How to Trade Commodities – Cocoa – Everything you Need to Know

In this article i’m going to consider how to trade commodities, and in particular, Cocoa. I’m going to look at the chart for Cocoa using my favourite chart platform, Trading View. I’m going to perform some technical analysis on the recent and longer term price movements and patterns. Let’s get straight into it…

Cocoa birds eye view

How to trade commodities

A great place to start in understanding how to trade commodities, is to first, get a birds eye view of a market. In order to get a great bird’s eye view of this market, it’s helpful to consider what is happening on the monthly timeframe. The monthly timeframe contains Japanese candlesticks where each candlestick represents a single month’s worth of price movements – so you can see from the above chart, the long term view of what is happening on the market.

As you can see, the price reached an enormous, all time high, ‘peak’, at around the end of 2025, and since then it has fallen sharply. The price has since respected a diagonal downwards trend line. At the moment it has made a sharp steep peak away from the trend line in the downwards direction, and it has started pulling back again, with a significant pink candle – closing higher, within the last couple of days of the markets being open. As you can see, there is also a strong support level at around 6588.8 but the price has now sailed away from this, so it is useful to check any other horizontal levels which are closer to the current price:

As you can see, there is another horizontal resistance/support line identified at around 3.485. The recent price movements show that they have broken below this support. The price is currently at the horizontal level. It remains to be seen whether it will now descend further, or pull back to the horizontal trend line again.

Overall the price on Cocoa has been down trending long term. Let’s take a closer look using the daily time frame:

As you can see, the daily timeframe does not really add anything additional here, other than being able to see the support and resistance lines very clearly The MACD Indicator shows the price is currently pushing up in the nearer term. It looks as though it’s trying to push up to make a higher low, but we will need to wait and see what happens…

How to trade commodities – Cocoa – So how could you plan a trade on this market?

So in understanding the answer to the question, how to trade commodities, I hope you can see that you can use the support and resistance lines to plan where to enter and exit your trade. You want to trade close to the ‘structure’ of the pattern and allow the price to move away from it. You would have to decide which support or resistance line to use, and when but I hope you can see the potential for predicting price movements, from this article.

I hope you found this article helpful.

Disclaimer!

Nothing on this blog should be taken as financial advice or encouragement for you to enter a trade.  You are expected to speak to a financial adviser or carry out your own due diligence before entering any positions.  Everything on this blog is made for educational purposes and to equip you with the knowledge you need to be able to make your own financial decisions.

For more great tips and advice on trading the stock market, please visit:

https://www.sophiatrades.co.uk

To watch me trade live please visit my patreon page here:

https://www.patreon.com/sophiatrades

Finally, if you would like to receive a discount on the Trading View charting software I use, please click on the relevant link here:

https://www.tradingview.com/?aff_id=117138

Please note any subscriptions taken via my affiliate link with Trading View may result in me earning a small commission.  However, I provide complete transparency on me using Trading View personally – I publish my success on the financial markets via my broker reports and any profits earned were done so by using my own Trading View subscription,  so I genuinely do recommend them and have been using the Trading View charts for many years.

Stocks today – everything you need to know!

In this article i’m going to take a look at what’s happening with the stocks today. I’m going to consider the major indices and give my thoughts on their recent activity. I will also try to identify whether the markets have started recovering. Let’s take a look!

Stocks today – the NASDAQ

A great way of establishing quite quickly, what’s happening with stocks today, is by considering the major indices. This will give a quick overview/average idea of the direction they are headed in. Let’s take a look at what’s happening on the NASDAQ, monthly timeframe. The monthly timeframe gives a great birds eye view of the position of the markets. It’s great for long term planning:

stocks today

As you can see on this monthly timeframe chart, the position recently, from a long term perspective is still very much that the market is pulling back. The latest monthly timeframe candle is a big downwards one, (meaning the price closed lower than where it opened at the start of the month). To understand more about how to read Japanese candlestick patterns, please see the relevant section of this blog, here:

Japanese Candlesticks – Sophia Trades – Learn how to Trade the Stock Market

You can also see on the above chart that the MACD has crossed over the signal line and the MACD histogram has made its first red bar. It’s not clear whether this new downwards move will continue. You can see at the previous occasion this happened, it only lasted for two red histogram bars, and then recovered.

It’s also worth noting the position of the RSI indicator. The RSI has pulled back to the ‘pull back’ level it usually reaches, while it’s still uptrending. Note the position of where it pulled back to, previously, marked with the red line, here:

The RSI is at a critical point. If the RSI dips below this sort of level and stays there, it can indicate the markets are downtreding long term, rather than them just pulling back.

