Commodity-markets

Of the many dozens of books I've read on markets, trading and speculation this is clearly the best. Extremely well written, the book is both educational and entertaining. I'm personally convinced that the market approach advocated by the author must be considered by anyone who is involved in the very serious business of speculation. Clearly this book is a classic. I've had it over a decade, read it many times, and find myself in trouble more often than not whan I've forgotten to follow the ideas presented.

This book is not a technical book about the science of trading or speculating. Rather, it presents a compelling and original perspective on the function of speculation in capital markets, and explains what it means to buy low and sell high. Moreover, the book has very little to do with the commodities markets specifically, and a lot to do with general speculating in the financial markets.

The Speculator's Edge is the first book I have read which explains who takes "the other side" of a stock tranaction, and explains why. As a study of the psychology of investors and the market, the book has few peers. Pacelli states the original of this book came from a boast that he could write the best book available on the subject of speculation (and investing) because most books were worthless. He succeeded.

I was first drawn to the works of Peter Steidlmeyer in 1993 as a futures trader by a colleague who explained that the features that I noted about the frenzied interest rate futures markets, had been encapsulated by this author. Without reading the book I tried to monitor the market activities in the profile that had been explained to me. Strangely enough, there was a pattern apparent on the daily sheets of paper that I started to collect.

It was not until late 1999 that I revisited the phenonmenon when I started to trade on my own account from an office. I recalled the works and decided to pick up the book. It was an incredible revelation and revitalised my enthusiasm for day trading. Many people feel that they have a gut instinct in understanding where markets will trade, but Steidlmeyer's statistical approach formalises much of this. I was particularly interested in how his upbringing and his experiences as a child and the responsibilities he was given formed his approach to trading as a pro. From the writing you will learn the importance of watching rather than partaking in the opening hour of the market, which is often a money saver. it will teach you rules of discipline, because it makes sense.

What I failed to take away from the book in working practice was the application of options volume from the 'far-traders,' the people who were bothered about the long-term haul, and how this could be witnessed in practice. There is certainly a lot of truth in it, but I could not match this with my experience as a day trader. The statistical comprehension of Market Profile is skillfully explained and is profitable to those who adopt it. the book is well written, understandable to the novice and is sound advice.

The book was written 1997, do not get confused with the publishing date of 2003. The printed daily line charts are from 1997 without hardly any description. The same almost applies to the numerous useless pages filled with tables of historical spread trades that could have been done between 1981 and 1996. This book does not contain stategies at all. Furthermore the book is full of sentences of the following kind: "Computer generated Numbers. Most traders have a library of proven computer numbers. They may be applied with success in spread trading. The only caveat however, is that they usually are not self-contained systems and should be used along with the several other devices I have spoken about."
My advice: Walk away from this trade!

The title is very misleading due to the fact that this book contains no trading strategies. It does, however, do a good job of talking about the psychology of trading (one of the most important aspects). The interviews are good but contain no real practical knowledge. In my opinion, save the money and go for another, perhaps more advanced book if you're concerned with trading strategies. I will not even recommend this book to the beginner for it requires a broad knowledge of how the trading floor works. This book mentions little about value (the MOST important thing about legging and trading spreads). As far as spread trading goes, this isn't the one. Dan Vassallo (New York Cotton Exchange).

I'm a professional spread trader on the floor of the CBOT and found Spread Trading to be right on the money.I spread Bonds to Ten Years And Grains;not only is this book to the point-no filler-but also covers the all important issue of trader psychology.Howard abell is known on the trading floor and this book reveals why.