Hi:
Does anyone have any experience with or opinions about the book [U]Birdwatching in Lion Country[/U] by Dirk du Toit?
Other than the Babypips school (I am working on it for the second time), would this be a good starting book? (otherwise, can you suggest another)
Thanks,
Barry
This book really has nothing to say except trade outside the range of noise and use your profits to buy down your margin all in over 240 pages and you should hire the author as your Forex teacher. Get the book Currency Trading for Dummies, not the competitors book which is just a come on for GFT trading. This book covers fundamentals in great depth, technical trading how to set up a trading plan, money management and a bunch of other information for a very modest price on amazon. It blends well with information on babypips school since the school goes into more detail about techncal methods. You will need to read this book a couple of times. It’s written by two veteran traders who know their stuff.
You mentioned “Curreny Trading for Dummies”. How good is that book? I bought it online the other day and i’m waiting for it to come in… Just curious what others think about it.
The Forex Trading Course: A Self-study Guide To Becoming A Successful Currency Trader is an excellent book you may want to look into also. It has a question and answer section after the chapters which really drive it into your head as well. But on top of that, there isnt much written in these books that you can’t find on the internet either.
Save your money get Currency Trading for Dummies
I agree - technical analysis for dummies was also really good in my opinion - not just for dummies, for clever people too I think 
BWILC seems to be one of those marmite books: people either love it or hate it.
A lot of what you get out of reading it depends on who you are as a person and what sort of trader you want to be.
If I had read this book when I first started trading I would have most likely taken all the information on board and then moved on to some other book or trading system, as it seemed to present no easily digestable and readily useable trading system.
I’m glad that I only came across it after being in the trading arena for a couple of years. Even then it took several months mulling over the information contained in the book before I was willing to put in the effort to find out more and see if the approach was right for me.
You can see the clash of opinions on this book by its reviews on sites such as Forex Bastards.
I also have a review of BWILC up on my blog where I go into more detail on the effect it had on my trading.
Some of the contents of the book are slightly out of date now (such as main fundamentals driving the market as these shift over time), but the nature of the forex markets has not changed since the book was written and this is one of the main highlights of the book.
If you’ve been burying yourself in nothing but technical analysis to date and want to check out what all the fuss is about fundamentals then this book is as good an introduction as any.
it definitely is a love or hate kind of strategy. i like to phrase it as… no other Forex e-book more closely walks the line between being another scam fx.pdf or a legitimate trading strategy.
i was skeptical but if you really do your research you find a lot of senior members (not necessarily affiliate spammers) at other forex forums that say it is a solid trading strategy that was worth the money even though they do not trade the strategy.
critics essentially say it is a rough draft, overview of his trading methodology making it a cross sale for the higher priced tutoring lessons (?1200 USD) offered within ebook.
there definitely are solid principals incorporated into the strategy but these are principals advocated by the majority of other fundamental traders, such as:
[ul]
[li]trade with trend
[/li][li]trade off higher time frames - 1hr and up
[/li][li] focus on fewer currencies
[/li][/ul]
there is obviously a lot more to the strategy. i dont think stop losses are used so you can be required to hold onto your positions indefinitely, facing significant drawdowns. as long as the major trend continues things work out.
profit is taken off the table vs “let winners run” and there is mention of a median grid which is a way of scaling in and out of your long term positions based on your discretionary view of currency’s movement. i am not sure that any technical indicators are used.
that is all i can remember about it.
If you want to get a better understanding of Dirk du Toit’s outlook on forex trading then it is worthwhile reading his various newsletters, which gives a taster of the sort of information that is talked about in the book.
There have been five newsletters so far:
Leverage is not even a double-edged sword, it’s a guillotine - and your head is on the block – PART 1
Leverage is not even a double-edged sword, it’s a guillotine – PART 2
News Trading: The latest marketing wizardry in the forex market
Forex Brokers: Love them hate them, but don’t mess with them
Forex Training Explained: “Borrowed brains are useless”. - Yiddish saying
You can sign up for future newsletters on Dirk’s website. When you sign up you also get part 1 of BWILC, so this is a good way to get the first part of the book to see if it resonates with you before you spend any money on buying it.
I second that what colin said. It’s one of the best books on Forex I’ve ever read. But it’s not an easy one. You don’t get a “no brain” system there but a strategy that rocks. 
Regards - Xaron
Dirk has a new book out there as in 2010. TL;DR
Does he still praises the strategy to not use any stop losses?