I learned that there are various careers in the art and design fields such as being a:
1. Fine artist
2. Art gallery curator
3. Art therapist
4. Art teacher
5. Art/art history/design lecturer
6. Art valuer/auctioneer
7. Illustrator
8. Arts administrator
9. Architecture, fashion, media, film, and theatre fields
Many seasoned artists choose to hire an art agent which helps them represent, promote, and sell their work. There are various benefits to hiring art agents as they can negotiate better contracts and increased pay, seek out potential sponsors or buyers, supply industry contacts, safeguard artists’ privacy by acting as a go-between them and professional contacts, and plan and execute marketing strategies.
However, before hiring an art agent, you should build a portfolio and be serious about selling and gaining exposure for your art as agents cost money and reputable agents and galleries only take artists who they want to pour time, effort, and resources into promoting. Some of the different types of art representatives include art consultants, private art dealers, artist management agencies, commercial art galleries, interior designers, publicists, and marketing specialists.
I learned that to effectively sell art and earn a profit from it, you need to be an artist and an entrepreneur. You need to understand how to build an audience, how to prize art products, and the unique requirements for shipping art. These are some of the steps you need to be a successful art seller online:
1. Research and analyze which platforms are best for selling your art
2. Maintain the same pricing across all platforms
3. Maintain an inventory/spreadsheet
The Do’s and Don’t’s of promoting your work:
Don’t: Convince people to support your work
Do: Make it available
Don’t: Spam people
Do: Be strategic
Don’t: Just inform people
Do: Create a dialogue
Don’t: Post the same thing on every platform
Do: Understand the platform that you are using
Don’t: Just be a business
Do: Show some personality
To have an art business, you need to have a niche, an audience, sales and marketing channels, customer relationships, key resources, key partners, key activities, cost structure, and revenue streams.
I learned that there are many careers in the music industry besides being a songwriter and performer. Some of the careers in the music industry include:
1. Video and sound engineer
2. Recording engineer
3. Music director/conductor
4. DJ
5. Musical therapist
6. Music journalist
7. Music agent
8. Songwriter
9. Music franchise owner
To have an established career in this industry, you should pursue a degree in the music business. This degree has three components: the analytical, the musical, and the managerial.
1. The Analytical: understanding the international music business marketplace, macro-microeconomics, math, marketing, finance, accounting, management, entertainment, and organizational analysis
2. The Musical: understanding music theory such as aural comprehension, music history, keyboard skills, music in contemporary world culture
3. The Managerial: understanding music publishing, concert management, entrepreneurship, writing, media planning, finance, and entertainment law
Although this industry is not known for its high salary, you can still earn money as a musician. You should stream royalties through digital distribution, paying gigs, selling your brand, collaborating with brands and other musicians, selling beats, teaching music or selling music classes.
I learned that anyone can become a customer service representative/correspondent as long as they have communication and problem-solving skills along with patience and empathy. Some of the other requirements are:
1. Access to a home office or coworking space
2. Self-starter
3. Strong internet connection
4. You can handle networking out of your comfort zone
When emailing customers, you need to make sure that you personalize your email interactions, always say thank you, promise a timely result and deliver, define email support style, share good versus bad news intentionally, clearly explain the solution to your customer, link to larger instructions, balance casual vs formal tone, and transform negative language to positive language.
When chatting with customers, write complete and short sentences, address one issue at a time, and address the customer by their name.
There are various types of customer service representatives/correspondents including:
1. Remote call center agent
2. Remote customer support representative
3. Remote live chat agent
4. Remote customer support engineer
5. Remote customer success manager
6. Remote implementation specialist
7. Remote virtual assistant
8. Remote telephone research interviewer
9. Remote travel agent
10. Remote customer success director
11. Enablement content specialist
When publishing a book, you have to choose between traditional and self-publishing. Traditional publishing includes finding a literary agent and working with a publishing company and their team to launch a book. On the other hand, self-publishing a book requires you to handle the writing, editing, and publishing aspects of the book. There are pros and cons to doing both. Some of the pros of traditional publishing are:
1. There is prestige
2. It is an established process
3. Your book gets distributed to physical bookstores/locations
4. There are no upfront costs as your publishing company handles almost all of the costs
Some of the cons of traditional publishing are:
1. Lack of creative control
2. It is a slow process (finding an agent willing to represent you can take upwards of 2 years)
3. Low royalty rates (usually 7-10%)
4. Lack of good marketing (if they pay you little)
Some of the pros of self-publishing are that you have creative control over your work and the royalty rates are much higher (up to 70%). Thus, even if you sell fewer books than an author who went the traditional route, you can earn more than them due to the higher royalty rates. However, some of the downsides of self-publishing are that there is still a stigma associated with it, you have to manage everything, and invest a lot of your own money to publish your book.
