Advanced Futures Trading Strategies

 

I am back after a crazy 2023!!! Throughout last year, it was the first time ever that I do not read a single book. I tried, but every time failed due to time constraint and being occupied by handful of jobs on hand... 

Surprisingly, when I am back, the first book that crossed my mind was this book. 

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...