Trading for Beginners

As a new trader at AvaTrade, you are naturally eager to get started. But first, it’s important to introduce you to the Trading for Beginners section. You will find useful information on all aspects of online trading, including contracts for difference, currency pairs and the like. As a new South African trader, you want to make your money stretch as far as possible, and we want you to get the scoop on currency pairs and the Forex market, CFD trading instruments and market analysis.

What is foreign-exchange trading?

Forex or FX trading refers to the same thing – the Forex market. We will introduce you to the global currency market (the biggest market in the world) and everything you need to know about making a successful trade. We will describe popular trading concepts such as hedging, rollovers and order types in South African lingo.

What is currency trading?

Once you understand Forex, we delve a little deeper into currency trading. We will show you how currencies behave with one another and what factors drive them. Currencies are always traded in pairs: you buy one currency and you sell the other in the same pair, like the USD/ZAR. Currency pairs fall into 3 major groups: exotic currency pairs, minor currency pairs and major currency pairs.

How to trade stocks

CFD trading has gained ground in recent years, since it is far more convenient and user-friendly than conventional stocks trading. With CFDs, you can trade all the big-name companies such as Alphabet Inc., Bank of America, Goldman, Citigroup, Apple and Microsoft without going to an institutional broker. We will provide you with all the info you need to trade CFD stocks and all the factors necessary to make your trades successful.

What is technical analysis?

Whether you’re trading indices, commodities, Forex or stocks, technical analysis is crucial to the success of your trades. We will provide you with all the techniques and tools that are required for you to effectively analyse charts and anticipate asset price movements.

What are contracts for difference (CFDs)?

These financial instruments are popular with SA traders. You can take a position on a financial asset without actually owning it. For example, you can speculate on whether the price of an underlying financial asset such as a stock, commodity, index or currency pair will rise or fall at a future point in time. We will provide you with everything you need to know about CFDs.

How do you paper trade?

The global financial markets are peppered with traders. Some are short-term traders and others are long-term traders. Traders are naturally anxious about investing real money for an uncertain outcome, and for this reason, risk-averse traders may decide to engage in paper trading. The term may be a misnomer of sorts, but it really refers to trading on a demo trading account. You can save your ZAR by registering for a demo account before you trade for real money..

How do you trade options?

One type of option is known as a vanilla option. This is a contract that makes it easy for traders like yourself to buy/sell a certain amount of a financial instrument at a set price at a predetermined time. When you’re ready to trade these vanilla options, you have full authority to control all aspects of the trade including the amount of the trade and the underlying financial instrument. You also have the ability to control the price at which you trade these vanilla options. The timeframe for options can range from a single day up to a year.

Ongoing Learning at

You are invited to expand your understanding of the financial markets by utilizing our free forex tutorial videos on Forex trading.

You will find useful information on market analysis, trading concepts and our trading platforms.

Feel free to browse our glossary where definitions of important trading terms will be explained as you work your way through your trading education.

We invite you to register for a demo trading account so that you can practice all of the theory you have learned in a risk-free environment!