7 Essential Safety Tips for Trading Stocks Safely

A value trap is when someone invests in discounted or cheap stock, thinking it’s a bargain. But in fact, this stock still ends up becoming a loss because it continues to perform poorly, shows little signs of growth, and, at most, will provide a lackluster return.

Value traps cost you not only money but also time. Avoiding them is vital to succeeding in the stock market. To do this, you should research potential investments thoroughly and always ask why stock is at a low price and whether or not this can change.

An example of this in action is the pharmaceutical company Viatris. Though the cheapest large cap in its industry, this stock doesn’t show enough promise to be considered a worthy investment.

By looking at the bigger picture, you would learn that the company faces rising competition from generic brands, as well as recent criticism over decisions made by management. Essentially, its low stock value will remain low for the foreseeable future.

One of the best ways of protecting your investment and reducing the stress of the stock market is by using a stop-loss order. This is when an investor places orders to sell stock automatically when it reaches a specific price point.

A stop-loss order helps ensure that stock in free-fall can be sold at the best price possible, thus mitigating further loss. Think of it as a fail-safe, activated during market instability, which can help reduce the stress and risk of investing.

That said, setting up the actual value of your stop loss order can be difficult, as anticipating risk can be subjective. Investors should place one on stock if the industry is known to be volatile or you have an emotional bias that might prevent you from parting with certain investments. Ensure that you have the base knowledge of trading before you consider stop losses. 

In this modern internet era, it’s never been easier to invest. That said, there are many ways companies can try to influence the decisions you make, especially when you’re browsing websites for information.

This is because of advertising. Ordinarily, websites use your browser history and activity to serve personalized investment advertisements. These adverts are third-party, so they may not use the soundest investment advice.

Adverts may use sophisticated illustrations, graphs, and sensationalist headlines to entice you into clicking on them. They may even blend into the webpage and look like genuine information rather than an advert. Even seeing them on-screen can sway your mind on an important business decision.

One of the best ways of eliminating this risk is by using an ad blocker. This cyber tool will eliminate pesky distractions and ensure that when you research stock investment information online, the advice you see on screen comes from well-researched and reliable information.

The stock market can be a challenging thing by itself, especially if people are new to investments. Unfortunately, opportunistic criminals will use this naivety to create elaborate scams and defraud investors.

There are several types of stock market scams to be mindful of, including:

• Pump & Dump: Scammers will buy cheap stock and convince others to invest, thus increasing the value of their own investments. They will sell at a higher price, leaving you with potentially worthless stock.
• High-yield investments: This is when a scammer promises a high, guaranteed return on investments with little time or money required. These often are fraudulent—if it’s too good to be true, it’s because it probably is.
• Pyramid scams: Be wary of investments that require you to recruit other people to make a profit. These are designed to target as many people as possible, and once enough investments have been made, the scammer may disappear.
• Affinity fraud: This is when scammers pretend to be members of a particular community, e.g., religious groups, minorities, or older people nearing retirement. They will quickly gain their trust and try to influence high-profile members to invest, thus tricking others within the group.

One of the best ways to mitigate stock market losses is by diversifying your investments. Don’t put all of your money into one industry.

Instead, consider spreading your investments across different industries, sectors, and countries. Expanding will protect your portfolio from ad-hoc events that negatively affect and devalue a single stock.

That said, diversifying your investments can take significant time and management. Especially if you are new to navigating the stock market, it may be wise to enlist the help of a professional to get a better grounding in different industries. 

The stock market is constantly evolving. Prices fluctuate, and part of navigating the markets successfully is learning what can trigger changes. Areas which can influence and impact stock investments include:

• World politics and government policies
• Economic trends, including inflation
• Interest and exchange rates
• Advancements in technology
• Changes in public perception of companies

While some of these are out of your control, keeping up to date with the latest news and market trends can better prepare you for potential losses. Regularly collect and analyze new industries relevant to your portfolio to best protect investments.

One of the final safety tips for navigating the stock market is to organize and separate your accounts appropriately. This not only helps with better risk control, as well as keeping track of profits and losses, but it can also help you make better future performance decisions.

Placing investment money into a designated trading account allows you to control your finances and make wiser decisions. Separating it from your business finances and personal savings ensures your day-to-day spending will never be collateral to any misfortunate on the stock market.