Let’s zoom in, next, and take a look at the daily timeframe:

Stocks today – the NASDAQ daily timeframe chart

As you can see, the picture is quite gloomy for buyers on the daily timeframe. The price has broken below the firm support level at around 23.744. Once a price breaks through a major support or resistance level it can then act as the opposite so in this case it could end up being a level of resistance. However, the RSI indicator has pulled back significantly and the MACD indicator has dropped significantly to the downside. It is still making large red histogram bars so currently it appears as though the downward move has still got a lot of momentum.

S&P 500

I like to consider the S&P 500 chart for a wider, overall view, of what is happening with the markets, although it can often follow the same sort of shape or pattern, as the NASDAQ, so i’m not anticipating good news for buyers with this either. Let’s take a look:

As you can see on the daily timeframe for the S&P 500, it’s showing a similar sort of story as the NASDAQ.

Conclusion – stocks today

The markets are not yet recovering so I, personally, will be avoiding entering any more ‘buy’ positions, for the time being.

I hope you found this article helpful.

Disclaimer!

Nothing on this blog should be taken as financial advice or encouragement for you to enter a trade.  You are expected to speak to a financial adviser or carry out your own due diligence before entering any positions.  Everything on this blog is made for educational purposes and to equip you with the knowledge you need to be able to make your own financial decisions.

For more great tips and advice on trading the stock market, please visit:

https://www.sophiatrades.co.uk

To watch me trade live please visit my patreon page here:

https://www.patreon.com/sophiatrades

Finally, if you would like to receive a discount on the Trading View charting software I use, please click on the relevant link here:

https://www.tradingview.com/?aff_id=117138

Please note any subscriptions taken via my affiliate link with Trading View may result in me earning a small commission.  However, I provide complete transparency on me using Trading View personally – I publish my success on the financial markets via my broker reports and any profits earned were done so by using my own Trading View subscription,  so I genuinely do recommend them and have been using the Trading View charts for many years.

Stocks today – Everything You Need to Know

Stocks today – Everything You Need to Know

In this article I want to talk to you about what’s happening to the price of Gold, currently. Whilst this is not a stock, I have prepared by usual style ‘stocks today’ blog article on it, because it is worth paying attention to, as Gold gives an indication of the overall position and health of the markets. As you will know from my recent blog posts, many of the markets are pulling back right now or simply moving sideways, following having reached record highs!. Gold is no exception to this. Let’s take a look at the chart movements to see what’s going on and whether we can identify any recent patterns…

Stocks today – the Gold Daily Time Frame chart

stocks today

As you can see the Gold market reached all time highs at around 29th January 2026. The price has descended quite steeply since then – by 26%, as you can see on the chart. This is quite a drop and highly significant for our consideration of stocks today! It could represent a big bargain for someone if the prices went back up to previous levels.

Let’s take a look at the monthly timeframe, too, to get a better birds eye view:

Gold monthly timeframe chart:

stocks today

As you can see on the monthly timeframe chart, the price had literally gone to the moon recently. The dip down which we can see in detail on the daily timeframe, seems small compared to the amount it has risen in the recent past. The price is nearing a bit of a support level per the daily timeframe, marked below:

There are a number of scenarios which could play out and it is very difficult to determine which one is likely to happen. If Gold continues to drop, it could find some support, even temporarily, at some of these horizontal support levels. However, it has dropped already by 26% which is not insignificant. If it dropped even further this would amount to an enormous discount on the recent highs, prices.

Ultimately, it will be difficult to try and predict which way this market will go, but I will be keeping a close eye on the chart. Before getting into any gold positions, I would want to see the market making higher highs and higher lows once again. This may be a while off yet. We will see!

I hope you found this article helpful, on ‘stocks today’.

Disclaimer!

Nothing on this blog should be taken as financial advice or encouragement for you to enter a trade.  You are expected to speak to a financial adviser or carry out your own due diligence before entering any positions.  Everything on this blog is made for educational purposes and to equip you with the knowledge you need to be able to make your own financial decisions.

Disclaimer!

Nothing on this blog should be taken as financial advice or encouragement for you to enter a trade.  You are expected to speak to a financial adviser or carry out your own due diligence before entering any positions.  Everything on this blog is made for educational purposes and to equip you with the knowledge you need to be able to make your own financial decisions.

For more great tips and advice on trading the stock market, please visit:

https://www.sophiatrades.co.uk

To watch me trade live please visit my patreon page here:

https://www.patreon.com/sophiatrades

Finally, if you would like to receive a discount on the Trading View charting software I use, please click on the relevant link here:

https://www.tradingview.com/?aff_id=117138

Please note any subscriptions taken via my affiliate link with Trading View may result in me earning a small commission.  However, I provide complete transparency on me using Trading View personally – I publish my success on the financial markets via my broker reports and any profits earned were done so by using my own Trading View subscription,  so I genuinely do recommend them and have been using the Trading View charts for many years.

