Futures-market

I would check out what the Commodity Futures Trading Commission had to report before you purchase the book. I am making no claims on the effectiveness of the system, but it appears the CFTC states some of the advertised claims are inaccurate. If you search for Curtis Aronld on the web, you should run across the document that I did on the CFTC's web site.

Simple and easy trend seeking method for even a beginner. But if you are already a sophisticated chartist or finding some more exciting speculation method, this one will not be for you since it is talking only about the traditional pattern break out and moving average method. However, in the medium to long trend seeking investments, there are always that 'simple is the best.'

Very good technical analysis tool for commodities futures. Exposes some of the common technical patters that are used,such as double tops and bottoms, head and shoulders,etc. Should be one of the books in your library for futures trading.

I found Arditti's writing to be simply attrocious. What the marketplace needs is a clear, concise guide to instrument structure and valuation, and Mr. Arditti writes in circles. As an example, his chapter on option pricing refers to "using the methods used previously in this chapter" without referring to how to apply these to the method just introduced. The method just introduced was explained using numbers that were presumably fabricated, but lord only knows, because the author can't be bothered to specify how his example was structured.

In trying to explain things simply, the author fails to explain anything clearly. "Derivatives" is an extreme disappointment. As a reference, this book may have some use, but if you're looking to learn something from it, stear clear.

This book is an excellent resource for beginning and intermediate level fund managers who want to understand the derivatives to be able to use them in risk hedging and income maximization.

The book is excellently organized in four sections and each section is self sufficient. Each of the sections begin with basics, illustrates the concepts with example, introduces the mathematics of pricing and methodology of hedginag of risks

Every section has also a nice subsection on terminology and definitions.

The book is an excellent attempt to explain a highly technical and complex subject.The section on Interest Rate swaps is outstanding. A must read for all corporate money managers and a must addition to all financial libraries.

I am completely satisfied with this book. He knows how to design derivatives and make them work. This book does a remarkable job of explaining the theory and practice of derivative securities.

I was hoping for better when I obtained the book. I can't believe this guy (the author) went to U.C. Some of the ideas that he presents are interesting and worthwhile to pursue, but he does a poor job of presenting them. The author took bits from each class that he attended at U.C. and forced them into an incoherent story. Many of the equations that he introduces are plain wrong, e.g., (2.7), (2.8), etc. Those that are correct (2.11) are presented in a most obtuse way so that one is left wondering: "what is Simons' talking about". For those who are not technically inclined this is a travesty. How are they supposed to differentiate the baloney from the fact. I understand that this is a "traders' book", but there are many better ones out there! Come on Howard, come on Wiley, you can do better than this.

Howard Simons' book is a tremendous resource for beginners and market professionals alike. I don't know who this jerk is who panned the book, but he obviously has no idea what he is talking about and ,furthermore, is completely incorrect in his criticisms. All of the equations in this book are correct.

Simons book goes beyond the obvious "how do" on options -- which is exactly where more writers leave off. He is able to take very obtuse institutional topics like behavioral analysis and apply them to intermarket analysis. This is an excellent book for the more sophisticated trader who wants to learn more about options trading in all markets, including futures. Great read and well worth the price.

The book contains some basic ideas in the earliy chapters. I was expecting to get something more this for one main reason: It has been found that many novices do not know or care much about money management. It is really the experienced trader, especially the one that has lost their stake completely that then goes in search of money management strategies and usually these people would have already covered the basics somewhere already, with the amount of free literature given by the exchanges and brokerage firms. Estimating "risk and reward" by the use of head and shoulders, triangles, channels is very basic to my understanding and to that of most futures traders.

For my personal use, I had found that the chapter on money management found in Larry William's "Definitive Guide To Futures Trading" has been more useful to me than this entire book

While a large percentage of individuals do not achieve financial success in the futures markets, traders who do succeed possess a solid understanding of risk and exercise a disciplined program of loss containment and money management. Nazer J. Balsara's Money Management Strategies For Futures Traders provides a wealth of materials for futures and stocks traders alike. The book is a must-read and a relatively easy-read for those who wish to enhance their risk management sophistication with complex tools and who believe that the best way to survive and prosper in the markets it to contain your losses, play defensively and let profits ride.

All trading opportunities are not created equally and part of a trader's job is ferreting out the best markets to trade. The chapter on commodity selection presents four approaches to market selection, based largely on the work of J. Welles Wilder, the father of ADX (Average Directional Index Indicator) and RSI (Relative Strength Index). Here, the book is a good review of Wilder's ADX but focuses on the less-known aspect of his work: the commodity selection index. Wilder's approach uses ADX to identify futures yielding the greatest dollar-value price-moves for a given margin investment, in short, getting you in on the most appealing trades. Balsara also shows the utility of Wilder's price movement index when it is it is not possible to determine or estimate reward, thereby enhancing the analysis and return in mechanical trading systems. Sharpe ratios are also considered as a way of measuring risk-adjusted returns.

