Trading Books

I've just been introduced to the Investools.com course, took their 2 day training, finished their online training, and am still studying the subject.

The title of this book described what I was looking for after the above activity and it proves to tie information together, plus provides direction and greater depth.

I am a technical writer by trade and based on that, am amazed at the clarity and amount of detail Toni Turner packs into each paragraph. Because of that, this shouldn't be the first book to introduce you to the subject, but it should be among the first books you read. If you are already a successful, experienced trader, I'm not sure of its value unless you are switching from a "buy and hold" mold.

My approach to this book is to do a 100% read-through, marking pages of particular interest, then returning to those pages of particular interest, along with other activities on Investools.com (which, itself, seems to be a worthy educational tool).

Toni Turner has written an overall informative and fairly comprehensive guide to investing in the stock market. If you have read a lot of other investment books, you won't find a lot of new material in this book. But, as with most books on trading, there are almost always a couple of little gems hidden in the pages that justify the expense.

This book is certainly a good 'primer' for anyone just getting into investing or who wishes to get past just sticking money in their 401K account. It is a good next book past "Investing for Idiots," and a good prerequisite before tackling a book like John Murphy's "Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets."

For those more interested in simple, long-term investing, I would recommend a book like Leslie Masonson's "All ABout Market Timing."

I read a lot of trading books and have been trading for quite a while. I am always searching for a better book and new ideas. While this book doesn't have any revelations, it does do a wonderful job of reviewing the basics in an easily digestive manner. The author even has some review questions at the end of each chapter to see if you have a good understanding of the material. I particularly like the way the author discusses her stock picks and tells you what she is looking at and her decision process. It helped me ask some different (and better) questions concerning my stock selection before I entered a trade. There are some intermediate level discussions of indicators but very little on system trading (which I am currently researching). All in all an enjoyable book.

I just finished reading Toni's newest book, Short-Term Trading in the New Stock Market. I am happy to report that each chapter has given me helpful advice. I have been trading for five years, and even in the initial chapters, which talk to newer traders, I learned useful points and strategies that I had forgotten, or had not previously known.

Toni teaches trading with a fast-paced writing style and a sense of humor that I appreciate. I particularly liked her chapters on ETFs: their origins, the benefits of trading and hedging with these funds, and where to find them. (She provides a list of the most actively traded.) Her discussion on market internals, meaning futures, TICK, TRIN, put/call ratio and VIX were very helpful to my day trading strategies.

Unlike other trading authors, Toni keeps her ego out of the picture. And, she adds very useful information between chapters on behavioral concept that help keep your trading mindset clear and constructive. All in all, I enjoyed this book very much and have recommended it to my trading friends.

Most of the info on stock trading is full of the same thecnical analysis jargon that makes you lose a lot of times.

Basically most tehcnical trading books tell you the same story but organized in different chapters using different words and charts as examples.

[...]

Understanding how to trade a rally is one of the most important aspects of trading, since for us traders it's all about the rally, either for shorting or going long.

Despite a mere 200 pages you too can experience what seems like an epic, multi-volume heap of guilt vomited upon the vulgar vanity with which us humans tuck ourselves in each night. We describe ourselves as civilized, perhaps even progressive, yet in her book The Stone Gods, Jeanette Winterson skillfully reiterates what what we humans are so good at, and obliterates such vanity like a bear would to a sausage pinata.

The problem with us, Winterson reminds, is that for all our abilities, we just can't seem to learn anything from history. This recurring idea is the theme of 3 and 1/2 short stories, vignettes maybe, all intertwined within The Stone Gods. The first story, centering around the newly discovered Planet Blue, deals with a very advanced "civilization" coming to terms with its interplanetary recolonization, or at least it's inevitable effect upon colonization. The second story, a historical speculative taking place on Easter Island, illustrates the more aged impulses involved in worshiping your chosen god while sacrificing your home in the process. The third + 1/2 story deals with our near-future hubris after the inevitable Post-3 War, or a not-so-subtle hint at World War III.

