Why I Don't Write FX Books: How Trading Education Has Changed in the AI Era

Hello, this is Nekokai (FX_Shokunin) from the Trading Idea Lab. I often get requests to "please publish a book," but to be honest, I don't think there's much point in writing one. It doesn't benefit anyone, and there are several reasons why I personally don't feel like writing one. In this post, I'll share my honest thoughts and discuss what learning should look like in the coming era.

The main reason I don't write books
Since last August, Google's AI "Gemini" added a feature called "Gems" (Guided Learning) to its platform. This feature allows the AI to support a learner's studies just like a personal coach, tailored to their level of understanding and goals.

It's not just limited to trading education; I feel that the style of "buying a book and reading it yourself" is becoming quite outdated. This trend is particularly noticeable in the fields of FX and investing.

Why FX books have low "writing value"
FX-related books are basically written as tools for customer acquisition in most cases. For publishers, specialized books are a genre where it's hard to increase sales volume and competition is fierce. While some manga sell hundreds of thousands of copies, it's not realistic to expect the same numbers for an FX book.

Selling out the first printing of 5,000 copies is the best you can hope for. Royalties are standard at 10%, so that's a profit of 50,000 yen. The publisher takes 90%, so if you sell half, you're lucky. The publishing industry is tough, so they just want to churn out numbers. E-publishing? Even more so.

In other words, the act of "writing a book" itself has an extremely poor return on effort. Even if you use AI to write it, the effort to think of the concept, structure the outline, and organize the content is significant. Despite that, it's hard to expect sales or a strong response. Information becomes obsolete after three years (nowadays, it doesn't even last six months). Only new releases are celebrated, and no one goes out of their way to buy a book from several years ago. If that's the case, it's far better to continuously post on a blog or Note, where you can reach many more people and update freely.

Also, Anthropic, the company that develops the conversational AI "Claude," purchased hundreds of thousands of used and rare books in bulk for the purpose of securing training data for their AI. It was revealed that they cut off the spines with specialized hydraulic guillotines, scanned the pages one by one into digital data using industrial high-speed scanners, and then discarded (recycled) the originals, which sparked a major debate.

We are now in an era where giant corporations openly engage in what is known as "jisui" (self-scanning). Global companies are trampling on the minimum rights of information creators, such as copyright.

Even if you go to the trouble of writing a "real book," it will just be ingested by AI. It becomes obsolete the moment it's published. If someone searches with AI, the content of your book will be given away for free. Blogs, and even YouTube videos, are now being ingested by AI. If you throw a video link at an AI and ask it to summarize it, it will do so immediately.

The limitations of what can be conveyed in one book
If we consider the "total skills required for trading" that I have in mind as 100, I think a single book can only convey about 5. Technical analysis, risk management, money management, psychology, reading market conditions, execution ability, recording and reflection, consistency... to continue trading for a long time, you need to acquire all these elements in a balanced way.

If you try to write all of this in one book, it will naturally become shallow. If you wanted to dig into it properly, you would need a series of at least 20 books. But honestly, how many enthusiastic fans would actually "buy and read all 20 books"? Most people would be satisfied after reading one or two, or give up halfway through.

Learning doesn't stick just by reading books
Another major problem is the retention rate of learning. Generally, it is said that the retention rate of learning by "just reading a book" is about 20%. In other words, even if someone goes to the trouble of buying your book, 80% of the people who read it will remember almost nothing of the content or fail to apply it in practice. Because books are centered on the act of "reading," it's easy for it to become passive learning.

On the other hand, learning in a conversational format with AI is overwhelmingly active because you can ask questions, think for yourself, and receive feedback.

The future of trading education
The "Gemini Guided Learning" that has been fully usable since last year is, I believe, a tool that solves this very problem. The AI explains things in the appropriate order according to the learner's level of understanding, answers questions, and points out weaknesses.

It feels like having an excellent personal coach right by your side. Moreover, the information is always up to date. Unlike books, the content is not "fixed at the time of publication." If market conditions change, the learning content can be flexibly updated to match.

It's more important to keep providing value than to write a book
Another reason I don't write books is that I believe "continuously providing value" is far more beneficial to the reader than "transient information." Once you buy a book, that's it, but with blogs and AI conversations, you can always get the latest information.

Plus, if you don't understand something, you can ask immediately. You can dig deeper at your own pace. In the coming era, the strength will not be in "owning information," but in being in a state where you can "extract the necessary information when you need it."

If you are stuck in your learning
If you are currently feeling like "I don't know where to start" or "I can't learn anything even if I read books" regarding your trading studies, please try Gemini's guided learning once. Rather than waiting for the perfect teaching material, I think it is much more realistic and effective to "use the best tools available now to find a way of learning that suits you." Rather than writing a book, I will continue to provide value. That is the path I have chosen now.

Rather than writing a book, I will continue to provide value.
That is the path I have chosen now.

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*Partial article revision: 2026/08/05