Stocks today – Everything You Need to Know

Stocks today – Everything You Need to Know

In this article i’m going to talk about what’s happening with stocks today. I’m going to look at recent activity, the highs and lows and the current state of price movements. Let’s get straight into it!

Stocks today – Google Class C

To form a view about stocks today in respect of Google Class C (Alphabet) let’s take a look at the monthly and daily timeframes on the Trading View chart software, to get a birds eye view of what has been happening with this stock:

stocks today

As you can see on the monthly timeframe, this stock reached all time highs recently. A lot of this push upwards is to do with the AI market and expectation that this will generate a lot of revenue for the Tech sector and companies. It reached highs of $350.04 on 2nd February 2026 and has been pulling back since then. The MACD indicator is still green but slowly losing its strength. The RSI, however, has pulled down quite significantly from having been in a very overbought position. It had extended up into the 83.21 position at the highest price reached. Now the RSI is showing 69.03. It’s worth nothing that the previous time this happened back between 2021 and 2022, as you can see on the chart, the prices did descent quite significantly from the highs reached. This dip coincided, however, with increased interest rates as dictated by the FEDS. On this occasion, the FEDS have reduced rates. It remains to be seen, whether the market has finished pulling back or whether it will descent further.

Let’s look at the daily timeframe next:

stocks today

You can see a more zoomed in view of the long term picture, from the daily timeframe, above. The price is currently at a major level of support. It touched it last Friday and remains there currently. I cannot see any sign of recovery from this, yet. The price is still making lower highs and the lows are dotted along the support level. This could be seen as a descending triangle pattern but it is not clear whether the price will break down through the support level. It has touched it at least four or five times – note that the support level became one after a slight resistance previously, in around November time.

Tesla

Let’s take a look at stocks today (Tesla) to see what’s happening. I’ve copied the monthly timeframe chart, below:

stocks today

The pattern on Tesla is not very clear to me. It too reached all time highs recently. It’s touched a resistance area a couple of times, at around 495.33. It has pulled back quite significantly on the RSI indicator but note that the MACD and signal lines have not yet crossed over to the downside. A recovery or further downwards push is entirely possible. Let’s zoom in on the daily timeframe and see what else is happening:

You can see much more clearly, what is happening on the daily timeframe, above. You can see the resistance at the all time highs more clearly and also the slight support level marked at around 328.51 on the chart. It looks to me like the price is still very much in a downward pattern – note that it is currently making lower highs and lower lows – as marked by the diagonal resistance line, here:

The above analysis should give you an idea of what could happen next with this stock, although it is for you to decide upon this and make a critical judgement. There are lots of resources on this blog to help you understand charts, including information on candlestick patterns, here:

Japanese Candlesticks – Trader Pro Consultancy – Learn how to Trade the Stock Market

and also, understanding Support and Resistance levels, here:

Support and Resistance – Trader Pro Consultancy – Learn how to Trade the Stock Market

I hope you found this article on stocks today, helpful.

Disclaimer!

Nothing on this blog should be taken as financial advice or encouragement for you to enter a trade.  You are expected to speak to a financial adviser or carry out your own due diligence before entering any positions.  Everything on this blog is made for educational purposes and to equip you with the knowledge you need to be able to make your own financial decisions.

For more great tips and advice on trading the stock market, please visit:

https://sophiatrades.co.uk

To watch me trade live please visit my patreon page here:

https://www.patreon.com/Traderpro8320

Finally, if you would like to receive a discount on the Trading View charting software I use, please click on the relevant link here:

https://www.tradingview.com/?aff_id=117138

Please note any subscriptions taken via my affiliate link with Trading View may result in me earning a small commission.  However, I provide complete transparency on me using Trading View personally – I publish my success on the financial markets via my broker reports and any profits earned were done so by using my own Trading View subscription,  so I genuinely do recommend them and have been using the Trading View charts for many years.

Stocks today – everything you need to know

Stocks today – everything you need to know

In this article i’m going to talk about the stocks today, and recent activity on the NASDAQ and S&P 500. This is another follow up to some of my other recent articles on what’s been happening in the markets. The markets are being affected by the Iran war so we have to bear this in mind when considering whether or not to open more positions. Let’s take a look at the charts…

Stocks today – NASDAQ

Stocks today

I like to consider the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 before zooming in and trying to establish which stocks may be good for closer attention in terms of ‘stocks today’! As you can see, there is no sign of any recovery yet, from the above chart. The price descended to a major support level on Friday and rebounded away from it, as can be seen by the last purple candle on the above chart. You can see the price touched the support level and then was pushed higher buy buyers coming in! Note the longer wick on this candle, a bit like a hammer pattern. To understand more about candlestick patterns, please see the following link:

