Technology gives everyone the opportunity to trade cryptocurrency online.

When it comes to technology, it can often feel that by the time we hear about something, it’s already too late to get ourselves involved. Indeed, sometimes this can be true. Those who invested early in Bitcoin are now seeing huge payouts, sometimes 1000x what they invested. Whereas to get involved now wouldn’t be nearly as lucrative. But there are some trends in tech that are open at any time for anyone to get involved with. One of these is trading online. While the currencies you may trade and the companies’ stocks may have been around forever, each day is a new day in trading and could be the day that you make a name for yourself as a trader. But how can you be a good trader online at this stage?

Those who invested early in Bitcoin are now seeing huge payouts, sometimes 1000x what they invested. Whereas to get involved now wouldn’t be nearly as lucrative
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Do Your Research

Due diligence is the key to being a good trader. Spending hours poring over trading forecasts and past trading information could help you see patterns and anticipate what comes next. Even when the market throws you a curveball, it’s still better to be prepared to deal with it than to trade blindly. Researching the current climate of economics is also important. You don’t need to know the intricacies of every country’s currency, but you do need to be able to back up decisions you make in your trades. There is no such thing as having too much information when it comes to making trades or investments in general.

When the market throws you a curveball, it's better to be prepared to deal with it than to trade blindly
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Find a Platform

There are plenty of websites for those who are less familiar with trading and want to be guided more at the start. These kinds of platforms allow you to buy stocks and to view trading information, which is critical for embarking on any trade. While the future may be uncertain, we can definitely learn from the past, especially when it comes to seasonal trends in forex and stocks. Using a platform isn’t just for those who are beginning their trading journey as the services they offer are also suitable for more seasoned traders.

While the future may be uncertain, we can definitely learn from the past, especially when it comes to seasonal trends in forex and stocks
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Take a Chance

One of the best lessons you can learn when you begin trading is that sometimes you just have to take a chance. While research is good, focusing too much on what it tells you could lead to paralysis by analysis. The act of trading sometimes comes down to taking risks and hoping they pay off. While it’s important to have a plan in place to see how expensive your risks can be, most great traders will tell you that you can often learn better from mistakes or failures than through success. Indeed, trading is all about making decisions on information, but in the microsecond that the trade is made, the information could be out of date or incorrect. Sometimes just taking the risk and hoping it pays off is the best strategy.

While research is good, focusing too much on what it tells you could lead to paralysis by analysis
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It’s definitely not too late to get into the trend of trading and by doing your research, using the right platform, and being able to take risks, you’ll soon know whether you are cut out for the lifestyle that comes with being a trader.

Tom Atkinson is a Digital Producer & Photographer at R3Digital and Reviews & Dept. Editor at Tech Trends. Connect on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @R3Digital

The post Is It Too Late to Get Into Trading? appeared first on Tech Trends.

CB Insights just published its Q1 Global Fintech Report, which paints a picture of a healthy industry on a growth path.

CB Insights Q1 Global Fintech Report paints a picture of a healthy industry on a growth path
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The report covers a wide variety of subsectors that come under the “Fintech” umbrella, including:

• Lending tech

• Payments/billing tech

• Personal finance/wealth management

• Money transfer/remittance

• Blockchain/bitcoin

• Institutional/capital markets tech

• Equity crowdfunding

• Insurance tech

Some of the report highlights include:

22 fintech unicorns globally valued at $77B: The second most highly valued fintech unicorn in the US, SoFi, raised $500M at a $4.5B valuation. China Rapid Finance, valued at $1B, filed for IPO on the last day of Q1’17.

European burst of fintech investment: At the current pace, Europe fintech deal activity is on pace to top 2016’s total by 57%. In Q1’17, two companies (Atom and Funding Circle) raised $100M+ each (compared to no $50M+ financing rounds in 2016).

US fintech is on pace to see deals, dollars drop in 2017: At the current run rate, US fintech deal activity is on pace to fall below 2013 levels.

You can access the full report via CB Insights

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Report: Global Fintech Sector Boom Continues appeared first on Tech Trends.

Investment is a pain point for any business, but small tech start-ups outside of main hubs like Silicon Valley often struggle to convince investors to take a chance on them.

And if you’re an average saver, putting all your hard-earned nest egg into one risky venture is hardly the most appealing or well-advised proposition either, let’s be honest. Most start-ups fail, and that’s not a bad thing. It takes failure for ideas to develop and funding the ecosystem as a whole is what makes the tech-fuelled economy of places such as London, Berlin, San Francisco and New York thrive in the long-term.

An innovative approach to tech investment is being pioneered in Spain's Basque region
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Those who are able to spread that risk make money over the long run by capitalizing on the start-ups which do bring in the big returns, but ordinarily that option isn’t open to the smaller players, who are mostly stuck with dismal returns brought on by the persistently low base interest rates we’ve been stuck with for the past few years.