This novel is a brilliantly conceived yet complex mix of science fiction and dramatic literature. It's up to the reader to discern what worlds, time periods, even places Winterson is alluding to, and she does fantastic job of speculating human behavior, if it is indeed human, within each. She grapples with relevant concepts of today such as war, artificial intelligence, global warming, cosmetic enhancement, all the stuff we humans turn toward when we we turn away from ourselves. Our nuance is that we accept how flawed as a species we are, yet we still are too lazy to do anything about it.

Because of this, Winterson unleashes three apocalyptic scenarios upon the reader, both with beauty and inanity. It's a profound exposition on what it means to be human; dare I say it's vividly gonzo. Although it's an excellent book, for me it tended to degrade a bit at the third + story, amounting to more an effort of stream-of-consciousness than a coherent storyline. Here she also gets a little too complex in referring to the book within the story itself.

In any case, this is an imaginative and important work, good for both China Mieville and Cormac McCarthy fans.

This book is somewhat difficult to follow. It's possible that I just didn't get the connections, but it transitions abruptly between a semi-dystopic future into a swashbuckling past, without any real connection between the two eras. In addition, the third section of the novel, which returns to the first time period, doesn't seem to mesh quite well with the first section. I think that it might have been better if the third and second sections were reordered, and the second section edited to allow for more continuity. I wasn't quite sure how the sailor & Easter Island fit into the whole scheme of things.

This is the best book I've read from Winterson in quite a while. It's much more science-fiction than her other works. Think of an Asimov plot with Winterson's style and language. And queer characters. The middle sections threw me off at first, but it comes together at the end. btw, for anyone who wants to learn more about easter island, check out collapse by Jared Diamond.

Strongly written, a mind bending plot, and a robot head who, even though carried around under the protagonist's arm, still manages to get away for a little sex. Excellent.

I bought the book because I was especially interested in one of the three stories: Planet Blue. I wanted to discover how the author would handle the SF subject of humanities dilemma facing a dying planet. I was highly disappointed. From the style of the writing to the plot, nothing appealed to me. I forced myself to read through it to see how the end would turn up, which proved a waste of time. The story suggests a handful of intriguing ideas but these are never properly developed leaving you with the feeling of an incomplete novel.

Everything is odd and awkward in the story. First, there is a "love" story between the main (female) character Billie and a female robot named Spike that goes nowhere. Then, the robot is showing more desire to be human than the humans themselves (?) - a theme already brought in by Data in Star Trek The Next Generation, and hardly developed in this novel. It goes on with the author's attempt to create a universe half way between 1984 and Blade Runner (?), which only results in serving the reader cliches after cliches of the typical gloomy modern and decadent civilization that humanity is heading into. Next, the captain of the ship en route to Planet Blue decides it is a great idea to modify the course of a meteorite to hit Planet Blue in order to destroy unwanted dinosaurs (?) - yeah right, like I will believe that - this humanity would have the technology to push a meteorite off from its trajectory not even thinking that it would obviously jeopardize the chance of the new humanity's settlement on the planet, but they don't have the technology to simply kill the dinosaurs with a virus or other much more direct methods (?); SF is not an open genre for anything at the push of a button, is it? And the choice of the meteorite is a pathetic attempt to "emulate" a still much debated theory that might have taken place billions of years ago on earth. And then we have the choice of names for the characters like "Handsome" for the captain of the ship transporting our main characters, who barely displays the charisma, composure, and leadership expected from a captain. Can you imagine this dialogue: "Hello Captain Handsome, this is Darth Vader here, how's things with your dinosaurs in your neck of the woods? Don't hesitate to send me an email if you need my help with that, I am good at destroying things. How about you, what are you good at Captain Handsome? Is Handsome a nickname or your mommy really thought it was going to be groovy?" I made my point. Finally there is the writing style with long winded confusing and boring sentences, trying to be more poetic than realistic, and the choice of narration in the first person, which locks the reader in the mind of one character and one character only (?). First person is a narration style that I find totally inappropriate for this story - the use of multiple point of views would have broadened the story and brought depth to the many intriguing yet unexplored SF elements of the plot. Everything in the story contributed to an awkward and mediocre ensemble.