Japanese Candlesticks – Trader Pro – Learn how to Trade the Stock Market

Also, if you would like a discount to the above chart software, please click below:

At the moment, the price is holding itself above the support level marked on the chart in white. It remains to be seen whether it will descend further or start to recover. I am still in the ‘waiting’ stage. I’m waiting to see prices start to make higher highs and higher lows before I enter any new positions. As far as stocks today are concerned, my conclusion for the NASDAQ is that I will wait to see what happens first…

S&P 500

The story on the S&P 500 stocks today, is very similar. With the turbulence from the Iran war and missiles being fired to Cyprus and other countries in the area, it is no wonder they are struggling to pull up. Let’s take a look at the S&P 500 chart:

stocks today

You can see the exact same pattern almost, on the 500 top stocks in America too. It’s at a major support level and on Friday it rebounded away from it.

If you are a regular visitor to this blog, you will know that I like to focus my attention on the US markets. They are normally very bullish and I find it easy to find great trading set ups on the US markets. However, there are times when I need to exercise patience and caution. This is one of those times. I will be waiting for the markets to show signs of recovery before I invest or trade with any more open positions.

I hope you found this article helpful!

Disclaimer!

Nothing on this blog should be taken as financial advice or encouragement for you to enter a trade.  You are expected to speak to a financial adviser or carry out your own due diligence before entering any positions.  Everything on this blog is made for educational purposes and to equip you with the knowledge you need to be able to make your own financial decisions.

For more great tips and advice on trading the stock market, please visit:

https://sophiatrades.co.uk

To watch me trade live please visit my patreon page here:

https://www.patreon.com/Traderpro8320

Finally, if you would like to receive a discount on the Trading View charting software I use, please click on the relevant link here:

https://www.tradingview.com/?aff_id=117138

Please note any subscriptions taken via my affiliate link with Trading View may result in me earning a small commission.  However, I provide complete transparency on me using Trading View personally – I publish my success on the financial markets via my broker reports and any profits earned were done so by using my own Trading View subscription,  so I genuinely do recommend them and have been using the Trading View charts for many years.

Best stocks to buy now

Best stocks to buy now

In this article i’m going to look at what position the markets are in, with a view to helping you determine the best stocks to buy now. I’m going to examine the position of the overall index and recent highs and lows, and any recent patterns forming. Let’s get straight into it!

Best stocks to buy now – the NASDAQ – recent activity

It helps when considering which are the best stocks to buy now, to look at the overall index first – to see what’s happening there. Reason? Because the overall index has an influence on the prices of its constituents and vice versa. It helps you see clearly, in one big swoop, what’s happening to the markets in general currently. The NASDAQ is the average of the top 100 stocks in America and it is heavily weighted in the Technology sector, with constituents like Apple, Google and Microsoft sitting on it.

NASDAQ monthly timeframe:

Best stocks to buy now

Let’s take a look at the NASDAQ per the monthly timeframe. I’m using the Trading View chart software – click below for a discount:

As you can see on the monthly timeframe, the markets had recently pushed up to new overall highs and they are now pulling back. This is paramount information and consideration before you decide on the best stocks to buy now. The MACD indicator has gone from strong upwards momentum, dark green histogram bars to smaller, reducing in size, light green bars. This pattern is typical before it turns red. You can see where the MACD indicator went red previously on this time frame and what happened to the price. A further downwards push is not guaranteed – nothing is! As traders we are trying to look at patterns on the chart to see what might be possible in the near future. The RSI has pulled back considerably on this time frame. If you would like to understand more about these indicators, please see my blog articles below:

How to use MACD – The Moving Average Convergence Divergence to make more money – Trader Pro – Learn how to Trade the Stock Market

The Relative Strength Index (RSI Indicator) – how to make money – Trader Pro – Learn how to Trade the Stock Market

Now let’s take a look at the daily timeframe:

Best stocks to buy now

Looking at the daily timeframe, is like zooming in, on the monthly. It shows you a close up of what’s going on. To understand how to use Multiple Timeframe Analysis in your trading, please see the following blog article:

Multiple Timeframe Analysis – mind blowing knowledge that will change everything! – Trader Pro – Learn how to Trade the Stock Market

As you can see on the daily timeframe chart, the price is holding firm above the white support line at around 23,945. It has touched this line quite a few times, tried to push down through it, and then popped back up again. The market is consolidating and going sideways. Often times when a market is bouncing along sideways, it is gaining momentum to either push up strongly or pull back significantly. It is unknown which way it will go. The FEDS dropped interest rates which can help the markets push up further – historically this is what happened after interest rates were reduced. However, the markets are very overbought in general – all the stocks and commodities have reached record highs and it is not clear how long this upwards drive will last! What goes up, must come down – at least slightly!

