The Art of Currency Trading by Brent Donnelly
You know what? After looking at the table of contents of this book I’m convinced the most interesting material (if any) is at the end of the book so I’m going to summarize this book in REVERSE and begin at the last chapter and work my way to the start, Benjamin Buttons-style, because it’s my thread and I can do what I want.
Brent Donnelly is a senior FX trader at HSBC NY. He has been a market maker, trader, and senior manager at some of the top banks in foreign exchange.
The rest of his CV reads a lot like a resumé so if you’re looking for a guy who looks trustworthy and ties a perfect tie, Brent’s your man. By the way, are more traders than usual named Brent? Is it a coincidence that Ricky Gervais’ character of the boss in the British Office was named Brent?
Oh wait a tick - he’s also a creative! He’s written a cartoon that was on Canadian TV, it says, but I never saw it. He wants to win the Man Booker prize which means he’s secretly writing a novel and I bet, I just bet, he does some of it at work! Watch out HSBC!!
Brent Donnelly’s 25 Rules of FX trading
You know what? After looking at the table of contents of this book I’m convinced the most interesting material (if any) is at the end of the book so I’m going to summarize this book in REVERSE and begin at the last chapter and work my way to the start, Benjamin Buttons-style, because it’s my thread and I can do what I want.
Attached Image
Brent Donnelly is a senior FX trader at HSBC NY. He has been a market maker, trader, and senior manager at some of the top banks in foreign exchange.
The rest of his CV reads a lot like a resumé so if you’re looking for a guy who looks trustworthy and ties a perfect tie, Brent’s your man. By the way, are more traders than usual named Brent? Is it a coincidence that Ricky Gervais’ character of the boss in the British Office was named Brent?
Oh wait a tick - he’s also a creative! He’s written a cartoon that was on Canadian TV, it says, but I never saw it. He wants to win the Man Booker prize which means he’s secretly writing a novel and I bet, I just bet, he does some of it at work! Watch out HSBC!!
Brent Donnelly’s 25 Rules of FX trading
- Don’t blow up
- Adapt or die (this is a business rule, cheater!)
- Do the work
- You can always find a ‘tech level’ to justify a bad trade
- A big level is not justification for a big trade
- No FOMO
- When in doubt get out
- It doesn’t have to make sense
- Don’t fade the central banks
- Making money is hard and keeping it harder
- Successful traders make more money on up days than they lose on down days
- Anything can happen
- Keep a trading journal
- There is a time and place to go big
- Good traders vary bet size
- “It always looks bid at the highs. It always looks heavy at the lows.”
- You control the process, not the outcome
- Each trade is a drop; the market is an ocean
- Know your edge
- Know your horizon
- Have a plan
- Tight/aggressive wins
- Be flexible
- Don’t let random low conviction trades kill you
- Have fun, otherwise what’s the point?
Seems solid enough if not entirely original
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