There is so much better SF out there, don't waste your time with this book. I can't imagine how an agent or an editor could have accepted such pale imitation of Science-Fiction.

Well worth the price and the read. Very technical and precise. You'll need to read it at least twice but the rewards are astronomical: you'll actually begin to understand how to invest with knowledge (not fear) in the game of the stock market.

A very helpful insight into some of the most commonly used technical indicators for market and individual security price trends. The book offers good explanation of what each indicator is designed to measure and how some of the indicators are used together. Concise, easy to understand and apply---a good resource for anyone investing in paper assests.

Mark has written & spoken of his years of successful trading to thousands across the United States & other countries. I have known him for several years & consider him a sincere giver who is willing to help anyone who is interested in improving their investment skills.
Mark not only can talk the talk BUT he truly can walk the walk. He is proud to display his investment portfolio & does so in many of his investment classes. May God continue to Bless Mark & his family.

THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST OPTION BOOKS I HAVE EVER READ.IT TOTALLY CLEARED UP MY CONFUSION WITH INFORMATION OVERLOAD.IT WAS VERY HELPFUL TO READ MARKS THOUGHT PROCESSES BEHIND THE TRADE AS WELL AS TO LOOK AT THE CHARTS WITH HIS IDENTIFIED TECHNICALS.HIS DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS ENABLED ME TO SEE WHAT I WAS DOING WRONG.THIS BOOK TOTALLY INCREASED MY CONFIDENCE LEVEL IN TRADING OPTIONS AS WELL AS THE PROFITS I HAVE MADE SEVERAL MONTHS IN A ROW SELLING NAKED PUTS ON ABAX , WEBX AND SBUX. THANKS LARSON!!!! MARY

First of all, the writing style. Larson's writing style is easy to follow, but the book itself is badly edited, with lots of padding. For example, we learn on P.69 about the 25 day DMA and two pages later the 200 DMA is presented. I had hoped for a better discussion of TC2000's proprietary indicators, MS, TSV and BOP, but the book presents a rehash of the documentation supplied with the software.

More important is the book's target audience. Don't even bother buying this book uless you intend to use Worden's TC2000 charting software. All discussions, indicators and charts are explained using this software as reference. On the other hand, if you have this software, you presumably already have a good understanding of the standard and proprietary indicators supplied with the package, and don't need lengthy tutorials on moving averages and relative strength. In this respect, the book's audience is unclear.

For me, what the book missed was material for the advanced TC2000 user, such as using the software's scanning and programming language capabilities. I assume that Larson himself is an advanced TC2000 user, it would have been nice if he had included some trading strategies making use of the software's advanced capabilities.
Sadly, all this is missing.

I am a new beader, so this is new for my growing library of beading books. The projects look to be well explained and seem to go from beginner to advanced beader. I would recommend it to beginners especially.

I ordered both this book and another jewelry book and I waited for it to arrive and after it was a week late I called and talked to a customer service person who was extremely helpful. She immediately sent out a replacement order which arrived within 2-3 days. I was very happy with the service I got in fixing the problem. I just received the 3rd book that was not available when I ordered the other 2 books and it just arrived ahead of schedule. I had only ordered from Amazon once before and again had great service and received the book very quickly. I will use amazon to order other books that I cannot get localy as long as the service continues.

Excellent book for a beginning "beader" like me! Great instructions are enhanced by clear illustrations!

