Forex Patterns and Probabilities: Trading Strategies for Trending and Range-Bound Markets

A very good from-scratch discussion of the market and trading mechanics, nice overview of the fundemental reports, some actionable strategies laid out and well explained and a few genuine veteran insights thrown in to boot. Worth owning, especially if you're beginner to intermediate.However, he's just too conservative. His setups are very good but you'll grow old waiting to see them. Example: calling for 4 (5, 20, 50, and 200 if I remember right) moving averages to fan out in proper order, on a daily chart, in order to qualify a trend. Yeah, it's definitely a trend, but by the time you get there, the trend's almost over. And you'll never get in on a retracement or a resumption that way. You'll control losses by never placing any trades. Nix at least one moving average, maybe even 2.His focus is daily charts in general. Nothing wrong with that, but nowhere's near the money to made or lost as in the intraday charts. But he doesn't tell you that. He offers a flawed argument why his way is best, goes something like this: Using one of his ideal trendfollowing setups, he pulls of a trade that earns him something like 3000 in 4 months. Then he goes on to compare it to a 10 pip per trade goal and says even if you made your 10 pips per day, everyday, in that same period, with the same pair, you'd only score about 1700 pips instead of his 3000. Fair logic, but who says you'd only get 10 pips and quit? His 3000 pip rise is punctuated with enough ups and downs to score twice or 3 times that trading intraday. With less risk, given that his stops on a daily were as high as 155 pips, still pretty tight for a daily chart, yet that same 155 pips is an enormous stop on an hourly. Not to mention all the days that you won't be trading while you wait for 4 MA's to line up.I'm not bashing the guy - he wrote a good book, better than alot of them out there, but know that his way is safe at the expense of returns. The one advantage is that his trades are not labor intensive, you can visit your broker site once a day to manage them. But only once. Not for active traders unless you adapt them somehow.On the other hand, if you have a job and a family and a house to take care of and are happy just to beat the return on a T-bill then Ponsi's your man. You just can't make a living with his methods.

I attended OTA's Pro Forex course back in Nov 2015. I have come close to trading full time twice. My highest monthly gains were north of 25% a month near the end of 2017. I learned that the pressure of success is worse than failure when you are an undisciplined trader trying to recreate fraudulent gains achieved using reckless risk management!Fast forward to January 2021 I still have a hard time remaining disciplined at times in this market. The losses can be brutal, but when you take a $1000 profit it is better than anything you could ever imagine...I promised myself that this is the year that I truly become a Pro Trader, and stop being a Pro Gambler... When you are a good enough trader to spot opportunities in the market to offset your reckless behavior you are at a crossroad...This is why I finally purchased Ed Ponsi's book. I want to fix the broken pieces that are hiding in my trading methodology as well as add new tools to my trading tool box. This book has taken care of both of my goals...The information is great and I encourage all traders to take advantage. When you add the author's process to a solid foundation, the changes will be immediately noticeable. Mr. Ponsi's trend filters are worth the price of the book and can help you combat revenge trades and tunnel vision when going through your trading plan.

Ed Ponsi was my forex instructor for a summer 2015 class with Online Trading Academy. He was an enjoyable classroom teacher, and only on the last day of class did he modestly mention in passing that he had written a book on forex strategies. It was not until a few months later, frustrated with stop losses in my demo account, that I bought his book and began to implement suggested strategies. What Ed didn't tell our class is that he is a master chartist who frequently appears on CNBC, Mad Money, and other investment shows. His book has taught me how to use the ADX and EMAs to identify genuine trends; Fibonacci retracements to enter trending price moves and set targets/stops/exits (alone worth the price of the book); flags and pennants to set and enter trades; as well as many other strategies. He offers a nifty scalping strategy for the EURUSD (between close of the US market and open of the Asian market) that potentially can yield frequent profits, although lately that currency pair has been so range-bound that his suggested targets and stops need to be modified. In short, his book has turned my trading around, resulting in daily profitability and at least 30% fewer stop losses. Several older reviews complain about his conservatism and the fact that many of these strategies may not be new. In my mind, using tested strategies in a responsible way is precisely the main selling point of the book for the beginning trader. Successful trading is first about preventing losses and containing risk, and only second about making money. Profitability follows good risk management, and Ed understands this equation perfectly. His book can give any open-minded trader better understanding of risk and the technical tools and mindset to achieve profitability in forex trading.

Certainly one of the most useful books for that subject. You have to read it with the right mindset though. The author stresses to accept losses but at the same time, all the examples he present result in impressive gains which should underline how great his strategies are. He always places stops but of course they are never hit. The last chapters regarding the right attitude and understanding of the fx playing field are great and right, but he forgets to mention, that in order to "expand your playing field" as he calls it, you would need deep pockets.Bottom line: I can easily recommend this book to everyone who wants to grasp an understanding of trading techniques.

I have the book which I like a lot because of which I decided to buy the kindle edition so that when going to work or travelling far from home I do not have to carry around extra weight. There are some issues with the kindle edition, like incomplete sentences, incomplete paragraphs and repeated parts of a sentence in a sentence. The book itself deserves a 5-star rating.

Just by looking at the title of this book, I would never of picked it up, but now that I have finished it I'm glad. There are a lot of great strategies in this book that still work today. I will be reading this book again and again. Thank you and highly recommend it.

The book is clearly written from someone who trades fx. It does not contain any magic formulae or tricks but rather it centers on experienced technical analysis and knowhow about how the market works. Would have given it 5 stars if it were fully up to date.

Very enlightened and details.