Customer Reviews

The FX Bootcamp Guide to Strategic and Tactical Forex Trading (Wiley Trading)

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Let me say right away -
I judge harshly any material that promotes another product. This book promotes the author's website constantly throughout. You must pay to be a member after a trial period LOL

$100 for a measely 7 days!!! That is what the author calls TRIAL. LOL I thought you were trading because you needed money...not because you have tons of money to flush down the toilet?!

Here are the exact current details posted from the author's website -
Trial Membership ($99 for the first 7 days. Then $299.95 for each month)
First 7 days $99. Then $299.95 each 30 days as a full Monthly Member.
Monthly Membership ($299.95 for each month)
Semi-Annual Membership ($1499.95 for 6 months)
Annual Membership ($2400.00 for 12 months)


BEWARE NOVICES !!!!!!!! Tons of people write books and create websites just to get the eager novice to depart with money!

One simple question to ask yourself -
If the author is such a great, successful trader...why would he be busy chasing down subscribers? Would you? Wouldn't you be busy scooping up pips and not bothering with some silly website and trying to drum up business for it?

For the money he is charging per month, you could buy DVD workshops and seminars from some of the top traders out there and you get to keep those DVDs and watch them over and over at no charge.

I do agree that the general VAGUE substance of this book is generally accurate. You could learn a few things...BUT what this book will teach you is freely available online at some great Forex websites for FREEEEEEEEEEEEE !!!! Just Google search "free forex training" or try "baby pips". You will learn FAR MORE than any beginner book will ever teach you there for free.

Also, the candlestick advice in this book is so generic and vague you could lose plenty of money. Let me quote the book -

"Dojis become a most significant reversal signal when seen after an extended rally of long-bodied candles" (by the way, the plural of doji is doji...not dojis)

This holds a tiny kernel of truth to it in that doji signals are more powerful signals after a large move in the market. THE TRUTH ENDS THERE. According to THE guru of candlesticks...Steve Nison (the man that brought candlesticks to the West and the one you should learn them from and the man this book gives no credit to as a source for further education)...according to Nison's teachings doji are not reversal signals by themselves. Doji represent transition or confusion in the market. You cannot just assume the market will reverse. You need more confirmation. Candlestick signals by themselves are not reason enough to trade!

For a novice, simplistic, generic advice like this could wipe your account out in days.


I am not saying the author is a bad person or has bad intentions. I am merely judging the book. I do feel there are many good little tips in it...BUT the same info is available for free. Since this book does not delve into meaty, strict detail about anything...you will only scrape the surface, get excited and will be more likely to subscribe to the website. I think that is the plan behind this book. For some people...that may be a good thing. As a novice, you should research, investigate and learn as much as possible before paying one single penny to anyone! How do you know what to pay for or subscribe to when you do not understand Forex, trading or any other relative issue????

Use the internet, GOOGLE as much as possible...chat in forums, take your time and LEARN then make purchase based on intelligence not knee jerk excitement. Forex is rife with scams, hustles, fast buck programs and systems.

Wayne really hits the mark with this book. It's a basic summary of the method he teaches at www.fxbootcamp.com. Not only does he cover the technical and fundamental aspects that a successful Forex trader needs to know, but he covers the other all important topics too, like risk analysis, trade plans & journals, trade reviews and having the right mindset to be a successful trader. All with no Fluff!

I found Wayne's book really helped me trade according to MY rules, not the markets rules. This meant that when I trade, it's become a lot of fun again. Now I am trading in one night, profit wise, what I used to trade in one month.

If you want to get a clear sense of what is in this book, have a look at his videos on FXStreet.com blogs called "2 Hour Video: Strategic & Tactical FOREX Trading". blogs.fxstreet.com/fxbootcamp/2008/03/12/2-hour-video-strategic-tactical-forex-trading

I recommend this book to anyone who feels there is room to improve in their Forex trading, or is looking for a reliable, simple system to follow. The method outline in Wayne's book won't give you every pip in a market's movements, but it will provide you with a large portion of them, in a conservative manner.

I also recommend this book to new FX Bootcampers, as it will help them come up to speed quickly, with the method Wayne teachers at FX Bootcamp.

