Clarify the Financial Markets by reviewing this Beginners Guide to Trading and Investing.
Welcome to The Ultimate Guide to Trading and Investing in the markets. As a beginner it can often seem quite overwhelming how the world of trading and investing is set up. There is so much jargon and historical knowledge to grapple with that it can sometimes be hard to know where one thing ends and another begins.
For that reason, we have compiled this guide for beginner on trading and investing. It is to provide some clarity to those seeking to gain some context to the financial landscape and then take next steps from there.
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1. Financial Markets
We are starting with the Financial Markets generally. The financial market is a broad term describing any marketplace where trading of securities including equities, bonds, currencies and derivatives occur. They include things like the following:
Capital Market
Long term financing, Stock exchange (Issues shared) and Bond Market (issues debt securities of corporations and government in order to finance their investment projects and business expansion),
Money Market
Short-term financing, by governments, large corporations, and financial institutions finding investment projects and enlarge business. Include, treasury notes, Certificates of deposit etc.
Derivative Market
A derivative is an instrument whose value is derived from the value of one or more underlying assets, which can be commodities, precious metals, currency, bonds, stocks, stocks indices, etc.
Foreign Currency Exchange Market (FOREX)
The trading of foreign currencies in order to profit form the speculation of the exchange rate volatility.
Cryptocurrency Market
A digital currency in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of units of currency and verify the transfer of funds, operating independently of a central bank. Decentralized cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin now provide an outlet for personal wealth that is beyond restriction and confiscation
Commodity Market
The commodity market is a physical or virtual marketplace for buying, selling and trading raw or primary products.
Real Estate
- Property Market, land and buildings.
Alternative Luxury Markets
- Art, Wine, Collectables etc.
2. Assets
The next thing to look at is the assets that are sold in the various markets available to the trader or investor.
Real Assets (Physical Assets)
- Property
- Physical Gold
- Art, Wine, Classic Collectables (watches, cars, etc.)
Financial Assets
A financial asset is a non-physical asset whose value is derived from a contractual claim, such as bank deposits, bonds, and stocks. Financial assets are usually more liquid than other tangible assets, such as commodities or real estate, and may be traded on financial markets.
- Currencies
- Equities
- Bonds
- Derivatives
3. Indirect Investing
When it comes to trading and investing there are a variety of ways to approach how someone can become involved in the variety of markets and assets available.
Mutual Funds
What is a Mutual Fund?
A mutual fund is a professionally managed investment fund that pools money from many investors to purchase securities. These investors may be retail or institutional in nature.[i]
How do Mutual Funds work?
The principal investments as money market funds, bond or fixed income funds, stock or equity funds, hybrid funds or other.
Funds may also be categorized as index funds, which are passively managed funds that match the performance of an index, or actively managed funds.
Hedge funds are not mutual funds; hedge funds cannot be sold to the general public and are subject to different government regulations.
Resources Required to trade and invest in a Mutual Fund
$10,000s – $100,000s and/or more.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| The investor has an experienced money manager to invest your money for you following rough regulatory guidelines that they provide economies of scale, a higher level of diversification, they provide liquidity, and they are managed by professional investors. | Investors in a mutual fund must pay various fees and expenses. |
Pension Funds
What are Pension Funds?
A pension fund, also known as a superannuation fund in some countries, is any plan, fund, or scheme which provides retirement income.
How do Pension Funds work?
A pension scheme is a special kind of long term savings plan. Pension funds typically have large amounts of money to invest and are the major investors in listed and private companies.
Resources Required to trade and invest in a Pension Fund
n/a – funds paid in over working life with Salary
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Low Risk tax-efficient way to save money during your working life You can save into more than one pension scheme if you wish | Can’t access funds until retirement age No control over investments Generally low yielding compared to alternatives |
Exchange Traded Fund (EFT)
What is an ETF?
An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is an investment fund traded on stock exchanges, much like stocks.
How do ETFs work?
An ETF holds assets such as stocks, commodities, or bonds and generally operates with an arbitrage mechanism designed to keep it trading close to its net asset value, although deviations can occasionally occur. Most ETFs track an index, such as a stock index or bond index.
