Customer Reviews

Beat the Odds in Forex Trading: How to Identify and Profit from High Percentage Market Patterns (Wiley Trading)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

The bad:
This book is not clearly written and could have been much thinner, although it is only 200 pages all included.
In the chapter "choosing the right dealer", the author first talks about 5 pips being a normal spread for liquid pairs, and that only European dealers should be trusted. Finally, at the end of the chapter in a paragraph untitled "recent industry developments", he states that spreads has become lower, that in the US, there are dealers that are OK, etc... Well, this looks like recycling of old writings with a small update at the end, doesn'it?
The author seems very proud of his way of trading and techniques, that he considers new. He may not have read the recent (back 20 years) literature on the subject. Indeed, all the techniques are derived from existing things. The daily range is typically used to gauge the possible extent of an intraday move. Breakouts from base, channels, trendline etc. have also been known for ages. False breakout are also known as springs or upthrusts. A variation of the open range breakout is also shown.
Even the concept of discretionary trading with mechanical setups is not new. It is the equivalent of having a plan.
The author states that he has made a major discovery: that trendlines will eventually be broken, or something like that... a little bit funny. This kind of style reminded me of a person who names everything TD something!
He speaks about probabilities a lot but does not give any numbers (high, low only) and does not state if he used a scientific method to draw his conclusions about these probabilities.

The good:
Nervertheless, the book contains very good information about how a pro trader could trade, although nothing is new (well, it depends on the books one reads of course!)
Beginners will gain a lot by reading this book.
I liked the organization of the templates, even though the techniques listed are not new.

It is a pity that it is not clearly and well written.

Being exposed to Forex for a little more than 13 years now, I have to honestly say that having read numerous volumes on the subject this book stands out both by it's simplicity and complexity combined. It is a well known fact that a majority of really great things are simple. Here is where this book comes in. Even though it might lool a bit comlex after reading it carefully and grasping the idea, or better put, the strategy that Igor describes you will get the sense of safe heaven. Forex markets are driven both internally and externally by such an abundance of information that it is difficult and sometimes very tiresome to make sense of it all. This book gives a clear cut picture of what needs to be done at a a very specific points in time. It doesn't just give you the tools to trade but also, and that's extremelly important, teaches you the right attitude to forex. It gives the trader the peace of mind with clear cut money management and trading techniques to be applied when the market presents it's opportunities. This strategy can be used by both seasones traders as well as novices. You can work and still manage 20 to 40 min a day to do your analyses and enter the orders for the trades. Or you can watch the market constantly and identify and react to the situations that present itself. I highly recomend this book as a unique approach to trading and consistently making money with a very limited stress that most people experience in this bussiness. For a person with an opened mind this could be a breakthrough that they need to develop their own profitable trading routine.

This book is great; it really is. The author explains the principles behind good trading, and doesn't just tell you to follow a mechanical plan. In fact, he advises that depending on each situation, each trade should be slightly varied.

The templates at the back of the book are priceless. He explains how they work before this section so you shouldn't have a problem understanding them.

The only bad thing is his english. If the book had been written by someone like Jason Kelly, this book would be the holy grail of forex trading (it really would). So it's a little hard to understand what he's trying to say but once you do understand it, it's all good.

Let me do the usual qualifier and state that I have read every book on trading- let alone on the fx spot market. One thing you have to consider about some of the bad reviews so far is that it takes a difficult amount of time to become a "profitable" trader. I could only imagine if I read this book during my first year of trading- I would most likely think it was a very elementary trading book. Igor's book is mainly for a "chartist" type of trader. This is much different from some indicator heavy mechanical trading system. When I first started trading I thought I could find the "holy grail" through some complicated marriage of many indicators plus some Elliot wave or Gann etc.. As I grew as a trader, paid dues in losses, I realized that trading with just price action alone is the quickest and most profitable(KISS). This involves only candlesticks, chart patterns, coupled with support/resistance. Everything else lags price. The more complicated you try to make trading- the harder it is. Most good forex traders are aware of certain intraday patterns that develop during the asian-european-new york trading sessions. After looking at charts for enough years you can trade these patterns unlike anything else in any other market. Igor is the first author to detail these patterns and show them on paper! He even tells you to ignore the first breakout in a horizontal range pattern during the asian session! That advice alone is worth more money than any non-trader will ever know!

