In this digital age with the miracle of the internet in your pocket the majority of the time, it is about time we began to look at our free time as an opportunity to top up our regular salary. Currently yacht crew may find that being on watch is an opportunity to scroll through social media or catch up on the news, as well as the obvious and very important duty of keeping an eye on your surroundings. In this article, we would like to offer you options which could allow you to earn some money on the side during the many hours spent alone on the ocean.
There are many options for online trading available to you; this article will offer brief descriptions of a few, starting with trading commodities.
Commodities trading
A commodity is a raw material, or energy source which will go on to be further processed and sold to consumers. There is a vast range of commodities available for online trading, a few examples include precious metals, livestock, crude oil, gasoline and coffee beans.
Once you have chosen your online platform or broker, you will be given the option to trade on either spot or futures markets. A spot market will give you a cost to buy the goods instantly, these kinds of markets are more commonly used by buyers looking to take control of the goods in questions. As an investor, you would be much more likely to trade on the futures market. In these markets, you will not take control of the goods at any point, instead you trade in contracts. These contracts will lay out an agreement to buy or sell the commodity at a set price and time in the future, with the idea being that when the contract comes to an end, the market value will be higher or lower than you have agreed, dependent on whether you are buyer or seller.
Once you have bought the contract, you may have the option to close your position early and take any gain you have made or extend the contract in order to avoid taking a loss, in the hope that the market will turn in your favour in the future. This type of trading can be extremely risky due to the fact that it is difficult, even for professional investors, to predict future movement in commodities markets which are often volatile.
Foreign Exchange Trading
Trading in Foreign Exchange (FX) is one of the most commonly chosen options for part time investors, looking to get their money working for them on the side. The reason for this being that it is very easy to open and close positions quickly. As with trading commodities, there are a number of options in terms of the type of trade you will make, in this article we will discuss speculation.
A speculative trading position means that you will buy one currency with another in the hope that in the future one will weaken and allow you to turn a profit. As an example:
18.06.18 I buy €114 today for £100 (GBP/EUR exchange rate 1.14).
I wait for the Pound to weaken or Euro to Strengthen.
18.07.18 I can now buy £100 for €112 (GBP/EUR exchange rate 1.12).
(example only: not actual figures)
Whilst the premise with regard to this type of trading is simple, the factors affecting the strength or weakness of each currency can be complicated and especially hard to foresee. When making any type of trade it is always important to gain a strong understanding of the market and influencers before taking up your position.
Crypto currencies
A relatively new face in terms of the options available to an average investor to trade online, crypto currencies could be considered the current poster boy of online trading for beginners. In the last 3 years in particular, new crypto trading platforms have opened on an almost daily basis with the plethora of currencies growing at almost the same rate.
A crypto currency is a currency in its own right; despite the obvious divergence from the norm as we have understood the word currency to this point. Stored online, the value of these currencies has been largely driven to this point by speculative investments powered by media coverage. However, Bitcoin which is generally considered the flagship crypto currency, is slowly beginning to be accepted as payment by more and more online vendors. As this trend grows, we are likely to see that larger investors will take an interest. Not only will this help to fend off the volatility which has been of concern to this point, it will further encourage the uptake by online traders and potentially their value.
Referrals
If you don’t think trading online is necessarily for you, there are still options available which will allow you to top up your salary in your spare time. Many companies, including Marine Accounts and Mortgages for Yacht Crew, will offer a fee in return for referring a friend or colleague to their services.
Of the strategies discussed in this article, this is the only option I can confidently describe as no risk, 100% reward. Simply refer a friend to the services of the company in question and get paid. It really is that easy.
Whilst there are far too many options for making money in your own time to be covered in one short article, you should now have a good basis from which to begin your own research.
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Any advice in this publication is not intended or written by Marine Accounts to be used by a client or entity for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties that may be imposed on any taxpayer or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party matters herein. This article is intended to be descriptive of the available options only and should not be considered advice on which investment option should be taken.
