Exchange-risk Reviews

Intelligent Speculator: A Unique & Low-Risk Approach to Trading Commodities

Published in Hardcover by McGraw-Hill Trade (1996-04-01)

Authors: Ralph J. Fessenden and John D. McDivitt

List price: $45.00

Used price: $4.65

Average review score:

A value approach to commodities investing...

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2002-11-24

This book will teach you how to buy and sell commodities at prices near their all-time lows. What this book will not do is teach you how to be a day-trader or short-term trader. Also, this book is for traders who are looking for slow and steady gains and not outsize gains. If you are looking for a book that will teach you how to conservatively invest in commodities, and you are comfortable with a large financial drawdown while trading, pick up a copy of this intersting book.

Intelligent Speculators will Avoid this Book

Helpful Votes: 23 out of 25 total.
Review Date: 1998-04-15

This work describes a system for commodity speculation called Interval
Trading. The premise and system are simple. Because the value of a
commodity will never go to zero, any downward trend will
eventually bottom out and reverse. To take advantage of this behavior
the authors suggest buying futures contracts at fixed intervals as the
price drops, and then reselling them at fixed intervals as the price
recovers.

This system requires the knowledge or faith that prices eventually
will recover, and tremendous capital to cover accumulated losses while
waiting for a price recovery that may take months, years, or decades to
materialize. This advice violates several of the tenets of successful
trading in that it requires trading against the trend, holding losing
positions forever, and only taking small, fixed profits. Small
traders following this advice should expect to go broke.

The authors' credibility is fatally damaged when then spend several
pages arguing that if you are long a contract, and then sell and
immediately re-buy the contract, then this is somehow different
from simply holding the original contract. Where I'm from,

(- X) + X = 0.

Furthermore, the authors never suggest that they or their clients have made
any money from this extremely risky scheme.

This is a highly risky speculation system, and its
exposition here is mathematically unsound. Intelligent speculators
will avoid this book.

The Four Cardinal Principles of Trading: How the World's Top Traders Identify Trends, Cut Losses, Maximize Profits & Manage Risk

Published in Hardcover by McGraw-Hill (1996-03-01)

Author: Bruce Babcock

List price: $40.00

New price: $15.50
Used price: $2.62

Average review score:

DON'T waste your money!

Helpful Votes: 12 out of 14 total.
Review Date: 1998-10-26

It seems like Babcock is a smart guy with high powered degrees. Why did he write a book with so little intellectual value? His title tells us 4 elements to good trading. The stuff between the covers does surprizingly little to explore these points. I feel ripped off!

Read the dust jacket, pass on the book

Helpful Votes: 14 out of 16 total.
Review Date: 1998-11-28

Read the dust jacket and learn the four key principles: trade with the trend, cut losses short, let profits run, and manage risk. You don't need to spend the $28 to buy the book.

$28 for four liners

Helpful Votes: 20 out of 23 total.
Review Date: 1999-03-22

1.Identify Trends 2.Cut Losses 3.Maximize Profits 4.Manage Risk. Now send me $28 and forget about the book!

The rules are right. The book is not.

Helpful Votes: 4 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2003-05-01

Normally I will check the reviews on Amazon before I buy a book. Because I had read some of the very interesting but negative reviews of this book so I borrowed it from the library instead of buying it with my hard earned money. Thanks to those reviewers, I had saved twenty bucks.

Actually, this is a trading book of the interview type. The problems are: 1) The interviewees are far less famous than those in "Market Wizards I&II". 2) The author's fixation on "identify trends, cut losses, maximize profit and manage risk" (reflected by his questions like "Do you think X (any one of the above four)is important?" had limited the scope of answers from the interviewees that made the book much less useful and interesting than it could be. Very short "yes" and "no" answers from the respondents were frequent. 3) The author's deliberate separation of the book into the four main principles/chapters had made the whole book incohesive and hard to read. You can see the opinion of Jake Bernstein (a writer who wrote over 20 trading books) here and there that made you hard to have a holistic view of his trading strategy and ideology at all.

In short, just borrow one if you really want to read it.

An XLNT book

Helpful Votes: 6 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2000-09-10

The premise is simple, four rules, but it is the application from traders that have very different styles that make this book worthwhile. It's easy to say trade with the trend, cut your losses, etc. How do you define that? It depends on your trading method. It's not the same for everyone.

The traders interviewed in this book walk through how they trade (or don't) based on these principles. Anytime you can look over another successful traders shoulder and see how they do it, it's invaluable. My copy is well worn and dog eared. Anyone that actually trades the markets would find this book well worth the money, and an excellent read.

