Most Anticipated Earnings Releases (July 19-23, 2021)

Here are some of the most watched Q2 (2021) earnings releases scheduled for this week.

Looking to Diversify your Portfolio? Consider Adding Mutual Funds to the Mix

OK, they may be boring but they’re a great long-term investment. Of course, we’re talking about mutual funds. And, we support more than 11,000 no-load funds and 7,000 load funds.

Mutual funds are investments that pool your money with other investors to invest in stocks, bonds, and other securities. Each investor owns shares, which represent a portion of the holdings of the fund. Through a mutual fund, you can invest in many different underlying assets in one purchase.

Simply put, they’re a great way to diversify your portfolio, diversify your holdings within a particular sector, and create a professionally managed, low maintenance portfolio with low minimum investments. Like investing in the stock market in general, mutual funds also offer the liquidity to buy or sell at your own discretion.

And, you have your choice of sectors, levels of risk, investment types and more. Why put your eggs in one basket when you can fully diversify with a mutual fund? And, the beauty is that professional money managers are doing all the heavy lifting for you—it’s their job to develop an optimally balanced portfolio for you, always keeping diversification in mind.

But with so many choices, it may seem a little daunting to decide which mutual funds may be best for you. Still, there are steps you should take to determine what approach you should take.

• Ask yourself what return you would like to make and the risk level you are willing to tolerate.

• Do some research and have a good understanding of the fund that you are buying.

• You can find information about a fund's goals, strategy, performance, management, and fee structure in its prospectus. Compare performance over time and in different economic and market environments.

• There may be certain industry sectors that are of particular interest to you, such as technology or energy, where you may want to invest.

• A fund manager's experience and record, the fund's level of consistency, and its major investment holdings are other important factors to consider.

• Investors can also find information and ratings of mutual funds in various outlets such as Morningstar, Forbes, Value Line and Barron's.

To learn more about investing in mutual funds at Firstrade, visit here.

New Event: Beginner Options Course

Firstrade, in partnership with OptionsPlay, is excited to bring our exclusive Beginner Options Trading Course to investors. Learn how to utilize options strategies to generate a consistent stream of income for your portfolio and take advantage of speculating with leverage. Explore the methods and best practices used to grow a small options trading account and wrap up the lessons with real-time market analysis along with Q&A to answer your questions!

Here’s the outline of each episode:

Adding Yield to your Portfolio using Options – July 7

OptionsPlay helps investors understand covered calls and cash secured puts strategies. During this exclusive seminar, Tony Zhang, Chief Strategist Strategy of OptionsPlay will walk you through the best practices and show how to find potential income opportunities.

What you’ll learn:

• How to utilize Covered Calls in your portfolio

• How to utilize Cash Secured Puts in your portfolio

• Combining both to maximize income and capital appreciation

Add Leverage to your Portfolio with Limited Risk – July 21

Explore the fundamentals of buying call and put options to gain leverage for your bullish and bearish trades with limited risk. Join Tony Zhang, Chief Strategist of OptionsPlay and CNBC Contributor to learn best practices and see how you can analyze any options trade with confidence in seconds!

What you’ll learn:

• Basic bullish and bearish strategies

• How to gain exposure to a stock while limiting risk

• How to use options to add leverage while limiting risk

Grow a Small Account using Options – August 4

Learn to Grow a Small Options Account sustainably and build your confidence in trading. Join Tony Zhang, Chief Strategist at OptionsPlay and CNBC Contributor, to see how credit spreads and the rules we utilize to find opportunities suited for trading accounts under $5,000.  Learn the 4 rules that you need to use to prevent account blowups.

What you’ll learn:

• Credit spread best practices

• Account management and best practices

• The 4 rules of trading using a small account

Live Market Examples with Q&A – August 18

Join us for the final part of the Beginner Options Trading Course – Live Market Analysis with Q&A. Tony Zhang, Chief Strategist at OptionsPlay and CNBC Contributor, will dissect the current market environment while discussing how to apply the strategies taught during the course. This event is not to be missed!

What you’ll learn:

• Recap of options strategies and concepts covered in the previous 2 webinars

• Applying above strategies to current market environment

• Get your questions answered during the live Q&A session!

Join us every other Wednesday at 4:00 PM EST and see how we can help you jump start your options trading journey. These events are not to be missed, so be sure to book your spot here. We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

The insights that are discussed during these events are for information and education purposes only and should not be interpreted as recommendations to trade particular options, but merely part of our commitment to bring education to investors.

Options trading involves risk and is not suitable for all investors. Options trading privileges are subject to Firstrade review and approval. Please review the Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options brochure and the Supplement before you begin trading options.

Top 25 Most Traded Stocks by Investors at Firstrade in June

Here’s the full list of top favored stocks among Firstrade investors:

1. AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. (AMC)

2. Tesla Inc. (TSLA)

3. Apple Inc. (AAPL)

4. Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. Ltd. (TSM) 

5. Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR)

6. BlackBerry Ltd (BB)

7. NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA) 

8. ContextLogic Inc. (WISH)

9. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) 

10. NIO Inc. (NIO)

11. Clover Health Investments Corp. (CLOV)

12. Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. (SPCE)

13. Ford Motor Company (F)

14. Carnival Corp. (CCL)

15. United States Steel Corporation (X)

16. Sundial Growers Inc. (SNDL)

17. Senseonics Holdings Inc. (SENS)

18. Quantumscape Corp. (QS)

19. Microsoft Corporation (MSFT)

20. GameStop Corp. (GME)

21. American Airlines Group Inc. (AAL)

22. Square Inc. (SQ)    

23. Coinbase Global Inc. (COIN)

24. Airbnb Inc. (ABNB)

25. Boeing Co. (BA)

Earn Compounding Returns with a Firstrade Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRIP)

Drip, drip, drip … that’s the sound of a leaky faucet, ugh. Time to call the plumber. But when is a drip ever a good thing?

When it’s a Firstrade no-fee DRIP!

Firstrade is among the few brokers offering a Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRIP) and it’s a great way to reinvest your money! You can sign up for free and automatically accumulate additional shares every time you receive a dividend from a particular stock or multiple stocks. You can enroll either a single eligible stock or all eligible stocks in your portfolio, your choice.

Not only can you profit from the growth of the stock, but you can also reap the benefits of compounding returns. All without having to place an order or worry about commissions—it’s an automatic and seamless process for investors. Here’s how the Dividend Reinvestment Plan works:

When you receive dividends from a stock in your portfolio, Firstrade will automatically purchase additional shares of the stock using the dividend amount. For example, if stock XYZ was trading at $10 a share and you receive $25 in dividends, 2.5 shares of XYZ will be added to your positions.

Over the long haul, financial experts cite participating in a DRIP as a great way to increase the value of an initial investment by allowing the compounding returns to do much of the work. Investors can use a DRIP for most stocks and ETFs offered by Firstrade.

Firstrade customers now have even more reasons to consider adding a DRIP to their portfolios. We just recently launched our latest version of trading app 3.3.20—and you can now monitor your DRIP activity right from the app!

Sign up and learn more about Firstrade’s Dividend Reinvestment Plan at our website.

You’ll be glad you did.