The text gives useful approaches to managing risk through stop-loss orders by laying out the usage of time stops, dollar-value stops and volatility stops. There is also a presentation on how to survive locked-limit markets by creating synthetic options positions, spreads or offsetting positions in the cash markets.

A studied read of this finance professor's work will help traders develop both the skill and the art of disciplined risk-taking.

I only wish I had utilized the statistical tools the author provides earlier in my trading career. However, I did find the book in time. Don't let the reference to statistics scare you. The author uses basic alegebra to aid you in trade selection and risk control.

This book may not guarantee you success in trading, but I do believe that if one does not apply the basic money management principles presented by Prof. Balsara, sooner or later, failure in the futures market is almost certain.

If you can't name the 5 basic steps of money management, I suggest you stop trading immediately, get this book with a couple of ticks worth of money you'll not be losing while your not trading. Read it a few times, set up your money management spreadsheet and may you trade with clarity previously unknown in your endeavors in the futures market.

For the average newcomer to investing this is an OK book, but it does focus alot on subjects you probably do not need to know unless you plan on working for a brokerage firm. It does give good descriptions and examples of all the security instruments (stocks, bonds, options, futures, etc.) but it accounts for only about 50% of the book. The rest is in my opinion redundant to the lay-person and is in places woefully out of date (especially the taxation section). If updated, I would rate this a 4, but given the age of the text, I would recommend looking elsewhere for an introduction to financial markets.

Are you getting NASD series 7 registered? For quick references and review this book will make a wonderful addition to your study materials. It's definitely a keeper.

If you're new to the financial world and want to understand the lingo, terrain, and equipment of pure capitalism, this book is for you. Don't let the 1991 publication date fool you. Aside from some out-of-date tax information in a later chapter, this book packs an amazing amount of useful financial clues and explanations. One of the strongest features of this text is its use of examples. Whether it's options, futures, or IPOs, the authors provide number-based scenarios to guide the reader towards understanding. This book will not excite you or show how to make $2 million in the stock market. It will help you understand many of the financial instruments which comprise capitalism.

I lost money using these strategies. Buy Steve Nison book if you want a good book on TA. This one just doesn't measure up.

There is much useful material, along with a thoughtful approach to creating a daytrading discipline, in this book. I don't fully agree with (and wouldn't expect to) all of Lewis' statements, and, as you might expect, given the changes in the trading environment over the last couple of years, many of his methods and observations are arguably already out of date, but others still apply, and his overall philosophy, perspective, and attitude are probably more important, in my opinion, than the particulars of his personal approach as practiced in and around late 2000. The text includes numerous clear, concrete, and detailed examples, though you may have to look past an L2 screen with a stack of QCOM buyers at 343 13/16 (I just never get over mania-market prices) to receive the message.

SOMEONE SUCCESSFUL WITH THE SAME INTEREST AS OURS REVEALS TO US HIS SYSTEM. CLEAR, THRUTFUL AND CONCISE. THIS BOOK WAS THE ULTIMATE REVELATION FOR ME. GOT ALL MY IDEAS CLEAR ON MY OWN APPROACH AND PERMIT ME, COMBINED WITH DIFFERENT MOMENTUM CONCEPTION TO GAIN MASTERY IN TRADING. MY DREAM HAS BECOME REALITY AFTER 10 MONTHS.
THANK YOU A LOT Mr. LEWIS for your GENEROSITY AND plain english FOR TREATING SUCH COMPLEX MATTERS.

(OTHER PARALLEL READINGS TO GET TO THE ULTIMATE RESULT:
STAN WEINSTEIN/ WILLIAM O'NEIL (TRADING PHILOSOPHY!!
ALAN FARLEY (ORIGINAL SWING TRADING CONCEPTION
JOSH LUKEMAN (MARKET MAKERS MENTALITY
& ARI KIEV (PSYCHOLOGY ASPECTS FOR TRADING

I found this book very useful in bringing people back to reality as to the speculative nature of option trading. It even includes very good advice as to how to avoid (or mitigate if you will) losses. I only gave 3 stars to this book as it does not provide strategies as to how to pick correct stocks, and as they say, winning in options is 90% stock selection and 10% option trading.

It is a good purchase for anyone starting in this business. Wish you all luck.

