Trading, particularly Forex and CFD trading, isn’t a everyone’s cup of tea, I had been advised,” recalls Johannesburg resident Zensile Makeba, 29, as she clocks a gain of 3,450.41 South African Rand for the afternoon, in between several sips of her favorite mochaccino. She’s not especially fond of tea, she states. ”
The largest profit I have earned in one day’s investing, with a first investment of 9,587.83 South African Rand, I made 3,835.13 South African Rand,” she adds, softly crushing the stereotype that number-crunching is the domain of men alone.
Like Zensile, more and more South African women are starting to trade the financial markets online, a field that has been thought to be a male dominated for decades . Zensile is now a full time trader dealing in CFD stocks and Forex.
Zensile watches multiple screens which track up to the second stock positions allowing her to perform technical analysis on her trades.
“I do this with multiple stocks and currencies five days a week.”
“Studying these screens allows me to push my knowledge and learn something new everyday and keeps my brain active.” Says Zensile.
Women form approximately 30% of active traders in South Africa,” says Andrew Blumer, director of the broker review and comparison website comparebrokers.co. We looked at our visitor analytics and realised that there was growth in female traders over a 3-year period.
The needle has not moved a lot, adds Andrew, who has over 25 years in this space. “10 percent of day traders are female”.
Though there has been an increase in female trading, there are lots of people who hesitate to discuss their trading tales.
“If a male says he is trading, individuals will ask him for guidance on investing even if he is not making any gains. When it is a girl, they believe her husband has to be helping her” Preconceived biases are stacked against girls. “Many do not get support in their own families until they start making trading gains,” says Zensile.
“For today, I enjoy the excitement of trading online and learning something new”. “the children were at college I had some spare time.” While trading online might have its benefits, it does have some downsides. Staring at multiple monitors for hours daily for example.
“I need to get out and have a walk with my children everyday otherwise I won’t leave my screens”’ says Zensile.
Another downside is that the value of your investments can go down as well as up.
You should be well aware of the risks before you invest. Make sure any investments you make are with a reputable regulated broker.
The top brokers offer educational resources and webinars to help you get started.
Women as a whole are flourishing in the online trading space, and based on a recent study, 54 percent of females trading described themselves as professional.
This is more than the greater compared to 40 percent of men who were asked the same question.
Trading online has been a consistent source of income for tens of thousands of South Africans.
Industry figures emphasize the discrepancy between our ill pre-conceived thoughts of sex bias inside trading, with girls reporting a silent self-confidence and elevated levels of skill.
Author Bio:
Cassie Lindemann is a North Carolina-based freelance writer and work-from-home mother of two. In her 10 years as a professional writer, she’s worked in proposal management, grant writing, and content creation.
