Weekend Book Review, by Martin Fagan

“For those who are interested in trading and learning about it as they commute to work and who don’t have Wi-Fi enabled laptops, they can read this book. 7 Winning Strategies For Trading Forex covers topics such as why people should be paying attention to the FOREX market (it is the world’s largest and most liquid financial market, after all), how understanding the structure of this market can be beneficial to the independent trader, how you can select high-probability trades with good entries and exits and how to overcome the odds and become a successful trader. Grace Cheng highlights seven trading strategies, each of which is to be applied in a unique way and is designed for differing market conditions. She shows how traders can use the various market conditions to their advantage by tailoring the strategy to suit each one. The book also sheds light on how the Forex market works, how you can incorporate sentiment analysis into your trading, and how trading in the direction of institutional activity can give you a competitive edge in the trading arena.

Like all good “how to” books, this one starts with the basics: opening an account, currency codes, why currencies are traded in pairs, trade size, pips (stands for Percentage in Points), reading Forex rates, understanding rollover, leverage and volatility. And then the seven strategies themselves in very fine detail: Market Sentiment, Trend Riding, Breakout Fading, Breakout Trading, Decreased Volatility Breakout, Carry Trade and News Straddling. Rather like Malcolm Pryor’s The Spread Betting Handbook, it doesn’t waffle on by either labouring its salient points (of which there are many) or regurgitating the same points over and over. And the flow of the chapters means that if you work through it, you’ll understand it. Unless you’re an experienced trader or an expert on Forex, it’s not the sort of book you can crack open at page 172 and hope to understand what you read. However, if you start at the beginning and read carefully, only progressing when you understand each section then, by the time you get to page 172, there’s a good chance you’ll be up to speed. This book is ideal for new and current traders wanting to improve their trading performance. Filled with practical advice, this book is a must-read for traders who want to know exactly how they can make money in the FOREX market.”