Saying you have tried trading and something is mising so what book should you read... is like going to a doctor and saying you feel unwell, what medicine should you take? Any answer without considerable questioning is likely to be wide of the mark. What trading have you done? Could be anything from scalping to weekly swing trading? What went wrong? What timeframe do you want to trade? How do you want to approach trading... do you want lots of intraday action or position trading where you trade hourly or 4-hour or even daily charts? How does your mind work... does TA or fundamentals appeal to you. What experience of either do you have. What are your goals? What time can you put into trading... full or part time? Learning from books will take years to learn to apply in real trading - many books on trading as most useful as firelighters. Have you the capital to pay say $300 pm for mentoring? Really that's best if you can find the right person that suits your goals.
I think people give away many secrets in those $30 books. And they can do it safely too. Because most people will never try something enough times to really learn it. Those people will be discouraged after a few losing attempts and big losses and say "it does not work". You are absolutely correct about trying to figure out what works for you. The problem that most cannot understand is that no system, technical or fundamental will work consistently without great money management, great risk management, an understanding of probability, and the proper attitude. Tech/fund analysis will only give you a slightly better probability of winning. Neither one works every time and neither one is even close to foolproof without the other parts of the equation in place. The books work fine. They are the basis for almost everything I have learned. But they were just the starting point, it took, and still takes, some work. I don't consider it hard work because I enjoy doing it.
The books really don't have anything that isn't on the web. A little background, a little TA you've already heard about, and a little on interest rates. If you're very lucky they might have a chart showing most liquid hours. The free lessons here will have 99% of what you'll find in a book. http://www.babypips.com/school/ Also you can search the web with: free forex pdf and you'll find more info than you can read. Might even find a copy of Bird Watching . . . - EZ
I totally agree with this suggestions: the tutorial on this website are very simple, and they have been the best choice for me. I recommend to follow the lessons to every newbie like me !
Not true in general but almost true. Indicator based trading is part of a greater scheme that also involves other things like purchasing power, psychology, insight, etc. I know of a person, actually a woman, who made millions of dollars in FX using a simple MA crossover system. I cannot say how much of that was due to sheer luck but indicators can serve as a good guide. The problem arises when people look at indicators as predictors of price and not as a form of guidance to enforce discipline. Think about that. It is discipline that makes money combined with risk management. Indicators help guide the actions. Never predict anything, I agree about that Bill
Alot of the forex specific materials, you can get over the net and I agree that most technical analsysi works across different markets so there's really nothing that makes technical analysis any different in forex as opposed to markets. Having said that, a good book on trading in general is High Probability Trading. But you'll find most of what you learn comes from experience. When starting off, try to trade the higher timeframes, they give you more time in between bars to make a decision and act so thereby making you less prone to excessive and emotional trading. Plus don't risk too much and use low leverage, you'll be amazed how much you can make if you just consistently make pips and compound your lots. Best
He he, a 30$/book x 100 000 newbie new comer fx learners, is much more profitable than a 10k fx accounts with 1000% yearly/performance track record...do you know a lot of people doing a 1k%? So I would defenitley put my secrets away for 30$/book Anyway humans are so stubbern that although you show the trend, they would still go against it!!! ZC
Great post, one of the best ones I've read in ET. You may want to add a few more details to help this fellow out with some resources for your suggestions.