The FOREX Trading Course: A Self-Study Guide to Becoming a Successful Currency Trader is a very well written book by Abe Cofnas, who is one of the leading FOREX trading columnists in the business. In this book, he focuses on teaching the reader how to become a successful currency trader starting with the basics and advancing through to sophisticated trading strategies. It is one of the few books on foreign currency exchange trading that provides expert guidance and depth of knowledge in a step by step format that is truly educational for the reader.
Who might benefit from this book?
Based on the title of the book The FOREX Trading Course: A Self-Study Guide to Becoming a Successful Currency Trader, you might think this is a book that only the beginner or novice trader might find of benefit. While it certainly fills the needs of those new to the currency trading market, it also contains enough deeper information to be a handy resource for experienced traders as well. From start to finish, it teaches key lessons about the FOREX market and provides practical, real world advice on all aspects of trading in foreign currency.
The lessons contained in this book are appropriate for all types of traders, from those who focus on short term trades to those who are more interested in speculation for the long term. What makes them particularly helpful is the structure Cofnas gives to every topic. He puts the information into distinct sections, each building on the one before it, to ensure the reader has the knowledge necessary before moving on to the next topic. At the end of each section, The FOREX Trading Course: A Self-Study Guide to Becoming a Successful Currency Trader includes a both a review and a question and answer segment. This makes it very easy to assess understanding and re-read information as needed to fully grasp each concept.
In depth explanation for a complete array of subjects
The FOREX Trading Course: A Self-Study Guide to Becoming a Successful Currency Trader contains more than just tidbits of information about important subjects; rather, it tackles each topic directly, providing in depth explanations that are extremely easy to read and understand. Easy to read does not mean shallow or incomplete, however; just the opposite is true, as the specifics and details in this book are among the very best to be found.
Here are just a few examples of the wide array of subjects you will learn about in this book:
Basics of the FOREX market – Until very recently, only the largest banks and financial institutions actively participated in the foreign currency exchange market, but with the dramatic growth of the internet and e-commerce it is now an investment area easily accessible to individual traders. It is a huge market – the largest financial market in the world – and can be quite risky to traders who do not understand the basics of how things work.
This book provides excellent discussions of the basics of the FOREX market, starting with the fundamental structure and operation of the currency exchange. It includes good insight into the role inflation plays in the currency market as well as real world guidance on how all sorts of information and statistics about economic growth can be used to spot profitable trading opportunities. There is a good discussion of the growing influence of China in the global financial marketplace, as well as how foreign currency exchange is connect to the commodities marketplace.
Finally, The FOREX Trading Course: A Self-Study Guide to Becoming a Successful Currency Trader provides a wealth of information about the effects on the currency market of consumer and business confidence. This is coupled with specific review of the characteristics of the major currencies traded on the market, with extra attention paid to the U.S. dollar. All of this foundational information contributes to an initial overview of how to conduct proper fundamental analysis to aid trading decisions.
Using technical analysis to make trading decisions - Technical analysis is critical to successfully trading in the foreign currency exchange market, requiring traders to understand some key mathematical models that are commonly used. The FOREX Trading Course: A Self-Study Guide to Becoming a Successful Currency Trader has a thorough discussion of all kinds of technical analysis for mapping currency pricing action and movement. There is also a section that defines the concepts of support and resistance, providing the measurement tools that are best suited to measuring the degree to which they exist in the marketplace.
The reader also learns a great deal about volatility in the foreign currency exchange market in a section that looks at several dimensions of the marketplace. Charts, price patterns, and trending tools are discussed in depth because these are critical tools for every trader to grasp. Finally, trading strategies and trading setups are reviewed, helping the reader to identify which one or more of these might be best suited to their needs.
Putting the pieces into place – The final section of The FOREX Trading Course: A Self-Study Guide to Becoming a Successful Currency Trader takes all of the pieces discussed in the first two sections and puts them into place to cement key concepts and strategies into the reader’s understanding. It includes information about the advantages and disadvantages of using demonstration accounts to get a feel for currency trading, as well as practical guidance on the challenges and opportunities presented in the market for trading accounts of varying sizes.
Patience, persistence, and steady growth
Throughout the entire book, Cofnas emphasises that there is no substitute for having the patience and persistence to create steady growth in the currency exchange market. The individual trader’s path to success lies not in making a handful of enormous profits, but rather in learning how to spot opportunities that allow for incremental growth while minimizing risk exposure.
This message is perhaps the strongest reason to buy and read The FOREX Trading Course: A Self-Study Guide to Becoming a Successful Currency Trader. Why? Because all too often, those who trade on the foreign currency exchange market simply do not understand (or want to understand) the underlying trading principles that lead to long term success. Cofnas stresses these principles repeatedly, helping the reader to absorb the important lessons of creating and following a thoughtful trading strategy.
About the author
Abe Cofnas, the author of The FOREX Trading Course: A Self-Study Guide to Becoming a Successful Currency Trader, has been well known in the world of foreign currency exchange trading since 2001. He is a widely read columnist for the magazine Futures and is the founder of one of the best interactive training web sites for aspiring FOREX traders. He is both a skilled writer and a skilled teacher, communicating concepts and ideas in the kind of conversational language that readers of all levels will easily understand.
How many people can explain things like Fibonacci analysis, trend line breaks, pivot point analysis, and the like, without creating a dull, dry text that will bore the reader to tears? Abe Cofnas is one of the few who can do this, and he does it very, very well.
Final thoughts
Easy to read language is important but accurate and worthwhile information is even more important, and The FOREX Trading Course: A Self-Study Guide to Becoming a Successful Currency Trader has a wealth of that between its front and back covers. All of this information is cemented into the minds of readers with the use of review and question and answer opportunities at the end of each section. These tools alone set this book apart from many others because they are critical to the self study structure of the book.
The bottom line is that this is a truly comprehensive resource. The FOREX Trading Course: A Self-Study Guide to Becoming a Successful Currency Trader will provide you with the depth of knowledge and breadth of understanding necessary to become a successful trader on the foreign exchange currency market.