I learned that there are four types of leadership styles. First, the sticklers are the leaders who follow every rule by the book and play it safe. On the other hand, cowboy leaders are more relaxed and willing to accommodate and do things a little differently. Additionally, there are good and bad cops. Leaders who take the good cop approach build comradery but face issues when an employee doesn’t do what they are supposed to. So, if they ask an employee to do something in a stern manner or if an employee needs to be fired, they can come off as passive-aggressive. This is where being a bad cop might be a safer leadership style because they build respect, psychological safety, and give tough love. Consistency is very important in leadership so you shouldn’t be switching between a good and bad cop. This will confuse your employees and they will not know what to expect from you which can build resentment and lead to low employee retention.
When managing people, it is important to note that 99% of people don’t change drastically throughout their lifetime. So, how they think and present themselves often stays more or less the same. Thus, you should set your expectations accordingly and remember that it is hard to change other people and you shouldn’t attempt to change them in the first place. If an employee is not doing what they are supposed to, you can fire them. There are three ways an employee can be fired:
1. Fired - the employee violated company and/or legal rules
2. Laid off - when you don’t have a job for a person but they didn’t do anything wrong
3. Terminated - fired
When firing an employee, make sure you are not by yourself and have a witness with you in case things go awry. For example, an employee can say that they quit because of something you did, which would be difficult to disprove if you don’t have a witness. Also, you need to make sure to get what you need from the employee before they leave and then escort them to their desk and out of the building. Make sure that you remember to take away their IDs or any other form of access they have to the company building and information.
I learned that you need to make sure a lot of things are in order before you rent an office, store, or commercial space. You need to:
1. Know who the landlord is
2. Note the entry/exit doors and the fire code
3. Know if you can install or tear down walls
4. Make sure the heating and air conditioner systems work
5. Know if you can drill into the concrete
6. Ask if the windows can be opened
7. Make sure the sprinkler system works
8. There are enough restrooms and they work
9. Where your consumables will go
10. Note the noise level
11. Know how many electrical outlets are there and if the electricity works
12. Know if there is a kitchen
13. Know the altitude of the space and how you can store things
14. Know if there is a superintendent who can help you
15. Make sure the internet works
16. Be aware of your surroundings
Some of the fees you should be aware of when obtaining funding are the cost of the development of the product, human resources, facilities, utilities, consumables, insurance, and legal fees. If you are launching a business, you should aim for a minimally viable product which requires you to determine the minimum that you need to do in order to get your customers to use your product. You should minimize the launch costs until you achieve profitability and begin earning with the least possible financial risk. Some of the advantages of this are that you can release your product to market as quickly as possible, test an idea with real users before committing a large budget to the product’s full development, and learn what resonates with the company’s target market and what doesn’t. Make sure that your product is human-centered and that you are flexible and open to changing your product to better serve your customers’ needs.
I learned that a business plan is a flexible document that outlines the business strategy, goals, and projections of a company. Every company should have a solid business plan, not just startups, business students, and for use in loan applications. A business plan should have an executive summary, products and services, market analysis summary, strategy implementation summary, company and management summary, financial plan, and a relevant appendix. It is up to the person writing the business plan how long or short they want it to be, but it is better if the plan is concise and short.
