The Universal Principles of Successful Trading: Essential Knowledge for All Traders in All Markets

 

Frankly, I forgot how I ended up buying this book, haha... These days, I hardly touch any trading books as most of the trading books offer more or less the same stuff... In terms of trading books, there is really nothing new under the sun...

This book was published around year 2010. Surprisingly, the said year marked a beginning of algorithm in financial market. Assume this book was prepare by the author around 2008, it was the end of subprime crisis and the book preparation ended with the beginning of algorithm all over the world. So, this book precisely implies the whole situation. The huge bear run during subprime made traders aware the need of quicker execution via algorithm... and yet, the principles stated in this book simply ignore the changes (damages?) via algorithm. So, this comes to the conclusion on this book: It has everything except ignoring the impact of quicker and faster trading styles. 

Having said that, this book covered almost everything a trader needs. It started with the mechanism via statistical, follow by phycology of trading mentality and ended with superb summary on the universal principles of successful trading. As an old and bold trader, I 100% agreed with the content on this book. For trader like me, this book served as a good revision (it did not took up a lot of time for me to read it) and some nice refreshment that sums up my 20 years journey as a trader. As such, I highly recommend this book despite the facts that algorithm element were totally ignored throughout this book. For a full rating of 10, I am going to rate this book at 9/10. I am looking forward to see the future edition of this book and I hope I can see some algorithm stuff being discussed along the way. 

From Tulips to Bitcoins: A History of Fortunes Made and Lost in Commodity Markets

 

Tulips story is no stranger to all financial guys like me. However, with bitcoins, the story tends to be different...

This book is interesting. It recorded all financial bubbles on commodities from earlier tulips till the latest bitcoins. So, reading this book is like reading a history book (except main focus is on financial cases). Readers tend to learn a lot from the cases presented and the author did so well to present it with clear and precise details. 

However, I found some of the cases presented seems not significant. For trader like me, some cases are just norms of the volatility and does not qualify to be "bubbles". Secondly, it will be good if this book includes all indexes bubbles apart from commodities. After all, commodities, indices, currencies, etc. are correlated in nature. Finally, I expected to see some comments or insight thoughts from the author at the end of every presented cases. However, it is more like a dull history book at the end. Unfortunately, the only wisdom I can found throughout this book is the quote as below:

The discovery of gold triggered a true story global gold rush. However, it was the merchants who generally became rich selling equipment and services.

For a full rating of 10, I am going to rate this book at 6/10. Well, I appreciate the hard-work from author in providing us such a detailed history on the so called "bubbles". However, the whole experience is like a drop in the ocean. I would not said it is a bad book... but simply not enough! As financial bubbles would not stop from now and then, this book will have a revise version sooner or later. Let us hope for a better version in the future... 

Marketing Warfare: How to Use Military Principles to Develop Marketing Strategies

 

I read the Chinese version of this book around 20 years ago... Those days, I was too young, too naïve and too innocent to embrace the cruel reality of the business world. Now, I am in the age of mid 40's... So, I thought it will be nice to revisit this book with older, less naivety and zero innocent brain. Here we go... 

Relatively, I found the Chinese version is much better. First of all, the wording in this original version tends to be confusing at times. I remember I do not have this problem when I read the Chinese version 20 years back. Secondly, although it was a direct translation, surprisingly, the translator did so well in the Chinese version. Usually, the original version tends to be better. This time around, it is the opposite! Finally, the design and structure of this book did not impress me. 20 years back, I do not seem to complain on this if I am not mistaken. So, the conclusion is... an old man is twice the child: tends to demand higher, haha!

Ok, enough of complains! Now, let us look at the bright side. This book overall is so awesome! This is a book with plenty of insightful facts which accompany by tons of real life examples. I do not really study the background of the said authors. But, both really put efforts in writing this book! In this book, there are plenty of theories presented, supported by real facts and real examples to help readers apply in real world. Unfortunately, this book does not have the latest revision. Otherwise, we can have more amazing ideas from authors regarding to the competition in internet and cyber world. 

