To put it simply, trading is the buying and selling of financial assets. However, actually trading yourself isn’t quite as straightforward.

There’s a lot to learn and we want to make things as simple as possible for you. That’s why we’ve created guides covering the most important things to know as a new trader. Don’t worry, you’ll find no overcomplicated jargon here. Just easy-to-understand explanations you’ll get your head around in no time.

Basics of Bitcoin Mining

There are three ways to acquire Bitcoin:

• Purchase them on an exchange
• Receive them in exchange for goods and services
• Mine new Bitcoin

The process of discovering new Bitcoin is described as mining because it resembles the process of mining for any other resource. With gold mining, miners search and dig through the earth in hopes of striking gold.

With Bitcoin, miners attempt to find Bitcoin through solving complex mathematical problems. Blockchain is the technology that the cryptocurrency is built on. It is a ledger that is publicly distributed and records every Bitcoin transaction.

It is literally a digital chain of blocks. Each block contains a group of Bitcoin transaction information. Miners add to the blockchain by using computer processing power to solve complex mathematical problems. Solving the problems will result in the block being successfully added to the chain. The miner who correctly solves the problem is awarded Bitcoin.

The above forms the basis of the complex process of Bitcoin mining. It helps keep the payment network secure and trustworthy. The network is built on a peer-to-peer network, meaning that every single miner across the globe is contributing their computing power to maintain the network, confirm its transactions, and keep them secure.

Crude oil trading offers excellent opportunities to profit in nearly all market conditions due to its unique standing within the world’s economic and political systems. Also, energy sector volatility has risen sharply in recent years, ensuring strong trends that can produce consistent returns for short-term swing trades and long-term timing strategies.

Crude oil moves through perceptions of supply and demand, affected by worldwide output as well as global economic prosperity. Oversupply and shrinking demand encourage traders to sell crude oil markets, while rising demand and declining or flat production encourages traders to bid crude oil higher.

Professional traders and hedgers dominate the energy futures markets, with industry players taking positions to offset physical exposure while hedge funds speculate on long- and short-term direction. Retail traders and investors exert less influence here than in more emotional markets, like precious metals or high beta growth stocks.

Retail's influence rises when crude oil trends sharply, attracting capital from small players who are drawn into these markets by front-page headlines and table-pounding talking heads. The subsequent waves of greed and fear can intensify underlying trend momentum, contributing to historic climaxes and collapses that print exceptionally high volume.

Trade plays a crucial role in delivering food and clothing to consumers worldwide. It helps to provide greater choice in consumer goods, and has played a role in reducing food insecurity across the globe.

Over the past decade, international agricultural and food markets have witnessed a number of changes, which have brought domestic and international markets closer together. Since 2000, trade in agro-food products has grown strongly – more strongly than in the preceding decade at close to 8% in real terms annually between 2001 and 2014 compared to 2% between 1990 and 2000 – as world markets responded to a more rules-based trading environment, falling tariffs, and reductions in trade-distorting producer support. Global agricultural production has also continued to increase, driven by rapid growth in a number of developing regions, in particular those of Asia and South America.