*****This is a guest blog contribution from Jeff Williams, a hedge fund manager, PMP, and PMO Director***** — Editor’s Note

One Good Trade is a great book! I bought the Audible.com version, as I do a lot of driving. Good narration.

This book is not a step-by-step guide on how to trade and it doesn’t advertise itself to be, so ignore bad reviews by people looking for how to enter and exit trades.

What this book does is provide an insightful and engaging story of life on a proprietary trading desk, a “prop desk.” Think of it in terms of a documentary with strong character development that draws you in. I hated to turn it off each time, still wanting to know what happened to “G-Man” or the other characters.

And though you don’t get specific entry and exit signals from this book, it does convey several good trading points. The two that stood out to me the most are to trade stocks (or whatever asset) in play, and make one good trade. Traders with short time horizons (minutes or days) need assets that move, which means you have to overcome your fear of volatility to trade in this manner. You also need to approach every trade as “one good trade.” Don’t try to use another trade to make up for the last loser or to extract vengeance on the market. Just because the last trade succeeded or failed, doesn’t mean you can automatically repeat it. You have to take each trade for its merits and stick to your trading plan.

So I thought the book was fantastic and will listen to it again in the future for the entertainment value and reinforcement of good trading principles. I recommend it.

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