The last candle which formed, was a large downward candle, taking the price back down close to the support level. To understand more about support and resistance levels, please see this blog article:

Support and Resistance – how to make more money trading – Trader Pro – Learn how to Trade the Stock Market

Let’s just throw in the S&P 500 for good measure!

As you can see, we have a similar story on the S&P 500…

From examining these indices, my own decision is to wait before considering the best stocks to buy now. I want to see which direction the markets are headed in, in general, before jumping into anything. There may be markets/stocks sitting on these indices which are still pushing up right now and this is what’s holding it up but i’m conscious of what I stated earlier, that the index has an overall impact on the direction of the stocks, and vice versa. I want the odds to be in my favour when I open more positions. So I will wait to see what happens for a while.

What am I waiting for?

Before I can decide on the best stocks to buy now, I’m waiting for the markets to break out of the sideways channel they are in (i.e. the Index). If they break out upwards, I may consider that a new pattern is starting to form (with reference to new consistent support levels being in a diagonal push up or a new clear horizontal level being established which it is now clearly a new support), and look for good markets / stocks to get into. If they burst downwards I will be waiting even longer – until they start to push up again. For now, I just wait…

He that can have patience can have what he will.” —Benjamin Franklin

Let’s generate wealth, independently, together!

Disclaimer!

Nothing on this blog should be taken as financial advice or encouragement for you to enter a trade.  You are expected to speak to a financial adviser or carry out your own due diligence before entering any positions.  Everything on this blog is made for educational purposes and to equip you with the knowledge you need to be able to make your own financial decisions.

For more great tips and advice on trading the stock market, please visit:

https://sophiatrades.co.uk

To watch me trade live please visit my patreon page here:

https://www.patreon.com/Traderpro8320

Finally, if you would like to receive a discount on the Trading View charting software I use, please click on the relevant link here:

https://www.tradingview.com/?aff_id=117138

Please note any subscriptions taken via my affiliate link with Trading View may result in me earning a small commission.  However, I provide complete transparency on me using Trading View personally – I publish my success on the financial markets via my broker reports and any profits earned were done so by using my own Trading View subscription,  so I genuinely do recommend them and have been using the Trading View charts for many years.

Can you make money on the NASDAQ right now?

Can you make money on the NASDAQ right now?

In this article i’m going to talk about the current and recent positions of the NASDAQ with a view to answering the question ‘can you make money on the NASDAQ right now?’. I’m going to examine the recent highs and lows and what’s happening with some of my preferred indicators. Let’s jump straight into it!

Can you make money on the NASDAQ right now – recent activity

The NASDAQ is currently going sideways. It has been doing this for a long time. What does this mean? Markets can either go up, down or sideways, and sometimes they go sideways to consolidate – to allow breathing before pushing higher, or to test limits and supports before they lose strength and pull right back. You should think of a sideways market as a battery charging…. it’s building momentum to either go up, or down. When they go sideways for a long while, it can give the market a breathing space which is equivalent to the market pulling down/back – because time is passing by and the market is not reaching high prices. It allows the momentum to reset itself and you can see this on some of the indicators I like to use, like the RSI and the MACD. To help us answer the question about whether we can make money on the NASDAQ right now, let’s take a look at the daily time frame chart:

money on the nasdaq

As you can see, the market reached an all time high in mid October and since then it’s been drifting through a channel sideways. It did touch the previous high in February but since then it descended further. You can see the diagonal down trend line I had recently applied to the chart, which the price has now bust through! The price is now back at the horizontal support again and it’s bounced away from it with a hammer candlestick pattern. If you would like to understand more about candlestick patterns, please see the relevant section of my blog, below:

Japanese Candlesticks – Trader Pro – Learn how to Trade the Stock Market

The MACD made a cross over to the upside, below the zero level of the histogram and this can be recognised as an upward push momentum but it remains to be seen how long it will last. This is the zone where the price bust through the diagonal resistance line above. In order to answer the question more fully, ‘can you make money on the NASDAQ right now’ we need to also consider the higher time frame for a birds eye view. Note: I am not in the habit of always considering the monthly timeframe – it depends. On this occasion I consider it is necessary, since the price has gone sky high recently so it may be coming to the end of a long term upwards push.

Let’s also take a look at the bigger picture – the monthly timeframe

As you can see on the monthly time frame, the MACD indicator is losing momentum for upwards push – the histogram bars have gone from dark to light green and they are becoming smaller and smaller. The MACD and signal lines look like they are in a position where they could cross over to the downside. However, note that in the time the market has been going sideways, the RSI indicator has pulled back slightly meaning the price is not as expensive as it was at the peak and this is what I meant by a sideways movement allowing the price to recharge and gain energy. You can see from historical RSI movements on this chart, that the little dip which has happened recently on the RSI indicator, can sometimes be enough of a pull back for it to go up again. It is not clear what will happen next – I am simply waiting for confirmation. What do I mean by this? I’m waiting for the market to make higher highs and higher lows again. Going back to the daily timeframe, I have marked in red the recent highs and lows. At the moment the market is in a position where it is moving away from a ‘lower low’ so definitely not pushing up enough for me yet… and so I wait!

