This is an interesting book for many reasons. On the one hand it is an interesting look at how CFD trading can be used to develop trading profits. It is a welcome to the real world of trading. The reality is a long way from the glossy brochures produced by the CFD providers. It is also significantly different from the more generalized introduction Davey wrote several years ago on CFD trading.
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Those interested in the reality of trading CFDs will find this a useful book. Those who are looking for techniques, methods, analysis steps, systematic approaches will be disappointed. This book is a personal journey rather than a workbook which can be used as a starting point for developing your own techniques or fine tuning trading approaches.
On the other hand, this book illustrates very well the dangers of not planning when entering a new market and a new market area. Davey notes she started her approach based on nothing more than trial and error. She did not paper trade her ideas first. It was not until she consistently lost money that she decided to back test some ideas to see if they worked. It took her a long time to understand the nature of the market she was dealing with. CFDs are not the stock market. Market depth, liquidity and price behaviour are the most important features of this market. In her summary, Davey acknowledges this, but it takes many trades before she discovers the importance of this feature.
This is a personal journal and Davey describes her experiences in moving from the theoretical understanding of what is involved to the real understanding of what is involved in trading. She notes the irony herself. Having reported on financial markets, interviewed many traders (including myself) and read numerous books, she found that what we all said about the emotional and psychological side of trading was far more important to success than non-traders realize. Davey does bare her soul in this book and this takes some courage. Readers should learn from this. This is an unintended collection of errors typically made by those who first enter the markets with real money. Davey includes her solutions, working with personal trainers, industry professionals and others. The solutions may not work for you, but the extreme emotional situation in which she finds herself, - self doubt, fear, confusion, greed - are the ones faced by every trader.
I find the book is most useful as a study of how new traders struggle against the usual range of problems despite the availability of many books that clearly identify these problems, and provide a range of solutions. A more appropriate title may be "Learning how to Trade," because this is the most useful aspect of this book. I did not find it provided any particular insights about trading CFDs.
Her conclusion that "the largest total returns I made were on the stocks I traded with the smallest losses" is a conclusion consistent with that frequently written about by experienced traders. It's no secret, but from the first day of her trading, she chooses to treat it as if it were. She chooses to learn this the hard way. Her win loss ratio was less than 50% - more losers than winners. The bull market pays for your mistakes and of all the lessons included in this book, this is the one that is not mentioned.