Which is why we were interested to explore an innovative new approach being pioneered in the Basque country, an autonomous region of Spain which is keen to foster their tech entrepreneurial ecosystem by allowing ordinary savers to invest their money in tech, without the risk. It’s what’s known in the trade as a win-win, and if they pull it off it could very well provide an interesting template for other governments to follow.

Read all about it on The Next Web

How investing in a startup can be safer than leaving money in the bank https://t.co/D4d4oWrm7u pic.twitter.com/xtVd3mzMQO

— TNW @ SXSW (@TheNextWeb) March 14, 2017

The post Making Angels: New Scheme Encourages Savers to Invest in Tech appeared first on Tech Trends.

Sex Tech represents one of one of the greatest untapped opportunities for investors, but many are still reluctant to support businesses in the sector.

In this article for the Fast Company I talk to Cindy Gallop about the difficulties she’s had in driving forward her Make Love Not Porn venture and how she’s determined to carve out her own path and lead the way in creating a new type of sexual revolution for the 21st Century.

Cindy Gallop is carving out her own path in a 21st Century Sexual Revolution, and she has the balls to do it
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Read the full article on the FastCo website

When prude investors cockblock sex tech, no one gets off https://t.co/6eFfxKUGsJ

— Fast Company (@FastCompany) November 13, 2016

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Why Are Investors So Prude Where it Comes to SexTech? appeared first on Tech Trends.

Looking back at this article more than one year on, it’s hard to believe that we’re in an even more confusing position than in those initial chaotic days after the referendum…

Just over a month after Brexit, and we’re in a bit of a deceptive lull. August is traditionally a quiet month in politics, where parliament goes on recess and nothing really gets done. Come September, however, we’re going to have to start dealing with the real consequences of June the 23^rd. The London tech community seems resolutely optimistic, yet there are real concerns emerging around the sector’s ability to retain talent, trade in the single market, and – crucially attract investment.

This morning I had breakfast with an ex-colleague who is now looking for a job. She, alongside 15 others, had just been made redundant at a start-up that had attracted millions of dollars in early seed funding the previous year. Last week that same company fired a third of its employees because their next investment round, which they thought was secured, suddenly fell through. It was the day after Brexit. Coincidence? Perhaps. But perhaps not.

One tech company fired a third of its workforce when investment fell through after Brexit
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There has been so much post-referendum analysis on what might/should/could/will/won’t happen that the only certainty has become uncertainty itself. And that’s certainly not good for business. As an investor risk comes as part of the package, but in a fiercely competitive funding marketplace, all other things being equal, they will invariably pick the safest-looking bet, and from that perspective it’s hard to argue that the looming cloud of Brexit hasn’t placed the UK at a disadvantage.

Brexit uncertainty places UK companies at a disadvantage when bidding for investment
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For one, it is a truth universally acknowledged that start-ups are only worth as much as the calibre of talent they manage to attract. What they make and what they sell is purely intellectual property, and therefore hinges on their – for want of a better term – “Brain Bank”.

Now visit any London start-up and I challenge you not to lose count of how many nationalities make up those teams. That diversity is also part of what makes the ecosystem so vibrant and creative. EU freedom of movement meant that entrepreneurs could bring in talent from 28 different countries without going through lengthy and expensive immigration procedures. This ability, which allowed them to scale in an agile way, could be severely hampered in future.

Brexit could hamper our ability to attract tech talent to the UK
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An aspiring entrepreneur – who wishes to remain anonymous – approached me after reading my original Brexit article on The Next Web and asked me for some advice. He is a European national who has been living and working in the UK for the past 3 years, and was just on the verge of starting his own business. After the Brexit vote, however, he decided to delay that move, unsure as to what impact it would have on his residency status and his ability to run a company in the UK:

“Would I eventually get kicked out or have to apply for a visa in an Australian point-based skill/salary immigration system if I am CEO of a London-based business?”

As much as wanted to help him find some answers, the honest truth is, I have no idea what’s in store for the 3.6 million EU citizens currently living in the UK. Even if the process of triggering Article 50 (which would actually start the Brexit process) drags on for years as many expect, it is estimated that over half a million people would still fall short of the required 5 years to qualify for residency.

I came to this country as a European citizen myself, and have lived and worked in the UK for over a decade now. Two years ago I applied for British citizenship and even did the hilarious – and mandatory – “Life in the UK” test which is pretty much a bad pub quiz. I never really thought that I’d need that passport in order to remain in the country, but now I’m glad I beat the rush. In such turbulent times for the economy, the only sector guaranteed explosive growth in the coming years is citizenship testing.

The only sector guaranteed explosive growth in the coming years is citizenship testing.
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Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Another Summer of Uncertainty as UK Tech Sector Braces for #BREXIT appeared first on Tech Trends.