An executive summary is the first component and it lets readers what the business plan is all about. It is used to convince potential investors that the company is viable and it should be 1-2 pages long. It includes:
1. Mission/Vision statement
2. Information about the company’s owners
3. Outline of business model
4. Target market
5. Competition and what sets you apart
6. Sales strategies and campaigns
7. Current financial status, goals, projections, and needs
8. Implementation plan for bringing the business into the real world
9. Your reader’s next action
Ideally, the executive summary should be left for last, after the business plan is written to have a better understanding of the company’s goals and needs. You should make sure to tell your story, do research, pay attention to tone, and avoid cliche language when writing an executive summary. You should also include existing accomplishments, customers and market, team and co-founders, and the risks and uncertainties associated with your plan.
I learned that a profit model is a company’s plan to manufacture or provide how sales will be generated. There are four main types of profit models: production, retail/leasing, advertising, and commission. First, production is the creation of a product/service for sale to consumers. Rental/leasing is the renting/leasing of motor vehicles, buildings, machinery/equipment, land, office furniture, etc. which is used to gain profit. Another way is advertising which is often used by media companies that provide free services and rely on advertising to generate revenue. Lastly, the commission model is used to generate revenue by charging a fee when a company offers a service to another party.
There are three components of a profit model. First, the production and operating component involve the process that a product undergoes before it can become available for customers to buy and composes of personnel and production equipment to make those products. The sales and marketing component involves getting the word out about the company’s products. Lastly, the delivery of goods and services component is the timely delivery of products to customers and making changes/upgrades based on customer feedback.
To pick a target market, you should:
1. Pick what you are passionate about and fires you up
2. Pick an audience and run with it
3. Pick one audience per marketing channel
You can also interview potential customers one on one, hold focus groups, and conduct surveys to find your target market.
I learned that to be a good and strong leader you should be controlled, not fidget, look in people’s eyes, not stink, stay in shape, speak with a commanding voice, and sit upright. Some people are born leaders but these skills can be learned and developed if you want to be a leader. There are two types of skills that every job requires: hard and soft skills. Hard skills are specific skills that are required for a job and are acquired through school and training. One example of this is coding skills. On the other hand, soft skills are interpersonal and people skills that can be used in every job such as communication, adaptability, and teamwork. These skills need to be practiced in the real world with other people.
To launch a successful startup, you must offer a product/service that solves a problem and/or brings happiness. You can also choose a business model that targets a specific customer demographic that you can relate to such as black-haired people.
You should:
1. Figure out the who/what/how of the business
2. Have financial resources and investors
3. Have a business strategy and model
4. Figure out who you want to do business with
You should not get attached to ideas and make sure to not spend too much time and effort on an idea that is failing. Also, don’t be afraid to share your ideas with others because that way you can get feedback from potential customers and ensure that you have a solid idea that people will want to invest in.
I learned that there is financial risk in starting a business but there is a lot of money in running a successful one. Two of the main things to keep in mind when starting a business are that despite failures you should never quit and that anyone can be an entrepreneur. To have a successful company, you need to attract great people who are willing to work with you and increase the value of your company. You should focus on your product, work really hard, and be passionate about what you do because without passion you won’t be successful in the long term.
There are three ways to start a company: with technology, with an idea, and with passion. With technology, you work backward as you already have a solution but you have to look for a market. With an idea, there is a market pull for a product and you create it to solve a certain issue. Lastly, you can also be very passionate about being an entrepreneur and opening a business. However, you cannot be successful with just passion and you need to have technology and market pull to accompany your passion.
Some of the myths associated with entrepreneurs are that they are:
1. The smartest and the highest achievers in the room
a. Anyone can be an entrepreneur, in fact, many of the most successful entrepreneurs
dropped out of school
2. Individualists
a. Entrepreneurs need a team of people to succeed as they cannot do everything by themselves
3. Born not made
a. If you possess certain skills or are willing to learn them, you too can be an entrepreneur
4. Loves risk
a Entrepreneurs take calculated risks that will allow them to gain profit, they are not the types of people to gamble and lose their money
5. Charismatic
a. Entrepreneurs need to be good leaders, not charismatic
6. Not disciplined
a. Entrepreneurs are some of the most disciplined people in our society as they make products and come up with solutions and also earn a profit in the process
Some of the skills required to be a successful entrepreneur are knowledge, capability, connections, financial assets, name recognition, past work experience, passion, and commitment. You should be willing to push the boundaries, build something meaningful, believe in yourself and your product, constantly learn, and never give up no matter how hard it gets.
