Anyone a little interested in trading in the financial markets starts by looking for useful information. Whether you want to trade stocks, commodities, currencies, or invest in the stock market, you need to obtain relevant resources. There are many books on trading, but you certainly don’t have time to read them all. You only need to focus on those that will benefit you. That’s why I decided to publish my list of the best forex books. Not only forex traders but also stock, futures, or commodity traders can draw inspiration from them. The psychology of trading is always the same, and the products and strategies are more or less the same too.
Right at the beginning, I will divide the books into two categories. Educational Forex books and books that describe the real moments that have happened in the financial markets.
Educational Forex Books
Educational books should educate. They should contain as much useful information as possible on how to trade, what is the spot, forward, swap. What is the difference between a short and long position, what types of instructions can a trader use. What is the interest rate differential, technical analysis, and fundamental analysis. Simply put, everything from that you will need for the trading itself.
After reading the educational books, you will have enough information to feel comfortable installing your first trading platform. Of course, I recommend starting with a demo and not immediately with real money.
The Best Educational Forex Books
Most educational books contain the same thing. You can’t describe Forward in four different ways. Relative Strength Indicator (RSI) also has only one definition. Therefore, I will recommend only two books.
Anna Coulling – Forex for Beginners
The first is from Anna Coulling. Her Forex for Beginners is a well-written overview of everything you will need before opening a demo account for the first time. It will not teach you how to make money, but it will give you enough information so that you do not feel lost in the world of Forex. Thanks to it, you will master the basic terminology, and if you try, no one will catch you in the inability to calculate the roll-over of open positions.
If you are missing any specific information, I recommend Investopedia instead of another beginner’s book. Investopedia.com is a unique and most comprehensive source of information on financial products. Nowadays, financial instruments have become too complex and rapidly evolving. Therefore, forex books cannot capture the speed of innovation, and it is necessary to learn quickly. Investopedia is the perfect source to keep your hand on the pulse of time.
With the book by Anna Coulling, you got enough information, but I would recommend one more before you start trading.
Simon Kostrava – Forex: How to Quickly Lose a Lot
The book by Simon Kostrava is not very long, but it will provide you with a perfect overview of all possible mistakes you could make in forex trading. The name speaks for itself. As you know, it is better to learn from the mistakes of others than your own. And since trading is about real money, every mistake, even the smallest one, brings a financial loss. And you want to avoid that. So in this short book, you will find how unscrupulous brokers perform fraudulent activities. What mistakes do you make yourself when you are not mentally well set up. How serious brokers make money on you and what to avoid when you have an open trade.
Forex books on real events
Once you have mastered the trading technique, your profitability will be determined by the strategy you choose. You will have to make several decisions every day. For example, what asset, currency pair do you want to focus on, where to open a position, where to close it, how to set a “take profit” and a “stop-loss” order.
And here you have two options. You will either make decisions intuitively, or you will copy the actions of others. And you don’t have to copy right away; just get inspired. And that’s the part I like best. Books that deal with the events that happened. How did the best traders react to the increased volatility, how did they come to their decision, which influenced them, what they thought when something was happening in the markets. You can find all this in books by authors who have experienced something on the market.
But beware, not every forex guru is also a skilled writer. I have a pile of books in the library with the name of a renowned author on the cover but poor content.
The best Forex books about real events
Here I would like to give my choice of the three best books on real-life Forex. Stories that happened through the eyes of the immediate actors. I consider two of them to be top books from the financial markets, I have some reservations about the third, but it still deserves mention.
Jordan Belfort; The Wolf of Wall Street
Everyone knows the Wolf of Wall Street’s story, but almost no one has read this book. Leonardo di Caprio, in a film inspired by the book The Real Jordan Belfort, was famous and therefore stuck in memory. In fact, the book is even better. The story of a talented businessman who set out on crooked sidewalks is also worth reading. An insight into the mentality of a man who has become rich and, in time, is not shy to do anything to earn. It’s not a bad book, but if you want an insight into how one chooses business strategies, I recommend looking elsewhere. However, in Jordan Belfort’s book, you get a better overview of the different addiction types to different types of medications.
Watch it here on Amazon Prime
Nick Leeson; Rogue Trader
The film was made based on this book too. It did not reach the Wolf of Wall Street’s fame, but the book is worth reading. At the same time, the story of a bank official who gradually built his career until the British Barings Bank went bankrupt is even better than the Belfort’s.
The book is well written, as the author had plenty of time to write while serving his sentence in prison. So he gets an excellent resume of a man who developed into a significant businessman in Asia with his own will and abilities. And then the fall comes.
The first error was followed by others. Then the story changes to run away from responsibility. A successful and valued trader becomes damned due to his own mistakes.
I recommend it to anyone who trades to get rich because the first profit credited to the account can wave the forex trader’s psyche more than the first loss.
Simon Kostrava, Forex Case Studies
I have already mentioned Simon Kostrava in part dedicated to educational books. His second book has the dry title Forex Case Studies, but the subtitle “Market Turbulence in the Past Decade in the words of Traders” suggests that it will not be downright dull.
The book covers three recent events that have swept the financial markets and, subsequently, the traders’ accounts. It deals with the Swiss Central Bank’s actions, which first introduced a limit on the strengthening of the Swiss franc to remove it surprisingly later. A financial earthquake-triggered that day, wiping out several forex brokers and many more retail traders.
The second part describes the events that led to Brexit and the reaction of financial markets to the British referendum results. In the third part, for me, he surprisingly deals with Slovakia and its entry into the Eurozone. And he will also mention the yacht in Monaco.
All three parts contain factual data on individual events and, at the same time, the statements of traders about how they saw what was going on in the market, what they were doing, and how they reacted when the screens started flashing red. Here you get an insight into the mentality of real traders.