Over the past few months, opportunities to make money in alternative ways have become much more transparent with the rise of retail trading markets and other opportunities too – playing the market has always come at its own risk, but like gambling and playing betting sites not on gamstop here for example, you’re betting against something you have no control over. It brings the question for many newcomers to trading, is it secure? And what could be the best ways to approach a more sustainable and less risk adverse way of investing in something that ultimately you have no control over.

Be wary of public forums and echo chambers – One of the most notable examples of how quickly public opinion can impact the market was seen at the start of 2021 with the GameStop short squeeze and the rise of public forums like Reddit’s own WallStreetBets which brought a growing community together to fight the dropping of the price for the stock – it has since become something quite volatile rising and falling over the past few months from a low of $20 up to a high of nearly $400 – it’s easy enough to get caught up in all of the excitement as an investor and jump straight in, but the risks were shown almost immediately and has shown sound advice to many newcomers to the retail trading market that caution is certainly needed.

Crypto needs just as much caution too – Unsurprisingly, crypto has also filled the financial news throughout the start of this year too as a retail trading option for new investors. Those hoping to catch the second wave of crypto excitement following the launch of NFTs from decentralized platforms like pastel.network jumped on board with Dogecoin which has been seeing an incredible price rise from the low of $0.002 up to $0.7 in just a few months, and whilst it’s unlikely to be something to reach the heights of Bitcoin, it has started to thrive. But caution is certainly needed here too, it’s well known how volatile crypto can be, and with Bitcoin seeing a $10,000 drop in one night following an announcement by Tesla boss Elon Musk, it has certainly helped send more warnings to those hoping that Doge could be the next big thing with the same figurehead being able to impact the price so effectively too.

It’s a tough space to be in, if you’re a newcomer now looking to invest there are some big names floating around but with so much volatility, security typically isn’t a word that would come to mind – be wary of following the news too closely, but also be wary of following the trend too as it may put you in a tough spot like many have experienced already this year.