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Trading

Trading and long-term investing

Investing is owning assets you can hold for years. Trading is buying and selling more often, often with leverage. They are not the same risk.

Reviewed 29 October 2026 by the WiT Money editorial team. This is general information, not a recommendation from a named adviser.

Key points

  • A CFD is a contract with a provider. It is not the share.
  • Leverage magnifies losses as well as gains.
  • No page on this site promises a trading profit.

A long-term investor buys a share or a fund and accepts that the price will move. A trader tries to profit from shorter moves, and may use margin so that a small deposit controls a larger position. The deposit is not the amount you can lose. With leverage you can lose more than you put in, depending on the contract.

WiT Money does not publish a method for turning trading into income. Performance claims in adverts are marketing. They are not a forecast of your account.

What you actually hold

A share bought on the JSE and held in custody is ownership, subject to the broker's terms. A contract for difference pays the difference in price. You do not own the company. Forex is a currency position. Crypto is a separate asset with its own custody risks. Sorting them by 'return' in an advert hides the difference.

Costs that sit on every trade

Brokerage, a bid-offer spread, custody, and a currency conversion if the instrument is not in rand, all come off before you have a profit. A platform that looks cheap on commission can be expensive on the spread. The trading-fee pages on this site describe those lines. They do not rank a platform as cheapest.

Questions readers ask

If a firm is authorised, is the product safe?

Authorisation covers specified activities. It does not mean you cannot lose the position, and it does not approve every product the brand offers.

Related

Sources

Page updated 29 October 2026. A source date is the day WiT Money checked that page, not a promise the institution has not changed it since.