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A typical day in the life of an XM trader
It is worthy of note that there are different trading styles, and the typical day of a swing trader, for example, may be quite different from that of a Day Trader. Part-time traders usually favor the swing trading style; because it allows them to trade the market less actively without affecting their day job/business(es). However, in this article, I will focus on a day in the life of the more active trader, an XM Day Trader. That way, you will better understand the process involved in trading full-time.
I will divide my description of a typical day in the life of an XM trader into segments that I label; Pre-Market, Early Trading, Second Wind, and Post-Market.
PRE-MARKET
Before the markets spring to life in the morning, XM trader starts their day with a healthy morning routine, which will help them maintain the right mindset and vitality throughout the day. For some, a morning routine may include; meditation, exercise, reading, writing, etc. They then get busy catching up, with coffee and breakfast in hand, on any overnight events which could affect that day’s trading session. Their catchup may involve reading stories from various financial newspapers and websites, as well as listening to updates from news networks such as CNBC, Bloomberg, and XM website. Traders will also review economic calendars to discover which market-moving financial reports are due that day. They may also look at a currency strength matrix to identify underperforming and over-performing currencies and the current risk sentiment in the market. After reading about events and taking notes of what the analysts are saying, traders head to their workstations, turn on their computers and monitors, and open up their analysis and trading platforms. Many layers of technology are at work here, from the computer, keyboard, and mouse, to the internet, trading platform, etc. As such, traders spend time confirming the correct functioning of everything before the trading session begins. If everything works well, traders will begin scanning the markets for potential trading opportunities. Some traders work in just one or two markets (such as two stocks or currency pairs), and they will open up these charts and apply selected technical indicators, or other trading tools, to see what is going on in those markets.
EARLY TRADING
The first half-hour of trading is typically pretty volatile, so many (but certainly not all) individual traders sit on the sidelines to give the market time to settle and avoid getting instantly stopped out of a position. However, as they wait, most XM traders spend parts of their day tuned into the XM Live Education rooms, either the Beginners or Advanced Room. There, they join the trading experts, who teach and analyse different markets to share their wealth of knowledge with traders without holding back. Some traders use the opportunity of these live classes to ask questions about the financial instruments they have scanned earlier and get the experts’ opinions on the financial markets they are interested in. Precision and timing become increasingly crucial as traders watch for trading opportunities based on their trading plans, experience, intuition, and current market activity. Once an opportunity arises, the trader must act on time to identify the setup and pounce on the trade. The trader uses an order entry interface to submit orders to the market. Many traders will also submit simultaneous orders for profit targets and stop losses to protect against adverse price moves. Depending on the trader’s goals, they will either wait for this position to close out before entering another one or continue scanning the markets for additional trading opportunities.
SECOND WIND
An XM Trader takes some time off the screens during the day to rest because they understand the advantage of a clear mind in a successful trading business. After taking some time to rest, a trader continues to monitor their open positions and look for any more opportunities. Because day traders do not hold their positions overnight, many set a time limit past which they will not open additional trading positions (e.g. 16:00). That helps ensure they have enough time to profit before the markets close.
POST-MARKET
After the markets close, traders round off the day by reviewing their trades, noting what went well and what could do better. Many discretionary traders use a trading journal – a written log of all trade positions, including ticker symbol, setup, entry price, exit price, number of shares, and any notes about the trade or what was happening in the market that might have affected it. Many traders will return to a financial news network to get a recap of the day and start making plans for the next trading session. Day traders spend much of their days scanning the markets for trading opportunities, and they monitor open trade positions. They spend many of their evenings researching and improving their trading plans.
Why should South Africans invest with XM?
South Africans have a wide range of intelligent people who can recognize a genuine opportunity when they discover one. That is why they can certainly tell XM apart from the others, which makes XM their best choice.
Founded in 2009, XM has the trust of over 10 million traders from over 190 countries. XM is considered fair, transparent, reliable, and trusted, with an excellent trust score. XM is regulated and authorized by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) of Belize, the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
XM provides trading versatility, as they support both MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 platforms, which offer state-of-the-art technology, simple to use, and a user-friendly interface. Both applications are available on many devices, from installed software on a PC to WebTrader in a web browser and mobile devices.
XM Broker offers leverage ranging from 1:1 to 1000:1 level, but what is available for traders to choose from will largely depend on their asset, trade size, and account type. XM trading hours open and close in sync with each market’s active hours, which means you can trade for 24 hours a day, 5 days a week in the forex market. Cryptocurrency trading is also offered which can be traded 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
XM provides 24-hour phone, email, or online chat customer service from Monday to Sunday in 30 different languages. That extended language support makes it possible for nearly everyone to communicate securely with XM’s dedicated support team. The broker is keen on maintaining its customer’s trust and striving to achieve a perfect score in satisfying clients. They understand that reputation and credibility are closely associated; thus, they strive to pursue and improve their ability to follow clients’ needs based on their expectations.
XM Broker provides rapid processing of payments, such as deposits and withdrawals, supported by many transfer methods. Another specialty of XM is the availability of free (no fee) deposit and withdrawal options.
XM Broker provides traders with a wide range of assets, including precious metals, commodities, stocks, and energy products. The company allows trading with over a thousand financial instruments in seven asset classes, including equity indices, energies, cryptocurrencies, commodities, precious metals, individual stocks, and foreign exchange. You could find over 1,200 CFDs and about 57 forex pairs (exotics, majors, and minors) in the broker’s assets library.
XM presents comprehensive research and educational features, ranging from daily news, research on market conditions, forex seminars, and live education with 20 multilingual professionals. That includes market reviews, stock market news, forex news, investment-themed articles, technical analysis, videos, and a learning center where webinars, seminars, and video tutorials are presented. Besides the live education programs, XM also offers a well-equipped educational center in South Africa to help traders acquire trading skills free of charge.
For all the reasons I stated above, we can all tell that XM remains every South African’s number one choice.
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