Rating: 
Summary: Too hard to read
Review: Text is too flowery to read - I just gave up everytime I read a few paragraphs. Trading concepts are not of the KISS (keep it simple, stupid) type variety - so, not very easy to apply.
Rating: 
Summary: Well-written and very enlightening
Review: Farley makes an outstanding contribution to the trading community with The Master Swing Trader. It is probing, on-target and very well written. As others have noted, the author makes demands on his readers. But these are legitimate demands, and rewarded in very short order. His material took me through a few longstanding performance barriers. Truly amazing stuff. This is not a beginner's book. The complaints you hear are definitely from newbies who want to be spoon fed their market education. Welcome to the real world folks. And thank you Mr Farley for taking us there.
Rating:
Summary: This is a classic, period.
Review: This book changed my trading and I have to give Farley credit for the improvement. From top to bottom, this is a winner. The setups work, the point of view is original, and the author had a great talent for pushing my buttons. Maybe that's why he's found a few detractors along the way. I can tell you one thing: professional traders and funds are starting to use Farley's methods. They understand how this book makes money in the post bubble market.
Rating:
Summary: Bad writer
Review: It is amazing to me that the many page book is so full of information worded to never say anything. After every paragraph I ask myself what the heck did he just say, and although with effort it is understandable the reader has to work much harder than should be necessary. The material covered is not that complicated. It is just very poorly writen.
Rating:
Summary: Truly an over-rated book..
Review: I was curious about reviewing this book based on the varying opinions here and popularity (as evidenced by the amazon sales rank ..) It is a book about mainly the application of technical analysis to trade stocks. But having studied TA I would hesitate to recommend this book to learn. Some snipets of wisdom here and there I can't deny. I think the appeal of this book was the timeliness of it's writing along with the bull markets in tech stocks. Most of the examples were in companies that were highflyers during those times. I think it would be dull and much less appealing after the huge subsequent decline in the Nasdaq. Having said that, and as serious as I am about trading, I'll skip on owning this book. I'll focus my energy on other authors' work.
Rating:
Summary: A catalog of trading techniques
Review: This is a first-rate book on trading and technical analysis. It teaches both the predictability of TA and the unpredictability of TA, (hence the importance of risk management). Frankly I'm amazed anyone would find it difficult to gather a broad set of useful trading techniques from the book. Every chapter is filled with strategies and ideas.
Rating: 
Summary: interesting prose
Review: The writing style is really off the wall , I almost wonder is the author playing some sort of joke on us . And I mean c'mon , the first six chapters are just a disorganised mess with endless repetitive philosophical mombo-jumbo . He's trying real hard to be academic and I would understand if he was adding something new to the subject of technical analysis but all he does here is rehash material from other books in super-diluted and super-convoluted form and offers no real system to put it all together . Basically he says you have to connect your right and left brain to come up with an execution strategy . Ok, whatever . The chapters thereafter contain 7 setups (7 Bells). Basically he relies on fibonacci retracements , bollinger bands , candlesticks , trendlines , gap down from a high , cup and handle , volume increase and NR7 ( narrowest range in seven days ) and using charts in multiple time frames . There are however no concrete/precise guidelines for execution . I think he is saying that every setup is different and subjective and you'll just have to figure it out yourself . For example , his setup called Dip Trip . This calls for a pullback from a high . How do you determine where to get in as a long ? By using Fibonacci retracements in different time frames . He likes the 38% retracement of the larger "time-frame" to line up with the 62% retracement of the smaller "time frame" . It was hard to tell what he meant by time-frame but initially I thought he meant the difference between the larger wave and the smaller internal wave because that's what the diagrams show , elsewhere in the book "time-frame" means chart time frame i.e 60 minute chart vs. daily . He also says not to do this for an over-extended stock but most of the examples appear to be over-extended to me . These are stocks that have already run-up quite a bit , seems a little risky to me . And how do you determine which waves to line-up ? Completely arbitrary and you will almost always in my experience find some retracements that line-up somewhere , like the 50% with the 68% which he says is almost as good . But how do you execute ? Do you wait for the stock to reverse or do you jump on it as soon as it hits the double retracement . It seems to me that he favors the latter but he doesn't outright say . He does of course like many indicators to all line up at the same spot so that would be one criteria I guess but I don't think he personally cares as long as his "gut feeling" tells him everything is allright . You certainly won't be able to get better than 50% wins with just the information gleaned here , the endless verbiage totally fails to add any needed insight. He says you can get 75% accuracy with proper discipline and precise execution . Yes ,and what is the precise execution then ? There can be none because this is a completely discretionary system and only experience will give you a "feel" for the set-up . I give the book two stars because one or two of the setups might be good if you can figure out your own way of attacking them and he does have a website where you can get scanning code and you should probably go to the website and see if the setups appeal to you at all as they are described there a little bit . And the first six chapters can be safely skipped by both beginners and experts alike . Certainly , if you have already read Nison , Elder , something on Bollinger bands and Elliot Wave then there's nothing of value in those chapters.
