For investors, stocks are one of the most popular trading instruments. There are many reasons to add stocks to your trading portfolio. One of the main ones is the available liquidity. There is always a constant supply and demand in the market, and you can always find new and interesting investment options.

There are other reasons as well. For example, there is a clear correlation between a company's stock price and its underlying value. The better a company performs, the more likely it is that its share price will rise. You can also capitalize on volatility, especially when companies are affected by economic or political events.

Trading CFDs on leveraged stocks with Swifty Trade gives you another advantage - less capital required. Leverage gives you a big advantage in the market.

Do you want to invest in stocks? It's important to consider the many possible internal and external factors that can affect your trades. Some of these are common to all companies, while others may be unique.

- Supply and demand for the stock: if a company's stock is highly valued, demand may outweigh supply, causing the stock price to rise.
- Company news: annual reports, profit cutbacks or new product warnings can cause a company's stock price to rise or fall.
- Economic factors: economic announcements and policies, both national and international, can significantly affect stock prices.
- Market and industry trends: this may be a longer term factor, but any important trends in a particular market can affect a company's share price. For example, airline stocks were negatively impacted by reduced travel during the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Investor sentiment and confidence: in some cases it may come down to investor confidence in a particular company or sector. There may not be any tangible reason for this, so it is important to capture this sentiment.

To all intents and purposes, share trading and equity trading mean the same thing. Both refer to a unit of ownership in a company. But there are slight technical differences to be aware of.

First, a 'share' is a single unit of ownership. 'Equity', however, is the total stake you hold in a company i.e., more than one share. You might have three shares – which is your total equity.

The second difference refers to the meaning of 'shares' and 'equities'. More often than not, you hold 'shares' in a single company. But you could use 'equities' to describe the total amount you own in two or more companies.

So, when it comes to equity trading, you're buying and selling your total stakes in a company.

A share gives its holder the right to receive dividends. A bond is a debt that the issuer must repay to the investor after the security is redeemed.

Hundreds of different companies' shares are traded on the stock exchange, but not all of them are equally popular among traders. Interest in a stock is influenced by its liquidity, which determines the value of trading costs on buying and selling.

In particular, liquidity determines the value of the spread - the difference between the best bid price and the best ask price. If the spread is large, short-term trading of a stock will be very expensive, so illiquid stocks are only suitable for long-term investing. In addition, if there is a need to buy or sell a significant amount of volume, it may take some time for a low-liquidity stock, or it may result in additional slippage losses.

Therefore, if you are going to trade actively enough, you will have to limit yourself to the list of more or less liquid shares. And the more active trading is planned, the stronger are the requirements to liquidity. For intraday trading, for example, you will most likely have to limit yourself to a few of the most liquid shares - blue chips.