All About Technical Analysis : The Easy Way to Get Started

Rating:
Summary: Ok
Review: Covers a little bit of everything, but nothing extremely well. As the other reviews say, this is not book for beginners and more for an intermediate level student.

Rating:
Summary: This book absolutely not for beginner
Review: i don't know to whom this book the author wrote. If you are a beginner, you must be confuse read it but if you are not a beginner again u won't get nothing from this book.There is no tip or trick. Trade for a living far better than this book

Rating:
Summary: Not for beginners
Review: I'm giving this book a middling rating, but I don't feel like I'm really in a position at this point to judge its actual value.

What I can say -- and what anybody just getting started should know before acquiring this book -- is that the book is more assuredly *not* written for beginners. The fundamental style of the book presumes a pre-existing familiarity with a set of terminology and concepts, and can be quite terse in its explanation of concepts and examples. It strikes me as probably well-suited to those who have engaged fairly extensively in the study of technical analysis already, and who are looking for alternative analysis viewpoints.

To her credit, the author does provide considerably more insight than just technical analysis -- for example, summarizing the fundamentals connecting different markets. So I would think this book would be quite interesting to one who has a solid foundation in technical analysis, but lacks a bigger picture of the market. On the other hand, as at least one other reviewer commented, the book does jump around a lot in discussing these relationships, making it a somewwhat awkward path to that comprehensive picture.

However, the most significant point, for anybody who is a beginner, is that the book's subtitle "The Easy Way to Get Started" and it's cover description "Everything you need to know about technical analysis..." are misleading, inasmuch as it makes it seem as if it is targeted to, and suitable for, beginners. It is not.

Rating:
Summary: Good, solid book (4.75 stars)
Review: The author of this book, Constance Brown, did a superb job in the organization and presentation of this book. Further, she is the kind of author that makes the reader feel to go out there and find out more in his/her own about esoteric and etheral methematical concepts. I myself have traded for a number of years as was always very skeptical of Tech Analysis. After reading this book, though I'm still skeptical, I am a little more open to use TA in my trades.
I think Constance, the author, has grown up since she wrote "Technical Analysis for the Trading Professional." This time around she is less "naggy," without ever being dry and stoic.
Many people who do not like her is because they disregard her for being too "womanish" in her literay voice. Of course, the aforemntioned point of view is very chauvinistic, and should ne be the basis for judging her works.
The only problem I found was that the last three or four chapters were botched. I'm myself an engineer by training and a mathematician by hobby and I can tell she was getting into math that was way over her head and over the head of many of her readers.
The book is a definite must if you're interested in Tech Analysis. It will introduce you, teach you with intricate detail, let you teach yourself, and finally see the conclusions of your work.
I really like the very last chapter "the 27 million dollar lunch" I think this chapter alone will teach more about TA/Investing that any primer out there.
As I said in the subject, this is a very good, solid book.

Rating:
Summary: so far disappointing
Review: The book is not well written. The author does not clearly explain her thinking, she hops from topic to topic without connecting the ideas behind the topics, and always assumes that the reader has some working knowledge on the matter she is writing about.

That is not to say that the book cannot be useful. The author has some good points on why technical analysis can work, but it is a petty that more often than not her message does not come across.


Rating:
Summary: Haphazard
Review: The book is written by an extremely busy professional. Therefore, it appears there was no time to organize the material in a manner suitable to either a beginner, intermediate or an advanced student. So, one gets a mix of all levels. There is poor order of chapters and the author does not care to present her material in a manner which makes the topics clear. Or present the subject from simple ideas to difficult. Many of the graphs/charts included in the book are left unexplained.
To be fair, the author is an expert in this field and has a lot of experience, teaching material and the professional competence to write this book. However, it appears as if the author had just enough time to put together each chapter at the end of a long day or during holiday weekends. The way the book is written, you are supposed to rise to her level, which is fine if her explanations are well done. But when it matters most, she lacks the clarity of expression and or presentation. Often she wanders off and forgets to come back to her explanations, where she left off. She includes a lot of irrelevant material about some trivial professional experience as if they matter to a serious learner of the TA. Many of them do not. Who cares she traded in WTC or near UN building.

