Finding your SIM Card number depends on your phone. See below for detailed instructions by brand.
Find My SIM Card Number on an iPhone:
Go to Settings > General> About. Then scroll down and locate the ICCID (SIM Card) number.
Find My SIM Card Number on an Android
1. Go to Settings > About Phone > Status, then scroll down and locate the ICCID (SIM Card) number.
2. Remove the back cover and the battery, slide out the SIM Card and locate the SIM Card number on the card.
Find the SIM Card Number on my actual SIM Card
- Insert a paper clip or a SIM-eject tool into the hole beside the tray to eject the tray.
- Remove the SIM Card and locate the SIM number on the card.
Investing vs. Trading: What’s the Difference?
The goal of investing is to gradually build wealth over an extended period of time through the buying and holding of a portfolio of stocks, baskets of stocks, mutual funds, bonds, and other investment instruments.
Investments often are held for a period of years, or even decades, taking advantage of perks like interest, dividends, and stock splits along the way. While markets inevitably fluctuate, investors will “ride out” the downtrends with the expectation that prices will rebound and any losses eventually will be recovered. Investors typically are more concerned with market fundamentals, such as price-to-earnings ratios and management forecasts.
Anyone who has a 401(k) or an IRA is investing, even if they are not tracking the performance of their holdings on a daily basis. Since the goal is to grow a retirement account over the course of decades, the day-to-day fluctuations of different mutual funds are less important than consistent growth over an extended period.
Trading
Trading involves more frequent transactions, such as the buying and selling of stocks, commodities, currency pairs, or other instruments. The goal is to generate returns that outperform buy-and-hold investing. While investors may be content with annual returns of 10% to 15%, traders might seek a 10% return each month. Trading profits are generated by buying at a lower price and selling at a higher price within a relatively short period of time. The reverse also is true: trading profits can be made by selling at a higher price and buying to cover at a lower price (known as “selling short”) to profit in falling markets.
While buy-and-hold investors wait out less profitable positions, traders seek to make profits within a specified period of time and often use a protective stop-loss order to automatically close out losing positions at a predetermined price level. Traders often employ technical analysis tools, such as moving averages and stochastic oscillators, to find high-probability trading setups.
A trader’s style refers to the timeframe or holding period in which stocks, commodities, or other trading instruments are bought and sold. Traders generally fall into one of four categories:
A trader’s style refers to the timeframe or holding period in which stocks, commodities, or other trading instruments are bought and sold. Traders generally fall into one of four categories:
- Position Trader: Positions are held from months to years.
- Swing Trader: Positions are held from days to weeks.
- Day Trader: Positions are held throughout the day only with no overnight positions.
- Scalp Trader: Positions are held for seconds to minutes with no overnight positions.
Traders often choose their trading style based on factors including account size, amount of time that can be dedicated to trading, level of trading experience, personality, and risk tolerance.
Large online brokerages use two types of platforms. They provide one platform for commercial investors (day traders and retail investors). The other is referred to as a prop platform, which brokerages develop to use for their custom requirements and trading styles.
Some commercial brokerage platforms specialize in one financial instrument such as stocks, Forex, or Cryptocurrencies. Others offer a wide range of investment choices. The advent of online brokerages and trading has given individual traders and investors easy and convenient ways to trade.
The term trading systems also refers to a set of rules based upon technical indicators or fundamental analysis that manages investments and risk. Online trading platforms usually support this functionality.
Online Trading Platform Features
Online trading platforms will have many of these features.
- Real-time Online Trading / Order Entry
- Live Price Quotes
- Investment Monitoring and Tracking
- Historical and Real-time Data
- Analytics and Performance Analysis
- Market and Investment Research and Ratings
- Risk Management Tools
- Graphics and Charting Tools
- Trade Simulators
- Professional Broker Guidance
- Robo Advisors
- Investor Education – articles, blogs, webinars
- Automatic Trading – rule-based
- Coding Scripts – for creating automated buying and selling strategies
- Social Trading – providing information on the trading behavior of peers and expert traders, supporting collaboration, chat platforms
- Notifications and Alerts
- Demo accounts – to gain experience prior to investing
- Funding – accepts funds from bank accounts, credit cards, wire transfers
- Convenient Access – 7×24 using web browsers or mobile apps
Online Trading Systems Comparison
When choosing an online trading system consider the following:
- Investment Type: Platforms may support only one type of investment such as foreign exchange, futures, or commodities. Others support a variety of investment options.
- Type of Investor: Some platforms are geared toward professional investors; others work well for novices. New investors might consider a platform where they can have access to a professional financial advisor. Are you a day trader or a long-term investor? Certain systems are better suited for one or the other. If you plan to trade often, seek out a system with low or no commission fees.
- Safety and Security: Seek out a brokerage trading system that is a member of SIPC (Security Investor Protection Corporation) and FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority).
Pricing Information
Many trading systems now offer no-commission trades for securities, often with no minimum balance requirement. Others require maintaining a funded account or transacting a minimum number of trades per month. Features and services such as options and futures trading and professional advising require additional fees or minimum investment balances. Margin trading always requires a minimum account balance and depending upon the size of the margin debt, the brokerage will charge a corresponding interest rate.