ETFs may be attractive as investments because of their low costs, tax efficiency, and stock-like features. By 2013, ETFs had become the most popular type of exchange-traded product.
When you invest in an ETF, you are buying a portfolio of stocks, bonds or other investments that are trading on the stock exchange.
There are a few key differences between an ETF and a Mutual Fund.
ETF prices will change throughout the day as the underlying stocks fluctuate as well. Whereas, in a mutual fund, the Net Asset Value is determined only once a day.
You will find that many ETFs are leveraged. This means they have a multiple that is maybe two or three times the performance of the underlying industry.
Resources Required to trade and invest in an ETF
$1000s – $100,000s or more
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Higher Diversity – In much the same way as mutual funds are tied to a number of stocks, ETFs also allow you to quickly invest in a group of stocks, but don’t have to pick them all yourself. There is an ETF for almost everything. | Due to being leveraged ETFs can lead to losses that are equally as large as any gains can be. |
Stock Indices
What are Stock Indices?
A stock index or stock market index is a measurement of a section of the stock market.
S&P 500 (Standard & Poor’s), DJIA (Dow Jones Industrial Average), NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations), FTSE100 (Financial Times Stock Exchange), Nikkei, CAC, DAX, All Ordinaries
How do Stock Indices work?
It is computed from the prices of selected stocks (typically a weighted average). It is a tool used by investors and financial managers to describe the market, and to compare the return on specific investments.
Usually classified into Global, National or Regional.
Indices are also a common basis for a related type of investment, the exchange-traded fund or ETF. Unlike an index fund, which is priced daily, an ETF is priced continuously, is optionable, and can be sold short.
Resources Required to trade and invest in Stock Indices
$1000s – $100,000s or more
Did you know the history of the Dow Jones ?
In 1896, Charles Dow – who with fellow reporter Edward Jones founded Dow Jones & Company – created the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), the second-oldest stock market index in the world (the oldest is the Dow Jones Transportation Index, also created by Dow).
At that time, the DJIA contained 12 publicly-traded industrials, including General Electric – the only original constituent that remains in the index. Today, the Dow is a benchmark that tracks 30 of the largest and most influential companies in the U.S. and is one of the best-known indexes in the world.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Comparatively low risk Generally hard to out-perform | No personalisation because they are grouped together by similarity, bad news or negative events can affect the entire group of stocks within an index. |
4. Direct Investing
Money Market (Bank Products)
Savings Accounts
What is a Savings Account?
A savings account, current account also extending to chequing accounts.
How do Savings Accounts work?
It is a very straightforward way to invest your money. You have quick and easy access to all withdrawals and deposits made, and better yet, your money is safely backed by the government up to a certain value per person. The typical differentiators of various savings accounts between banks are as follows:
- The interest rate.
- The frequency of interest earnings per posting periods.
- Varying minimum balance accounts, whereby you receive higher interest rates by maintaining a minimum deposit amount.
- Fees for accessing statements and making withdrawals, etc.
Resources Required to open a Savings Account
Negligible funds, $100s.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Very easy to access, very low risk, accessible with low funds. | Interest rates can be low and have historically been close to 1%. Meaning that, when you take into account fees and inflation, you could be left with very little in the way of returns. |
Certificates of Deposit (CDs)
What are Certificates of Deposit?
A Certificate of Deposit (or CD) is a method of investment whereby you agree to invest a set amount of money for a predetermined period of time.
How do Certificates of Deposit work?
Over this period, your bank or financial institution will agree to pay you interest on the amount deposited. You will not be able to access this money until the maturity period has ended. However, the interest rates will typically be higher than a standard savings account.
CD maturity periods can range anywhere from three months to five years or more.
However, no matter how long it is, you will not have access to the money. This can be bad as, if you tie your money up at a low-interest rate, then you’ll be unable to change this until the period ends. Which is annoying if interest rates rise.
On the flip side, if rates are currently high and you anticipate them falling, then it could be a wise investment move to lock in a long-term CD now.