Pedestrian is a lot better word for this book than brilliant. These are very easy projects that can be found in many other books. Most of the appealing pieces were for reference only, meaning there were no instructions. Also seed bead sizes and thread lengths are given in metric measurements, not six, eleven, fifteen, etc. for seed beads and inches or feet for other measurements. The one bracelet I did make had a mistake in the directions, but the diagrams were accurate and I was able to finish the bracelet. It was a disappointing piece, that I would only be pleased with if it was the first thing I ever made. So once again, I have added to the large collection of bead books I own that got great reviews and turned out to be a major disappoinment. I am cancelling the second brilliance book.

The book has clear instructions and figures that are easily followed. I made a few things as quick and easy Christmas presents and they were a hit....but, I was mislead by the cover photo. Every photo you see has instructions in the book except the one I bought the book for. It is the one on the front cover, third photo from the left. I was VERY disappointed the instructions for that project were not actually in the book!

Monique~Albuquerque, NM

The author goes right to the point. He explains well the VaR-related mathematics. There are a few mistakes, which would be easier to note if all derivations were provided. Overall, this is an excellent book.

When we went to implement a VaR system, the price tag was going to exceed seven figures. Needless to say, I didn't hesitate to drop some money buying the available books on VaR. They all say essentially the same things. For practical worked examples, you can't beat Butler. But unless you are an absolute beginner (do you know what delta and gamma are?) you may find it too basic. The all-round best book is Dowd. It is well organized and a pleasure to read. It covers the math, but without getting bogged down in meaningless derivations. For readers who want more information, there are plenty of references to original sources. I followed up on a number of these, and was pleasantly surprised at how easy some of this stuff is to assimilate.

Best book on VaR to date. Clear, concise, self-contained. Perfect combination of rigurous theory with practical applications. The author has done an excellent job at distilling what is relevant in Risk Management. This book is better than all the other VaR books written so far combined.

The author has done good work in introducing the basic concepts in Value-at-Risk. However, the text leaves some important statistical and implementation points hidden, making implementing VaR look far too easy. For example, there is no discussion about the problems involved in long-term forecasting of correlations and volatilities.

The much advertised "new distinctive investment approach", the so called "Generalized Sharpe Rule" is a rather naive treatment on classical risk/return analysis. However, the lack of mathematical rigour is well compensated with good references.

The author has done good work in introducing the basic concepts in Value-at-Risk. However, the text leaves some important statistical and implementation points hidden, making implementing VaR look far too easy. For example, there is no discussion about the problems involved in long-term forecasting of correlations and volatilities.

The much advertised "new distinctive investment approach", the so called "Generalized Sharpe Rule" is a rather naive treatment on classical risk/return analysis. However, the lack of mathematical rigour is well compensated with good references.

Believe the title! If you read BusinessWeek and have Internet access, this book is a waste of your time. While it defines the most basic terms of the Internet and investing (which you already know if you read the business section of your newspaper or a business magazine), it does not explain the more intricate methods of investing. The book is really a compendium of web sites. For example, instead of explaining HOW TO DO fundamental analysis, it tells you to go read a web site. Save your money. Search the web at www.dogpile.com with the term "investing" and get the same results free, in an instant.

OK, the book says it is for idiot's but come on, don't mean that literally! If you are a wee bit technical and understand the online world this book has a few chapters you can easily skip. Also, the author does not care to explain stuff like index funds, the various industry indexes, etc. The book has a load of good web links in it though. I wish the author had listed all the links at the end of the book in an appendix.

You can live without this book. The same information is available for free online.

I am a self-confessed rank beginner in the world of investing in general and online investing in particular.

This book starts you off with the REAL basics - ie assuming no knowledge of connecting to the internet (admittedly tedious for most these days...) and then guides you by the hand through various websites where enourmous amounts of information are found...

I don't imagine it is the almanac of investing for a moment...but it doesn't promise to be either. More of a roadmap - showing what's out and about to use as you get more proficient at investing.

I would like to see what an actual trader thinks of it...but seems to be a refreshingly unpretentious place to start for the utterly confused...if not completely idiotic.

