Place your currency bets

Beginners’ guides to foreign exchange are 10 a penny, but they also differ widely in quality. David Jones’ new book is a worthy enough contribution to this crowded field. As chief spokesman for a spread-betting provider, his angle is trading currencies with spread bets, which is rather an appropriate way for newcomers to start playing the currency markets.

Yet, despite Mr Jones’ job, he doesn’t allow his book to become a pitch about the benefits of spread betting. The content is firmly skewed towards currencies rather than the specific method of trading. So a novice planning to deal in forex in the spot market, say, could easily still benefit from its pages.
In his trademark chatty style, Mr Jones walks through the basics of forex, covering the mechanics of trading, terminology and how to manage risk. There are plenty of nice, clear charts to support all of this, especially in the technical-analysis section, which is one of the author’s strongest suits.

Probably in the interests of keeping things uncomplicated, the explanation of the economic forces and news events that drive the markets is somewhat on the brief side. Given his ability to explain high-level concepts simply, Mr Jones could have added some extra value by going into a bit more detail here.

If you’re a beginner wanting to know about forex trading or someone with a spread-betting account who’s not tried currency bets yet, this is certainly worth a read.