tactical trader

It is rare that I look forward to reading a book that has been sent to me for review but in this case I made an exception. Having seen the author speaking about his approach at the trade shows and on television and hearing rave reviews from fellow traders I really could not wait to discover what all the fuss was about.

As you would expect from any book on trading there are a number of subjects covered here but the main one is the boom referred to in the title, the current commodities boom. Personally I thought that enough had already been written about commodities but I think this is the first time an attempt has been made to pull it together in this way (rather than on the web) and overall the author has done a very good job of it.

The book is written in a very readable style and without much of the academic underpinnings or self indulgent ramblings present in other works of this nature. The work begins by getting some important ground rules in place, in particular the approach Shipman takes to self directed investing and the ever important subject of psychology. As you might expect, much of this is familiar ground and can be found in many other books but given that investors continually get these things wrong I can fully understand the requirement to include them here.

Of particular note are the points made about adopting a trend following approach rather than buy and hold as this sets the scene for what is covered in the later investment strategy sections of the book.

Before getting to the nuts and bolts of this preferred strategy we are taken we are introduced to the boom concept. After a brief reminder of some of the more famous boom and bust episodes from history along with the lessons we can draw from them, Shipman then introduces us to long term investment analysis.

This is the part of the book I found most fascinating because he has taken some of the concepts that will be very familiar to the short and medium term trader and applied them to the more traditional world of long term investing. I have long held the view that buy and hold is a strategy of the past and this is certainly borne out here where as much attention is paid to when to exit as when to buy in the first place…