Here at Made To Trade were back with another book review. This time a book about CFD Trading, it seems that there are many more books around for Spread Betting opposed to CFD Trading. This may be due to the very recent rise of CFD as a financial derivative product aimed at individuals rather than Hedge Funds. Today the book being reviewed is Catherine Davey’s The Diary of a CFD Trader: How to Make Serious Money from Contracts for Difference.
The book is written by Catherine Davey who claims to be a serious CFD Trader as well as a financial journalist. Catherine Davey does appear to have some of the credentials that you would hope from a person who writes a book with ‘How to make serious money from contracts for difference’ in the title. Catherine has written numerous articles on CFD trading and also is a member of the Australian Professional Technical Analysts Association and also holders a Masters of Business in specialized in Applied Finance. All good so far.
The first problem with the book comes from the fact that it is written as a diary while the publishers blurb also claims that it makes an excellent introductory read for those new to CFD Trading. For the life of me I don’t see why any new CFD Trader would want a book that charts the emotional up’s and downs of trading so much over the nitty gritty information that is so valuable for a newbie to CFD trading. While some of the experiences that Davey goes through are quite enthralling it hardly makes for the best introduction to the concept of CFD trading and the tools needed to be successful in CFD Trading.
While Catherine does have considerable success during the four month trading experience outlined in the book (turning $13,000 into over $28,000). Her trading strategies aren’t the particularly useful to those who wish to trade CFD’s in the current economic climate, it is clear from the book and how she is trading that the book was written during the middle of bullish markets before the 2008 financial crash and Davey’s outlook on CFD trading is hugely influenced by this. One positive of the book is that is short in length and might appeal to those who aren’t interested in reading weighty technical tomes. Though if your not interested in technical information and are much more of an emotive person it is questionable whether CFD trading is really for you.
Overall I wouldn’t recommend this book to those who want an introduction to CFD trading there are much loftier and better books on the market for this. As well as literally endless amounts of quality online resources. Though some may find the emotional roller coaster element of this book engaging. I would give this book a 2 out of 5 Overall.
