Winner Take All: A Top Commodity Trader Tells It Like It Is

By William R. Gallacher

Book Overview

The futures industry is unique, entertaining and, for far too many people, ultimately heartbreaking. What other industry possesses such an entertaining cast of soothsayers, self-proclaimed experts and charlatans? Where else do people become fabulously wealthy simply by acting on their own convictions? And where else does the possibility of failure loom so large and so constant? No other book captures the essence of the futures industry better than Winner Take All. With a penetrating intelligence and a sharp wit, Bill Gallacher dissects many of the industry's leading lights, exposing the frauds, deflating the pompous and poking fun at the seers who believe they can predict the future. Along the way, he demonstrates why most traders lose and, most importantly, what it takes to win. Winner Take All is a book for all traders. For those who believe in easy-money trading systems, it is a sobering antidote. For those who think the markets can't be beaten, it is a work of great inspiration. And for those who are trading profitably, it is an affirmation of the trading success principles. Winner Take All is a wise and profound book. But it is also perhaps the wittiest book on trading ever written. Read Mr. Gallacher on Fibonacci numbers: "Surely the medieval mathematician would be astounded at his impact on the twentieth-century commodity man. His mathematical series was constructed from observations on the incestuous copulation patterns of rabbits. Let's see, you start with a male and a female, then you take the first female offspring and you...well, better not get into it". Mr. Gallacher, a successful private trader, questions all conventional wisdom. He exposes the false premises that underliemuch of technical analysis, and he demonstrates why mechanical trading approaches - while sometimes producing marginal profits - can never provide truly superior results. Although out-of-favor in today's computer age, Mr. Gallacher shows why fundamental analysis, if con

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1557385335
• ISBN13: 9781557385338
• Release Date: December 1993
• Publisher: Irwin Professional Publishing
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 1.39 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Extremely Informative

I have hundred of books on the markets and this is one of the best. Gallacher debunks many falsehoods in the futures markets and, quite frankly, after reading the book one is uncertain whether or not trading futures makes any sense at all. That having been said, this book has things about money management that you will not find anywhere else. Gallacher swings his sledgehammer at Ralph Vince's "Optimal f" as well as money...

Must have for systems traders

Two hundred pages into "Winner Take All", you'll find Gallacher dissecting Ralph Vince's optimal F strategy for position sizing, pointing out the obvious ways in which it can result in dangerous levels of overtrading that can put you out of business. At the end is an illustration of a trader aiming a gun at his own head and blowing his brains out, with the caption "optimally f'd". While it sounds kind of tasteless written...

Short, easy to read but truly excellent

This is one of the best of the hundreds of books I have read on investing.He systematically demolishes numerous myths about trading. For this reason some readers are likely to be upset by the book e.g. devotees of Elliot Waves, Gann's methods and other nonsense.The important topics are covered extremely well i.e. money management, what IS important, what is snake oil, some of the realities of trading such as slippage, why...

The Truth

Gallacher proves himself to be an excellent critic and skeptic in this book, pointing out faults and errors in others. I would say that's of the most valuable part of the book. You can find pimping of products, and authors' positive features of their work in any book. Gallacher finally takes a critical look at some of the common methods out there, and gives you the negative side as well, and errors in logic. That's what...

Reality Trading

"Winner Take All" is an excellent book. The author is an avowed fundamentalist, yet he does not discard the validity of technical analysis all together. He also exposes the "gurus" we so frequently hear about in the world of commodity trading. People should really ask themselves why anyone in his right mind would want to sell the perfect system or indicators. If they were really that good, they would use these tools...