Electronic Currency Trading for Maximum Profit: Manage Risk and Reward in the Forex and Currency Futures Markets

Published in Hardcover by Prima Lifestyles (2001-04)

Authors: Keith Long and Kurt Walter

List price: $49.95

New price: $29.99
Used price: $10.21

Average review score:

The author speaks

Helpful Votes: 4 out of 11 total.
Review Date: 2005-04-06

As the author of the book, I am pleased to note that three executives from respected and prominant forex institutions all have endorsed my book, Electronic Currency Trading for Maximium Profit. They are with Gain Capital, Midas Forex and GCI.

Apart from their professional status, they are, of course, informed on the subject, unlike a couple of reviewers who took the time to expose their lack of experience in forex.

I assume if they are buying books on forex trading, that they are in the learning process at some level.

Between them and those who have publicly endorsed the book, I believe I will take the forex institutions.

No stars would be a better rating...

Helpful Votes: 50 out of 50 total.
Review Date: 2001-07-14

If you have absolutely no knowledge of the Currency Markets then this book may be useful to you. The subtitle of the book is "Manage Risk and Reward in the Forex Markets by Learning How to:..."

Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of the book is about Currency Futures and Options but NOT Forex.

Disappointing

Helpful Votes: 55 out of 56 total.
Review Date: 2001-10-17

This was a huge disappointment. The book is simplistic, disjointed, and offers nothing that even a novice could use. It has a feeling of being written quickly to cash in on the forex trading phenomenon. Look elsewhere for advice in particular anything by Jack Schwager or by Wiley Press, they are usually excellent.

Very dissapointed to have bought this book...

Helpful Votes: 58 out of 59 total.
Review Date: 2001-06-13

This book is not worth the paper that it is printed on. Author does not know the subject, and does not offer any information that could not easily have been obtained online for free. Tried to contact author at his website to answer question and never responded. Classic example of take the money and run. Will never buy a book again from these authors nor from Prima Publishing.

Commodity options: Spectacular profits with limited risk

Published in Unknown Binding by Financial Intelligence Reports (1985)

Author: Larry D Spears

List price:

Average review score:

The author should apologize....

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2004-05-02

Years ago, Paul Newman took out an ad in the L.A. Times, apologizing for the film (and his performance in), "Paris Blues."

The apology was most necessary and appropriate....

Larry Spears and his publisher should do the same---not merely in the Times, but in every financial publication in America....

I have started this book six times and have never gotten past page 20. The typographical errors are beyond counting.... Even students in a remedial Community College writing course could do better editing....

Sadly, the title was exactly what I wanted. The book, however, is an insult to Financial Writing....

Commodity Options Spectacular Profits with Limited Risk

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2004-05-22

As a beginning commodity futures trader and options trader, I found this book extremely helpful. The first section goes through all the basics, giving definitions you need to know. The second section gets into using options. Yes there are some typographical errors, so what? My point is the information itself is very helpful for a beginner like myself. On each different option strategy the author states at what point in a market it could be useful, the risk, the potential profit, and then goes into an explanation of the strategy itself including graphs. I think anyone who is new to commodity options trading would find this a useful tool and extremely easy to read. I do recommend this book and plan on using it when developing my future trading strategies. It contains lots of information in an easy readable format.

Skip this book

Helpful Votes: 5 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2002-05-02

This book is replete with typographical errors - even the words "call option" written as "can option" - numerous times in an options book ??? !!! Shoddy publication!

Introduction to Currency Risk (Currency Risk Management Series)

Published in Hardcover by AMACOM (2000-12)

Authors: Brian Coyle and Alastair Graham

List price: $45.00

New price: $34.00
Used price: $30.59

Average review score:

A real introductory book not worth the money

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-28

The book provides a very basic introduction to currency risk management covering issues such as transaction and translation risk, economic exposures. Lacking any detail this book will only be useful to absolute beginners and in my opinion is not worth the money.

Careful - this is a very basic overview

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2001-08-20

This book is written for the reader who has little or no experience in currencies and currency risk. The information provided is very basic, and not of use to anyone wanting to get more than a superficial understanding of the subject. The title is "Introduction", but I still think it is (only) 100 pages of generalities, not worth the $... I paid!

