Something to read

Whether you are looking to spend a holiday gift card or yourNew Year’s Resolution is to read more, there is rarely a better value in the world than a good book. The books below combine centuries worth of experience and knowledge that make for an extremely high return on investment. Short [...]

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Trade the News in Forex: How to Capitalize on the Biggest Moves in the Market
by Michael Duane Archer

How to profit from news that moves the Forex market

Trade the News in Forex shows readers everything they need to know to profitably trade specific Forex news events. It begins with a discussion of what constitutes Forex news, then highlights several common news trading techniques and outlines how broker dealers have worked to counter these measures. The author covers several more sophisticated techniques and systems, directs readers to a multitude of resources available, and outlines how to combine these techniques into a current trading strategy. There is money to be made trading Forex news, and this book will show readers exactly how.

Michael Archer (Golden,CO) has been an active Forex and commodity futures and Forex trader for over 30 years. He is the author of Getting Started in Forex Trading Strategies and coauthor of the first Getting Started in Currency Trading, Second Edition, The Forex Chartist Companion, and Charting the Major Forex Pairs, all from Wiley. He hosts the Forex Web site.

Legendary quantitative thinker and blackjack whiz Ed Thorp answers questions about his new book, a memoir of beating Las Vegas and Wall Street.

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Algorithmic and High-Frequency Trading (Mathematics, Finance and Risk)
by Álvaro Cartea (Author), Sebastian Jaimungal (Author), José Penalva (Author)

The design of trading algorithms requires sophisticated mathematical models backed up by reliable data. In this textbook, the authors develop models for algorithmic trading in contexts such as executing large orders, market making, targeting VWAP and other schedules, trading pairs or collection of assets, and executing in dark pools. These models are grounded on how the exchanges work, whether the algorithm is trading with better informed traders (adverse selection), and the type of information available to market participants at both ultra-high and low frequency. Algorithmic and High-Frequency Trading is the first book that combines sophisticated mathematical modelling, empirical facts and financial economics, taking the reader from basic ideas to cutting-edge research and practice. If you need to understand how modern electronic markets operate, what information provides a trading edge, and how other market participants may affect the profitability of the algorithms, then this is the book for you.

GDP: A Brief But Affectionate History
by Diane Coyle

GDP is one economic model among several that could serve the purpose, but its use conveniently leads to policies that reflect the thinking of a particular school of economic monetary and fiscal policy advocates.

We all know that in operating a business we need to be able to measure the profits of our company and then adjust our prices and
production to make sure that there are enough profits to adequately fund the company. That is a relatively straightforward process, since the amount of money in the bank at the end of the month is a real number.

GDP: A Brief But Affectionate History is a fascinating 140-page book that I cannot recommend highly enough. This is simply the best book on GDP that I’ve ever seen. You can read it on a few hours’ plane ride or a lazy Sunday afternoon. And Ms. Coyle actually makes a
relatively dry subject interesting and at times a page-turner. She has a true gift.

Ms. Coyle starts with the predecessors to Adam Smith and takes us through the 17th century right up until today with the development of GDP, so we see the ebb and flow of ideas through time. Who knew the early developers of the model did not want to include defense
spending, as they saw it as a wasteful, nonproductive activity? Or that Adam Smith thought the inclusion of services in the concept was
misleading. “The provision of more services was a cost to the national economy, in his view. A servant was a cost to his employer, and did not create anything. Importantly, money spent on warfare or the interest on government debt was also being used unproductively. The nation’s wealth was its stock of physical assets less the national debt. National income was what derived from the national wealth.”

Will the Real GDP Please Stand Up?

GDP is a huge undertaking, full of rules, with almost as many exceptions to the rules, changes, fixes, and qualifications, so that, as one
Amazon reviewer noted, GDP is in reality so complex there are only a handful of people in the world who fully understand it, and that does not include the commentators and politicians who pontificate about it almost daily. The quarterly release of GDP statistics is more akin to a religious service than anything resembling a scientific study. The awe and breathlessness with which the number is discussed is somewhat amusing to those who understand the sausage-making process that goes into producing the number. Whether the GDP reading is positive or negative, it often changes less in a given quarter than the margin of error in the figure itself, and it can be and generally is revised significantly – often many years later when almost no one is paying attention.

GDP Is a Political Construction

GDP has always been a political construction, subject to the ebb and flow of the intellectual and political climate, the need to raise taxes, and the military needs of the day. It is also a tool used to argue for or against income inequality (depending on what country you’re in).

GDP is a financial construct at its heart, a political and philosophical abstraction. It is a necessary part of the management of the country, because, as with any enterprise, if you can’t measure it you can’t determine if what you are doing is productive. That said, the act of measuring GDP precipitates the observer effect writ large.

MQL5 programming language: Advanced use of the trading platform MetaTrader 5: Creating trading robots and indicators
by Timur Mashnin

Development of indicators and advisors using the MQL5 programming language for the MetaTrader 5.