Resources Required to trade and invest in Certificates of Deposit
Minimum deposits can be as little as $1 up to $5,000 or more.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Ease of access, low risk, higher interest rate that ordinary savings accounts. | The only way to access your funds if this happens is to “bust” the CD. However, you will have to pay a significant penalty fee and will not then be able to buy another higher rate CD until the existing one matures. |
Money Market Accounts (MMAs)
What are MMAs?
Money Market Accounts include similar features to both CDs and savings accounts. They offer:
- No maturity date.
- Higher interest rates than on offer through savings accounts.
- A minimum balance requirement.
- A limited number of withdrawals each month (usually up to around six).
It is important you do not confuse these MMAs with similarly named products as offered by investment firms. The ones offered by banks come backed by the federal insurance, up to around $250,000 per depositor. In comparison, the MMAs offered by investment firms offer no guaranteed returns and are not insured.
How do MMAs work?
When investing in an MMA you are loaning your bank money. They then offer you guaranteed returns and the federal government safely covers your initial investment in case the bank fails.
Resources Required to trade and invest in MMAs
$100s – $10,000s
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Low risk and ease of access. | Higher minimum deposit than an ordinary savings account Higher amount of interest As above, you are left with very little in the way of returns. |
5. Capital Markets
Fixed Income Instruments – Bonds
What are Fixed Income Instruments?
A bond is an instrument of indebtedness of the bond issuer to the holders. Usually Treasury, Corporate or Municipal.
How do Bonds work?
Treasury Bonds
When you buy a treasury bond, your money is backed by the government. As such, they are far less risky than most other investments. However, for the same reason, the yields are typically lower. In the world of investments, the three-month Treasury Bill yield is commonly quoted as the “risk-free rate of return”. This is the very minimum return rate that an investor would be willing to accept for something that is a risk-free investment.
An important term to learn here is “yield curve”. This is a diagrammatic representation of how much you can expect to gain from an investment over time. The maturity time is on the y-axis, whilst return is on the x-axis. Many economists and traders will follow the typical treasuries yield curve when making financial projections.
Corporate Bonds
Depending on the exact nature of the bond, these can range in how risky they are. The actual value you can expect to achieve from them depends on how credit trustworthy the issuing company is. During the recent financial crisis, investors realised that many of the so-called, “safer” companies weren’t actually very safe at all as firms like Chrysler and GM went bankrupt and their issued bonds became worthless. However, it is generally true that corporate bonds are safer than company stocks.
Municipal Bonds
In order to fund local projects and services, you might find that the local government (such as city or state) will issue bonds. These are desirable both because they are, generally speaking, not too risky. But also, the interest earnings are exempt from federal taxes.
You might also find that your earnings might also be exempt from local taxes if you own municipal bonds from your local government. However, you must first look at the reasons as to why these bonds were issued in the first place. It could be out of desperation as the local municipality is close to defaulting on other loan agreements.
Resources Required to trade and invest in Municipal Bonds?
$1000s – $100,000s
Equity Instruments (Shares)
What are Equities?
Buying stocks mean you take an “equity investment” in a company which is, you take an % ownership interest in a company.
Companies like Disney, Coke a Cola, McDonalds, Citigroup, General Electric, HSBC Group, BP, JPMorgan Chase, UBS.
How do Equities work?
As a business owner you want the company to decrease costs and maximise profits in order for your stocks to become worth more.
Money is made by the increase in the price per share of the Stock owned and by quarterly payment of dividends.
The “market” refers to everyone currently watching a particular stock and thus buying and selling shares. This includes independent investors like you, large Wall Street firms and brokerage firms.
Each individual investor will have their own idea of the stock’s value and the market price is simply the average of all of these views. This means that it is largely a game of supply and demand. As supply and demand shifts every single day, so will the price of the stock.
Resources Required to trade and invest in Equities
- $10,000s – $100,000s
- A Regulated Broker
- Knowledge of Earning Season
- An understanding of accountancy
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Usually pays quarterly dividends. No matter the market conditions, the ownership of the stock will not be affected, thus is much easier to ride out market downturns than with a leveraged product. | Subject to volatility based on speculation / rumour. Can experience unexpected downturn in the market or if the company posts poor quarterly financials, you can expect the share price to go down. Can fall victim to lack of “liquidity” (no one in the market wishes to buy your shares at the given price). Fees can be large depending on the broker used and the amounts traded. |
The Who’s Who of Equities
Warren Buffet a.k.a ‘The Oracle of Omaha’
He is considered one of the most successful investors in the world and has a net worth of US$84 billion as of June 3, 2018, making him the third wealthiest person in the world.
