To tell the long story short — Rob Booker's The Currency Trader's Handbook isn't a good book on trading. It is a very "general book", which can be interesting only to new Forex traders (or to desperate experienced ones), and its pages have an unbearable ratio of small talk to useful content. A comparison with Ed Ponsi's Forex Patterns & Probabilities comes to mind and the latter looks much better. But let's get to the detailed review of this Forex book...
The book is very short (only 114 pages) and there is little to read on every page. It would be a great advantage, but only if those pages contained some really helpful information. Rob lays out the following theses, among others less important, in his book:
- Profitable Forex trading is possible — no matter how much you have lost before.
- Aiming for small gains is a viable tactic in Forex.
- Avoiding loss is the main priority — the smallest gain is always better than any loss.
- Confidence is very important in Forex trading.
- Emotions can be used to help you trade.
- Discipline should be practiced by Forex traders. Any trading talent is nothing without discipline.
- Trading is boring for successful professional traders.
- It is easier to learn trading with a coach or a mentor.
- The period of day when you trade is very important.
There were others (especially in his 10 Rules of Trading), but they were mentioned only once in the book and weren't emphasized as strongly as the theses listed above. Despite an overall quite poor impression from this Handbook, there were certain advantages in it, which can be enjoyed:
- A fun writing style. At least you won't be bored while reading it.
- Mentions of several very important things (like a trading journal, being honest about your trading results, etc.). Unfortunately, they are just brief references.
- This book can have a good psychological impact if you have lost much in Forex recently.
- Some basic ideas for trading systems.
But even these advantages probably won't stop you from regretting the moment you have bought the book and spent time reading it. The Currency Trader's Handbook certainly has its huge disadvantages:
- The book teaches you almost nothing.
- It contains some really strange mistakes (like the list of incorrect margin values required to hold positions).
- Ads of Rob Booker's site — yeah, there are free things too there, but the ads are ads and you don't really expect to see them in a paid book.
- 10 pips "strategy" can be quite dangerous for new Forex traders — they will learn to cut profits short.
- His 5/13/62 strategy isn't a real "strategy" — it is just a set of entry rules with some incomplete guidance for exits. Not a word about position sizing or what to do in case the order of the moving averages changes. All numbers are given in pips, which doesn't make a lot of sense, since 100 pips in GBP/JPY is nothing like 100 pips in EUR/GBP.
There are better Forex books to spend your time and money on. And if you have already read everything else, then there will be little new or interesting in this Handbook for you. Even if you are a newbie trader — choose something else as your starting book. Reading Rob's writings can be useful only if you need some psychological comforting after unsuccessful trading periods.
If you have any questions, comments, or opinion regarding The Currency Trader's Handbook by Rob Booker, feel free to discuss it on our Forex forum.
