A Trader's First Book on Commodities: An Introduction to The World's Fastest Growing Market [Hardcover]

Carley Garner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 17, 2010 | ISBN-10: 0137015453 | ISBN-13: 978-0137015450 | Edition: 1

You can make large profits by trading commodities--but you’ll need significant practical knowledge of the associated risks and market characteristics before you start. A Trader’s First Book on Commodities is a simple, practical and useful guide for new commodities traders. Author Carley Garner provides specific guidance on accessing commodity markets cost-effectively, avoiding common beginners’ mistakes, and improving the odds of successful, profitable trades.

 

Drawing on her extensive experience teaching traders, Garner shows how to calculate profit, loss, and risk in commodities, and choose the best brokerage firm, service level, data sources, and market access for your needs. She’ll help you:

 

·         Master the basics of trading commodities painlessly, avoiding beginners mistakes

·         Get what you need, and prevent paying for what you don’t need

·         Know what you’re buying, what it costs, the returns you’re earning and the risk you’re taking

·         Predict price, manage risk, and make trades that reflect your analysis

 

Garner demystifies the industry’s colorful language, helps you clearly understand what you’re buying and selling, and walks you through the entire trading process. She concludes with a refreshingly new look at topics such as trading plans, handling margin calls, and even maintaining emotional stability as a trader.

 

“This book provides the type of information every trader needs to know and the type of information too many traders had to learn the hard and expensive way. Carley offers practical need-to-know, real-world trading tips that are lacking in many books on futures. It will help not only the novice trader, but seasoned veterans as well. This book will serve as a must-have reference in every trader’s library.”

--Phil Flynn, Vice President and Senior Market analyst at PFGBest Research, and a Fox Business Network contributor

 

“Refreshing–It’s nice to see a broker who has actually been exposed to the professional side of trading and who bridges that chasm between exchange floor trading and customer service. Carley takes the time to explain verbiage, not just throw buzz words around. A good educational read in my opinion.”

--Don Bright, Director, Bright Trading, LLC

 

“This book has the perfect name, the perfect message, and the necessary information for any beginning trader. Take this book home!”

--Glen Larson, President, Genesis Financial Technologies, Inc.

 

“As a 35-year veteran of the CME/CBOT trading floor, I can tell you…those who think they can begin trading commodities without knowing the less talked about topics that Carley discusses in A Trader’s First Book on Commodities are sadly mistaken. Anyone who trades their own account, or would like to, should read this book.”

--Danny Riley, DT Trading

 

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Carley Garner is Senior Market Analyst and Broker with DeCarley Trading and a columnist for Stocks & Commodities. The author of Commodity Options, Garner writes two widely distributed e-newsletters, The Stock Index Report and The Bond Bulletin.

 

Her work has been featured in Stocks & Commodities, Futures, Active Trader, Option Trader, Your Trading Edge, and PitNews Magazine. She has been quoted in media ranging from Reuters to Investor’s Business Daily and The Wall Street Journal. Garner provides free trading education to investors at www.decarleyrading.com.

 

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: FT Press; 1 edition (January 17, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0137015453
• ISBN-13: 978-0137015450
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 0.9 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #543,519 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Senior Market Analyst and Broker, Stocks & Commodities Magazine Columnist and Author

Carley Garner is an experienced futures and options broker and co-owner of DeCarley Trading in Las Vegas, Nevada. She is also the author of "Currency Trading in the FOREX and Futures Markets", "A Trader's First Book on Commodities" and "Commodity Options" published by FT Press, a division of Prentice Hall. She has also contributed to the FT Press Delivers line of digital products, "Insights for the Agile Investor". Her e-newsletters, The DeCarley Perspective, The Stock Index Report and the Bond Bulletin, have garnered a loyal following; she is also proactive in providing free trading education, for details visit www.DeCarleyTrading.com.

Carley is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of the University of Nevada Las Vegas, from which she earned dual bachelor's degrees in both Finance and Accounting. Carley jumped into the options and futures industry with both feet in early 2004 and has become one of the most recognized names in the business.

Throughout her fast paced career, Carley has been featured in the likes of Stocks & Commodities, Futures, Active Trader, Option Trader, Your Trading Edge, Equities, Expiring Monthly and Pitnews Magazine. Carley is often interviewed by news services such as Reuters and Dow Jones Newswire, and has been quoted by the Investor's Business Daily and the Wall Street Journal. She has also been known to participate in Radio interviews and can be found on the speaking circuit.

Visit www.DeCarleyTrading.com or www.CarleyGarnerTrading.com for more details.