Rating:
Summary: Without a Doubt, Farley is an Expert
Review: Best book on trading I've read. This book has far more value to readers with significant trading experience than to beginners.
Rating:
Summary: Mastery Depends On Dedication
Review: It might seem contradictory that I rated this so well for what I'm going to say, but what is important is the end result. This book is boring. I have read pretty much all of the highly acclaimed trading titles out there and found Farley to be among the driest writers I have encountered. The book is ugly (no nice full-color charts just black and white throughout) and very meaty. It is difficult to read comfortably to due it's size and weight (it was known as my "Encyclopedia book" around the house). There is also a lot of redundancy. What I detested the most was the manner of reporting various setups. I felt Farley was constantly listing instructions as bullet points which seemed to never end. All combined it took me over 2 months to read. I hated this because I have very little time for reading due to my work hours and I normally go through average 200 page books in a few days. All gripes aside my trading improved weekly as I progressed through it. I have been trading for years and have had a moderate increase in my stake all along. However, I finally broke through the barrier that I always believed was hindering me and started to make consistent and larger profits. No book had ever had that effect! The main things I changed were not where I decide to enter but mainly EXIT. This had an exponential effect as trade after trade I was taking in more and giving back less. Pretty obvious, but now I see how true the old saying about "the difference between winning and losing is small". I can't say I am a "master" but I trade with more vigor and higher frequency to constantly put my newfound skills to work. I dread the day I will have to go back and re-read "Master Swing" again, but I'm glad I decided to stick it out and complete it in the first place. I hope you know what to expect now, but think of the fruits of your labor if you make a commitment to reading and understanding each chapter. Farley has unquestionably bared his soul.
Rating: 
Summary: A very good honest work!
Review: I've read many books about trading from various authors and I've noticed that one thing is common to almost all of them: they promise you the moon if you stick to their methods and theories. And if you do, it rarely works, not to talk about plenty of very dangerous trading ideas and methods out there. Mister Farley acknowledges the pitfalls and unconsistency of some of his methods. Some may find it disappointing or even frustrating. I find it honest. The point is he tries to explain to the reader why the markets work the way they work, not the way they should work. Of course his methods are not infallible, but if they were, there'd be only winners and no losers at all. It's very difficult nowadays to find a book whose every page is worth it's price. As a matter of fact I'm used to the idea of buying a book because of a few very good ideas that it contains. As far as this book is concerned there are a lot of sections that I find extremely interesting, "the seven bells" being one of them, and there are others a little less interesting. Besides, it gets somewhat repetitive at patches, but I guess that's because the author wants to be sure he really has made the point. Bottom line one of the best trading books so far. PS: I see that many reviewers find Mr Farley's way of writing too sticky. English is not my mother language, but quite frankly I find his writing style neither simple nor too difficult to understand.
| 
