Posted on 16th Jun 2020 by the LSS team
LongShortSignal.com's free and premium subscriptions include assets from a variety of classes, such as stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies (Forex) and even cryptocurrencies. So what trading platform should I use and what ticker should I be trading?
This will mainly depend on where you live. For those living in the United States, you will most likely have access to a local trading account like Fidelity, TDAmeritrade, Charles Schwab and even the more recently popular Robinhood. All to varying degrees offer $0 trading commissions which greatly reduces your transaction costs.
For those living outside of the United States, and with the greater availability of CFD (Contracts for Difference) products, there are more trading platforms available such as IG, eToro and Pepperstone. These platforms offer more leverage and should be traded with caution. They do however offer access to a broader array of global markets, Forex pairs (inc. exotics) and even cryptocurrencies.
Let's take a look at the assets we currently provide quantitative signals for and breakdown how best to trade them whether living in the United States or elsewhere:
US: The easiest way to trade the S&P500 is through ETFs like SPY and SH. If you buy SPY, you are long and if you buy SH you are short as it is a 1:1 inverse ETF. Non-US: For those trading on CFD platforms, the S&P500 is commonly referred to as ticker US500.
US: Besides outright buying the bonds, the easiest way to trade US treasuries is through one of the many ETFs available. For instance GOVT or TLT.
Non-US: There is rarely a CFD equivalent of bonds so for those living outside of the US, one should consider signing up access to an international trading platform such as Interactive Brokers.
US: The easiest way to trade Bitcoin is through cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance, Huobi and Coinbase. Non-US: Many CFD platforms now offer Bitcoin directly on their platform and it is commonly listed as XBT against the US Dollar.
US: The easiest way to trade the Euro Stoxx 50 is through one of the many ETFs linked to it, such as FEZ. Non-US: Many CFD platforms refer to the Euro Stoxx 50 under ticker EUSTX50.
US: The easiest way to trade Gold is by either buying physical gold, gold miners or gold ETFs such as GLD. Non-US: Likewise, buying physical gold is one way to be long, however on many platforms it is referred to as XAU against the US Dollar.
US: You can trade oil by buying/selling shares of oil companies, oil futures or oil ETFs like USO. Non-US: Oil CFD products are available to trade via ticker XTI (West-Texas) or XBR (Brent) against the US Dollar.
Global: Currency trading is best done on one of the foreign exchange trading platforms around. Alternatively, you could either simply hold the currency to be long or you could trade it via one of the currency ETFs that can go long (e.g. FXE) or short (e.g. EUFX).
Global: Currency trading is best done on one of the foreign exchange trading platforms around. Alternatively, you could either simply hold the currency to be long or you could trade it via one of the currency ETFs that can go long (e.g. FXY) or short (e.g. YCS, though that one trades with leverage).
Global: The easiest way to trade Cardano is through cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance, however, we expect it to be available on Coinbase in the near future. It is listed under the ticker ADA.
Our free subscription offers signals for three assets across Stocks (S&P500), Bonds (US Treasuries) and Bitcoin. Premium subscribers have access to a further 6 assets (listed above) however the list of assets will be greatly expanded over time.
We hope this quick blog has been helpful and in the future, we will do a review of some of the trading platforms mentioned above.
- Courtesy of LongShortSignal's Quant Team