After so many years of successful trading, one would think that, writing a book of this nature is like performing a service to the reader to teach, be it a novice or an advanced trader. I did not find that kind of attitude in this book. It is more like, 'I know all this stuff after all these years. I challenge you to become as good as I am. If you do not understand what I write, too bad'. Too bad, look elsewhere if you wish to learn about TA (Eg.: A. Elder, Schwager, Murphy, Kaufman).

Haphazard is the word that comes to mind when you read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Technical analysis or just this book?
Review: This is the first and so far only book on technical analysis I have read. Though I will read at least a couple more.

This book doesn't appear to be the easy way to get started. You get some techniques, though never enough to really make full use. Explanations are started, then ended with the promise to get back to it later. Not a good way to learn if that is the rule, and in this book it is. Is Ms Brown just stumping for her web site or what?

But I am not so sure it is all her fault. Maybe technical analysis of the stock or futures market is the problem. Everything about it smacks of self delusion. Going by this one book, and some reading of the subject on the internet, technical analysis is the astrology of the 21st century the way it looks so far.

You get various systems for deciding. The advice to get three indicators that agree. Why three? Why not five, and why not explain which three work? Ms. Brown gives analysis, and then adds little changes over the standard. But there is no rhyme or reason as to why this change now, and another at a different time. Just something to make it fit, and seem to work.

Then the advice to pick a few indicators, oscillators, work with them, learn them. Seems to me you are simply using them long enough in a earnest manner to build up your own confidence in them. Ms Brown when talking about combining moving averages, mentions Fibonacci numbers in picking your moving averages. And then makes the comment you can use which ever lengths of moving averages you prefer. Whatever you choose and are comfortable with. Now I am sorry, but if this is really technical and has something behind it, there should be some that work better for some purpose versus others. If not, I think we are back to self delusional confidence building.

At the very least, even if further study of technical analysis proves fruitful and worthwhile, at least for neophytes, leave this book alone. It isn't much good for you. The fact an earlier of Ms Brown's works was chosen to prepare candidates for the professional certification exam for the Market Technicians Association doesn't exactly encourage me in regard to technical analysis.

You do get a taste for TA, and some of the terms, with some explanation of the more common type charts etc. But it is poorly done. It does provide some info, which is why I give 2 stars rather than 1 star. I am pretty sure you can do better.


Rating:
Summary: Simplifying Technical Analysis
Review: You will find this book is complete. It not only teaches technical analysis that works, but also teaches basic money management so a trader can "survive" long enough to develope his technical skills. I have paid for her market forecasts for nearly ten years. Her ability to predict market objectives based on technical analysis is unequalled by any investment service I have ever followed. You will find she reads through chart signals and patterns in a unique way. This book clarified for me how she has been doing it.

This book puts it all together, she holds nothing back. For example, using the techniques in the book, the rally target was predicted four months in advance for CMC including it's following decling that is still extending twelve months after her prediction. (I was confused at first until I saw CMC had a 2 for 1 stock split after the book was printed, adjust the price levels accordingly).

I think the book's title and cover bullets are too limiting for what's inside. The book covers the basics for those beginning, but the advanced trader or Portfolio manager will be mislead by the novice bullets on the cover. Inside is a gold mine of information as it's charts and predictions apply years into the future. You would do well to read it very carefully.

For me, the most fascinating aspect of this book is the discussion of a higher universal order that connects everything in nature. Fibonacci and W. D. Gann were leaders in discovering this mathematical harmonic relationship and how it impacts markets. Even after all of these years, this is still cuttting edge knowledge. Ms. Brown has explained something that is very complicated in a manner that I could understand.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand market action, and to profit from it.