Chairman and largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway
Much of Buffett’s early childhood years were enlivened with entrepreneurial ventures. In one of his first business ventures Buffett sold chewing gum, Coca-Cola bottles, and weekly magazines door to door. He worked in his grandfather’s grocery store.
While still in high school, he made money delivering newspapers, selling golf balls and stamps, and detailing cars, among other means. On his first income tax return in 1944, Buffett took a $35 deduction for the use of his bicycle and watch on his paper route.
In 1945, as a high school sophomore, Buffett and a friend spent $25 to purchase a used pinball machine, which they placed in the local barber shop. Within months, they owned several machines in three different barber shops across Omaha. The business was sold later in the year for $1,200 to a war veteran[v]
Warren Buffett saw Coca-Cola (KO) at $2.45 in January 1988 which was selling at $42.70 in March 2018. The stock has produced annualized gains of more than 11% since Buffett first invested. If you had followed Berkshire Hathaway’s KO purchase in 1988, you would have seen your investment grow each year since then.
According to the Coca-Cola company, your investment of $1000 alongside Buffett would have bought you approximately 408 shares in 1988. It would now be worth more than $17,421, for a percentage change of just over 1,642%.
6. Derivative Instruments
Contracts for Difference (CFDs)
What are CFDs?
A contract for difference, or CFD, is an over-the-counter (OTC) contract between two parties whereby one party pays the other party an amount determined by the difference between the opening and closing price on the contract. The price at which a particular CFD contract is traded and the price at which it is valued depends on the underlying asset. The underlying asset could be a bond, a currency, a commodity, an index or an equity.
How do CFDs work?
- Buying – ‘Long’ position
- Selling – Selling ‘Short’
Resources Required to trade and invest in CFDs
- $1000s – $100,000s or more
- A Regulated Broker
- An understanding of Economics and Accounting
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Ease of access | Agreement between two parties, riskier than |
Futures
What are Futures?
Futures are exchange-traded contracts to sell or buy financial instruments or physical commodities for a future delivery at an agreed price. There is an agreement to buy or sell a specified quantity of financial instrument commodity in a designated future month at a price agreed upon by the buyer and seller.
How do Futures work?
The futures market is a centralized marketplace for buyers and sellers from around the world who meet and enter into futures contracts.
Futures can be used to hedge other investments, they are also used for speculation – which carries the potential for both large rewards and large losses because of leverage.
Trading traditionally took place using an open outcry system in exchange trading pits, most exchanges now use electronic trading systems, which reduce costs and improve trade execution speeds
An important concept is that a futures contract is an agreement between two parties: one who holds a short position – the party who agrees to deliver a commodity; and one who holds a long position – the party who agrees to receive a commodity.
In the above scenario, the farmer would hold the short position because they agreed to sell their wheat, and the bread maker would hold the long position, since they agreed to buy the wheat. Even when no commodity is involved – a stock index future contract, for example – buyers and sellers are still matched together: There’s always another investor on the other side of your trade.
This is a largely anonymous process: Electronic exchanges match buyers and sellers from around the world in real-time throughout each trading session. And keep in mind: Most futures contracts are settled in cash before the contract expires, with no physical delivery taking place
Resources Required to trade and invest in Futures
- $1000s – $100,000s
- A Regulated Broker
- An understanding of Economics
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Can be a useful hedge against other market factors. | Leveraged so losses can be as significant as gains. |
Vanilla Options
What are Vanilla Options?
Vanilla Options (or Plain Vanilla) – is a contract which gives the buyer (the owner or holder of the option) the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an underlying asset or instrument at a specified strike price on a specified date, depending on the form of the option.
How do Vanilla Options work?
Options contracts are essentially the price probabilities of future events. The more likely something is to occur, the more expensive an option would be that profits from that event. This is the key to understanding the relative value of options.