I hope you found this article helpful in answering your question, can you make money on the NASDAQ right now?

Disclaimer!

Nothing on this blog should be taken as financial advice or encouragement for you to enter a trade.  You are expected to speak to a financial adviser or carry out your own due diligence before entering any positions.  Everything on this blog is made for educational purposes and to equip you with the knowledge you need to be able to make your own financial decisions.

For more great tips and advice on trading the stock market, please visit:

https://sophiatrades.co.uk

To watch me trade live please visit my patreon page here:

https://www.patreon.com/Traderpro8320

Finally, if you would like to receive a discount on the Trading View charting software I use, please click on the relevant link here:

https://www.tradingview.com/?aff_id=117138

Please note any subscriptions taken via my affiliate link with Trading View may result in me earning a small commission.  However, I provide complete transparency on me using Trading View personally – I publish my success on the financial markets via my broker reports and any profits earned were done so by using my own Trading View subscription,  so I genuinely do recommend them and have been using the Trading View charts for many years.

How does a dividend affect a share price?  Everything you need to know!

How does a dividend affect a share price? Everything you need to know!

How does a dividend affect a share price? This is an important topic for any trader and definitely something you should be considering before placing any trade – both in general and in relation to the timing of the specific stock you are interested in trading. I’m going to talk about what a dividend is, how this affects the price of a stock and how you can prepare for these fluctuations as a trader.

We want to answer, “How can a dividend affect a share price”, but first of all, what is a ‘dividend’?

So…. back to companies 101…. we know that a company is a business (or it can be an investment vehicle) in a legal entity ‘wrapper’. It is treated as a separate person entirely, from the business owner(s). The business is split into portions like dividing up a pie and these portions are the ‘shareholdings’ of the company. So the people who own the business are the ‘shareholders’ and they each own a piece of the company in accordance with their share holding and certificate, like a slice of pie. A dividend is a mechanism by which, the business pays out some profit to its shareholders.

So how do dividends come about?

In order to determine an answer to the question, how does a dividend affect a share price, we must first also understand how dividends come about! Any assets or income belongs to the legal entity of the business and is received within the legal entity. In order to distribute some of this income to the owners of the business (the shareholders), a ‘dividend’ must be declared and paid. The business will declare a dividend from ‘distributable profits’ only. If they do not ensure the dividend is made from ‘distributable profits’ it is possible the dividend will be made illegally. This is a slightly different topic but the directors basically need to ensure that the business has got enough cash and spare money before paying the shareholders a dividend, to make sure it is being fair to its creditors. The worst case scenario which could occur is that the company could pay a dividend and it depletes funds needed to pay creditor liabilities – this is why they must be paid from ‘distributable’ reserves. This is a slight digression, but it was worth noting here for anyone who does not know much about companies and how they work.

OK, so back to where we were… the directors of the company will assess whether the company is in a position to pay a dividend, and they will ‘declare’ it / in other words, they will announce to the market, that they have decided a dividend will be paid. This is the ‘ex dividend’ date – which is important. The cash payment of the dividend will follow a little while later and will be paid to the share holders in accordance with their slice of pie share holding. So if the company is divided up into 10 slices of pie (shareholdings) and they are all equal shareholdings, and the company declares a dividend of £800, what this means is that each slice of the pie shareholding will receive £80 as a dividend.

Are dividends mandatory?

No – dividends are not a mandatory thing on the part of the directors. They need the freedom and discretion to be able to examine the company’s financial position, prior to making any dividend declaration, and consider whether the company can afford to make a dividend from its distributable reserves.

Not only this, but some companies do not usually pay dividends and other ones do. It is entirely in the discretion of the directors and they are usually following the particular customs of the company in question. If a company usually pays a 1% dividend to shareholders, the shareholders would be in a position where they are accustomed to receiving this, and they would expect it. Indeed, it may be the reason they purchased those shares – some shareholders just purchase shares for the purposes of receiving dividends, and some shares pay more dividends, and pay more ‘often’ than others – so if the investor is someone who is interested in receiving dividends as income rather than more capital growth from his/her shareholdings, they may tailor their investment portfolio to the companies which pay dividends regularly and at a good rate. Notwithstanding this, the discretion of the directors must always be applied to ensure the dividends are not made illegally (from non distributable reserves – depleting funds for the creditors).

So how does a dividend affect a share price then?

