Reminder!

Reminder! Everyone is a trader. Yes you, the person reading this post, you are a trader actively participating in the world financial markets even if you don't own any company stock. You don't need to be suited and booted behind a multifunctional desk making your money work for you. Whenever there is a transaction including anything of value it has a grander purpose in the economic realm.

A routine errand run to the local grocery store for a bag of sunflower seeds, you the consumer are impacting many entities in the supply chain. Including farmers who grow and process the seeds, wholesalers that sell and buy on the commodity exchange, marketing department who design the packaging and advertise the final product. It's a trickle-down effect like any economist would say, the money has its purpose in a market. Everything we purchase at a store is a survey for the companies paying top dollars to the store to market their products. The eye-level shelves are worth more than the ones compared to the higher and lower shelves because consumers are likely to pick it up due to correct product placement. At the end of the week or month when the store manager decides to place a new order, he/she opens their trusty Microsoft excel spreadsheet outlining the latest inventory counts.

When the consumers are going out purchasing products, they are helping a whole economy by circulating currency in the market. It doesn't stop just at the shops, even when you are fast asleep, your money is working for you, the money you have in your banking accounts, most likely is losing and gaining value. During the time you are deepest asleep around 3 am, the European markets open starting in London, UK followed by Frankfurt, Germany. This time can be volatile for the currency tied to the country you reside in depending on market conditions, reports, or any other fundamentally tied news. The changes can be fractional but there have been instances where the purchasing value of a currency has been wiped out significantly. This would result in you paying more for the goods at your local stores because businesses want to offset the value depreciation of the currency.

Currently, there is a lockdown that is suppressing the supply chains and businesses are sitting on a lot of their products with nowhere to ship them. To offset this issue, companies start to reduce or stop production resulting in job cuts. Our nation's leaders are working full fledge to resolve this issue and are allocating emergency funds for its public. The relief funds have been made available at this time to keep the flow of money alive in these not so liquid times. These sudden injections of money into the market can make the value of that currency less because there is more supply of it. These relief packages have to be paid back in the future by its public through taxes and other modes of government generating revenue. This is a good time to think and assess your current financial situation and learn from it. And better prepare yourself in case you are part of another crisis in the future. One such way is to outline your financial goals, explore different asset classes, and make a detailed plan.

We are in the digital age and a whole ocean of cryptocurrencies emerged, it searched even harder, until I stumbled across Steem. Still pretty new to this concept, I believe anything that carries value backed by some sort of information or data is going to thrive over time. We as content creators are adding value to the Steem blockchain and by engaging regularly we can create value for the whole network. Another niche asset class is the precious metals market of gold and silver bullion. Not so long ago in history, coins with gold and silver content were used as money just as fiat currency today. Precious metals are a great way of storing wealth over time with no fees and commissions to deduct if you possess it physically. When there is economic uncertainty, precious metals act as a safe-haven for investors and act as a hedge against inflation in certain market conditions. Don't be overly exposed to a certain asset and at the end of the day, don't have your eggs all in one basket.

The phrase that money doesn't grow on trees, technically is incorrect because methodically speaking money is paper, and paper comes from trees. We serve a great purpose in our economic environment and we should invest time in learning and capitalizing by making money work for you.

Next time you get puzzled or confused at a financial news report spitting colorful red or green arrows, red meaning the value has fallen, green the value has risen. Just remember what @inthegreen post taught you, that the market is working to find an equilibrium in price where the buyer and seller can agree. You can now see the interrelated web of commerce in which everyone participates as a whole.