I learned that you need to have an ideal living space, set boundaries, and embrace conflict to be a successful remote worker. First, you need to make sure that your home office is set up in a way that will motivate you to be productive. You need to adjust your living space accordingly to make sure that you are comfortable and can take video calls. If allowed, you should try to leave your home office and work in a cafe or at a collaborative workspace to not feel socially isolated and to get a work-home separation. Make sure that your remote setup is portable such as your laptop, charger, headphones, and external drive, and make sure that the place that you will be working has power outlets. If you decide to work at a cafe, try to buy something every 2 hours out of courtesy.
When you get the job, make sure to ask the following things:
1. Ask your boss how you will be onboarded
2. Ask about company policies and guidelines
3. Ask about scheduled meetings
4. Ask about the best way to communicate
5. Ask a buddy to help you settle in
It is best to set expectations with your boss as soon as you are recruited to avoid any future conflicts. Ask them how long you will be working, what is expected of you, and how to best contact them in general and when an urgent matter arises. Building rapport with your colleagues from the start is also very important to feel like you are a part of a community. Make sure to define your goals and milestones by determining the stakeholders, team members’ expectations, how to track goals, invest in health and wellness, avoid overworking, make sure the home office is comfortable (ask your employer if they will invest in this), take breaks, and collab with your co-workers!
Conflict is inevitable when working remotely as you are not in the same space as your boss and co-workers. However, it can be minimized if you watch the tone of your emails and messages, communicate intentionally, write well, know when to call and have a video chat, meet in person, and don’t just talk about business.
I learned that the main things you have to consider when finding a remote job is the job description, location restrictions, and scams, First, there are various terms for remote work such as distributed work, work from home, virtual job, work from anywhere, and agile workforce. You have to read the job description carefully to ensure that your job is not hybrid (unless you want that) and if it requires you to live in a specific location. There are many scams when it comes to remote recruitment as some job listings offer unlimited earnings, ask for financial information, ask you to pay a fee, or offer you the job on the spot without contacting or interviewing you. Look out for these red flags before you apply for a remote position.
When you apply, you need to be prepared for a phone or video interview. Some of the popular remote-specific interview questions are:
1. Where do you work when you’re remote?
2. Why do you want to work remotely?
3. How do you handle distractions or how do you stay focused?
Some of the biggest remote industries are computer and it, medical and health, sales, customer service, education and training, HR and recruiting, and accounting and finance. For both remote and in-person position interviews, you should research the company, practice answers to common interview questions, reread the job description, ask a friend to help you practice answering questions, prepare a list of resources, be prepared with examples of your work, and prepare smart questions for the interviewer(s). Practice is key to an effective and successful interview!
I learned that there are various ways to grow your Snapchat following. You should have a clear Snapchat strategy, make your account more discoverable, promote your profile on other social media platforms, tell great stories, share quality content, create lenses and filters, host a takeover, partner with publishers, post consistently and at the right time, tap trending topics, try Snapchat ads, and learn from Snapchat insights.
Some of the popular niche topics on Snapchat are beauty, fitness, home improvement, and gadgets. You can earn a profit through affiliate marketing and enabling snap ads. Some of the skills a Snapchat influencer should have is creativity, humor, and consistency.
I learned that the best way to grow a Facebook group fast is to invite peers who like your pages and to launch a page likes campaign to increase likes. You have to post daily, post relevant content (and try to evoke emotion), interact with fans, do not include links, and avoid asking for likes/shares/comments. The minimum group size that would attract a brand partner for sponsorship is about 10,000 members but if members are highly engaged and targeted then you may be able to monetize groups with 3,000-5,000 members. The types of Facebook ads are image, video, carousel, and collection ads.
