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A strange but interesting book on pattern analysis
This is a very weird book. The other reviews should indicate that. It is a book on pattern recognition. That part is fine, and has some merit. Then there is a whole other side: a weird new age, Native American pseudo-spirituality, a disconnected wax-on wax-off rhetoric, and tons of filler and eye candy (a discussion of markets in the first 1/3 with no depth, and a discussion of fibs and indicators with no formulas or indication of how to use them, more like a list . . . ). But the last 1/3 of the book is the meat. It is pretty interesting, and might be informative if I knew whether or not this guy was a real, successful trader. He introduces 7 ideas with goofy, new-age, pseudo-zen names, all of which point to well known concepts, which I place in second, then third I give the basic analysis concept involved:
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br /1. "Dip Trip" - trends retrace - fibs
br /2. "Coiled Spring" - consolidation (triangles e.g.) precede breakout - volatility
br /3. "Finger Finder" - 1-3 signals - candlesticks
br /4. "Hole-in-the-wall" - gaps after rallies for downturns - gaps
br /5. "Power spikes" - big volume days - volume/money flow
br /6. "Bear hug" - rallies into resistance bounce down - S/R lines
br /7. "3rd watch" - cup and handles/triple breakout - channels
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br /What's odd is he discusses each of the 7 with the other 6 at the same time. This whole book could be summed up with, "I take the same tools you use, that you could find in any analysis book, and mix them all together in an idiosyncratic right-brain process that could never be put into words, man. Use the inner trader." In a way, I give him credit for trying, and I found it useful to break the early 1-indicator to the truth pattern newbies often acquire. But there is little useful knowledge. At half the price or twice the normal curiosity level, it's a buy.
Do you need to buy this book?
There are useful ideas in this book but I find it is so difficult to read. We definitely need to apply the right strategy to suit the market cycle but do we need to have too many entry set-ups? Trading is a game of probability. There is no guarantee an entry set-up will work out. Risk control and exit strategy are more important. We can swing trade successfully with just a few entry set-ups.
br /Do you need to buy this book? If you want to get ideas on entry set-ups and chart analysis you may consider but be prepared it is not an easy read. Besides, most of the ideas are already presented in the author's website [...] You may want to visit his website first.
Master Swing Trader
The topics covered in the book are indeed varied to the extent that certainly the major swing trade techniques are identified. This is not an introductory text on the subject and is not necessarily useful as a reference due to the lack of specific examples and guidance. As simple as it may seem, a better reference on the subject of technical analysis and swing trading techniques is Technical Analysis for Dummies. While the mathematics for a vast majority of the techiques presented in the text may appear dry and uninteresting, more sample problems and a "big picture" approach would certainly have helped this book get the point across to the trader who wants to employ any number of methods to minimize the emotion factor when trading stocks. Leave this book on the bookseller's shelves.
The worst of the worst
No body on this review board of Amazon.com has actually explained anything presented in this book, not even the author himself in this book. EVERYTHING IS INCOMPREHENSIBLE. As a matter of fact, you have to unlearn everything you'd learned since your first grade to "comprehend" or accept what this author was saying. Since according to one of the interpreters of the author: "The markets are dynamic and constantly changing", and therefore, THERE IS NO "STRATEGY" THAT CAN BE ACTUALLY DEFINED. So much so for the promise of dozens of strategies and "seven bells", which are all smoking screens to draw someone to buy this book.
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br /On the other hand, if you have the auctioneer's mouth and have enough words to say: "Bull Bear fight" in dozens of different ways, you are guaranteed to be able to write another book better than this one.
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br /Never mind your "pattern cycle, " which is one of the selling points of the book. It could just be a "pattern psycho" as well. Because if you are looking for cycles in a way of the common sense, it would take you such a long time, as the life time of the solar system or longer, to have one such cycle to meet this "master" in his promise land. I guess that the author has been busy designing his new "bells" during the past nine years or so, since he has not been able to observe any re-occurrences of his trademarked "seven bells" either. So it seems.
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Don't Bother With This One
This book is one of the worst I've read on trading. It will be a nightmare to read if you are a novice. If you are advanced on this topic, you will quickly realize that it leads the reader from one dead end to another. Too many words and too much filler. It has the feel as if it was put together in a haphazard way - paragraph after paragraph full of general statements on trading that often don't even fit together. It's very important to keep in mind that a LOT of these authors of trading books make a living off of selling trading books, DVDs, and subscriptions. Because, frankly, they can't make a living from trading.
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