In response to Jeff Marsick's review (RE - Good But Poorly Edited), I agree that this book could have done with more editting. In regards to Wayne's MACD settings of 21, 55, 8, this is in fact correct. One of the things with Wayne's method is that he uses a slowed down MACD oscillator to guage MARKET speed (medium term price action) and a sped up Stochastics oscillator to measure PRICE momentum (short term price action). This is covered in the above mentioned webinar video at around 18 minutes into it.

As Wayne McDonell points out - trading is similar to war. You take the high ground and wait for the enemy to approach. In this case it's the trader on the other side of the trade who is the enemy. If you are interested in forex, or already trading, you will find this book a valuable resource. It helped me become a better trader.

Writing in a clear and personally engaging style, McDonell makes sense of the fundamental and technical aspects of what moves currency pairs. He also comes equipped with an arsenal of useful charting tools that help a trader get the "feel" for the direction and speed of the market. The focus is on developing a plan for every trade: wait for price to come to you, determine when to enter, and when to take profit.

A trading style aimed at making "conservative repeatable trades" is what is really at the heart of this book. There are a half dozen or so books available on trading that are worthwhile, and I have read all of them. Some focus on strategy and others on the psychology of trading. McDonell pulls it all together and covers every aspect of trading you need to become a successful trader.

This book works well for traders at all levels of experience who are not consistently making successful trades. Some of the criticisms of the book are valid. But the faults are miniscule when compared to the tremendously useful and insightful content found in every chapter. If I could have only one book on forex trading, it would be this.

I'm not new to investing but am a beginner learning day trading and the forex market. I've read several books before this one and have learned quite a bit. This book, however, glosses over important, complicated indicators like Fibonacci retracements and pivot points. My biggest beef with this book are the graphics. The charts are small, dark, unreadable and generally unlabeled. Not useful for illustrating any points. My favorite is the candlestick section where he refers to green and red bars in the chart shown -- which is black and white ("in Figure 12.1 the first candle would be red."). The content jumps around between fundamentals, psychology and technical analysis so it's hard to follow. There are many typos and grammatical errors in this book. On one page describing stochastic oscillators, he says "The bottom line is placed at the 25 percent level. The bottom line is placed at the 75 percent level." I think he means the TOP line is placed at the 75 percent level. These kind of mistakes confuse beginners!!

There is an inherent problem with anything put out by John Wiley and Sons Publishing: their books are littered with errors. I would be shocked to find that an actual editor is on their payroll. Every book they put out needs to be scrutinized, and thoroughly, or else the reader will be led astray. It's infuriating, given that they put out so much product on so diverse a subject as finance, and using so many great names as authors. That is the main reason why this book garners three stars, when it clearly deserves more.

Wayne McDonell has written a great playbook for currency trading. He doesn't waste time with the basics of what a pip is or what the majors are or any other detritus that seems obligatory litter in every currency trading book of any level of experience. He jumps in with a description of lagging and leading technical indicators, then proceeds with a narrative on how to use economic information as a sort of fundamental analysis, then lays out a process of combining the two schools into a savvy and reproducible strategy for successful currency trading. He does a fantastic job of it, too. While he points out strengths and weaknesses in indicators, he never claims one to be a silver bullet or that there is a secret sauce to being a successful currency trader. Instead, he lays the groundwork for the reader to practice on their own and fine tune this approach. If you are looking for a magic formula, go somewhere else. If you, like me, tend to make trades without much of a plan (and subsequently get torched by such poor executions), then this is the book for you. Novices can definitely learn from this book, and perhaps even seasoned veterans can pick up a thing or two.

Where the book fails, however, is where an editor (Heaven forfend, even a PROOFREADER) could have intervened. The graphs aren't well labeled and are dark and terribly hard to follow. Spelling errors abound. But worst of all, the numbers can't be trusted. For instance, Mr. McDonell describes the MACD as using 21, 55 and a signal of 8. Most MACD's use 12, 26, and a signal of 9. Is this a typo? Or is Mr. McDonell using a better range for Forex than the usual defaults? Unknown. It's never discussed. It's one instance of several and I recommend one have Perry Kaufman's "Trading Systems and Methods" handy.