Similarly, you can earn a profit through Pinterest by creating a portfolio of 10-15 boards, exploring other pinners, uploading images of high quality, adding relevant Pinterest keywords, and following a regular pinning schedule. Typically brands will reach out when you reach a certain number of followers to get paid through sponsorships. You can also get paid selling merch and through affiliate marketing. You can also be a virtual assistant and help bloggers and social media influencers optimize the usage of their accounts. Some of the skills a Pinterest influencer should have are curiosity, imagination, an eye for design, internet marketing, and copywriting.
Similar to Instagram, TikTok is another platform where users can generate profit by gaining followers, promoting brands, and selling products. To start this process, users should find their niche. Some of the popular theme pages on TikTok are fitness, cooking, fashion/beauty, comedy, and dancing. To attract more followers, users should optimize their profile, pick a niche, post high-quality videos, have engaging content, participate in trends+challenges, use trending music and hashtags, interact with followers, be consistent, be live, and use tools like TikTok analytics. One of the most effective ways to make a profit from TikTok is growing a fanbase there and shifting them to other more profit-generating platform such as Instagram and YouTube. Users can also increase their product sales through in-feed ads. Although there are no explicit skills required to grow followers on TikTok, it is helpful to be passionate about your particular interests and hobbies and also have video editing skills.
I learned that an Instagram theme page is a repost page where you curate content in a particular niche. To find a profitable niche, you should brainstorm content, see how many searches and engagement that niche receives, research other accounts focused on the same/similar topic, be consistent, and try to be as unique as possible when posting. Once you establish a page, to ensure that your follower count grows, you should post consistently, post engaging types of content, collaborate, cross-post, use the right hashtags, use geotypes, and use Instagram insights. Although the number of followers you have is important (leads to higher pay and higher brand worth), engagement and authenticity are more important to building a loyal consumer/fan base.
On an Instagram theme page, it is important to list your website, email, and other contact info on your bio. You should try reaching out to brands directly to work out a promotion arrangement, become a part of the affiliate marketing networking, and list yourself as one of the influencer marketplaces to increase your chances of being discovered. Some of the skills required to build a successful Instagram page and attract followers are photo editing and marketing skills. Using Instagram as a marketing tool can lead a company to earn higher profits as long as they have an effective plan and strategy.
One of the ways you can earn a lot of profit through Instagram is by flipping pages. This involves buying a theme page, growing its following, and then selling it. If you don’t want to sell it, you can gain profit from selling shoutouts of other pages, influencers, and brands. This process is similar to the real estate process as you buy something that has potential, add value to it, and sell it for higher value/profit.
I learned that recruiters work with hiring managers to find a good candidate for a vacant position at a company. They are in charge of attracting candidates, prescreening them, and serving as the employee brand ambassador. There are two types of recruiters: internal and external. External recruiters are agencies that work as headhunters to find candidates for various companies. On the other hand, internal recruiters are employed by the organization that they represent.
Recruiters should try to have an exclusive recruiter contract with the company they are working for because it benefits both the recruiter and the company. Hiring one exclusive recruiter instead of many contingency ones will ensure that the recruiter is fully committed to their job, the candidates are more thoroughly screened, and the hiring manager will have less work to do. Not only that, the recruiter will have a chance to leave a better impression on the candidate because the latter will not be approached by multiple recruiters trying to recruit them for one position.
Some of the most important skills that a recruiter needs to have is good communication skills, confidence, natural curiosity, good listening skills, ability to read and display position body language, reliability, patience, marketing sales skills, time management, negotiating skills, etc. While some companies may require a bachelor’s degree in either business, human resources, or communication, it is very important that a recruiter possesses the aforementioned skills.
I learned that a public relations agency promotes companies or individuals via editorial coverage such as websites, newspapers, magazines, and TV programs. Some of their responsibilities include writing and distributing press releases, speech writing, writing pitches about firms, creating and executing special events, conducting market research on the firm, etc. Similarly, press releases increase brand awareness and provide updates on the company’s services, projects, partnerships, organization structure, and more.
To submit a press release, companies need to find journalists who might be interested in their press release, get journalists’ contact details, craft a killer pitch, make their subject line irresistible, send their press release pitch at the right time, and follow up on their release. Some of the common mistakes that companies make are they make press releases too long, they target the wrong people and publications, their story isn’t newsworthy enough, and they don’t include contact information.
