Book Review > Wiley Trading Guide: Volume II

This is the follow up volume for “The Wiley trading Guide (2010)”.

The format is exactly the same as “The Wiley Trading Guide” with a diverse range of Authors and trading topics brought together by the publisher.

My first response when reading the book is that it is a subtle form of marketing for all participants. Every article presents a succinct and useful trading strategy for a variety of asset classes in the equity, Forex and futures.

The Authors are all respected and published practitioners in the investment and trading press. I assume most would have had some relationship with the publisher with prior personal publications.

The smorgasbord approach of this type of publication allows the reader to pick and see. If you are attracted to the story, the authors style or the product then you can seek for more at the appropriate web site or prior publication. Investment in Australia has a constant flow of marketing of trading ideas, systems and software to a predictable group of new and possibly unskilled retirees.

This book will probably sell well as the public is generally seeking a reassuring quick fix to the challenge of wealth management.

To the publishers credit they have placed the most educational and confronting first in the volume. Colin Nicholson, who is very well respected by both the AIA and the Australian Technical Analysts Association, opens the batting with a Chapter titled “Planning to succeed, the Journey from Novice to a great Investor.” Colin presents in his succinct style the emotional & psychological requirements to really succeed in the content that follows in this book.

Colin represents investing as a personal journey from Complete Novice who gains experience through time to an ideal state of Good investor. The novice stage is quite challenging to leave behind. He makes the point that most people realise they need more knowledge and their first steps are to latch onto heavily marketed publications, organisations and tip sheets. This particular publication is quite suitable for this particular market. The AIA is really the safest place to venture into the complex information feed and we trust the searching novice considers a membership!

There are some very experienced Australian authors who follow Colin Nicholson in this volume. Chris Shea, David Hunt, Regina Meani and Roger Kinsky have all developed expertise in Trader education and have presented representative articles in a magazine style.

Delia Langdon has a gem for the fundamental investor to consider as she presents the argument for following the smart money. Invest in companies that the insiders invest in by, “Keeping a Close Eye on Company Director’s”

There are a couple of chapters that are probably aimed at sophisticated or specialised readership. Try asking your Financial Planner what she thinks of “Extracting consistent Profit via the Microswing trend capture technique, the critical role of position allocation, money management and opportunity-based exposure in trend trading” by Mark Andrew Lim.

There are some interesting presentations on Swing Trading, Technical Chart patterns and Position sizing for the initiated trader types. There are two chapters on Gold & Oil markets as these never fail to fascinate the resource junkies.

Keith Neilsen presents the ultimate challenge to the elderly computer screen jockey with “Automated Forex Trading, Let your computer do the work.”

In review, it is a useful exercise to read the tone and conclusions from all the authors.

The authors are consistent in the encouragement of a planned approach to any asset purchase. Logical actions are required to recognise when you are correct and proved wrong in your investment decisions.

The Content of 15 Chapters are-

1. Planning to Succeed – Colin Nicholson
2. Market –Conscious trading- Chris Shea.
3. The importance of position size- Cartridge & Jessen.
4. Success in the day trading game- Jacob Bernstein.
5. Big profits from small caps- David Hunt.
6. Applied technical analysis in the oil markets- Tom James.
7. Riding the silver bull market-John Christian.
8. Automated forex trading – Keith Nielsen.
9. Keeping a close eye on company directors- Delia Langdon.
10. Understanding the implications of market context in technical chart patterns- Kacher & Morales.
11. An introduction to Barros Swings- Ray Barros
12. Extracting consistent profit via the Microswing trend capture technique- Mark A. Lim.
13. Pivot Point Analysis- John Person.
14. The Tandem Method – Regina Meani
15. Band Trading- Roger Kinsky.