The Asian financial markets are experiencing a significant increase in interest from novice traders. In Southeast Asia, online commerce has grown rapidly, thanks to growing internet access and an increasingly digitally savvy population. Online traders active in Indonesia grew by 18%supported by a booming e-commerce sector and increasing financial literacy. Across Southeast Asia, the digital economy is is expected to reach a value of $1 trillion by 2030highlighting the region’s rapid growth and the increasing appeal of financial trading as a means to diversify income streams and improve financial security.
Although the trading trend is clear, beginners often get lost in the vortex of markets, assets, charts and tools. To ease access for novice traders, Octa, a broker with globally recognized licenses, explains how to get started and which assets to consider for first trades. It also provides essential tips on diversification and risk management.
3 assets for novice traders
For those just starting their trading journey, selecting the right assets is crucial. Beginners should focus on stable, liquid, and widely traded instruments that offer enough volatility for profit opportunities, but not too much unpredictability. In this guide, Octa explores three such assets.
Gold
Gold’s historical stability makes it an excellent choice for novice traders. It is less volatile than other financial instruments, and its liquidity ensures that traders can always find buyers or sellers when they need to close a position. Moreover, gold is well supported by fundamentals such as inflation and geopolitical tensions, offering traders stable opportunities in the long term.
In 2024, as global markets face increased volatility and currencies in key Asian economies including India and China come under depreciation pressure, gold’s appeal has widened. According to the OECD Economic Outlook for Southeast Asia, China and India 2024Currency fluctuations and rising inflation in these regions have pushed investors to look for more stable assets, making gold an increasingly attractive option.
Demand for gold in Asia has risen to notable levels in 2024, driven by increased investment in gold bars and jewelry across the region. Thailand, for example, saw that Demand for consumer gold will increase by 20% to 9 tons in the second quarter of 2024which marks the highest growth rate in Southeast Asia. With the festive season approaching in countries like India, the World Gold Council expects a further increase in gold demand, which, coupled with global inflationary pressures, has pushed gold prices higher. For novice traders, these stable and growing trends make gold an attractive asset for both stability and long-term growth potential.
For beginners, trading gold is fairly simple. They can take long positions (buy gold when they think prices will rise) or short positions (sell when they expect prices to fall). As a simple example below shows, those who opened long positions at $2,604 per ounce have already seen profits of $116 per ounce. On a 1,000 ounce trade, this translates into a profit of $116,000.