Rating: 
Summary: A Timeless Classic
Review:
How I Trade For A Living is one of my all time trading favorites. It's the real deal, devoid of fluff and written by a practisioner and not an ivory tower academician.
As a small-time trader I could readily identify with Gary Smith's trading struggles in his earlier years as he relentlessly pursued his trading dream. Mr. Smith's eventual cross-over to consistent profitability was a real eye-opener. It enabled me to redefine my trading strategies, goals, and most importantly, my trading mindset.
Gary took me on a spellbound journey as he described in detail the trading strategies, indicators, and patterns that worked and didn't work for him in over 30 years of battling the markets. This book is full of diversity - from trader psychology (and in a way I have never seen it presented) to stock index futures, equity funds and junk bonds. The section on the ins and outs of trading junk bonds is alone worth the price of the book. This is a niche market I was not aware of before and trading junk bonds has been a nice supplement to my other trading income recently.
Some revision of this classic book may be in order due to the restrictions put in place recently against active mutual fund traders. And judging from some of Gary's recent postings on the Net and magazine articles, he has now moved on to the trading of individual stocks exhibiting the tight rising channel pattern he used while trading equity funds.
Rating:
Summary: A rare practical book from a real trader
Review: A recent debate in one of the Internet trading forums this weekend on the efficacy of the strategies in this book since the bursting of the stock market bubble prompted this review. How I Trade for a Living is divided into 5 main parts. These include the author's 18 year search for trading success, the indicators he uses to trade, a blow-by-blow description of his trading for a year and a half period with an emphasis on various momentum patterns, and how he trades mutual funds and stock index futures. I most enjoyed the parts describing the trials and tribulations of Mr. Smith's 18 year search to become a consistently successful trader and how he overlays sentiment with momentum in his actual trading. Since I don't trade mutual funds I didn't find that section very informative except where he details how to dateline the international markets. This book is best used as a timing tool for the Dow, Nasdaq, S&P, and small cap Russell 2000 indexes. It will not help you in trading individual stocks other than knowing which direction to trade form - long or short. The author is very harsh towards stock market bears. I suspect if the book was written today he would be equally harsh towards stock market bulls as the author is a big believer in simply following the message of the market. While many of the momentum patterns discussed are best used in bull markets, some work just as well in the bear phases such as the divergence patterns. To be perfectly honest, the primary reason I gave this book a five star rating was because it enabled me to completely escape the carnage of the past year. At least so far, the innovative ways Mr. Smith uses sentiment have worked just as well in the present bear market as it did in the past bull. Perhaps I should write a follow up review to say how effective or ineffective the book is in getting me back in the long side at the beginning of the next bull market.
Rating:
Summary: A real trader comes up with real stuff
Review: After having watched this industry for years, I have learnt a few lessons and the most important of them is that as I would never learn how to swim from someone who cannot swim well, I should not, similarly learn to trade from someone who does not trade for a living and believe me 99% of the authors of trading books and courses fall into this category i.e they make their money by writing and selling books and courses and not by trading.Just try asking these "trading gurus" for their own real time trading results and you will see all possible excuses coming your way.
Gary is an exceptional person and this is an exceptional book. I am surprised Gary how did you have the courage to reveal your bread and butter methods to everyone. I know its due to this strong urge in Gary to save us from crocodiles.Over the years Gary has been taking them to the task by asking them for their own real time trading results and in this process I am sure he has made many enemies, some of his such activities may account for some of the negative reviews this exceptional book has recieved.
I have read this book many times and my copy is full of highlighted passages and notes and my trading results speak for themselves assuring me that Gary has not been hesitant in sharing meat with us. I just cannot wait for another book by Gary!!!
Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommended
Review: As a number of reviewers before me mentioned, this is a terrific book that belongs in every trader's library. It is that good, and is easy reading. You will probably want to read it more than once just to get all of the concepts down. While reading Gary Smiths book, a light went on in my head. He mentions somewhere that approximately 90 per cent of new traders don't make it. Another words, less than 10 out of 100 people who set out to do day trading wind up making consistent money (a profit). This ratio is very close to the number of people who don't make it (or don't even try) to be self-employed - about 94% Think about this: 94% of the working U.S. population, is employed for the other 6%. Why is that? It's because most of us are not taught as children to think for ourselves. Our schools teach us to obey the rules and prepare us for a career or trade working for an established company (i.e. someone else). At our job, we are usually given instructions on what needs to be done, when it is due, and in some cases, how to do it. Nothing wrong with that, but this training can work against you if applied to the stock market. Day trading, is very much a self-directed profession. It requires you to make ALL decisions. There is no one to tell you when to start, when to stop, what securites to buy or how to buy them or especially how many to buy. In Gary's book he discusses all of these topics in detail, but not in a general way. Is it any mystery that so many don't succeed? I believe, that in order to be a good trader, even if you are working for a trading firm, you must have a self-employment mindset. Most of us do not. I recommend reading the following book along with Gary Smith's book in order to learn those ideas that were not taught to us when we were young. Reading this book will improve the odds of success significantly for traders just starting out and who have not previously run their own operation. The book is "Secrets of Self-Employment" by Sarah and Paul Edwards. Amazon.com carries this title ISBN 0874778379. This book will help you establish the right mindset for working on your own. These two books alone are not going to make you a super trader, but they are a very good start.