Largely used for hedging, however, they can be traded outright
Resources Required to trade and invest in Vanilla Options
- $1000s – $10,000s or more
- A Regulated Broker
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Wonderful instrument to hedge an investment or trade. | Can be a very complex instrument to understand (see The Greeks) Time decay. |
Foreign Exchange (Forex/FX)
What is Forex?
Currency pairs are broken up into major, minor and exotic pairs. E.g. EUR/USD (Euro), USD/JPY (Dollar/Yen), GBP/USD (Pound Dollar a.k.a. Cable), USD/CHF (Dollar Franc a.k.a Swissy), USD/CAD (Dollar/Canadian Dollar a.k.a Loonie), AUD/USD (Australian Dollar/US Dollar a.k.a Aussie), NZD/USD (New Zealand Dollar/ US Dollar a.k.a Kiwi).
How does Forex work?
Various economic and political events will affect sentiment towards a particular economy and therefore its currency. Factors such as political stability/instability (geo-political), Micro-economic factors such as interest rates or unemployment figures, and Macro-Economic factors such as Trade Agreements etc.
- Short or Long positions
- Leveraged OTC CFDs
Resources Required to trade and invest in Forex
- 1000s – 10,000s or more to invest into the account
- Trading account with regulated Broker
- Economic Calendar
- Fundamental/ Technical Analysis
- Understanding of Economics
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Highly liquid asset $5.1 trillion daily trade volume | Fast and furious Requires skill and knowledge of the markets and how they interrelate Trading on margin |
Who’s who of Forex?
George Soros – 1992 pound short
Soros had been building a huge short position in pounds sterling for months leading up to September 1992. Soros had recognized the unfavourable position of the United Kingdom in the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. For Soros, the rate at which the United Kingdom was brought into the European Exchange Rate Mechanism was too high, their inflation was also much too high (triple the German rate), and British interest rates were hurting their asset prices.
By September 16, 1992, Black Wednesday, Soros’s fund had sold short more than $10 billion in pounds, profiting from the UK government’s reluctance to either raise its interest rates to levels comparable to those of other European Exchange Rate Mechanism countries or float its currency. Finally, the UK withdrew from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, devaluing the pound. Soros’s profit on the bet was estimated at over $1 billion. He was dubbed “the man who broke the Bank of England.” The estimated cost of Black Wednesday to the UK Treasury was £3.4 billion.
Cryptocurrencies
What are Cryptocurrencies?
A cryptocurrency is digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange that uses strong cryptography to secure financial transactions, control the creation of additional units, and verify the transfer of assets.
Bitcoin – The domain name “bitcoin.org” was registered on 18 August 2008. In November 2008, a link to a paper authored by Satoshi Nakamoto titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System was posted to a cryptography mailing list.
Nakamoto implemented the bitcoin software as open source code and released it in January 2009. The identity of Nakamoto remains unknown.
How do Cryptocurrencies work?
Cryptocurrency is a kind of digital currency, virtual currency or alternative currency. Cryptocurrencies use decentralized control, as opposed to centralized electronic money and central banking systems. The decentralized control of each cryptocurrency works through distributed ledger technology, typically a blockchain, that serves as a public financial transaction database.
Bitcoin is seen as having been politically or ideologically motivated starting from the white paper written by Satoshi Nakamoto. There he stated “The root problem with conventional currencies is all the trust that’s required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust.”
Resources Required to trade and invest in Cryptocurrencies
- $100s – $1,000,000s
- A Cryptocurrency Exchange or a Regulated Broker
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Anonymous ownership, Liquid asset. | Easy to lose code and therefore access to wealth. Very volatile compared to alternative investments and therefore quite high risk. |
Commodities
What are Commodities?
- Precious Metals: Gold, Silver
- Oil
- Agricultural Products (corn, sugar, soya beans, cocoa, coffee beans)
How do Commodities work?
- Spot Market – The spot market or cash market is a public financial market in which financial instruments or commodities are traded for immediate delivery.
- Futures – Futures market, in which delivery is due at a later date.
Resources Required to trade and invest in Commodities
- $1000s – $100,000s
- A Regulated Broker
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Can be used as a hedge for business purposes and can be helpful if a person has extensive knowledge of a specific market such as beef, grain etc. | Trading on can be affected by a magnitude of factors including trade agreements, weather factors and government policy. |
Real Estate
Physical Property
What is Physical Property?
