A Foreign Exchange Primer (Wiley Trading) [Hardcover]

Shani Shamah (Author)

Book Description

Series: Wiley Trading | Publication Date: January 13, 2009

This book will provide a thorough introduction to the foreign exchange markets, looking at the main products through to the techniques used, coverage of the main participants, details of the various players, and an understanding of the jargon used in everyday dealings. Written in a concise and accessible manner, it will be an ideal introduction for anyone looking to become involved in the FX markets, from dealing rooms or sales perspectives, to novice investors.

The new edition has been updated to reflect the changes that have taken place in the industry over the past few years. Most chapters have been enhanced and this new edition now features new material on the psychology of trading, the psychology of price movement and online trading.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Building on a very popular first edition, A Foreign Exchange Primer, Second Edition provides an extremely accessible and up-to-date reference for anyone who wants to work or trade in this unique market.

The book begins with a market overview to introduce readers to this trillion dollar financial market before going on to foreign exchange products such as spot foreign exchange; forward contracts; short- and long-dated contracts; broken-dated contracts; non-deliverable forwards; foreign exchange swaps; currency swaps; foreign exchange options; picturing profit and loss of options; foreign exchange futures and exchange for physical. The book then goes on to discuss essential knowledge required in order to understand the foreign exchange market, with advice on foreign exchange dealing rooms; managing the relationship with an institution; foreign exchange dealings; foreign exchange market orders; electronic foreign exchange trading and margin trading. The book concludes with a discussion on the differences between fundamental and technical analysis, covering their different approaches, key factors impacting currencies and a brand new chapter on market psychology.

Fully updated from the 1st edition, A Foreign Exchange Primer, Second Edition provides a clear understanding of how this market functions, from the main products through to the techniques used, coverage of the main participants, details of the various 'players' and an understanding of the 'jargon' used in everyday dealings in order to equip readers with all the practical skills necessary to understand the foreign exchange market today.

About the Author

SHANI SHAMAH joined Jared James Associates as a Director mid 2006 to focus on treasury products including foreign exchange, currency options, commodities and the spectrum of short-term money markets instruments. The coverage extends globally across all revenue and non-revenue generating areas with specialization in trading, sales, structuring, research/strategy and eCommerce. With over 26 years experience in the City with various top and second tier international financial institutions, mostly in foreign exchange and currency options, she is also a specialist in the business development of eCommerce offerings (both institutional and retail) and a generalist in various other financial products with a formidable appreciation and market awareness of the risk management and compliance functions.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 250 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 2 edition (January 13, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470754370
• ISBN-13: 978-0470754375
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 1 x 9.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #145,235 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #20 in Books > Business & Investing > International > Foreign Exchange

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The perfect forex primer!, June 15, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: A Foreign Exchange Primer (Hardcover)

Although this book is primarily written for people that are clueless about foreign exchange (FX), it will actually teach the clued-up a thing or two also. The broad range of topics covered is what you'd expect to find in a book that is considerably thicker and more expensive - there's a detailed insight into the marketplace and its participants, the products (spot, forwards, swaps, options), fundamental vs. technical analysis, and more. The author writes in a concise, but extremely readable style and makes extensive use of pictures and diagrams. Furthermore, the book is bang up to date with recent developments in FX, such as the Euro and electronic dealing (that is, at the time I wrote this review). Finally, as an added bonus, this book is not overly biased towards the US or the US dollar, which I feel is especially appropriate for an FX book. Highly recommended!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for the clueless but not for the pros, May 2, 2006

By 

schwarzwald "peripatetic hacker" (San Diego, California United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Foreign Exchange Primer (Hardcover)

As another reviewer noted, this book is definitely not for people who are ready to study "financial engineering". It is, however, PERFECT for people who want to learn about foreign exchange but don't have a finance background. It does not TRY to be a book for rocket scientists, so criticizing it for that is unfair. More advanced books that have lots of integral and summation signs assume that you already understand the basic information in this book.

This is the only book I have found which explains this important market at a level that practically anyone can understand. I'm a math student doing a mathematical modelling project involving finance and investment and so I needed something like this: I do not know anyone who invests and the simple fact is that most people don't know much about the mechanics of the markets. This book fills in a gap in plain English with little verbosity or unnecessary digressions. Thus, as a basis for gaining intuition and domain knowledge in an undergraduate university project, this book is everything it attempts to be.