Rating:
Summary: A Masterful Trading Gem
Review: As someone who has been involved on Wall Street for over 20 years, I found How I Trade for a Living to be a near masterpiece.
This is one of the rare books written by someone who actually trades for a living. This is a refreshing change of pace from the multitude of books written by non-trading analysts who only offer a hodge podge of trading strategies with hypothetical back tested results. How I Trade for a Living is the saga of a small time trader with a dream. Once Mr. Smith finally found the light (after years of struggling) he compounded $2000 into nearly $1,000,000 - an annualized rate of return that places the author in some elite company. This book discusses Mr. Smith's use of sentiment, momentum, and divergence. His technical methods are geared for stock traders, fund traders, and futures and options traders who are looking for clues to the direction of the overall market such as the Dow, S&P, or Nasdaq. One caveat, this book is not for those who only trade individual stocks. Many patterns and indicators offered are unique among trading books such as the use of the Rydex timers as a sentiment tool. But this book is more than mere strategies. It's an offering of rarely seen perspecitves on the realities of trading for a living from your home. The author's presentation of the psychology of trading and psychological trading gurus as well as his reading resource chapter are must reads for anyone thinking about entering the trading game. I too wonder what the author has been up to since the book's publication. If he is still trading and adhering to the momentum, divergences, and persistency of trend patterns detailed in his book, I would assume he rotated long ago out of technology into the value sectors of the market and more recently into emerging markets.
Rating:
Summary: Clear concise worth every dime!
Review: As the author of several books on trading I tend to be jaded as to the usual amount of garbage that gets to the public. This time, Mr. Smith, pleasantly surprised me. He held no punches in expressing the highs and lows of trading for a living. He also makes it a point that everyone needs to find their own way to a style of trading that fits them bes. Great book. I definitely recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Loved the book. Highly recommend it!
Review: Before I begin, I just want to reflect on what the other comments stated about Gary Smith and chart reading. Gary Smith stated that chart reading did not work for him and for many people in his observation. He did not say it does not work at all for all people. There's a big difference. As a matter of fact he insinuated in the chapter on perceptual filters that they may actually work for some traders. Concerning the book, I really enjoyed it because it explained one very important element to successful trading that is often overlooked - that is being in sync with the market. Your not going to find alot of stringent rules on what to do and what not to do as you would expect to see in other books. Instead, the author will go through the methods he uses in understanding market dynamics in hopes that such will inspire the reader to develop ideas of his/her own. The bottom line of the book is to stress the understanding of the underlying possible reasons of strength and weakness in the markets based on price action and sentiment readings. In short, to feel out the market and act accordingly. The problem with most traders that fail is that they get too focused on chart pattern set ups and trading strategies that they overlook the most important thing - the over all current environment that they will trade in. This book reminds the reader of the importance of this simple but too often overlooked fact. Lastly, I liked the book because it opened my mind to another angle of trading and inspired ideas of my own.
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: Even though you may not trade his way he has some great insights on the markets and trading. This is definitely one of the better books on trading.
Rating:
Summary: Where is the sequel?
Review: Feb. 14, 2003
I read Nicholas Darvas in 1973 and found so much sense from an individual (as opposed to the so called professional advisors).
Gary Smith takes a similar approach and all of us investors/traders out here appreciate Gary taking the time to show us how to trade.
The financial advisors of the world have their own agenda and could care less about a client unless of course you are already a multimillionaire.
It would be benefical to see what Gary has done since publishing, (1999 to 2003), (during one of the most severe bear markets in history). Therefore the title; Where is the Seguel?
Gary, if you read this, we anxiously await your next book, and thanks again for the help you have already provided.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for technical traders
Review: Gary did a great job in describing what his life as a private trader is like. He has also gave a brief review of his road to trading success. This is the interesting part. What I could not really agree is his disbelieve in technical analysis (didn't he just shown some charts in his book). Being a technical trader myself, I trade on price action, and price action is best shown in the chart!
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