The strengths of this book are the clarity with which it has been written, the numerous practical examples provided, and most importantly, the opinions which the author, an experienced options trader, freely provides. Ansbacher has avoided dealing with the complexities of options such as the Black-Scholes pricing model, the greek sensitivities, etc., instead focussing on the basics: common strategies and analyzing what to do when things don't work as planned (in contrast to Fontanills' whose examples always make money!), but it is his experience which really shines. Reading this book is straightforward, owing to its conversational tone and is really like having an experienced options trader at your disposal -- Ansbacher is no flake, he's traded SPX options for years and runs a successful hedge fund....This one belongs on the bookshelf with McMillan and Natenberg...

If you are serious about trading options, BUY and study this book! Ansbacher explains the concepts needed to understand options in clear and nontechnical terms. Often he is brutally honest in ways the force you to think. The most valuable parts of the book are the strategies that he provides for each type of trade to inform you of what action to be prepared to take if (and when!) the market turns against you. Ansbacher repeatedly tells you that it is not easy to make money with options, but the thesis of the book is that if you approach options trading with some of the strategies he shares, you will be able to keep the premiums you collect and not get an ulcer. His ideas about trading two-strike prices out and about how to easily figure the margin requirements on options are well worth the price of the book. The purpose of this book is not to tell you how to find good stocks for writing options; the book's purpose is to provide you with sound strategies to be successful once you identify stocks in which you are interested. If you want to identify the good stocks, spend a few dollars and sign up for a program like VectorVest. Then you will have both the process and the content for success...

"This book is about mathematical tools". That's the first sentence of Vince, who as it turns out markets his books as heavy on math. I'd bet that he never had college classes in math, or physics, or finance for that matter. His book is full of mathematical depths like explaining why 1+2*3 is equal to 7, not to 9, or giving four reasons why asterisks is the best symbol for multiplication. Another brilliant example is when he illustrates how to combine three assets with different weights: 10% of A, 10% of B, 80% of C; 10% of A, 20% of B, 70% of C, and then three more pages of other different combinations. General math level of this book is a level of B-student in the seventh grade who has never derived a mathematical formula or proved mathematical fact. Then, considerable part of the book is authors comments on trading wisdom, like "first loss is the best loss". Then, there are some ramblings on normal ditributions and Capital asset pricing theory. About 60 pages are appendices on completely irrelevant topics like he writes Black-Scholes formula, or normal distribution, or his grandiose program duplicated in C and Basic.

The "stuff" of this book, which is the so-called "f-ratio" is explained on about ten pages. You can understand it, although it is not a clear explanation. Better probably to read it where the author got it in the first place. It is difficult to say if f-ratio has much practical importance because of assumption of indefinite divisibility of trading contracts.

Most of all this book reminded me a project done overnight for a school or college class where you put a little stuff in the middle and then pad it for volume with anything you can come up with because you need to satisfy the minimum length requirement.

The problem with optimal f is that the calculation is highly dependent on the largest loss on a trade (not drawdown) experienced in backtesting. If you use optimal f and the largest loss in actual trading is greater than the loss experienced in backtesting, you will go bankrupt. Vince deals with this problem in an offhanded manner by suggesting that the actual f you use should be "padded". OK, so in the end you don't even use the actual optimal f, you pad it. And how much do I pad it by? Vince is silent on this question. So the purpose of optimal f - to decide by formula how much capital to allocate to a trade - is totally negated by the fact that you must "pad" optimal f. And you must pad it by a qualitativly determined amount because, again, Vince gives no formula on how much to pad it by. Optimal f is totally useless for system traders or any other trader for that matter.

... this book is incredible. I have a degree in mathematics and the principles expressed are extremely sound -- but far more important than the formulas are the first couple of chapters which cause you to view trading in a very different, and statistical, manner. Although the theories in this book can really only be applied to a trading system (which I haven't really used), after reading this book over several times I understand that there is a mathematical certainty that I will eventually lose my trading capital if I don't start approaching trading in a more systematic fashion. Anyway, I highly recommend it -- the sections on gambling theory alone are worth buying it.

It appears that Gotthelf dictated much of this book into a tape recorder, some far-away typist created the manuscript, and nobody bothered to read or edit the final result. How else to explain that "Jim Ellis is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Oracle" on p.43 (I thought it was Larry Ellison)? These sorts of editorial lapses are rife throughout the book.

To name but a few examples, Fig 6.5 caption says "Cash Currency trading screen" but it's actually a bar chart of Yen futures (p.124)

The data for Figure 8.11 (a perpetual contracts bar chart of Yen) is presented with the caption of Figure 8.10 ("Soybeans futures monthly chart"). No soybeans chart is presented at all; instead, a Nikkei futures chart mysteriously appears (p. 212)

Figure 8.41 is printed upside down! (p.236). Honestly. This is perhaps the ultimate insult to the reader and ought to be a source of acute embarrassment to the editor and author.

