Special report: An introduction to online trading
The following is an extract from this special report: 
The key to long-term investing is not worrying about short-term market gyrations or fretting about whether you missed the latest bounce. As Citigroup’s Markus Rosgen noted in a recent research note: “We all want to own the best performing sector or market each month”, but in reality “few achieve it”.
The key is to stick to your guns and your long-term investing timeframe and recognise that every dip in the market presents an opportunity to add to your holdings of the best stocks and funds. Using the right ratios and avoiding everyone else’s mistakes are a key part of this (see page 12). And on page eight we look at how equity investors can gain access to the fastest growing part of the world right now – Asia.
Finally, if you have more of an appetite for risk, the sort of volatility we’ve seen over the past two years throws up some great opportunities. As long as you can afford to lose as well as make money fast, derivatives such as spread bets (page 14) and covered warrants (page 20) can be an exciting and potentially very profitable way to play the markets.