My disgust with Wiley and Sons Publishing continues. Perhaps the prospective reader would be better off (and less annoyed) by viewing his videos on his website, www.FXBootcamp.com.

One thing is sure: This book makes ME better trader.

All important aspects of Forex trading are explained. Not bad for 229 page book. No pages filling material.

I had problem with consistency in my trading, and this book teaches me how to get over that problem. I think that every trader, even experienced ones, can learn something from this book.

It is not absolute beginner's book, but if you know the basic things about Forex - you will be fine.

Strategic and Tactical Forex Trading is the best and most complete forex trading manual that I have read. I can tell you first-hand that there are so many books out there that claim to be filled with the how-to of forex trading, and believe me, I have read them and they fall extremely short.

Wayne McDonell has truly put all the knowledge that is needed to succeed in the forex market...right at our fingertips!

It doesn't matter if you are a first-time trader or, like me, have been trading (and losing) using other so-called systems. This resource has all the tools that you will need; the psychological factors, the fundamental aspects and the technical know-how.

If you are interested in success, Strategic and Tactical Forex Trading is the best resource available, hands down.

The only reason I have given this drivel one star is because Amazon won't allow me to give fewer stars. This is by far the worst book on FX I have ever read. It is both a) extremely superficial, giving insufficient, unsatisfactory explanations of key concepts; and b) a number of key topics are hardly covered at all; e.g. where to place stops; volatility of different currency pair; risk management (no mention of the cardinal rule against placing too large a portion of your capital on any one trade).

Essentially, the book preaches technical analysis, giving only the bare bones of this trading method, in a disjointed, disorganised manner, likely to lead the reader highly confused.

The one good piece of advice the author gives is that to be successful, one must plan for the next trade (as opposed to chasing price). This would be OK, except for the fact that the author gives virtually no guidance on what planning should be done, other than to wait for this moving average to cross some other moving average. Which takes us back to technical analysis rather than planning being a discrete part of the trader's methodology.

Another criticism is the repeated references and analogies the author makes with Sun Tzu's treatise on the principles of warfare. Anyone with a grain of intelligence knows that FX trading and the principles that govern war have f... all to do with each other (how many Army Generals have made fortunes from FX Trading?)

As a general observation, the book appears to be written for people with borderline IQs; i.e. it is written in an extremely simplistic, almost condescending style, all too often with the author trying to ingratiate himself with the reader.

Finally, the author uses the book to promote his website, which costs $99 to join. Even worse, the final section of the book informs the reader about the website, in which the author conveys the impression that he maintains the website to support fellow traders out of the goodness of his heart. Only when you log on to the website are you informed of the $99 fee. Call me cynical, but I suspect the author's motives are not as altruistic as he would have one believe.

Of course, the fact of the author running a subscription website suggests he is a failed trader looking to make a buck from his book and website. As the old cliche goes: those who can do; those who can't teach. The trouble with McDonnell is that he can't do either very well.

Don't waste your money.

The FX Bootcamp Guide to Strategic and Tactical Forex Trading is a clear straightforward book that puts the basics of trading forex in simple, easy to understand terms.
It has helped me learn to manage risk, manage my psychology, and plan for a long term career in forex. I would recommend it to any trader who is just starting out.
From this book I have also learnt to understand that every trader including Wayne himself goes through the same struggles as each other and people aren't BORN traders, thus it will also serve as a reminder for experienced traders to stick to the basics.
I thank Wayne for putting his heart and soul into this book and look forward to shaking your hand some day. Thumbs up.

Wiley Finance publishes a huge number of trading books each year. Each cost 60-80 dollars and is printed on yellowish very cheap paper. If the book is helpful for your trading I don't mind too much - even though I also want my books to be nice looking. The real bummer is when the book is just full of useless, repackaged material.

This is one of those books that you can avoid. It is meant for beginners and cover a bit of everything when it comes to forex trading. A beginner would gain some knowledge, but the book reads like a get-rich-quick book.

I should state that I didn't buy this book, but I did spend a lot of time in my local bookstore browsing new trading books today. I have written several reviews on trading books. Check out my lists for good and bad books. One recommendation for beginners: Currency Trading For Dummies.