I learned that a freelance writer is not employed by a company or organization and makes money while working on their own. There are two types of freelance writers: specialists and generalists. Specialists write about specific topics and make more money than generalists. The five major ways that freelance writers make money are by writing articles/features, magazines/newspapers, websites, copy/content, and blogs.
Digital marketing involves connecting with customers on the internet. There are various benefits of digital marketing. It helps companies reach a larger audience, focus efforts on only prospects most likely to purchase products, allows competition with bigger brands, is measurable, improves conversion rate, and is more cost-effective than outbound marketing methods. As more people gain access to the internet, this type of marketing is gaining more value and is more effective than physical marketing. Some types of marketing strategies are search engine optimization, content marketing, social media advertising, pay-per-click, affiliate marketing, and email marketing.
I learned that a product manager doesn’t have a typical day in their job because their tasks and responsibilities vary day to day. This means that product managers need various skills such as familiarity with economics, effective collaboration, and proficiency in research and analysis. One of the most important skills a product manager needs to possess is communication skills because one of their biggest responsibilities includes communicating plans with other teams/individuals in the company.
To develop a product strategy, product managers need to define the problem first. Customer experiences and needs play an important role in this part of the development as the new product should address a problem that customers are facing. Then, product managers should quantify the opportunity and start researching potential solutions. After that, they have to build the minimum viable product to ensure that core functionality meets market needs. Lastly, they must create a feedback loop and drive the execution of the product. Thus, there are three main phases of a product: the discovery phase, the planning phase, and the execution phase.
After a product is launched, it is important to create an effective customer satisfaction survey to receive feedback and to ensure customer loyalty, retention, and higher sales. These surveys should be short, have questions that fulfill the end goal, have consistent rating scales, have smart open-ended questions, be specific, and make use of yes/no questions. They should avoid leading questions, ambiguous language, demographic questions, and internal jargon. Another method of receiving customer feedback is through interviews. Interviews are much more personal and allow customers to feel at ease to provide honest feedback and also allow them to feel important to the company’s success. During these interviews, the interviewer should be listening more than asking questions, avoid leading questions, and make the customer feel valued and understood. Customer satisfaction and feedback is an essential aspect of creating and launching a product, so satisfaction surveys and interviews should be taken seriously.
I learned that trading commodities are often high risk but can generate a lot of profits for investors. Commodities are raw materials used as inputs to produce other goods. There are two types of commodities: hard and soft commodities. Hard commodities are mined and extracted from the earth such as energy sources and metals. The ten most traded commodities in the world are crude oil, natural gas, brent oil, silver, sugar, gold, corn, coffee, wheat, and cotton, The buying and selling of commodities are carried out through future contracts. There are two types of traders that trade commodity futures. There are the buyers and producers of commodities and speculators with the latter trading in the commodities market for the sole purpose of profiting from the highly volatile market.
Commodity trading differs from other types of trading because it doesn’t pay dividends or interest so traders are solely dependent upon capital gains for investment performance. Also, the commodity market is open 24/7, unlike most investment markets, and tend to be short-term investments. Some of the benefits of commodity trading are that it could be used to diversify an investor’s portfolio, is easy to understand in terms of supply and demand, and the price of commodities increases during periods of inflation. However, similar to every other form of investing, commodity trading comes with various risks. It is the most volatile asset class and comes with many unforeseen risks such as politics, weather/natural disasters, and the supply and demand of commodities. As a result, much like options, commodity trading is only recommended for experienced investors who have more knowledge and may be more risk averse than beginners.
A general lesson for trading is to learn how to make money, one needs to learn how to lose it. There are various systematic risks associated with investing in stocks, cryptocurrencies, and other types of securities. These include political risks, country risks, environmental risks, market value, and interest rates. As a result, information and knowledge are essential to succeed in earning money from investments.
I learned that options are a contract that allows people to buy and sell 100 shares of an underlying asset at a specific price before an expiration date. There are two types of options, a call, and a put option. A call option is valuable when a stock price rises while a put option is valuable when the stock price goes down. When buying a call/put option, the most an investor can lose is the premium amount that they must pay when buying an option. The strike price is the anticipated value of the underlying stock at or before the expiration date. The farther the strike price is from the stock price, the lower the premium amount will be.