It is most refreshing to find a book that discloses the less than glamorous side of Forex trading. The percentage of people who consistently win is very small but this is the case with all businesses, not just trading. The information discussed in this book is precisely the kind of information that makes the difference between those seeking fast wealth who then drop out a few months later, and those who persevere and are able to stack the odds in their favor. Forex trading is indeed a matter of learning to beat the odds by trading based on a combination of factors that add up to high percentage odds which create consistent wins over time. Igor has earned my respect as one of the few legitimate traders who is not in the business to be a broker's employee selling glamour to the masses who have no intention of undergoing the discipline and work it takes to become a successful trader. Thanks!

"Beat the odds..." seems to be an updated and edited version of Igrok's previous book `Rules of Engagement" which I also got from his site about a couple years ago. At that time I paid for the book $300, but still have no regrets though. The book was worth its price then and definitely worth its price now when it finally became available to a larger trading audience.
I bought a copy of his book for the price of $300 largely out of pure curiosity because right before then I came across a bunch of trading strategies called "Igrok's trading templates" offered for sale on the internet by some Russian intellectual pirates. Sellers actually claimed that those templates were "secretly developed by US government funded financial institute" and that "the rate of success of applying those strategies in real trading exceeds 80% in average". So, becoming intrigued, I decided to take some risk and ordered the book directly from the author's website. To my surprise I wasn't disappointed with what I got in return for my money.
To make a long story short I think that the book, no doubt, is written by a top-notch professional trader with about 13 or so years of practical FX trading experience with outstanding skills and incredible trading results. I saw his track record. It's quite impressive. The author was (still is?) actually managing multi-million USD funds in the wholesale interbank currency market making hefty living out of his performance-based job. He is not a fake and is unlike lots of others so called "trading instructors", "market analysts" and "trading advisors" often good only for collecting commissions and subscription fees from their customers or proudly sitting on monthly paychecks in numerous dealing companies and still being completely unable to steal a few bucks from the market.

I have to admit though that the book is not so easy read for the beginners. In my opinion the author has skipped on lots of trading related basic stuff probably assuming that everyone reading his book knows enough about the market. With me it was not the case. I had to come back to some technical textbooks first in order to better understand Igrok's concepts.
Nonetheless I recommend this book to any individual FX trader. Sure, it is not an ultimate cure for someone's stupidity or lack of experience, but to some it might offer a great deal of relief. Whatever works for Igrok himself might work for someone else.

Overall its an interesting read if you can get through the poor writing/editing and there are some good ideas here.

The charts presented seem a little contrived to me.

If you get it at a discount its worth reading, but I have to wonder if the bad writing is designed to draw you into his mentoring program for about $300.00/month.

In my experience there are few successful traders who have time for mentoring so when they go into the book writing and mentor business it means they are not trading successfully anymore.

**12/11/2007 - there is some joker on ebay selling a product called "UNIVERSAL TACTICS FOR SUCCESSFUL FOREX TRADING" which is nothing but photo-copies out of this book.

I view this book as the best possible instruction manual and survival guide in a cold and merciless trading world.

Igor presents you with a practical hands-on walk through the world and practices of trader's battleground. You will find the needed body armor (money and risk management) allowing you to take a direct hit and actually teaching you how many direct hits you can possibly take. But of course you would want victory, not just survival, so this book will also teach you how to build a battle plan, starting with exit strategy. Like a sharpshooter, learning to master breath control, you will gain knowledge of timing issues.

And finally and most importantly Igor provides you with topographical map of FOREX terrain and behavior patterns of its inhabitants. This essential and hard learned knowledge comes only through experience most needed to identify trading opportunities and to setup a proper ambush. And if that's not enough, you will also have his large set of trading templates - many possible waylay scenarios including entry traps end seize points.

This book demystifies one of the most intricate lines of work bringing in logic and structure and making it less dicey.

I am re-reading the book for a second time and there are some good tips on basic formation and how to trade them. The meat and potatoes of the good are a system of templates that are provided for the reader at the end of the book. There are a lot of templates. and it takes a while to undersand how to trade them. So patients is a must. But the trading system, if you can master it, is much less stressfull than watching every pip.

Another forex book with just a bunch of chart patterns that supposedly make money. As usual, no (Omega Trade Station) backtests. I even asked the author for the backtest results, his reply was something like this: "Well just try them [the patterns] and see if they work for you" ?!?!?!

Unfortunalely a lot of newcomers and newbies are clapping and praising this book, even though those people have no way of knowing if these patterns can pass a test of only 200 daytrades, let alone 1,000 historical daytrades!

Even more disturbing is the fact that the author shows you a pattern and the buy sell entry/exit, but then a few pages later, he shows you the same exact pattern and tells you that you can also do the reverse ?!?!?
In other words the pattern is supposed to make money no matter how you trade it?!?!

So Mr. Toshchakov, we are still waiting for your backtest results. Show us that these patterns make money (if any).