So when a company makes a dividend, this dividend is in effect, the company paying out some of it’s earned profits to the shareholders. The company’s worth (share price) is based on it’s assets and earnings potential – it’s an estimate by the market based on supply and demand, of what people think that is worth! So when the company pays out some of it’s worth as a dividend, it is literally depleting the balance sheet of reserves and profit/cash – which could be used to buffer the company from any troubles, buy more assets, grow the business etc. I’m not saying paying a dividend is a bad thing but it ‘must’ affect the share price – logically, it will.

So when the stock goes ‘ex dividend’ (when the dividend announcement has been made), you can expect the stock to take a temporary nose dive in terms of the share price.

How can you plan your trades around this?

Make sure before you open a position on an equity, that you know what the next ex dividend date is, and be prepared in the plan of where to enter and exit, for the drop in share price when the stock goes ex dividend. If you are confident that there will be no significant impact from the question, how does a dividend affect a share price that’s fine… but it could affect your win rate if you ignore this and get in anyway!

I hope you found this article informative on resolving the question, how does a dividend affect a share price. Perhaps if you did, you can leave a comment below!

Disclaimer!

Nothing on this blog should be taken as financial advice or encouragement for you to enter a trade.  You are expected to speak to a financial adviser or carry out your own due diligence before entering any positions.  Everything on this blog is made for educational purposes and to equip you with the knowledge you need to be able to make your own financial decisions.

For more great tips and advice on trading the stock market, please visit:

https://sophiatrades.co.uk

To watch me trade live please visit my patreon page here:

https://www.patreon.com/Traderpro8320

Finally, if you would like to receive a discount on the Trading View charting software I use, please click on the relevant link here:

https://www.tradingview.com/?aff_id=117138

Please note any subscriptions taken via my affiliate link with Trading View may result in me earning a small commission.  However, I provide complete transparency on me using Trading View personally – I publish my success on the financial markets via my broker reports and any profits earned were done so by using my own Trading View subscription,  so I genuinely do recommend them and have been using the Trading View charts for many years.

Are the markets going to drop in 2026?  Everything you need to know!

Are the markets going to drop in 2026? Everything you need to know!

Many traders and investors are asking the question ‘Are the markets going to drop in 2026?’. In this article I take a look at the current state of the markets and whether a drop could be possible and most importantly, what you can do if they do drop and in the meantime! Let’s get straight into it!

Are the markets going to drop in 2026? Where are they right now?

Currently many of the most popular and most liquid markets, are very overbought. They have reached record highs. Let’s take a look at some examples:

Are the markets going to drop? – Gold

Gold has reached record highs. The chart recently reached a price of circa 5,615 USD but they took a slight downturn from this – let’s take a look at the chart to see if we can get start to answer the question, are the markets going to drop in 2026:

markets going to drop

As you can see from the daily chart, Gold has pulled back from it’s peak. Let’s take a look at what’s going on, on the monthly chart, as this can give a better ‘birds eye’ view:

As you can see on the monthly chart, Gold has reached record highs. The RSI is currently very overextended and it wouldn’t be surprising if the market were to pull back farther than the little dip it’s made on the daily timeframe. However, nobody can predict whether the markets are going to drop – or what they are going to do. The FEDS have cut interest rates in America and this can have a positive effect on some of the markets. We are in a bit of an unprecedented situation. History tells us that when so many markets reach these types of highs, they do pull back quite a bit. It may be just a question of time!

Let’s take a look at the NASDAQ…

Are the markets going to drop? -NASDAQ

As with the case of Gold, you can see on the monthly timeframe, that the NASDAQ has sailed sky high. Take a look at the RSI and the MACD which is now bumping over to the downside! The green histogram bars on the MACD indicator are losing their pigment meaning they are losing strength currently and they are becoming smaller in size! For information I have added what happened to the markets during Covid and also the inflation struggles which have happened over the last few years and the effect of the FED’s interest rate increases on the markets.

The soaring prices on the NASDAQ have partly been inflated by expectations concerning AI and future profitability predictions surrounding this. Some people believe the AI bubble could burst. Nobody truly knows what will happen, however.

Let’s also take a look at the S&P 500 chart for good measure!

S&P 500

As you can see, it’s the same story on the monthly chart for the S&P 500! RSI over extended, MACD bumping over, prices at record highs.

So what to do in the scenario that the markets do ‘pull back’

Try and keep some money aside to take advantage of them on their way back up. Experienced traders and investors do not panic when the markets drop – they have dollar signs in the eyes! There is a saying that most profit is made at the time of purchase, not sale! The wealthy investors will be watching and waiting, and going shopping at the relevant time! Will you be one of them, or will you start panicking? Which one do you want to be?

