Book Review > Getting Started in Forex Trading Strategies

I must confess that I really struggled with this trading book. The title led me to believe that if I was new to Forex that the book would assist in introducing me to the practicalities of developing a Forex trading strategy. Instead I found the text difficult to follow, overcomplicated and even unnecessarily repetitive in places. The accompanying diagrams are often very confusing and even though I tried hard to see the relevance, I found them of little or no help in understanding the text.

There is some quite useful commentary on the ways to capture trading information in the forms of different types of diaries (Chapter 4 & 14). Other chapters are devoted to the development of the Codex (the author’s name for a trading plan or strategy) and they cover the standard areas of trading tools, money management as well as the softer elements of style, psychology and attitude.

As far as trading tools are concerned the reader is introduced to the concepts of volatility and thickness and also to the Goodman Swing Count System and Goodman Waves (different to Elliot Waves). However, explanations are often difficult to understand, seem overly complicated and readers are told that if they want to learn more about the Goodman method they should visit the quoted website. Standard technical analysis patterns are listed but not explored further. The two entry techniques described are based on entering after a pullback (the author calls this the Dagger Entry Method) and the other on a measured moved Breakaway Method. Four stop loss “techniques” are listed and a very brief explanation provided in one paragraph.

Both entry and stop topics, although quite brief, may have been helpful if the information provided in the preceding chapters could be logically fitted into some sort of context. Instead it seemed to me that there is a lot of complicated information provided but no clear simple explanation of how to bring it all together.

The chapters devoted to money management, psychology and style yield very little information that is of much practical use and these topics have been explained more effectively in other texts.

The author obviously knows Forex but you are probably not going to get what you need from this book if you are just starting out in the Forex market.

Joanne Stuhmcke is a member of the AIA.