33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Even Amateurs should look elsewhere..., October 9, 2010
This review is from: Adventures of a Currency Trader: A Fable about Trading, Courage, and Doing the Right Thing (Wiley Trading) (Hardcover)
I will have to disagree with the enthusiastic reviews of this book by various users. I suppose I'm not the target audience of this book because I've been trading currency in one form or another for about 9yrs now and I just read the book yesterday. So being a seasoned trader, I came to the book with different experiences than a total newbie.
That being said, *if* I could go back to my newbie self and recommend books for me to read, this would not be one of them. First off, the title of the book is misleading: Adventure? There is no adventure in this book. If you want adventure, read "Investment Biker" or "Adventure Capitalist" by Jim Rogers. If you want a pseudo-adventure with a real character - read "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" by Edwin Lefevre. Reminiscences is a great book about a true trading legend, this book is about a guy in an office who wants to trade for a living. It goes on about how he blows through two accounts and meets various mentors (more on that later) that get him on the right path. There is very little that is exciting about any of the events that happen within the book - i.e. there is no adventure here.
You should also understand that this book is a parable/fable - so it reads as a strange combination of personal journey and enlightenment event. It's somewhat bizarre. Some of the characters seem to know things about the protagonist that are completely unbelievable. For example, in the book, a big-shot trader of a multi-billion dollar trading firm knows that a random law clerk (the main character) just lost $5,000 using a retail forex account. You're expected to believe that an unemployed law clerk can sneak into a trading firm and get a trading mentor. (Incidentally, the author's adulation of "mentors" is not the least bit suspicious considering he seems to run some sort of mentoring business on the side). All of these logical leaps and storytelling lapses you're expected to excuse because the book is a parable.
The main character himself is not really sympathetic or believable. We are told that he funds his forex account with his credit card but that he and his wife are maxed out on their 6 credit cards. Yet somehow, miraculously, at some point later in the book, he has something like $30,000 in "savings" that he can draw upon. His wife is pregnant with his fourth child at the same time that he quits his job and decides to become a trader (despite having shown no talent for it and having no experience doing it). We are supposed to have sympathy for this guy, who decides he doesn't need health insurance while having a pregnant wife and no money? In general, the character himself makes so many poor decisions it lessens the impact the author is trying to achieve. It's quite obvious the author wants to point out the many pitfalls of trading currencies (i.e. don't use too much leverage, don't gamble with money you can't afford to lose, etc etc) but he makes these points in such a heavy-handed manner that it's nearly impossible to take the protagonist seriously.
I got through over 2/3 of the book before I ever saw the words "stop-loss". But of course by the time the reader learns about what a stop-loss is, the protagonist is already hobnobbing with multi-billion dollar hedge fund managers (explaining to them what the carry trade is - again very believable stuff here). Keep in mind, he's meeting all these people before he actually knows how to trade. A few paragraphs later we find out that our protagonist doesn't know how to use spreadsheets. Risk management is sort of an afterthought in this book. Again, we get through 2/3 of the book before we hear about what an acceptable drawdown is - Apparently that number is 25% (in a day? in a week? The author never specifies). He dismisses 10% out of hand without giving any explanation, but I'll tell you, any trader that would be OK losing 10% of his entire account in a day is either a) not a very good trader or b) a maniac. I simply think this is bad advice - especially for rank beginners which are who this book is intended for.
Putting aside the thin "plot", the style of the writing itself is repetitive and boring. Many sections are structured as interviews. The dialogue is clunky & unnatural. I've already mentioned that the situations themselves are totally unrealistic but the way these characters interact with each other is sometimes just plain strange.
At the end of the day, if the target audience is supposed to be newbies, let me give you some free advice:
1) Start trading with a demo account - don't risk real money until you understand the mechanics of trading and can prove that you can make money on the demo platform
2) As soon as you feel comfortable, fund a small account where you can trade micro lots and use no more than 2-1 leverage until you are consistently profitable
3) Never play with money you can't afford to lose - This is a cardinal rule (although the author makes the rather dubious argument that there is no such thing as money you can't afford to lose).
4) ALWAYS use a Stop-Loss! (this should actually be rule number one)
5) Do your homework and find/create a system that works for you - There are no free lunches
For the amount of money this book costs, you could buy 3 very good trading books or buy 5-7 used books.
Final verdict: 1.5 stars
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21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good Read, but only tells what can be wrong ..., October 6, 2007
This review is from: Adventures of a Currency Trader: A Fable about Trading, Courage, and Doing the Right Thing (Wiley Trading) (Hardcover)
It is in a story form and lets you read quickly. Telling you about how a novice can get everything wrong, but then how to make it right was not cover in detail, probably making it too easy. The man in the book more or less lost his account in the first few trades, very typical, but then he can do it right and start making money soon afterward, not very typical .... my understanding.
Overall, fun to read, but I don't learn much from it.
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24 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
BRILLIANT FICTION LACED WITH PRACTICAL WISDOM, March 24, 2007
This review is from: Adventures of a Currency Trader: A Fable about Trading, Courage, and Doing the Right Thing (Wiley Trading) (Hardcover)
Booker did a brilliant job of balancing the dramatic impact of the fictional aspects of this book with the solid non-fiction wisdom he wanted to impart to the reader.
I very easily and painfully (ouch!) identified with the many beginner mistakes the book's hero "Harry Banes" made at the start of his trading experiences. These experiences gave me a greater insight as to why I made the same mistakes in my trading. The book helped me develop a systematic approach to trading based on logic and solid experience vs. emotion and wishful thinking.
I am so glad thatI no longer crave the emotional rollercoaster ride of impulsive day trading. Now I find entering fewer and well thought out trades based on long range goals a lot more satisfying than the frenzied rush of day trading. The biggest gift this book gave me was teaching me that there are more rational and peaceful ways to trade profitably. I would recommend this book very highly to all traders, but especially to the beginners.
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