How To Write For Monfex
Every person has their own voice when writing. Some are more casual, some are more formal, some use idioms, some don’t. How you write doesn’t just convey the information you’ve written - it tells us something about the author as well.
This goes doubly so for companies. Since many different people can write for a single company, it’s important for the company to have its own distinct voice, or brand voice.
This Style Guide will assist you in matching the tone and voice we use here at Monfex, and help make Monfex’s voice unique.
Get startedTone and Consistency
Whenever you’re writing for an organization, it’s important to remember that you aren’t necessarily presenting yourself - you’re representing the company as a whole. As a result, we want to make sure all of our writers are consistent in presenting Monfex.
Take for example the following two paragraphs:
Good day.
Today we’ve seen a significant fall in the Dow’s price, representing an unexpected hit to some of the top companies in the portfolio. AAPL’s 3% fall due to lower-than-expected Asian sales may signal a downturn in the smartphone industry as a whole, as analysts re-assess the expected order volumes from suppliers…
Wassup traders??
Today the market’s taken a nosedive right into bear territory, and boy, it’s a fine season to go a-huntin’! Get yer ghillie suits out and find a place to camp, cuz this trendline ain’t going anywhere fast.
Both of those tones can be acceptable...in the right place. However, when writing educational or informative content, the second example would be rejected.
On the other hand, for our newsletters, a more casual, even joke-y style is acceptable (as long as it still adheres to the principles of professionalism, presented below).
The fundamental principles of writing for Monfex
Simplicity
Professionalism
Originality
Simplicity
Our mission is to bring fintech, trading, and investing out of the hands of specialists, and into the hands of ordinary people. That means cutting out a lot of the jargon that’s typically encountered in financial literature, or at least simplifying it. Finance is often complex and opaque, and we want to clear it up.
Especially for educational articles, we want to inform people, not confuse them further. Don’t sound like a textbook - sound like a person. A good rule of thumb is to examine your work from an outside view - if you had no knowledge of this topic prior to reading the content, would you be able to fully understand it?
Simplicity is key. Stick to short sentences and short paragraphs, and keep focused on whatever the topic is.
Professionalism
We expect our guest writers to adhere to the highest standards of professionalism in their work. What this means in practice is sticking to the following guidelines:
You should take on only the work that you can adequately handle.
You should always make only factual presentations.
You should verify all outside information being used.
Opinions must never be provided as facts.
You should disclose all conflicts of interests and potential conflicts of interests between you and Monfex.
Every trading tool, technique, indicator, idea or model being presented in the content should be properly defined and described. If a particular quantitative tool or technique has certain risks or limitations, they must be fully disclosed.
You should always perform sufficient due diligence before writing an article or an investment idea (i.e research your topics first!). The content should be based on professional financial literature and authoritative sources, and NOT on some unknown 3rd-party websites.
Originality
It goes without saying that one of the traits we value the most at Monfex is unique content. Never copy and paste something from another source - at least not with accreditation. Check your work with a tool like Grammarly or other plagiarism checking tool to ensure that you’re not accidentally just copying someone else.
That doesn’t mean that we expect entirely new ideas - in fact, for a lot of the educational content, the definitions and explanations of terms and concepts are already out there - they just need to be restated in a new, easy to read way.
If you’re ever wondering how or if your piece is sticking to our guidelines, then don’t be afraid to send us a draft. We’re more than happy to help you write the best content for us, and we’re committed to working with our writers to make Monfex a premier source of information on trading and investing.
Get startedWhat We Don`t Need
Not everything fits our goals. Here are a few things we won’t publish:
Bad-mouthing competitors
We’d love to see honest comparisons of trading platforms, but we don’t need to attack our competitors outright. We want to compete on features and quality, not marketing
Self-promotion
We’re not looking for sales pitches for the ‘next big thing’ or a new startup.
Personal life
We aren’t a lifestyle blog. Using real-life examples in your writing is encouraged, but don’t get too personal with your articles.
We look forward to working with you!