The Master Swing Trader: Tools and Techniques to Profit from Outstanding Short-Term Trading Opportunities

Media:	Hardcover
Author:	Alan S. Farley
Publisher:	McGraw-Hill
Release date:	13 December, 2000
List price:	~~$55.00~~
Our price:	$34.65 that is 37% off!

The Master Swing Trader: Tools and Techniques to Profit from Outstanding Short-Term Trading Opportunities

Average rating: Stars

Wrong Title

After reading this book, I thought that the author is extremely dishonest, and that the book should be named as
"Swing Rambling On Specially Selected Stock Charts By A Random Mind".

If there is anything that could be called "new" in this "book", it is the dishonesty of the writer who made such "tardemark-claim" on the so-called "seven bells". Yet there is nothing, not a single "bell" is defined in any way, even not defined loosely. That's only useful for the writer: since nobody could test it, or claim whether or not they actually work. Sound familiar? Uh!!! It reminded me the infamous fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen.

I would like to give the writer a second chance: If he could define a single thing out of the "7 bells" on this board, I will be more glad to tell him what is wrong with his "work."

The Master Swing Trader: Tools and Techniques to Profit from Outstanding Short-Term Trading Opportunities - Alan S. Farley

This book is for retarded

I meant to put no stars on this book at all.

The author can't even write more than two sentences before running into some concepts which he could not understand or could not explain. Same thing happened in all those "admiring" comments on this board. Either they are just hired pumpers, or they could only ramble on something they could not understand just like the author himself did in this book.

DO NOT WAIST TIME OR MONEY ON THIS GARBAGE.

Alan S. Farley - The Master Swing Trader: Tools and Techniques to Profit from Outstanding Short-Term Trading Opportunities

Great book, but beginners stay away

As I write this there have been 229 reviews before mine. So, I'm not sure what my input will accomplish at this point but I feel compelled to give it anyway.

First, let's get the issue of the author's writing style out of the way. No one's going to confuse him with Steinbeck, but he's NOT difficult to understand if you're a trader with a high school education and you're fluent in English. If you're of reasonable intelligence and, more importantly, if you already have experience with trading and technical analysis, you'll understand everything just fine. In other reviews people have commented that they have a need to be entertained while reading books such as this, which makes me very happy because that's one less person I have to compete with for stock market profits. Worthwhile trading instruction doesn't grow on trees, and I'm more than happy to read a book like this just for the wealth of information it contains. If you want a great read, I'd recommend the new Dean Koontz. If you want to consistently make money in the markets, this is one book that can help you.

The writing notwithstanding, the meat of this book--the concepts--are priceless. I'm an experienced swing trader myself, and I tell you, success in short term trading is very, VERY difficult. It takes no less skill than does being a professional in any other field, and the learning curve is just as long and expensive. It's common knowledge that most new traders fail, and in this business failing means you've lost hard earned money. People say trading is a zero sum game, but that's way too kind--the small trader starts out in a hole. After you've overcome the commissions and the bid/ask spread and the games played by the specialists and other insiders designed to take your money and move the market the way they want, then and only then are you at "zero". Also, as Mr. Farley correctly points out, if a person has made a profit on a trade, he/she hasn't taken money from "the market", but directly from another person. One trader's gain is always another trader's loss, something we should never forget because it affects how the market moves (How? Read this book). It really is war out there, and the stakes are your future standard of living.

I've read Elder, Van Tharp, Marcel Link, O'Neil, Appel, Prechter, Lynch, Cramer, Soros, Schwager, Zweig, Williams, Muzea, Pring, Chande, and many others, so I know what the heavy hitters in the field have to say. I try to take at least one or two ideas from every book I read and incorporate them in my trading, but this book has so much I've had to take notes. The book is simply full of information swing traders need to keep in mind while trading, and I don't see how anyone can dispute that. Just his treatment of support/resistance, expansion/contraction and the proper use of bollinger bands justifies the price of the book.

I see the audience for this book as traders who have experience, who know what the typical indicators are and how they're constructed, traders who know the difference between a market order and a limit order and when to use one over another, but who perhaps haven't gotten over the hump in terms of making the profits they could be making. The book reminded me of things I'd forgotten, forced me to look at other things in a new light, and caused me to reexamine some techniques I had thrown out long ago because I wasn't using them to their fullest capacity.

By the way, the comments about the information being too general are way off base. You will NEVER in your lifetime see a book that says: "Step one: copy this code into your Tradestation program; 2. Follow the signals; 3. Retire rich to the south of France in two years". Well, you might see one but it'll be a scam. If you're a discretionary trader, no one can give you a precise road map of exactly what to do when you finish the book and fire up your trading software. It's impossible. The market is never exactly like it was in the past, so the only way to succeed is to take the guidelines people like Mr. Farley give you and practice trial and error real time. And, if you're a system trader, no one will ever give you properly configured code for a killer trading system, because it's well known that when enough people use the same system it stops working. They would be taking money out of their own mouth, and the system would be worthless after a relatively short while anyway. Just ask the Turtles about systems losing their punch.

To sum up, if you haven't read Elder and Van Tharpe, if you haven't spent a good amount of time looking at charts, if you haven't made a trade yet, by all means do all that first. Then you can come back and read this book, and it'll in all likelihood make sense to you.

BTW, I have no association with Mr. Farley in any way.

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