-h@wkspy

This book was a lifesaver when I decided to jump into the waters of investing. With chapters to devoted to different aspects of investing, it was very easy to find exactly what I was looking for. And the book didn't stop with definitions like so many of the books I picked up -- it told me where to go on the Web to apply what I'd learned. This book is great for anyone that knows they should be investing, but who needs that extra "push" to get moving!

I didnt know anything about investing, not even what tickers are...but now after reading this book....i learned SOOOOOO MUCH!!!

I'm a newbie to trading and this is the perfect book for me. It's like spending a few hours/days talking to a friend and getting sincere, thorough advice. I have always thought it would take many months (and years?) of preparation before one should jump into trading, this book confirms that and laid out all the tools and skills you should be equipped with before attempting real day trading. It provides two techniques to get started with, perfect for someone starting out. I've found few resources where someone takes the time and patience to explain a technique from beginning to end, correlating the developing chart with all the other indicators that you should be watching for before a buy/sell is made. If you are an advance (successful?) trader, obviously this is not the book for you since you've already mastered your skills, but if you are starting out and want one single resource that will point you in the right direction, this is a must read.

Methods are outdated and rely more or less on the momentum stock craze of the late 90's.(example: csco was 70 a share when they wrote the book and is used in most or their examples.) I highly doubt they are still trading. Daytrading is a tough business so look to get reliable infomation. Dont start with this book. Sorry to be so critical but its just bad information to sell to the public.

This is a good book, if it were one of the first on the subject. The title is the most inventive aspect of the text. If your a west coast person it certainly applies to you. It uses other peoples methods but they are solid. The authors give credit to their sources which is a welcome change. However those methods have not made millionares. If you have not read a book on day trading this would be a good place to start.

With all the hype about day trading and with the Nasdaq market subject to such wild swings I was looking to take some of my money and attempt to leverage my knowledge base. I have been an enterprise networking products sales person and I consider myself reasonably savvy about emerging trends in technology. Reading this book was my "look before you leap," and provided me with some sound investing guidelines, philosophies, nuggets of information and the kind of reality check that will make this endeavor less akin to buying a lottery ticket. I recommend it for anyone who's interested in managing their own investments.

Nothing you could not find for free in internet.
I'm glad if the authors are making any profit from this book, because I doubt they are earning much by trading if all they know is put in here...

The book is well written and easy to read. I have learned a great deal from it. So far, it is the best book I've read about trading system design and development. I recommend it to anybody who is serious about trading systems.

Very well written (simple English) that help to organize thoughts of trading. and it help to improve your level of thinking about trading in general. little book, but very useful. It is very good start to learn how to make a mechanical trading system based on the ideas that you think "should work in the market" then you can back test and forward test those ideas. in this way you will see the weakness and the strength of your way of approaching the market. that will lead to one or more step ahead on you journey to achieve your goals in trading. it is simple and makes you do this tough task with the least possible amount of time.

I have never written a comment about a book, but hopefully other people will at least be warned. This is the one of the worst books I've ever read. I have read several Wiley books; most of them are poorly written and lacking substance. This one is unbelievably bad.
This book deserves a negative five stars. (Who wrote those other reviews?)
If you have never read a book on trading systems, then this book is may tell you something. Otherwise, save your money. There's nothing here.

I agree in part with the reviewer that has given 1 star to this book. I have not finished this book yet, and in fact I bought this book because of the numerous 5 stars reviews.

Many definitions appear only after they are mentioned in the text, so that perhaps you need to read and reread for this book to be useful.

Let me state my biases up front. I've always been rather suspicious of so-called "mechanical" trading strategies, although I'm a strong supporter of a technical approach to the market.

Technical analysis, for me, has always been about individual market participants, as a group, are likely to respond to price action to further their interest for profits, or to conserve capital. Market players are not mindless robots who are as predictable as coin flips, but people pursuing goals, and who learn from history. How the market reacts to news and fundamental info is extremely important from this point of view.

