Commodity futures : markets, methods of analysis, and management of risk /

An excellent introduction to trading commodity futures. About half the book covers topics such as economic justification of futures trading, market efficiency, mechanics of trading, hedging, speculation, fundamental versus technical analysis, and other introductory matters. The remainder of the text applies these general discussions to specific commodities, e.g., metals, agricultural products, financial instruments, etc. The treatment is concise, as it would have to be, to cover the broad spectrum of topics presented. The book is well supported with charts, tables, chapter notes, bibliographies, and an index. Some background in economics would be helpful in understanding the sections on risk and economic justification, and a little statistics is necessary to fully understand the chapters on analysis. For some reason, Herbst does not introduce readers to the many online computer services available to traders, but overall the book is very good. Further information on analysis, handled briefly in Herbst's work, may be found in Jack D. Schwager's A Complete Guide to the Futures Markets (1984). Academic and public library collections.-W.C. Struning, Seton Hall University