Mastering Hurst Cycle Analysis: A modern treatment of Hurst's original system of financial market analysis

In 2011 the work of J. M. Hurst, considered by many as the father of modern cyclic analysis, enjoyed sudden and renewed interest by the trading community. This translated into several works approaching Hurst's methods from three different angles.

Just as stated by the author, it will help readers get a better grasp and understanding of Hurst's work, at a fraction of the the cost of his original private course. It will even provide buyers with the relevant code for Tradestation and Updata. This way, if you're tech savvy and already own one of these charting packages, or don't mind the additional investment needed to use them, you will be able to experiment further with the concepts covered in the book. Since it contains the code for all the different cycles, channels and other indicators, the author spares the reader the math details of Hurst's work, which may be for the best, since this has always been one of the stumbling blocks in applying Hurst's methods.

The self-proclaimed goal of the author is to lead the reader to a stage where he can perform his own cyclic analysis. The bottom line is that how well you master Hurst's methods after reading this book, as with so many other things in life and trading, will depend solely on how much work you're willing to put into experimenting with the concepts.

The book ends with a concise summary of the different theories explaining the causes of cycles, which should stimulate even further research into this fascinating subject.

Mr Grafton mentions the Sentient Trader software, by David Hickson, which covers similar ground. The author of that software has, understandably, undertaken a different approach: there is no code sharing, but instead a sleek black box, which generates trading signals based on Hurst's original work.

There is also the OddsTrader app, by CIT Dates, which is currently the only mobile app that allows users to chart Hurst channels and to use them as the basis for several different trading strategies. It even includes a built-in risk management and position sizing tool.

In summary, if you're interested in cycles and cyclic analysis, there has hardly been a better time for delving into and exploring the subject.

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The analysis of S&P 500 from this site:

Bitcoin’s underlying software code was split on Tuesday, generating a new clone called "bitcoin cash", but the new virtual currency got off to a slow start due to lacklustre support for its network.

The initiative was headed by a small group of mostly China-based bitcoin miners — programmers who essentially operate the bitcoin network — who were not happy with scheduled improvements to the currency’s technology meant to increase its capacity to process transactions.

It’s been a slow start for bitcoin cash," said Iqbal Gandham, MD at trading platform eToro. "The delay ... could be a result of a lack of miner support for the new crypto-currency." On Tuesday, bitcoin cash traded on certain exchanges at a median price of $146.37, according to BitInfoCharts.com, while bitcoin was at $2,729 on the Bitstamp platform, down 4.6% from Monday.

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10 free books related to Machine Learning (based on thepixelbeard.com portal).

1. The Elements Of Statistical Learning : Data Mining, Inference and Prediction
This is an ebook by T.Hastie, R. Tibshirani, J.Friedman that lets readers get knowledge about conceptual underpinnings. There are varied topics included like statistical framework and much more.

2. Inductive Logical Programming
Inductive logic programming is a topic in Machine Learning. It is used in research field at the intersection of machine learning and logic programming.

3. Reinforcement Learning : An introduction by Richard S. Sutton, Andrew G. Barto
This is an ebook written by Richard S. Sutton, Andrew G. Barto. With this ebook users can get a grasp of machine learning the easy way.

4. Information Theory, Inference and Learning Algorithms
This is an ebook by David J.C. Mackay in which information theory topic is well explained in such a way that it helps readers attain good knowledge about the practical communication systems viz. arithmetic coding for data compression, sparse-graph codes for error-correction and more.

5. Gaussian Processes for Machine Learning
This is an ebook by Carl E. Rasmussen, Chritopher K.I Williams. With this ebook one can learn a principled, practical, probabilistic approach to learning in kernel machines in quite a simple way.

6. The LION Way
This ebook is written by Roberto Battiti, Mauro Brunato and has been written in such a way that it helps users in machine learning and Intelligent Optimization (LION).

7. Bayesian Reasoning and Machine Learning
This is an ebook that is written by David Barber that targets the final-year undergraduates and master’s students. The topics include linear algebra and calculus. This book helps users learn basic reasoning, advanced techniques within the framework of graphical models and develop skills.

8. A Course In Machine Learning
This ebook by Hal Daume III is a course book that includes a set of introductory material covering different aspects of modern machine learning.

9. Machine Learning, Neural And Statistical Classification
This is an ebook by D. Michie, D.J Spiegelhalter that aims at providing an up-to-date review of different approaches to classification.

10. Introduction To Machine Learning
This ebook is written by Nilis J Nilsson. It includes different topics in machine learning circa 1996 that helps people pursue a middle ground between theory and practice.

The Holy Grail Trading System by James Windsor

The true story of a 100% mechanical automated forex trading system that returned over 1000% inside 13 months turning 10,000 GBP to over 100,000 GBP.

Fully Disclosed...

• Trade by trade entry levels
• Trading timeframes
• Trade exit levels
• Optimum risk management strategy
• Trailing stop settings
• Full results and account screenshots