now and pay later for assets in exchange for a fee.