Carley is looking forward to your feedback, she can be reached at 1-866-790-TRADE (8723)or [e-mail]!

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 44 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A well-written, concise, honest and useful survey of commodities trading June 17, 2010

By D. Brennan TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

On a 1-10 scale I would give my own knowledge of stocks a 7, bonds a 5 and commodities a 3. I am in the steel business, but steel is not traded like a commodity (though there have long been efforts to change that). I understand the general theory of how the commodities markets are supposed to work, but I ordered this book because I wanted to get a deeper understanding of how they function on a day to day basis. I was very pleased with the scope of this book and would recommend it to people who are considering getting involved, in a modest way, with commodities.

Please note though that one book, no matter the author's skill or breadth of knowledge, is NOT capable of turning anyone in to a professional commodities trader. Some of the negative reviews are both amusing and scary because they seem to be written by people who figured that they would just buy X commodity and suddenly become millionaires. I guess every market (and poker) relies to some extent on Darwinism - it's the amateurs that end up making the pros rich.

I think that Ms. Garner manages to successfully steer a course down the middle in terms of providing enough broad, general, information for newbies, while still including some actionable technical information which would allow you to start trading immediately (if unsuccessfully).

At the end of the day, commodities trading isn't for me. Between a full-time job and other activities, I don't have the time left to devote hours and hours to do the research that might possibly allow me to be a successful dabbler in commodities. Nor do I have the ability to constantly watch the markets to catch the rapid rise and falls that provide brief trading opportunities. This book helped to convince me that commodities trading is best left to others. It is this conclusion that perhaps is worth far more than the purchase price of this book.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Good First Book on Commodities but not for Traders August 24, 2010

By J. Finkel TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

"A Trader's First Book on Commodities" is an overarching introduction to the US commodities futures market. Everything from contract size and pricing to choosing a broker is covered. Unfortunately the author covers each topic in such poor depth that I would only recommend this book to someone completely unfamiliar with commodities and futures contracts.

I approached the book expecting to be firmly within the target audience, given the title. However any trader, even one without experience in commodities, would find little of value in this book. Furthermore, I cannot imagine this book helping anyone make money trading commdities. The author makes no attempt to discuss research, data, analytics, mathematics, stochastics, etc. Some of the 'facts' brought up are even dismissed by the author as mere guesses. For example, the author mentions that the top 20% of brokers bring in 80% of the commissions, with the caveat that this estimation has absolutey no basis. Isn't it the role of the author to do research and present information that is both relevant and accurate?

On the positive side, the book is exceedingly approachable. The author makes a great effort to organize the book sensibly and to spell out every detail. I've seen similar books that gloss over too much terminology and get bogged down in too many ill-conceived attempts at explaining the technical aspects of trading. "A Trader's First Book on Commodities" proves a quick and easy read. I imagine it could be a great introduction into the world of commodities or finance in general for the completely uninitiated. Still, the shallow depth (even for an introductory text) is a major negative.

As the price is much lower than the more substantial textbooks I've read, I would recommend this book to those interested in the idea of investing in commodities but unsure what that entails. However, for those serious about investing or with some background in finance, I would suggest looking for a book that offers more technical knowledge and provides serious research and complete examination of individual markets.

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good intro to commodity trading overview April 14, 2010

By XNOR VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Just like stocks - you can trade on fundamentals or on technicals & psychology
- Fundamentals as in What affects cotton prices ? Which are the international markets, consumers, producers, plant diseases, climatic conditions... how to sense the demand ... Can be a huge thesis in itself.
- Technicals as in Charts, moving averages, Candle stick charting (Infact Candle stick charting first originated from Rice trading in Japan in the 1800s)

Well, that is not what this book is about - this book is exactly what it says in the title - it is an introduction to what you are getting into, what you need to be cautious about and what are the different terminology, futures, options, hedging.

The book starts off on a cautious note on the rise of Commodity prices in 2007-2008 and the crash there after - the F&O market led the oil prices spike to $147 in mid of '08 and came crashing to $31 in less than an year. Nobody could have predicted this and traders whom we see on CNBC are probably who have just caught this by a streak of luck rather than intelligent predictions - so for most of us, it is better to be conservative and hedge our risks and play by emotional discipline rather than moving with bold predictions.

Then the book gets into details of hedging risks, 5-year, 10-year notes, bit on the technical analysis, then about individual commodities.

Overall, if you are starting off on commodity trading - this is definitely a book to begin with and you will end this book with a thirst to read more