Authors: Gary Tilkin and Lita Epstein, MBA
Publisher: Alpha (www.idiotsguides.com), 320 pages
Book Review by Paiso Jamakar
If you were residing in India and had invested 380,000 rupees in January 2008 to buy 10,000 U.S. dollars, and then sold your dollars and bought back rupees just about a year later in January 2009, you would have received around 520,000, as the chart here shows.
In just one year, you would have made Rs.140,000 on your investment of Rs. 380,000, a one-year return of a whopping 37 percent.
And if were living in the United States watching U.S. dollar – Indian rupee exchange rates, and if you had bought 480,000 rupees in 2002 for US$10,000 and sold those rupees in 2008, you would have made a profit of 100,000 rupees or over $2,080 (100,000 rupees divided by 480,000). This is a return of nearly 21 percent in six years.
Over a six-year period from 2002 to 2008 however, this averages only around a 3.5 percent return on your investment per year. But when U.S. banks these days are paying you only around one percent interest per year in a four-year certificate of deposit, this currency investment and trading example gives you much better yield.
But the earlier example of a 37 percent return on your investment is much more lucrative.
Yes, there are risks in currency trading. But if you learn how to do this, do it successfully a good number of times, you can make a lot of money.
To learn how to make money in currency trading, you need The Idiot’s Guide to Foreign Currency Trading. The authors have impressive backgrounds. Gary is founder and CEO of Global Forex Trading. He has over 30 years of experience in currency trading and is a recognized expert in this field.
Lita Epstein has authored several Complete Idiot’s Guides on other financial subjects such as Medicare and Social Security, options and futures and value investing. She writes for AOL’s Daily Finance and Wallet Pop.
The book details for you what forces influence the value of a given currency and how to be aware of those when buying, holding or selling that currency.
Not good at reading charts? No problem. The authors show you how to analyze and understand the fundamental and technical factors, look at trends and trade confidently.
Risk is a big concern in the worldwide currency market. But like in any other endeavor, you can learn to manage your risk. When you learn what economic factors and types of currency value movements minimize your risk, and you act on those favorable factors and make money, your confidence will increase and your success ratio will increase.
In this highly useful book – one that is absolutely essential for the novice in currency investment and trading – Tilkin and Epstein give you all the relevant knowledge you need and the strategies to use to make money. They tell you about common currency pairs and what affect each other, trading times, market movers, and much more.
They provide you valuable advice on when to place orders, when to get out of a given currency and how to periodically evaluate your trading moves and develop a long-term success record.
