Customer Reviews

Currency Trading: How To Access and Trade the World's Biggest Market (Wiley Trading)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

It appears that Gotthelf dictated much of this book into a tape recorder, some far-away typist created the manuscript, and nobody bothered to read or edit the final result. How else to explain that "Jim Ellis is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Oracle" on p.43 (I thought it was Larry Ellison)? These sorts of editorial lapses are rife throughout the book.

To name but a few examples, Fig 6.5 caption says "Cash Currency trading screen" but it's actually a bar chart of Yen futures (p.124)

The data for Figure 8.11 (a perpetual contracts bar chart of Yen) is presented with the caption of Figure 8.10 ("Soybeans futures monthly chart"). No soybeans chart is presented at all; instead, a Nikkei futures chart mysteriously appears (p. 212)

Figure 8.41 is printed upside down! (p.236). Honestly. This is perhaps the ultimate insult to the reader and ought to be a source of acute embarrassment to the editor and author.

Academy Award nominee James Caan, with two a's, will be amused to read p. 89 which states "... has been depicted in fiction such as the movie Rollerball starring James Cann" with two n's.

Those who buy the book believing it may deliver on the dustjacket's promise "How to trade the world's biggest market" will receive a disappointment. The only trading strategy Gotthelf reveals is "Go Long when price crosses above a moving average, Go Short when price crosses below a moving average." Then he regurgitates standard methods of creating a synthetic position using options. There is absolutely nothing new here.

No review would be complete without mentioning Gotthelf's mysterious concept of Parity. First he tells you it's "a ratio that always equals one" (page 24). Next he tells you "there are no exact relationships" in FOREX (page 32), leaving you to wonder how Parity could always equal one if there are no exact relationships. Then he muddles through two hundred more pages and eventually you, the reader, decode the fact (which Gotthelf never bothers to state exactly) that his "Parity" actually means "Equilibrium". Great. But where's the insight?

I own several other Wiley Finance books and all of them have wonderful quotes from important figures in the trading world, in the form of testimonials and gushing recommendations on the rear dustjacket. Kaufman's "Trading Systems and Methods" has five, Hill and Pruitt's "The Ultimate Trading Guide" has four, Ryan Jones's "The Trading Game" has five, Sweeney's "Maximum Adverse Excursion" has three, et cetera ad nauseum. But this currency book by Gotthelf has exactly zero quotes on the dustjacket. No recommendations, no congratulations, no endorsements. I suggest you follow the advice of everyone who DIDN'T write a recommendation for Gotthelf's book: stay away.

The author spends way too much time explaining basic economic indicators that should be basic knowledge for any investor. After I read another review that outlined the blundering editorial mistakes, I had to see for myself. All true! I cannot continue reading this text... How can anyone who makes this many conspicuous mistakes get a book deal much less be right about anything? Not worth the $70 price tag!

How else to explain that banks are brought down not by "rogue" traders but rather by "rouge" traders - is there a secret market for cosmetics derivatives? - that Switzerland has adopted the Euro, that a chart is described as listing a gain from 93 to 97 but only shows a gain of 93 to 95 etc., etc., etc ad nauseam.

In my eyes, this book is so pathetic that it is only a slight exaggeration to suggest that all those involved in the creation of this book should never be allowed to touch paper and pencil again.

As the author of the book "Futures For Small Speculators" I tend to be very critical of books that discuss my industry. Although this book had a few editorial mistakes, Mr.Gotthelf still did a solid job of getting his point across. For a beginner this is a great start. For more indepth analysis I would go to Mr. Cornelius Luca's books.

I'm extremely disappoited in this heavily overpriced book! There is only some very vague general information, " something about...". Absolutely nothing useful, not a bit to learn from even for beginner. You could learn much more from the Internet for free, or, at least, read the books by Cornelius Luca!

In theory the concept of parity is belieivable.But to implement it I guess one would need some really sophisticated tool and the book is not a practical guide to implement his concept. Even though book needs serious editing, someone academically inclined may find this book interesting.