Forecasting Profits Using Price & Time (Wiley Trader's Exchange)

Published in Paperback by Wiley (1998-02-04)

Author: Edward Gately

List price: $39.95

New price: $6.00
Used price: $4.63

Average review score:

A Lightweight

Helpful Votes: 13 out of 14 total.
Review Date: 1998-09-17

This book is a lightweight. There isn't much that isn't already covered by the technical analysis classics. If this was the only book I read, I would not feel comfortable playing with real money, with only the knowledge contained in this book. If you really want to learn technical analysis, you can't go wrong with the classics: John Murphy's "Technical Analysis of the Futures Market" and Martin Pring's "Technical Analysis Explained"

Imperfect Knowledge Economics: Exchange Rates and Risk

Published in Hardcover by Princeton University Press (2007-08-13)

Authors: Roman Frydman and Michael D. Goldberg

List price: $55.00

New price: $43.96
Used price: $31.70

Average review score:

Imperfect is right...

Helpful Votes: 5 out of 21 total.
Review Date: 2008-03-31

"Imperfect Knowledge Economics" has as its central tenet that most modern economic models are flawed because they are based on the idea that people always act "rationally" (i.e. we always have perfect information, we never suffer from external constraints, and our goals are always to maximize economic value). The book then proposes a new way to think about economics, suggesting that because people act as people the best that economists can do is to make vague general predictions about the future.

Of course, to any non-economist who pays any attention to economic forecasts, all of this is met with a resounding "DUH". The one nice thing about this book is that it hopefully will be read by other economists, and get them to finally realize what most of us have already understood for quite a while, that economists are often the last ones to actually understand what *people* will be thinking, feeling and doing - and of course *people* are ultimately the driving force behind economic markets. (For example: witness how long it took for economists to start saying the word "recession" during this spring of 2008. It turns out that spending data show that consumers knew that poor economic times were coming all the back in the late fall of 2007. Somehow the economists were the last ones to figure this out.)
Probably interesting if you are an economist, or you need to deal with economists on a regular basis (certainly if you need to *argue* with an economist). However other than that, its not going to be all that useful for the rest of us as we already know, understand, and have seen the authors' main points for quite a long time.

Foreign Currency Trading: From the Fundamentals to the Fine Points

Published in Hardcover by McGraw-Hill (1997-10-01)

Author: Russell Wasendorf

List price: $39.95

New price: $14.00
Used price: $7.22

Average review score:

This book really is not about teaching someone to trade

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-09-17

I was looking for a basic book teaching the concepts and trading practices and fundamentals. This book has a lot to say about none of the topics needed to help someone become a trader. If you are looking to have someone trade your account you might be helped by it. There are a lot better books out there "Getting Started in Currency Trading" is a fine example. This is the best buy for the money when you are done reading it you will be much better informed to move ahead. Getting Started in Currency Trading: Winning in Todays Hottest Marketplace (Getting Started In.....)

Rarely have encountered a book this useless.

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2003-06-05

As others have said clearly, this book is a waste of trees, ink and the time of its reader. The "authors" should be ashamed of such blatant hucksterism and poor description of even the most basic aspects of trading. Even if you are a neophyte, look somewhere else.

The Cover PAge looks pretty!!!

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-06-07

Well when i grow up i to be Russell R Wasendorf, whether sr. or jr. I think these two are the greatest salesmen around. I bought a wonderful book which adorns my bookcase and adds colour and life to my room. Whats more is that i found the same book in my brother's home. Thinking he 'borrowed' it I asked him, He replied saying he 'invested' in it and it works well as a sleep aide . Seriously some points for beginners are reasonably covered but most of the book was a waste of time, paper and resources. There were no Fine points covered in the book to memory but if there were it was lost in the dribble.

To the authors: you must be kidding

Helpful Votes: 15 out of 16 total.
Review Date: 2006-02-09

I'll summarize this book for you -- "Foreign Currency Trading is difficult, if you want to learn more, send us some more money and we will enroll you in a class."

Save your money, buy yourself a newspaper instead.

save your money ...

Helpful Votes: 28 out of 29 total.
Review Date: 2003-03-16

... I have no idea what objective these guys had in mind when they sat down to write this book.... This book is just a bunch of information thrown together (probably downloaded from the internet) and they obviously took no time to put any real effort into this book. I was terribly dissappointed with my purchase of this book.....look elsewhere if you are interested in getting started in forex trading.

Management and Control of Foreign Exchange Risk

Published in Hardcover by Springer (1996-05-31)

Author: Laurent L. Jacque

List price: $202.00

New price: $153.99
Used price: $70.00

Average review score:

Terribly written and boring

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2003-09-28

This book stinks. It is very poorly written, has no formatting and is incredibly over-priced.

$2.9M in NYIE assets frozen. (New York Insurance Exchange): An article from: National Underwriter Property & Casualty-Risk & Benefits Management

Published in Digital by The National Underwriter Company (1989-04-24)

Author: Lisa S. Howard

List price: $5.95

New price: $5.95

Exchange-risk Books