It’s a good idea to do some research before the markets pull back, into which solid stocks could generate solid returns after some time. It’s a good idea to pick stocks with healthy balance sheets, in sectors which are likely to do well, and try and be diversified to hedge your risk. I posted a video on how you can carry out fundamental analysis of a balance sheet or profit statement, which you may find helpful:

Traders can manage risk in a slightly different way – there are plenty of articles on this blog about how you can manage risk. Currently, for example, I am entering small positions until the market starts moving in my favour and then I load up. This is similar to the averaging up which investors do, but I do this in trading now as well.

Conclusion – are the markets going to drop

My strong suggestion to you is to not fear the question ‘are the markets going to drop’ but rather see the this as an inevitable situation and a significant money making opportunity! Plan for the drop to happen – it will, periodically! Keep cash aside for these times to be in the best possible position, to take full advantage.

I also prepared a YouTube video on this issue which you may find helpful to watch:

Disclaimer!

Nothing on this blog should be taken as financial advice or encouragement for you to enter a trade.  You are expected to speak to a financial adviser or carry out your own due diligence before entering any positions.  Everything on this blog is made for educational purposes and to equip you with the knowledge you need to be able to make your own financial decisions.

For more great tips and advice on trading the stock market, please visit:

https://sophiatrades.co.uk

To watch me trade live please visit my patreon page here:

https://www.patreon.com/Traderpro8320

Finally, if you would like to receive a discount on the Trading View charting software I use, please click on the relevant link here:

https://www.tradingview.com/?aff_id=117138

Please note any subscriptions taken via my affiliate link with Trading View may result in me earning a small commission.  However, I provide complete transparency on me using Trading View personally – I publish my success on the financial markets via my broker reports and any profits earned were done so by using my own Trading View subscription,  so I genuinely do recommend them and have been using the Trading View charts for many years.

I made 180% profit  trading Google within a few months

I made 180% profit trading Google within a few months

I made 180% profit trading Google within the space of a few months and I wanted to explain to you how I achieved this. In this article i’m going to talk about my entry points, why I selected Google to trade, where I planned to exit and how I averaged up in this trade which is an approach I’ve been using more recently, to handle the turbulence in the markets, and Donald Trump’s announcements!

I made 189% profit trading Google, but why did I chose to trade Google Class C to begin with?

I chose to trade Google Class C because I had identified an opportunity. This is a successful company which is investing in modern technology. It has a good product range and I considered it is not likely to go into liquidation, any time soon! The price had dipped right down due to Donald Trump’s tariffs and other news releases. I saw a large opportunity:

profit trading google

If you would like to use the Trading View software pictured above, in your analysis, I can get you a discount – click the link below:

The price had dipped right down by about 30% as you can see in the above chart. This happened in the Summer of 2025. I had predicted that the price would return back up to previous highs and potentially beyond… and I would end up making a large profit trading Google – and this is exactly what it did.

I got in near the bottom where you can see I drew a diagonal support line above.

I took a smaller position size to begin with. This is a new approach I have adopted as outlined in one of my previous articles (here):

How President Trump is affecting the stock market – Trader Pro – Learn how to Trade the Stock Market

My latest approach is to take a smaller position at the outset and then add to this as the position goes in the direction of my favour, instead of using a stop loss. This is what happened afterwards:

You can see in the chart above, that the market actually returned about 90% profit in the time I was in my trade, but how did I make 189% profit trading Google? I loaded up as the market moved in my favour so by the time it reached the top, I was carrying quite a large position and I had scooped up several staggered entry point profit tranches, between their entry points, and the 90% ‘market profit level’ marked on the chart.

As I explained in the above linked article, this approach has made me significantly more money while trading the stock market – President Trump did me a favour in my trading style! I could not be more grateful to him for the turbulence he created.

I consider the sky really is the limit in my trading now and I’m excited to continue with this approach. Thanks Trump!

Let’s generate wealth independently, together!

Understand my strategy in full:

My trade set up/Watch me | Collection from Sophia-Trades | 1 post | Patreon

If you find it more helpful to watch a video you can see my YouTube post in relation to the profit trading Google which I made, here:

https://youtu.be/GzrR1mXELG8

For more great tips and advice on trading the stock market, please visit:

https://sophiatrades.co.uk

To watch me trade live please visit my patreon page here:

https://www.patreon.com/Traderpro8320

Finally, if you would like to receive a discount on the Trading View charting software I use, please click on the relevant link here:

https://www.tradingview.com/?aff_id=117138

Please note any subscriptions taken via my affiliate link with Trading View may result in me earning a small commission.  However, I provide complete transparency on me using Trading View personally – I publish my success on the financial markets via my broker reports and any profits earned were done so by using my own Trading View subscription,  so I genuinely do recommend them and have been using the Trading View charts for many years.