How to Diversify Your Portfolio Using CFDs
In today's unpredictable financial markets, savvy investors realize that placing all their funds in one asset or market is likely to lead to disaster. The diversification of one's portfolio has become the touchstone of successful investment, enabling traders to manage risk while still having the opportunity for consistent returns in a variety of different market conditions.
Diversification is a powerful investment strategy. It mitigates risk and helps optimize returns. When you invest in multiple, uncorrelated asset classes, your portfolio is less likely to suffer catastrophic losses. Even if some assets go way down, others might hold up or even soar. And because you're not putting all your eggs in one basket, the assets that are down aren't liable to drag your whole portfolio down too.
The 2020 COVID market collapse was a magnificent demonstration of why diversification is essential. Portfolios that concentrated in narrow sectors or geographic areas suffered catastrophic losses. Concentration equals risk. Well-diversified portfolios that included multiple asset classes demonstrated remarkable resilience. Portfolios that included commodities, forex, and very defensive stocks seemed to better navigate the pandemic. But a stock-only portfolio, even one that was much more weighted to defensive sectors than the average stock market, seemed to get bludgeoned. And when we look at the stock market in isolation, it looks like it was on a runaway train to the downside.
What Is Portfolio Diversification?
One of the most basic principles of contemporary finance is portfolio diversification. Investments should be spread across various types of assets, sectors, and regions, diversifying within each group, to minimize the potential risk of any single investment reducing the overall portfolio's risk.
The concept at the heart of this is correlation—the way in which different assets move together or apart. When you hold assets that are more or less correlated, the way they move—or don't move—in relation to each other determines whether you experience a gain or a loss overall.
If you own a mix of correlated and uncorrelated assets, the movements of one section of your portfolio can cancel out the movements of another. Perfect cancellation gives you a smooth ride to your destination, which is a gain in the overall value of your net worth.
What Are CFDs and Why Are They Useful for Diversification?
CFDs are financial derivatives that let you speculate on the price movement of various assets without actually owning them. You trade a CFD by entering an agreement to exchange the difference in the price of an asset from when you open the position to when you close it.
This appearance of a simple idea opens the door to opportunities that were previously unthinkable to achieve portfolio diversification.
Risk Management in a Diversified CFD Portfolio
Even though the risk of a portfolio can be lowered considerably through diversification, it cannot be entirely eliminated. To lower portfolio risk, we must understand what causes it and try to control or eliminate the causes. The primary cause of portfolio risk is the presence of risky assets within it.
Stop-Loss Orders: Each CFD position must have a set stop-loss level. The stop-loss level is important because it can save any portfolio from needing too much first aid in the event of a sharp downturn. A stop-loss order tells your broker to sell the position if the price drops to or through the level you set. You should use technical analysis or some other method of sound trading judgment to set your stop levels. For example, you might need a wider stop for a position in bitcoin (5-10% of entry price).
Conclusion and Getting Started
An excellent strategy in diversifying your investment portfolio is using contracts for difference (CFDs). But before you start off using CFDs, it's worth taking a moment to understand what they are, why they might be an appropriate tool for your portfolio, and what sorts of considerations you should have in mind when using them.
Achieving success in CFD trading—especially varied CFD trading—entails more than just technical know-how; it calls for discipline, patience, and a systematic manner of dealing with both opportunities and risks.
The flexible nature of CFDs can be a boon and a temptation. Dealing successfully with that flexibility and not falling prey to the temptation to use it impulsively is a hallmark of good trading practice.
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