“How To Make Money In The Medium Term In Up, Down, and Sideways Markets”
Today I’ve just finished reading Winning Spread Betting Strategies by Malcolm Pryor. In fact, it’s probably the third or fourth time I’ve read it since buying it a few years ago. Amongst the dozens of trading books in my own library, this has to be one of the most practical.
Malcolm shows how a trader can use a variety of 7 different strategies to make money during any market type. When I say market type, I’m talking about the overall market (Malcolm uses the FTSE All-Share here) which, loosely speaking can be trending up, down or just moving sideways. I believe this is a key concept which not many other strategy books explain.
When designing a strategy you absolutely must know in which overall market type that it works or maybe more importantly, doesn’t work.
I speak from experience. I struggled for a long time until I realised that you cannot build that ‘one strategy fits all’ that works year in year out whatever the market type. If anyone has created this ‘Holy Grail’ strategy, then I’d love to hear about it!
Who Is This Book For?
This book is aimed primarily at technical traders like myself. Trades are taken from identifying technical setups from charts. Malcolm has used weekly charts and suggests the trades should last anywhere from a week to a number of months. However I believe the ideas he shows can also be applied to shorter timeframes like daily charts. That’s down to the reader to experiment with.
The trades are focused on Spread Betting. Malcolm shows how to calculate the appropriate bet size for each trade depending on the reader’s account size and risk tolerance. Although focused on Spread Bets, Malcolm quotes “All the strategies in this book can be used with CFDs as the vehicle rather than Spread Bets”
Beginners can get real value from this book. It is a fantastic insight into what it takes to build different trading strategies so that you can profit from all types of market.
But it certainly isn’t aimed just at beginners. Traders who are more familiar with technical analysis and the use of Spread Betting can also benefit from Malcolm’s 7 strategies.
Whether already making consistent profits or still struggling, I think every trader will value this book.
Who Is It Not For?
Day Traders. If you’re looking to jump in and out of trades lasting minutes or hours then this probably isn’t the book for you. Malcolm clearly states that the strategies in this book are to show how to profit from the markets taking medium term trades lasting weeks.
Gamblers.
This book is aimed at people who are serious about making consistent money from the markets by taking a disciplined, strategic approach.
Fundamental Investors. While it is possible to use Spread Betting as a way to invest long term in companies that you think have sound fundamentals and will rise (or fall) over the long term, this book doesn’t cover that. The methods in this book get trade ideas using technical analysis from charts. So, while I would recommend anyone use technical analysis to trade the markets, if you simply hate looking at charts, then this book is not for you.
To Summarise
Winning Spread Betting Strategies is a real favourite of mine. It’s a proper “How To” book. Malcolm clearly lays out solid ideas that anyone can implement right away. In addition to the easy to understand guidelines, there are charts every step of the way. So many other books I have on trading show a whole load of technical indicators and oscillators, telling you what they do and don’t do but not how to collectively use them to build a winning trading strategy the way Malcolm does so well here.
So if you’re a beginner wanting to learn how winning traders design strategies or you’re already making money from the markets and are looking for additional ideas, then I recommend this book to you.
Head over to Amazon here to pick up your copy of Wining Spread Betting Strategies
