Customer Reviews

How the Futures Markets Work

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I had a friend tell me that he was going to start trading futures. After he told me how exciting it was, I needed to learn more. I knew nothing about futures trading. That same friend recommended three books by Jake Bernstein, How The Futures Markets Work, Strategies For The Electronic Futures Trader, and The Complete Day Trader II. I started my education with How The Futures Markets Work. This book gives an outstanding overall picture of the futures markets. Everything from the trading floor to the basics of technical analysis to the psychology of investing is covered in this one book. This is the introductory textbook for the amateur futures trader. If you're wondering where to begin, I highly recommend this book to be you're starting point.

This book should be the first book anyone interested in the futures markets should read. Mr. Bernstein's book is outstanding in the way that it teaches the basics of the futures markets and tantalizes the reader's thirst for more information.

"How The Futures Markets Work" is precise, honest, and informative. Consistent with other works by Jake Bernstein, this book is objective: written solely to educate and inform the reader.

This book does not attempt to convince an unsuspecting or uninformed reader to trade futures. Nor does it form an opinion about whether investment in the futures markets is "good" or "bad". Instead, it arms the reader with enough information to make an informed, intelligent decision about whether or not to trade futures.

This is a textbook. It provides an objective, base-level understanding of the futures markets, including: the history of the futures contract, the purpose of the Futures Exchange, how to chose a broker, market forces affecting futures prices, and trading strategies. You will not necessarily be able to jump right into futures trading after reading this book, but you will have acquired a firm foundation on which to become more informed should you wish to do so.

This book works towards leveling the playing field in the investment community, something much needed. Void of marketing and sales hype, this book provides a refreshing, candid, and honest description of what should be expected from trading futures, both from the market and from you as a futures trader.

The most important chapter in this book is chapter 9: "The Psychology of Investing". Mr. Bernstein makes it very clear, there is no quick way to achieving success as a futures trader and that success will most like be achieved based not on our trading system but rather by our ability - as people - to properly implement our trading system. This chapter alone makes the book a worthwhile purchase.

The problem with this book is that it adresses too many points, providing little or no detail on each of them. All the book does is merely tell you there is something like Fundamental Analysis, Technical Analysis, etc., but it is too shallow to really learn something useful about all these fields.

Personally, I ordered this book because I wanted to learn more about the inner workings and the behind-the-scenes aspect of the futures markets. However, despite the title, the book offers very little information about how the Futures markets actually work.

Jake Berstein is a world renowned trader and author. He is very often consulted by his contemporaries for insight into trading strategies.

I have read some nonsense in my time... Wha? But this book is just dreadful. Only a complete jackass would put this book on their X-mas list... Wha? My friend Celine who is a complete nerd... Wha? would love this book, but that is it... Wha?

I have read some nonsense in my time... Wha? But this book is just dreadful. Only a complete jackass would put this book on their X-mas list... Wha? My friend Celine who is a complete nerd... Wha? would love this book, but that is it... Wha?