Customer Reviews

The Forex Chartist Companion: A Visual Approach to Technical Analysis (Wiley Trading)

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

 

 

First off, this book is not for the beginner. Nevertheless, for the intermediate and advanced traders, there are nice tools that provide a lot of food for thought. The authors are definitely traders, there is no disputing that. They also go above and beyond the call of duty in mining data. The pages offer a wealth of proof of the number crunching power we get from today's technology, as well as the ability to present the data in a usable format.

My favorite chapters are the ones dealing with Point & Figure (which gave me tons of ideas), Swing Properties, Cycle Analysis, and last but not least, the Goodman Swing Count System. This chapter alone will leave you wanting more information on this virtually unknown (up till now) trading method.

Again, this book may not serve the needs of the beginning trader. But for the intermediate/advanced trader who is past the market infatuation stage and is willing to do the work, there are definite workable ideas contained within.

This volume is an excellent source book of trading tools for the Forex Trader. You will not find a complete system with which to trade with or a primer on trading the Forex. This is not a book for a trading novice. But for the journeyman trader looking for tools to add to his/her own trading methodology,it provides an 'encyclopedia' of ideas and techniques with which to evaluate and forecast the behavior of the currency markets. The Forex Chartist Companion is solid reference that belongs next to your trading station.

Yet another book rehashing old technical analysis material. I also have problems with the judgment of this author. He talks about arbitrage and how one can profit when different currency pairs go out of sync. This is mostly for professionals, but some do it with a home computer as well, he continues. I find this very naive. Old material and a naive author. You decide if it is worth $53.

Do you want to make money? Rough calculation: $15 dollars of the selling price of $53 goes to the author. Libraries buy 3000 copies and individuals buy 5000 copies. That is $120,000 to the author. Let's assume the book can be written in 6 months. That is $20,000 per month in salary.

Some authors write books because they find it a bit dull and boring to only sit in front of the monitors. I can understand and sympathize. The hard thing for potential buyers is to know when an author is just publishing as a side business because his trading life makes him lonely and when an author is publishing as his main business while also trying (unsuccessfully) to make money trading.

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.

For experienced traders: This book provides very basic overviews of various charting techniques and never goes into enough depth to be of any use to an experienced trader. Most sections end along the lines of "this concept is essential knowledge for the trader but a detailed discussion is outside the scope of this book". The TOC looks interesting but the chapters do not have any actual meat.

For newbies: The book doesn't provide any useful introduction to FX trading so I don't see this book as offering any value for newbies either.

I'm shelving this book under the crowded "useless fluff" category.

Save your money! This book is not worth the effort and definitely not worth the price.