Review of "A Fortune Through Trading"

This one's different.

"A Fortune Through Trading", the professional futures trader's manual/coursebook authored by legendary trader Halston Adams, is a bit different, and a cut above, most trading books.

First of all, rather than being just a book about trading strategies (although it does contain plenty of that), Adams describes in detail his actual, day-to-day life as a professional trader. He tells you how his office is put together - what kind of computer setup he has - what his daily rountine, hour by hour, is like - what newspapers, magazines, newsletters, and television shows he watches as a trader - where he gets his information - in short, you get a detailed picture of exactly what the life of a professional trader looks like. And along the way, he provides insight into both the good (lots of holidays throughout the year, and take a vacation whenever you want) and the bad (he's often up at two or three A.M., watching the overseas markets trade or nursing a currency position, and he doesn't usually call it a day until about seven in the evening, when he's doen reviewing his trading for the day and watching "The Nightly Business Report"). It's this additional training in actually living a trader's life that makes "A Fortune Through Trading" more than just a book - instead, it's a complete manual on becoming a successful professional trader.

Another thing that's different about "A Fortune Through Trading" is that in the brave, new world of ever-more-complex technical trading systems, Adams is essentially a fundamentals trader. While he does make use of various technical analysis tools to help him pinpoint entry, exit, and stop-loss points (again, all fully explained in the course), Adams excels as an analyst of supply and demand conditions, and it's that analysis of the basic fundamentals of the commodity markets that is the source of his trades. (Understandably, Adams' expertise is greater in the basic commodity markets than in markets like bonds or stock index futures - although he is an accomplished currency trader. His personal favorite market is cotton, and he jokingly claims, "The cotton market and I know each other so well, we can finish each other's sentences, like an old married couple".) In his book, he does an excellent job of providing the aspiring trader with a wealth of market fundamentals information and analysis, and takes pride in being able to provide his readers with free access to essential information resources that many traders pay for.

One of the most notable things about "A Fortune Through Trading" is that Adams, unlike many trading book authors, is a good writer, and has a good sense of humor. Therefore, the coursebook is both easy to follow and entertaining to read. It is generously laced with anecdotes about Adams' personal experiences as a trader - and again, he shares the episodes that show him making mistakes just as readily as the ones in which he comes off looking like a true market wizard.

Adams is an independent trader, in the style of the great Jesse Livermore, who began his trading career with a very small amount of capital (and borrowed capital at that!), and was able to create a fortune (hence the title of the book). In fact, he makes it clear that he knew next to nothing about the futures markets - other than the potential to take a little money and make a lot of money - on the day he first walked into a brokerage firm. (He talked himself into a job with the branch manager, and although he only worked about a year as a broker, that's where he acquired his lifelong love affair with trading.)

Adams makes no bones about the fact that he is a diehard fan of the futures markets, and has never had much interest in stock trading, although he has done some over the years when a particular stock trade came to his attention. He stresses again and again the incredible advantage that the leverage available in futures trading provides for the small investor. One of the best strategic portions of the course is the section on risk management, which, it's clear, is an integral part of Adams' trading strategy. According to the text, over a 20+ year period, Adams' losing trades have averaged just $300-$500, while his winning trades have averaged $1,100-$1,500. And he is quick to point out that the superior job that he does of limiting risk puts him in the enviable position where he can be wrong on 3 out of 4 trades and still turn an overall profit (although he's quick to point out that his actual won/lost ratio is quite a bit better than that. He stresses the points that (A) losing trades are part of the game for a trader, and (B) therefore the important thing is to limit one's losses so that when that big, "home run" winning trade comes along, the trader still has plenty of capital to take full advantage of that opportunity.

About the only negative I can come up with regarding "A Fortune Through Trading" is that it simply leaves you wanting to hear more of Adams' stories about his trading career. In other words, it's one of those books that's so thoroughly enjoyable that you kind of hate to get to the end of it.

P.S. I just received word from Adams' publisher that he has just released a "Special Report" on a 3-market "trifecta" trading opportunity that he sees taking place in the 4th quarter of this year - in Adams unique style, he specifically declares, "starting the 2nd week in October". The publisher provided me with this link to the "Special Report", which he says Adams describes as "the trade that will make up for all the money you missed if you failed to buy wheat at $3.50 and gold at $500" - Click Here for the Special Report