Australian Stock Exchange

Dividend seaon comes straight after the reporting season and for the stocks listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) these events come around yearly around February and August. Using instalment warrants allows investors and traders to maximise their dividend income. Investors may want the exposure to the franking credits as well as the increased income, while traders may see the increased dividend and franking credits as a bonus to their regular trading strategy - perhaps looking to profit after an ex-dividend rebound if the shares are especially bullish.

December 2005 did not stop new records being set for the warrants market. Total traded premium in a calendar year reached a phenomenal $6.54 billion. The instalments market traded premium reached $4.06 billion representing a 62% increase on the 2004 traded premium value of $2.5 billion. Check out the figures in the trading volumes for the number of warrant trades completed.

I often ask myself the question - which shares are being traded the most in the ASX sharemarket? Sometimes I use the local teletext services that you can access on your TV box for this information - if you point it to page 200 you'll get the financial index. The shares with the most traded shares with the highest trade volumes (not necessarily highest net worth) that day reveal the level of liquidity of the stock as well as the most actively traded stocks. The significance of this is simply that as a trader you should be aware of what the neighbours are doing but this doesn't mean you should join in with the crowd - Just to be aware of what the market is and perhaps recognise the activity as a result of some news or market information.

A warrant is a financial instrument issued by banks and other institutions and traded on ASX. Warrants provide investors an alternative way to gain exposure to a variety of underlying assets, such as shares, to achieve a desired result.