5 Best Forex Books for New & Advanced Traders • Benzinga (2024)

The forex market is based on a simple principle: trading currency to do global business. However, trading isn’t simple and is affected by anything from gross domestic product and inflation to interest rates and trade deficits. Forex books are a great way to improve your knowledge of forex trading and the market as a whole.

Check out our list of the best books to learn to trade forex.

Quicklook: Best Forex Books for Traders

• Currency Trading for Dummies
• How to Make a Living Trading Foreign Exchange: A Guaranteed Income for Life
• Adventures of a Currency Trader: A Fable about Trading, Courage and Doing the Right Thing
• Day Trading and Swing Trading the Currency Market: Technical and Fundamental Strategies to Profit from Market Moves
• A Three-Dimensional Approach to Forex Trading

5 Best Forex Books for Currency Traders

Learning how the forex market works and the ins and outs of currency trading is crucial to building the right foundation to become a successful forex trader. Here are our top 5 reading suggestions.

1. Currency Trading for Dummies

"Currency Trading for Dummies" was updated in 2015 and is a great starting place for a beginning forex investor.

The book’s simple language makes the forex market accessible to the layperson. The book's 2 authors offer extensive trading experience. Author Kathleen Brooks serves as a research director at FOREX.com and provides commentary for CNBC, Bloomberg and the BBC.

Co-author Brian Dolan brings 18 years of experience in the forex market to the guide.

The "For Dummies" series is designed to explain complicated topics in understandable language for the layperson. The text is easy to read and broken down into lists, bullets and breakout text boxes.

This book offers some discussion of technical analysis that can also help beginner and entry-level investors.

2. How to Make a Living Trading Foreign Exchange: A Guaranteed Income for Life

"How to Make a Living Trading Foreign Exchange: A Guaranteed Income for Life" is part of the Wiley Trading series, published in 2010. The author, Courtney Smith, chairs the Investment Mentoring Institute, devoted to investor education.

Smith is also the chief investment officer of a money management firm. The title makes some lofty promises but the contents of the book deliver solid information. The book includes a thorough overview of the forex market and a ton of trading strategies, including a system of looking at the forex market from a day-to-week market perspective.

Strategies aside, the underpinnings of the book include risk management, discipline and investor psychology — 3 practices that benefit all investors.

3. "Adventures of a Currency Trader: A Fable about Trading, Courage and Doing the Right Thing:

"Adventures of a Currency Trader" is also a Wiley publication from 2007. This unique book is by Rob Booker, a favorite Houston-based trader who hosts live Facebook events and free webinars for traders.

It’s a solid pick for any level — beginners to experienced traders. The book delivers forex advice and principles, but it isn’t a how-to book. Instead, it's a fable told through the eyes of a fictional character named Harry Banes.

The quick read is as entertaining as it is informative. If you're looking for forex reading that isn’t technical or a how-to manual, this is a great pick.

4. "Day Trading and Swing Trading the Currency Market: Technical and Fundamental Strategies to Profit from Market Moves"

Author Kathy Lien began her financial career on Wall Street immediately after graduating from New York University. She has served as an expert source for "The Wall Street Journal, "Market Watch" and "The Associated Press."

"Day Trading and Swing Trading the Currency Market: Technical and Fundamental Strategies to Profit from Market Moves" is written for a beginner to an intermediate audience and offers readers executable strategies for entering the forex market. She also provides a companion website with videos on trading.

This book offers:

• An explanation of how the forex market works
• A how-to plan to profit from short-term swings
• Time-tested strategies for making a profit
• Skills to navigate overbought or oversold markets
• An examination of currency pairs

5. "A Three-Dimensional Approach to Forex Trading"

"A Three-Dimensional Approach to Forex Trading" is a self-published behemoth of a book — 416 pages.

This forex book was written and published by Anna Coulling. Coulling began publishing and teaching about forex after trading and investing for 17 years. She is a former teacher so she can explain complex financial markets in a clear and understandable way.

This book is written for beginner investors who need a high overview of the forex market as well as more advanced traders who are looking for information on what makes the forex market tick. Couling’s book promises to help readers understand how and why the forex markets move.

The book goes on to explain how trends in the primary markets — stocks, bonds, and commodities — play out in the forex world. While this book offers meaningful insight, it doesn't provide specific trading strategies.

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Learn to Forex Trade with the Best Books

No matter what, never stop learning. Whether you are new to trading or an advanced forex trader, knowledge is power. If you're anxious to start trading right away, see our guide on how to pick the right forex broker.

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