Leveraged Trading
A professional approach to trading FX, stocks on margin, CFDs, spread bets and futures for all traders
By Robert Carver
Leveraged Trading
A professional approach to trading FX, stocks on margin, CFDs, spread bets and futures for all traders
By Robert Carver
Jacket text
With the right broker, and just a few hundred dollars or pounds, anyone can become a leveraged trader. The products and tools needed are accessible to all: FX, a margin account, CFDs, spread-bets and futures.
But this level playing field comes with great risks. Trading with leverage is inherently dangerous. With leverage, losses and costs – the two great killers for traders – are magnified.
This does not mean leverage must be avoided altogether, but it does mean that it needs to be used safely. In Leveraged Trading, Robert Carver shows you how to do exactly that, by using a trading system. A trading system can be employed to tackle those twin dangers of serious losses and high costs.
The trading systems introduced in this book are simple and carefully designed to use the correct amount of leverage and trade at a suitable frequency. Robert shows how to trade a simple Starter System on its own, on a single instrument and with a single rule for opening positions.
He then moves on to show how the Starter System can be adapted, as you gain experience and confidence. The system can be diversified into multiple instruments and new trading rules can be added. For those who wish to go further still, advice on making more complex improvements is included: how to develop your own trading systems, and how to combine a system with your own human judgement, using an approach Robert calls Semi-Automatic Trading.
For those trading with leverage, looking for a way to take a controlled approach and manage risk, a properly designed trading system is the answer. Pick up Leveraged Trading and learn how.
About the author
Robert Carver is an independent investor, trader and writer. He spent over a decade working in the City of London before retiring from the industry in 2013. Robert initially traded exotic derivative products for Barclays Investment Bank and then worked as a portfolio manager for AHL – one of the world’s largest hedge funds – before, during and after the global financial meltdown of 2008. He was responsible for the creation of AHL’s fundamental global macro strategy, and then managed the fund’s multi-billion dollar fixed income portfolio.
Robert has Bachelors and Masters degrees in Economics, and is a visiting lecturer at Queen Mary, University of London. He manages his own portfolio of equities, funds and futures using the methods you can find in his books.
Rob's website is: www.systematicmoney.org
You can read his blog at qoppac.blogspot.com and follow him on twitter @investingidiocy
Reviews
I always enjoy authors that can explain the complex in a simple, yet easy to understand, way. Like Robert’s other books, Leveraged Trading is an excellent guide for traders. Robert does an excellent job of progressing from basic to complicated information, without losing the reader. This book will be one I refer to over and over again. Highly recommended.
Media coverage
From System Trader:
Although we discussed many negative aspects of trading and investing, there’s a positive message to all of us as well. With enough discipline and work, most of us may construct an investing vehicle at home and build our own capital successfully.
From Opto:
Editor’s note: Leveraged Trading is a new book by Robert Carver, an independent systematic trader, writer and research consultant based in the UK. The book was published by Harriman House on 29 October 2019.
From Clenow Research:
I just received my copy of the new book Leveraged Trading, written by Rob Carver and I was not disappointed. I have written before about enjoying his past two books, Systematic Trading and Smart Portfolios. His latest book is not just the best coverage of the topic of leveraged trading of small portfolios I’ve read,… Read more »
Contents
About the Author
Preface
Who should read this book?
How does this book differ from my first book, Systematic Trading?
What's coming
Introduction
The mistakes that losing traders make
Why leverage is dangerous
Why you should use a system when you start trading
How is this book different from other trading books?
Part One: Fundamentals 7
Chapter One – Types of Leveraged Trading Product
Introduction to leveraged trading
Three key characteristics of leveraged products
What products are there for leveraged trading, and how do they work?
Products and underlying instrument are different
Chapter Two – Getting Ready to Start Trading
Choosing your trading software, hardware and data feed
Choosing which product to trade
Choosing your broker
How much money do you need?
Chapter Three – Introduction to Trading Systems
Why you should use a trading system
Common arguments against using trading systems
What makes a good trading system?
Why you should avoid third party trading systems
Part Two: Starting to Trade
Chapter Four – Concepts
Some definitions
Risk and return concepts
Minimum trades and minimum capital
Costs
Chapter Five – Introducing the Starter System
An overview of the system
Which instrument and product to trade?
When should we open positions?
How large should positions be?
When should positions be closed?
Chapter Six – Trading the Starter System
Before you start trading
Tasks on day one
Tasks on subsequent days
Trading diary
Summary
Part Three: Diversifying
Chapter Seven – Adding New Markets
Advantages and disadvantages of diversification
The theory of diversification
Trading the Starter System adapted for multiple instruments
Chapter Eight – Adding New Trading Rules
The case for diversification of trading rules
My suite of trading rules
How do we use multiple trading rules?
Using multiple trading rules in practice
Part Four: Advanced Trading
Chapter Nine – From Discrete to Continuous Trading
Why it can be safe to trade without a stop loss
Continuous trading
Practical trading without a stop loss
Chapter Ten – Position Adjustment
Adjusting position size for confidence: non–binary trading
Adjusting position size for risk
Adjusting position size without incurring heavy trading costs
Practical non-binary trading
Chapter Eleven – What Next?
Improvements to the Starter System
Back-testing and designing your own system
Semi-Automatic Trading
Epilogue
Glossary
Appendices
Appendix A: Useful Information
Further reading
Useful websites
Appendix B: Costs
Transaction costs
Holding costs
Total costs
Minimum capital and costs
Smarter execution to avoid the spread
Appendix C: Calculations
Back-adjusting prices
Instrument risk calculation
Moving average calculations
Breakout calculations
Performance ratio
Acknowledgements
Index
| Published: | 29/10/2019 |
|---|---|
| Edition: | 1st |
| Pages: | 346 |
| Formats: | hardback - ISBN 9780857197214 ebook - ISBN 9780857197221 |
If you’d like to get in touch with the author for interview or comment, or you’d like a review copy of this book, please contact us at pr@harriman-house.com or call +44 (0)1730 233870.
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Bulk purchasesWe offer discounts for bulk purchases. Please contact specialsales@harriman-house.com for a quote.