For a full rating of 10, I am going to rate this book at 9/10. As mentioned above, I do have troubles with wording and structure of this book. The whole book just not smooth in terms of reading despite the contents were prefect even in today's world. The amazing part, after more than 20 years, I still manage to find some nice quotes extracted from the book as below. So, it tells the whole story. This book is simply awesome and first class! Thumbs up!!!

How many times have your heard company people say it's easier to get to the top rather than to stay there? Forget it, that's a myth created by people who are more interested in the study of sociology than they are in recognizing the realities of business competition. It's far easier to stay on top than to get there. The leader, the king of hill can take advantage of the principle of force. 

A general tries to fire up his troops by telling them what good soldiers they are and what great equipment they have. Many marketing generals do the same thing and fall victim to their own rhetoric. They talk themselves into the "better people" or "better product" fallacies. At the end, it is the superior strategy that counts. 

Why fight an offensive war if defense is so attractive? If you can win a marketing battle and become the leading brand, you can enjoy that victory for a long time. Simply because you can now play defense, the stronger form of warfare.

Defensive principles:
1. Only the market leader should consider playing defense.

2. The best defensive strategy is the courage to attack yourself.

3. Strong competitive moves should always be blocked.

4. Be prepared to strike back

5. Keeping something in reserve

6. Reduce your legal exposure

7. Marketing peace

Offensive principles:

1. The main consideration is the strength of the leader's position: How do we decrease their share of the market?

2. Find a weakness in the leader's strength and attack at that point.

3. Launch the attack on as narrow as possible.

Flanking principles:

1. A good flanking move must be made into an uncontested area but close to the leader's position.

2. Tactical surprise ought to be  an important element of the plan.

3. The pursuit is just as critical as the attack itself: Cut your losses and let your winners ride.

4. Flanking with low price, high price, small size, large size, distribution, product form

Guerrilla principles:

1. Find a segment of the market small enough to defend. It could be small geographically, or in volume or in some other aspect difficult for a larger company to attack: Niche and pick a small enough segment so that you can become a leader: example, local store. 

- you seldom read about companies that went under because the market they were concentrating on was too small. On the other hand, you often read about companies torn apart by overexpansion, companies that launch too many markets in too large a geographic area.

2. No matter how successful you become, never act like the leader: The essence of guerrilla strategy and tactics is the opposite of what's right for the Fortune 500 crowd.

- resist temptation to make up formal organization charts, job descriptions, career path and so on. 

3. Be prepared to bug out at a moment's notice: Don't hesitate to abandon a position or product if the battle turn against you. A guerrilla does not have resources to waste. 

- Geographic, demographic, industry, product, high-end (commodities only).

Line extension long term effect is clearly the opposite of the short term effect. In the short term, line extension is almost always a success (diet coke as example). But in long term, line extension is usually a loser's strategy.

Don't spend your money to change uniforms (Burger King vs McDonald). Spend your money to give your troops better weapons.

Marketing myths create false illusions. If we could only develop a better product... and the dreaming goes on and on. You shouldn’t think in terms of betterness, only in terms of differentness.

Every marketers has 3 kinds of products: to advertise, to sell and to make money on. It's wasteful to advertise a product just because you can sell it and make money on it. Would a motion picture theatre advertise the popcorns it sells? No, you advertise the movie and you make money on the popcorns and drinks. Advertise the same items might be a mistake if it undermines your position. 

Defenders can sometimes profit by fielding a full line of products. It's always a mistake for an attacker to do so. 

If the strategy is good, the battle can be won with indifferent tactics. If superb strategies are needed to win the battle, then the strategy is not sound. The marketing general that depends on superior tactics to win the war is usually quick to blame the arm that didn’t work. In today's battleground, that arm is usually the advertising.