Some of the benefits of buying options instead of stocks are that it doesn't tie up as much investment money, they are flexible and more predictable. However, compared to trading stocks, trading options have a greater potential for loss. Thus, traders must define their objective, evaluate the risk/reward possibilities, consider volatility, anticipate events, plan a strategy, and define options parameters before investing in options. This is why options trading is best suited for advanced traders who have experience in this area because, without the proper research and experience, an investor could lose a lot of money. However, if someone is an experienced investor and gains the proper knowledge required to trade options, they can earn a lot of profits in a short period of time.
The foreign exchange market is an electronic marketplace used for trading different currencies. It is the largest and most liquid market by trading volume. Traders profit from the price movement of a particular pair of currencies such as USD/CAD. For example, if the trading ratio is 1:1.3365, it means that it costs 1.3365 CAD to buy one USD. Some of the benefits of investing in the foreign exchange market are that it requires minimal investment, minimal time commitment, doesn’t require employees, and is recession-proof. If there is a crash, it usually affects a single currency so ForEx markets as a whole can’t crash. Long-term crashes usually take months/years to recover from while short-term crashes often take less than an hour.
There are four kinds of ForEx traders: scalpers, day traders, swing traders, and position traders. Scalpers trade within seconds/minutes, day traders trade within a day, swing traders trade take less than a week, and position traders take weeks and months. Although there are a lot of risks associated with this type of trading, it can be profitable if an investor manages their emotions well and follows the rules instead of the profit. If they learn to manage their greed and fear (which many investors are prone to giving in to), investors can be successful in this trade.
I learned a lot about trading and investing in stocks today. First, there are two types of stocks, common stocks and preferred stocks. Common stocks are best if an investor is looking for long-term growth while preferred stocks are best for earning an immediate income. Most common stocks pay dividends and all of them allow voting rights. On the other hand, preferred stocks pay fixed dividends and doesn’t allow investors to have voting rights. However, people who have preferred stocks are at the front of the line when a company starts to lose money and they are less likely to lose a lot of their initial investment than a person with a common stock.
The difference between trading and investing stocks is that the former generates short term profit while the latter is used to buy and hold stocks for the long-term. It is best to have a diverse portfolio of stocks instead of investing a lot of money into one company because if that company goes down, the investor can most, if not all, of their initial investment money.​ This can be easily done by having a mutual/index fund which allow the investor to buy many stocks in a single transaction and have instant diversification. It is also important to diversity investing across sectors and locations because investing in one sector, such as technology, can be risky if those industries start to go under.
There are various types of orders an investor can make when trading stocks. Some of these are market, limit, stop, fill or kill, and day orders. Limit orders are one of the best and safest ways to trade stocks because it allows the investor to buy or sell at a specific price. One of the disadvantages of trading stock this way is that the price of the stock may never go down to the price the buyer is asking for or go up to the price the seller is asking for. Even so, the buyer will not lose money if the stock never reaches that price, and the seller can always decrease their price to find a buyer.
Lastly, I also learned how to read a stock chart which is a very useful skill to have. In a bar chart, the top and bottom of the line represents the highest and lowest price of the stock over a time interval. The length of the bar indicates how much the stock moved over that period. If there is a short bar, it means that the price didn’t move too much and if there is a tall bar, it means that the price was volatile. Additionally, a red colored bar indicates that the price of the stock was lower at the end of the interval than at the beginning and a green colored indicates the opposite. A candlestick graph is read in a similar way, except that there are filled and hollow bars to represent the same things.
I learned that there are many different ways to get paid. A lot of businesses use sites such as Paypal and Square to receive payments from their customers. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages. For example, if PayPal suspects anything they can freeze your account and money for months and it might take time to resolve that issue. However, PayPal is most commonly used by businesses because it is reliable and it is easy to make transactions. One of the safest payment options is cryptocurrency because once a payment is made, it cannot be revoked or tampered with. However, most businesses and individuals don't use this form of payment because it is highly volatile and one could easily lose the value of their money.