Academy Award nominee James Caan, with two a's, will be amused to read p. 89 which states "... has been depicted in fiction such as the movie Rollerball starring James Cann" with two n's.

Those who buy the book believing it may deliver on the dustjacket's promise "How to trade the world's biggest market" will receive a disappointment. The only trading strategy Gotthelf reveals is "Go Long when price crosses above a moving average, Go Short when price crosses below a moving average." Then he regurgitates standard methods of creating a synthetic position using options. There is absolutely nothing new here.

No review would be complete without mentioning Gotthelf's mysterious concept of Parity. First he tells you it's "a ratio that always equals one" (page 24). Next he tells you "there are no exact relationships" in FOREX (page 32), leaving you to wonder how Parity could always equal one if there are no exact relationships. Then he muddles through two hundred more pages and eventually you, the reader, decode the fact (which Gotthelf never bothers to state exactly) that his "Parity" actually means "Equilibrium". Great. But where's the insight?

I own several other Wiley Finance books and all of them have wonderful quotes from important figures in the trading world, in the form of testimonials and gushing recommendations on the rear dustjacket. Kaufman's "Trading Systems and Methods" has five, Hill and Pruitt's "The Ultimate Trading Guide" has four, Ryan Jones's "The Trading Game" has five, Sweeney's "Maximum Adverse Excursion" has three, et cetera ad nauseum. But this currency book by Gotthelf has exactly zero quotes on the dustjacket. No recommendations, no congratulations, no endorsements. I suggest you follow the advice of everyone who DIDN'T write a recommendation for Gotthelf's book: stay away.

As the author of the book "Futures For Small Speculators" I tend to be very critical of books that discuss my industry. Although this book had a few editorial mistakes, Mr.Gotthelf still did a solid job of getting his point across. For a beginner this is a great start. For more indepth analysis I would go to Mr. Cornelius Luca's books.

OK, I don't know if Soros used this resource, but he probably would have enjoyed it. This is a classic for anyone who wants to engage in serious trading or speculation in the foreign exchange markets. This book entertains as it illustrates. One caveat is convertibility risk detailed in Tavakoli's book on "Credit Derivatives". We saw this happen in several Latin American countries, Iran, and more, and that effects settlement on foreign exchange and foreign exchange options. Another product Tavakoli writes about is credit default contingent foreign exchange. One can speculate and earn big premiums, but the risk is difficult to evaluate.

I stopped reading this book after the first 7 chapters. It's easy going conceptually, but manages to be very irritating for the following reasons: The "definitions" are often confusing and unilluminating, although the examples that follow generally manage to get the idea across. There are also a large number of mathematical errors, which I was able to clear up only because I'm already familiar with the essentials of VaR. As a first introduction, the book is therefore useless. Perhaps the remaining 10 chapters of the book are of sterling quality -- to hedge against this eventuality I award two stars, rather than just one -- but I will be seeking another source.

[And shame, shame, shame on Wiley Finance's editors. Apart from the above errors, here are just two howlers that prove that the book was published before anybody read it: "Neper's number" for e (Napier?), "phenomene" as plural of phenomena (which would have made a kind of grammatical sense weren't it for the fact that phenomena is alread the plural of phenomenon.) No doubt Wiley Finance believes that sales are unaffected by reputation.]

This book is a detailed and meticulous presentation of the calculations involved in Value at Risk (VaR) measurement. According to authors Pietro Penza and Vipul K. Bansal, Value at Risk is one of the most popular approaches to measuring the risk of harm to financial portfolios. It is a valuable institutional tool. Be aware, though, the book's message and how-to assistance will seem generally irrelevant to individual investors, except for a handful of extremely high net worth individuals at the top of the Forbes 400. Its calculations are beyond the ken of most non-mathematicians, but they will intrigue the right audience. We find this book to be a useful addition to the libraries of professional investors, bankers or risk managers, particularly those with highly developed analytical skills and a certain degree of comfort with financial engineering. Some other financial managers and lay readers will find useful information here, though they may need to walk on tiptoes through those sections of the content that are over their heads.

Penza and Bansal has done a good work on making a whole picture of Market Risk Measurement. With the clear explanation, it helps the beginners to quickly grasp the concept on Market Risk Measurement. It is well organized in 16 chapters, beginning with a few chapters on financial risk management in banking, including a review on the traditional Asset/ Liability Management. The review on Mathematical and statistical techniques is very well described. The authors also explained the analysis of pricing financial assets, including Fixed-income, equity, and derivative. Finally, they show the common methodologies to calculate VaR-Parametric, Historical Simulation and Monte Carlo Simulation.

I considered this book as a good literature review on Value at Risk, but not the step-by-step one. It provides complete set of formulas but too few examples. I recommend for beginning- and intermediate-level readers who want to know the overall concept of Value at Risk.