‘Bricks and mortar’ property and land.
How does Physical Property work?
- The deed to a physical property as a freehold
- Leasehold (UK)
- Share of Freehold
- Resources required
Resources Required to trade and invest in Physical Property
Deposit and credit rating to access a mortgage $10,000s – $100,000s deposit
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Personal dwelling or buy to let. | Non liquid asset Maintenance, insurance and Estate Agent fees Risk of default if mortgaged. |
7. REITs
What is a REIT?
real estate investment trust, or REIT, is a company that owns, operates or finances income-producing real estate, they allow individual investors to acquire ownership in commercial real estate portfolios that receive income from properties such as apartment complexes, hospitals, office buildings, timber land, warehouses, hotels and shopping malls.
How do REITs work?
Many REITs are registered and are publicly traded on a stock exchange. These are known as publicly traded REITs. Others may be registered with the regulatory body (SEC or FCA) but are not publicly traded. These are known as non- traded REITs (also known as non-exchange traded REITs).
Resources Required to trade and invest in REITs
$1000s – $100,000s or more
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Liquid asset Must pay out 90% income to investors | Since REITs have to pay out most of their income to investors, it’s hard for them to build up enough capital to reinvest in new properties from their own profits. |
8. Alternative Luxury Investments
What are Alternative Luxury Investments?
- Fine Art
- Wine
- Classic Cars
- Collectables such as Watches & Antiques
How do Alternative Luxury Investments work?
The Luxury market can be largely speculative however, unlike many other forms of investment there are specific markets that attract investors for reasons other then monetary gain. Markets such as the contemporary art market saw an average capital growth of 29.8% between 30/09/16 and 30/09/17 but many investors simply purchase the items due to their aesthetic beauty and not their value per se.
Resources Required to trade and invest in Luxury Investment Items
- $100,000s – $1,000,000s or more
- Provenance of the items
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Joy of ownership, capital appreciation, Safe Haven for capital, Investment portfolio diversification, Status among peers. | Can be a very high risk area in terms of: Provenance – to prove / manufactured, Costs incurred in storage and maintenance and insurance, Physical vulnerability of items. |
Who’s who?
- Sothebys
- Christies
- More specified galleries and dealers
Did you know the story of the Le Rêve?
Le Rêve (French, “The Dream”) is a 1932 oil painting (130 × 97 cm) by Pablo Picasso, then 50 years old, portraying his 22-year-old mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter. It is said to have been painted in one afternoon, on 24 January 1932.
Le Rêve was purchased for $7,000 in 1941 by Victor and Sally Ganz of New York City. This purchase began their 50-year collection of works by just five artists: Picasso, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, and Eva Hesse.
After the Ganzes died (Victor in 1987 and Sally in 1997), their collection, including Le Rêve, was sold at Christie’s auction house on November 11, 1997, as a means of settling their inheritance tax bill. Le Rêve sold for an unexpectedly high $48.4 million, at the time the fourth most expensive painting sold (tenth when taking inflation into account). The entire collection set a record for the sale of a private collection, bringing $206.5 million. The total amount paid by the Ganzes over their lifetime of collecting these pieces was around $2 million.
It was Steve Wynn, a casino magnate and collector of masterpieces who acquired it in a private sale in 2001 from an anonymous collector, who had bought it at the auction in 1997 for $48.4 million.
Wynn subsequently decided that he’d like to sell it, to a hedge-fund mogul and avid collector Steven Cohen, had coveted “Le Rêve” for years. Cohen agreed to pay a hundred and thirty-nine million dollars for it, which was at the time the highest known price ever paid for a work of art. Once the deal was established the only thing left to do was exchange the funds.
When the painting was brought from the lobby of the casino up to Wynn’s personal apartment in the building, while discussing the picture with someone he accidently gestured too far with his elbow which broke through the canvas ripping it. The $139 Million deal was subsequently called off.
Check out our other post for more Defensive Treading here.
As always, if you have any questions, we would love to hear from you in the comments box below. Happy trading!