While there are things that can be learned from looking at price action, any algorithm that can extract profits from markets is likely to be short lived. With the advent of cheap, powerful computers, it is all too easy to "test" a system on historical data, only to have it fail in real time. Proper system testing is difficult to do.

Even if testing is done properly, it is likely to have been found by a significant number of smart, well-capitalized people long before you or I ever came onto the scene, making historical test results misleading, possibly unprofitable.

The fact is, markets change, and the context of price action in the past may be totally different to the current market environment. How do market systems account for market change, while still producing valid results?

This book allayed some of my fears. Since system testing IS hard to do, it is unlikely that a significant percentage of people will discover the signals of a profitable system, making the method unprofitable.

Even a skeptic such as myself will admit that proper historical testing can, at the very least, encourage thought about future market conditions, and prepare for various scenarios.

Most important (to me), system testing provides a reasonable method for adapting to changing markets. As new data comes in, the model can, and should, change.

This book teaches you how to do proper system testing, so you can have confidence in your results.

I deduct 1 star from the emphasis on the use of a frequentist statistical methodology. It is becoming clear in economics that talk of "long run frequencies" makes little sense for historical events that occur in a particular place, or a particular time, and are not likely to be repeated.

The use of Bayesian methods based on a subjective interpretation of probability (ie. degrees of belief), are growing in usage, and can provide more appropriate answers to certain questions that the "frequentist" methods do not.

For experienced technicians, I can recommend it.

I got this book at a boookstore in Niagara Falls,NY and when I first read it I noticed all the mistakes and my copy has pencil-mark corections all over it because I can't stand things like that.

A. Ryan Nerz does a good job when it comes to the stats, but it's lacking something when it comes to descriptions. Most of them simply say what the Digimon looks like (as if the pictures didn't show us)and their attacks. That's usually about it, unless they add how scary or strong the Digimon is and that we should watch out for them. Sometimes they throw in an extra bit, like what part they played in the show, which is a plus. All in all, it's a nice book despite the not up to par descriptions. Extras include and FAQ, show information, and Digidestined information.

The official review of this book was misleading. As a result of the review, I expected to find each name written in both English and Japanese.

It was a pretty cool book, but I warn you-there are bloopers!Especially if you watch the show, you'll notice everything wrong in this book.There is A-LOT of things they messed up on.Well any how, this book gives info on Digimon you never knew. A great book for the Digimon fans.

What a great book. I take it with me everywhere I go. It's oosome. I mean, yeah, it has some mistakes, but it still has more Digimon characters and concepts than any other guide or book. A. Ryan Nerz rocks, and so does this guide!

Werner

Every spreader should probably have this book on his shelf. it reviews over 200 seasonal spreads in the commodities and financial futures.

While they have data only up to 2004 and commodity word has changed rather dramatically so since then, it is still great book to check your knowledge of seasonal trends in various markets.

As a subscriber for years of Moore research, I find it nice to have the spreads in one place....a book. Moore research quality. The only drawback is that 2006 data is not included, so this is a "perishable" item. Fair enough, it's still worth buying every couple of years or so.

Good book for starting into spreads. They tend to just give a small sample of seasonal spreads in the book and by this year(2007) the tables will be outdated. More of a basic intro book that tries to sell their(MRCI) data service where they show many more seasonal spread trades to look at.

It is a great idea to publish a book like this. When I received this book I was happy, but a few minutes later I was already disappointed. I own a few actual statistics from the same company (Moore Research Center) and couldn`t believe, that they have hidden the most important statistics. For example feeder cattle: in their statistic they published 2 trades with a winning chance of 100 %. In this book they published zero! For example lean hog: in their statistic: 9 trade-opportunities with a winning chance of 100 %. In this book: only 2! They filled this book with 80 % chances. I don`t know, why they have hidden the higher chances?! Somehow I have the impression, this company don't want to tell us the trades with the highest probability. What a pity!