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Rating: 
Summary: Revisiting the original review
Review: I am revisiting this book, 5 years down the track, looking for the gold beneath the gross.1. The first difficulty: All the charts in this book are done manually. This seems a long way out of date with current charting software available. It is also extremely tedious. 2. All channels are drawn at 45 degrees with width of 8.5 units. Why 45 degrees? Why 8.5 units? No explanation. I assume the 45 degree requirement goes back to the old Gann ideas and time/price symmetry. But I see no obvious reason for the 8.5 unit channel width.
Both the slope and the width of these channels appear arbitrary and unproven. 3. The book is essentially based on cycle analysis, where we are looking for the number of days between two highs to equal the number of days between two lows. Unless you're a cycles fanatic you're straight away going to find yourself out of your depth here, especially since cycles (if they exist) are not constant. 4. The explanatory charts and notes are very difficult to follow and some charts and notes are simply incorrect (eg fig32 P.15). I intend to come back to this review to elucidate the heart of the PAMA methodology. In the meantime, with apologies to Jeff, I am still unable to give this book a decent recommendation.
Rating: 
Summary: 20/20 Hindsight trading method fudged to get good results
Review: I found his trading method difficult to understand. He glosses over his trading method and does not explain it with enough detail. I had to read the pages over and over again just to get a grasp of his system. Basically, he is using channelling to detect reversals of up and down trends. Half of the book uses his method to analyze the Dow Jones Industrial Average for a ten year period. In following his analysis, there were quite a few times when it seemed like he did not follow his own rules. It looks like he was doing that to make his trading results look good.
Rating:
Summary: 20/20 Hindsight trading method fudged to get good results
Review: I found his trading method difficult to understand. He glosses over his trading method and does not explain it with enough detail. I had to read the pages over and over again just to get a grasp of his system. Basically, he is using channelling to detect reversals of up and down trends. Half of the book uses his method to analyze the Dow Jones Industrial Average for a ten year period. In following his analysis, there were quite a few times when it seemed like he did not follow his own rules. It looks like he was doing that to make his trading results look good.
Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Rip-Off of Your Time and Money
Review: The Ultimate Breakthrough in Market Turning Point Detection by Jeffery A Cuddy describes the author's PAMA (Pivotal Area of Market Analysis) method that the author claims to trade successfully. After studying the book both inside and out, I would rename it, The Ultimate Rip-Off Of Your Time and Money. Do not buy this book!
The author does go to great lengths to give the reader his rules for trading channels he creates. The whole method to his madness is knowing how wide to create these channels. And guess what? That information cannot be found in this book. Mr. Cuddy, gives you numerous rules to trade the channels, but doesn't give you the method on how wide to create them. Until he writes another book with that information, learning the PAMA method is a complete waste of time and money.
Rating:
Summary: Not as easy as 1,2,3,4...
Review: This is a difficult book to review. And difficult to read. A true rating could be anywhere between one star and four depending on what your perpective is. It is a thin book (only 155 pages counting the index and lots of white space, also big printing and full page graphs) but I don't think it is gutless. Jeffrey is pushing something he calls the PAMA Method (Pivotal Area of Market Analysis)and he may have something there. But trying to read the book is like sawing hardwood with a disposable plastic knife. I still scarcely know what the hell he is saying, and believe me I have tried. He may well be offering something of value but it is bloody difficult to understand what. The first part of the book is just simply badly written and the last part I've never gotten to even after several attempts. He spends a lot of time developing arcane laws and conditions (and sub-laws and sub-conditions) that may sometimes work for him but to claim them as the "Ultimate Breakthrough" well.... I would like to encourage a serious student to buy this book and then elucidate it to me or study it together because I still believe there is something in it. But if you want a holy grail or an easy read to riches, this book ain't it!
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