Malcolm Pryor?s latest trading guide

Malcolm Pryor?s latest trading guide

The Daily Trading Coach is primarily aimed at intermediate level traders, but everyone has to start somewhere. Where might be the best place for this?

If you?re after a trading book that covers everything from the ground up, I highly recommend Malcolm Pryor?s excellent ?Winning Spread Betting Strategies?. This is one of the best general introductions to spread betting that I?m yet to read. His first book, ?The Financial Spread Betting Handbook? was also very useful for beginners.

As well as explaining the basics mechanics of spread betting, Pryor?s books provide some methods that you can use to kick start your trading career.

As a natural follow up to these beginners guides, Pryor has recently released a ?7 Charting Tools For Spread Betting?. Whereas his first two books provided lots of background information on what spread betting is, his latest book focuses on how to trade using technical analysis.

Excellent structure

The book covers a different charting tool in each chapter as follows.

? ATR: Average True Range
? Directional Movement
? Moving Averages
? Support & Resistance
? Oscillators
? Relative Strength
? Momentum

Each section provides the background, settings practical examples for each trading tool.

Finally the last chapter provides a large number of cases studies that bring everything together.

It?s important to understand these indicators so you know how and when to use them. The truth is that the most common technical indicators on their own are unlikely to make you substantial profits. The key is to understand how and when to apply these indicators and apply them in context.

Pryor doesn?t go into the complex mathematics of each indicator, but does provide enough background so you have a general idea of the pros and cons of each charting tool. All the examples are for trading on an end of day basis which will suit anyone who trades around other full time non trading commitments.

The bottom line

As I?ve come to expect from Pryor?s previous publications, ?7 Charting Tools? is very well written with the chapters and sub sections following logical flow that doesn?t overwhelm you with information.

At the beginning, Pryor promises that the book will be full of practical examples, not dry theory and to that end he delivers. It may be a personal preference, but it would have been good to see some performance metrics of the mentioned strategies. Perhaps this would need a whole other book though and miss the point that this is aimed at beginners.

On the negative side, there is a fair degree of repetition from his previous books. Some of the charting tools have already been covered in the past such as Directional Movement Indicator. The concepts may be the same, but the fresh examples may serve to enhance the learning process.

Overall, it?s a good book on the subject of technical analysis for traders closer to the starting line of their trading journey. If you are a complete beginner then I would start with his previous book, ?Winning Spread betting Strategies?, if you are already reasonably familiar with what spread betting is all about, then you may get more value skipping to this book.

WRP RATINGS:

Value For Money: 3/5 ? A lot of information packed into book. Taken on its own it?s good value, but if you?ve already purchase his previous books there is a fair degree of repetition.
Profit Potential: 3/5 ? Hard to quantify. More a starting point.
Ease Of Use: 5/5 ? Like Pryor?s books, this has a logical progression and is well structured.
Longevity: 3/5 ? A useful first step.
WRP overall rating: 3/5 ? Not as good as previous books, but a solid introduction to technical analysis trading strategies.

CONTACT DETAILS:

7 Charting Tools for Spread Betting: A Practical guide to making money from spread betting with technical analysis.
Website: Harriman House (Publisher)
Cost: Around £13.00 including postage on Amazon
Level: Beginners
Location: Global
Category: Investor education & training