Forex Books

since the introduction of the candlestick method to the US some two decades
ago, it caused a revolution in perceiving how the bullish and bearish forces
perform in the Western markets. It has become a popular charting tool, as traders have used candlesticks to make chart formations easier to spot and name. But interpreting candlesticks can be challenging. To make things easier, the heikin-ashi technique modifies the traditional candlestick chart. Let's take a look at how it works. The heikin-ashi method {heikin means "average" or "balance" in Japanese, while ashi means "foot" or "bar") is a visual technique that eliminates irregularities from a normal chart, offering a better picture of trends and consolidations. Just by looking at a candlestick chart created with this method, you get a good idea of the market's status and its strength. Take a look at the candlestick chart of Canon ADR in Figure 1A versus the heikin-ashi modified chart in Figure 1B. Which chart would you prefer to use?

There comes a time in the life of every investor when he or she runs out of money to invest: the birth of a baby, purchase of a home, a second child, braces, another baby (oops!), and, later on, tuition payments, wedding expenses, a second home. All of these can temporarily suspend regular investment plans. Permanent crimps in investing can arise when retirement plans are fully funded or retirement itself commences. Professionals and nonprofessionals alike are subject to the laws of supply and demand, and can find themselves at times between jobs, underemployed, or just plain out of work. These things happen to us all, and for most, the idea of maintaining regular investment plans during such tribulations seems impossible. Where will the money come from? I have been a regular investor for over three decades, faithfully putting aside the dollars needed for retirement and stuffing them into stocks, bonds, and mutual funds.

Several years ago I had the pleasure of taking Cynthia Kase on a speaking (teaching) tour to Italy and throughout many mid-eastern countries, I could easily discern that her mind was always at work. She would not take the traditional, commonly used technical analysis studies for granted, but would investigate carefully where others had blazed a trail, using their observations as a jumping off place from which to begin truly unique research. An outside observer could see at the time that she had already mined the rough gems. I can tell it took work and dedication to polish these ideas into the methodology described in this book. The book is filled with unique observations. They are best summed up by Cynthia’s own comments on the present “state of the art” of the common routines published and used by technicians today She feels that today, even with the availability of powerful computers, we are still living too close to the past where most technical analysis was done by hand, or, at best, using spreadsheets on fairly crude computers.

I just sold a stock for $23 that I bought last week for $18. What a high! That is the
pleasure of being a trader, being right. Taking a profit is great, but the money is not as important as the success. I think the best trader is the one who only uses the money to keep score. He treats trading as a challenge. In the pages that follow we are going to be looking at some unique methods of analysis that can help to make trading more successful and therefore more fun. When I say traders I am thinking primarily of those who buy individual stocks and hold them for a period of days, or at most a few weeks. All the examples we look at will be concerned with that time frame. That is not to say the methodology is not applicable to other time frames, it is. But our emphasis will be on short term trading. If we can think of the market movements as consisting of tides, waves and ripples, we are going to be looking at the waves.

To trade effectively, you must first have a plan, laying out a strategy for the upcoming trading day. Your plan should encompass your mental preparation, your technical analysis of the market, entry and exit points, and the nature of the market, itself. In this Seven-Part Course, I'll lead you through the highlights of devising a plan to trade. Our focus is on Stock Index Futures - in particular, S&Ps and NASDAQ - but many of these lessons can be applied to any market. My goal is to help you - whether a novice or an experienced trader - to trade better by preparing better. In Part 1, we examine the first step in devising a plan - preparing mentally for the trading day. You can't just start trading without mental preparation any more than a professional football player could just suit up and go out on the field. This mental preparation underscores what I consider to be the first requirement of trading - discipline.

First, I have to apologize in advance. This book barely mentions Coca-Cola or the Washington Post. I also don’t really talk about the many fine companies that Berkshire Hathaway has bought over the past three decades (See’s Candies, the Pampered Chef, Dairy Queen, National Furniture Mart, and others). There are many excellent books that cover these topics. And while Warren Buffett has made billions of dollars from these investments, I don’t think I can add to the already great dialogue that has taken place on these topics. Nor is this book really about value investing. There are many definitions of value investing and many treatises on value versus growth. But even Buffett has stated that on the whole, the distinctions between value and growth are nonsense. This book is about the various ways that Buffett has applied the concept of “margin of safety” outside of his buy-and-hold strategies.

Trading is a life experience, it is not like any other business. As you become a better trader, you become a better person. But as you evolve it is difficult to look back at where you were. I believe this is why there are no other books which cover all the ground. Those traders who do make it often “forget” how they got there, not surprisingly, as a lot of the skills become subconscious. However, John has always combined his trading with writing about markets. This has given him a fairly unique insight and forced him to express personal matters which other traders just assume. It has also forced him to more carefully examine the precise process involved in becoming a successful trader. It is solely through this process that John Piper “discovered” the Trading Pyramid. This is the first attempt to create a model for trading success and traders will find it immensely useful. So not only does this book take the trader right through from the beginning to the end result (trading profits, lots of them!) it also provides a framework against which to work.