Forex Book

4 Reviews

1. Jan:

   After having read many books on forex markets and forex trading, I have to say the Ed Ponsi manages to deliver the best insights ever – and he does this invariably every single time. Even before going further, I already would recommend this book to you strongly. In particular, I liked the section on the report by the Commitment of Traders and how one can use it as a trader. There were other really useful sections on intervention. One portion that was devoted to the variations of exchange rates and interest rates in carry trade was especially informative for me. I felt that these things had never been explained with such diligence and lucidity in any other text on forex.
   Even while dealing with slightly more complicated topics, Ponsi writes with such confidence and clarity that you cannot but help get the idea clear in your head. I would say that his writing has something quite positive and motivating about him, apart from being a pleasant read. Ed comes off as someone who actually knows his business and enjoys whatever he does.
   Even though some of the initial chapters do deal with basic numerical methods, I feel that a beginner might still feel somewhat left high and dry. For them I suggest Ponsi’s earlier release: “Forex Patterns and Probabilities” to be read before this one. The numerical strategies and techniques used in the current release are more of expansions of things stated in the previous one.
   Lastly, if you wish to build up a rock-solid foundation in forex, you should not leave out Ed Ponsi from your reading list.

   6 January 2011, 4:35 am

2. MartianTrader:

   Even while I am a great admirer of Ed Ponsi, I think this time around he might be misleading people with his choice of the title of his new release: The Ed Ponsi Forex Playbook – Strategies and trade Set-Ups. More so, the subtitle and the cover art with the sports game strategy diagram seem to suggest that he will list out detailed plans and tactic lineups. His recommended trade set-ups are to trade off 10 and 20 daily moving averages and the game tactics are to keep an option of adding to a winner trade while it is retracing. Like I didn’t know that already.
   That’s not all – page after page (in the beginning) is devoted to fresher-level concepts such currency pairs, pip values, lot size, and so on. For people like me, who don’t have enough patience to be treated like a beginner at this stage of our careers, this tends to become a little trying and tedious. Frankly speaking, there are a lot of textbooks that deal with such stuff, so I don’t see the point in Ponsi reiterating all of those – he could have simply given some pointers to those books where these concepts are dealt with and expected the reader to come after doing the necessary homework.
   What’s even stranger is that the same book that starts by defining pip value also has sections telling you how to trade someone else’s money. I feel the problem was that Ponsi wanted to please almost everyone – right from the entry-level novice to the person managing hedge funds. I hope he realizes now that he could not manage to do so in the 200 paged book.
   The selling point of the book – as stated in the subtitle – is the mention of sources of information that ultimately give you a head start to the behavior of currency pairs. One example of such a source is the Commitment of Traders (COT) report – a document that most intermediate- and entry-level traders are unaware of. It’s good advice but it doesn’t change the game in the end – I mean, do you take the COT report for its word, or do you play safe? In the end, it’s back to square one.
   Another selling point is that Ponsi points out (not so unintelligently) that the real bucks are to be made in the longer haul and not in the daily trades. Well, that depends on the perspective you hold of the market in the end – many would say.
   I would suggest you read this book in any case, not because you want what it says in the title or in the back-cover but because it has a lot of small tips and tricks and little insights that will make you a better trader. Don’t expect a miracle cure, but a small dose of good old common sense.

   6 January 2011, 4:35 am

3. Alexander:

   There are a lot of people in the world who can say that they shall teach you how to trade, but most of them are only a waste of your time – except Ed Ponsi. Ed Ponsi had also authored a previous book called Forex Pattern and Probabilities before this one. As I have been an admirer of Ed’s work for quite some time now, and have kept a track of what he comes out with, I can safely tell you that in this book, he has definitely outdone himself as a teacher who explain complex strategies in a simple way. The book is divided in to five sections in increasing level of complexity. The first section is a preliminary foundation-building section and then it goes up and up from there. By the time you reach the end, you even gain the insight to find out mistakes that you had been making and how to fix them. For me, this book has made a world of difference in how I trade. Besides recommending this one I also urge you to buy the previous one as well so that you can really get what he is talking about. Ed, I can’t thank you enough for giving us this book.

   6 January 2011, 4:36 am

4. zinger:

   Back in 2005, I had taken an online forex trading course designed for beginners. Amongst my instructors was a guy named Ed Ponsi. After the course was over, I would often go back to the forum posts that I had saved on my computer – looking for tips and advice from those discussions. I realized that out of all four instructors – Ed was the only one who actually gave you something that really worked – or was workable in practice.
   Even then, I would often feel later that most of what I had learnt still remained uncrystallized. I was not sure how to get my thoughts in order. Thus, I had written to Ed and asked him for help. He simply recommended me a book which, even though it was helpful, contained a lot of unnecessary fluffy material that I threw it away.
   Then, in 2007, I saw that Ed came out with his own book called Forex Patterns and Probabilities. I guess maybe he got tired of recommending his students books that didn’t work or were not written as well. Well, Ed’s book was exactly what I had been looking for – all of my learning was in there – streamlined, revisable and accessible. So, when I saw that The Ed Ponsi Playbook on the stands – I was naturally curious to what might be in it.
   I found that this new book expands on just one of the strategies that he had put forth in the earlier one. But in what a way! You can count on Ponsi to evolve that strategy in a beautiful and marvelous way to elucidate how long term goals can be attained on the forex. It was a superb marriage of strategic planning, market fundamentals, economic forces, and technical markers. For a trader like myself, who has taken quite a beating at times in short term trading, Ed Ponsi shows how the long term trades are the real thing. I look forward to it now.

   6 January 2011, 4:37 am