Rating: 
Summary: this book earns my respect
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Farley's book. I found it to be comprehensive and thought-provoking. Don't be too concerned that it draws a lot of fire. This type of treatment of trading techniques was sure to attract some heat. But dont be put off by it. This is a book most active traders need to read. Its that good. I would consider myself an intermediate level swing trader. I only say this to give an idea of the reader's perspective.
The book is well written and the ideas conveyed in useful terms. I have read many books and this is one of the more valuable. There is much good and oft repeated advice that you would do well to heed and which never hurts to read more than once. I found myself quickly skimming over or skipping several sections of the book, but other sections were extremely valuable. Especially helpful were the sections on the 7 Bells and creating automated scans. Mr. Farley is very specific about his strategies and methods of stock picking, entry, and exit points. One of the book's strong points is definitely the illustrations. They are of high quality, very clear and numerous. As to whether it is worth the money or not, this is somewhat subjective. In my opinion, it is. If you are already a successful trader and stock picker and happy with your abilities and understanding of market cycles, then pass this one up. If however you feel that you have more to learn, especially about entry techniques, stock scans, and general stock picking methods then I highly recommend "Master Swing Trader". There are several methods listed that I had to learn instinctively by trial and error. I think the book is very well rounded and that it contains enough information to help you become a successful trader if you read no other.
Rating: 
Summary: Stay Away
Review: You will not learn anything from this book, well except for fear and greed that apeares every other page. that will not teach you anything along there is no trading strategy, all about swing trader should do that, shouldn't do this...., Written like you are writing a paper on something you know nothing about, proven by continuous refernce to other books and what they written.
Bits and pieces from here and there, good Candles, but no trading strategy or will teach you how. The seven bells, who use them. Try Conners or Copper books for short term trading.
Rating:
Summary: This is a great book.......
Review: I strongly recommend this book to everyone. Farley has put together many interesting trading techniques and targeted information for bear markets and choppy markets. It's amazing how appropriate this text is for the recent crash, I had no difficulty at all with the materials, and even found the writing style to be refreshing and probing. There is nothing wrong with sitting back, and taking your time with a detailed text. I certainly feel this content was worth the efort. I have been trading stocks for over 15 years and read almost every book ever written on investing and trading. I liked how this book covers the most important elements of swing trading: TA, chart, risk management. psychology, etc. The book explains these topics with clear graphics which force the reader to stop, and study. The graphics were quite complex but truly support the points of the text in a very effective manner. I noted over 170 illustrations with tables and charts. I really appreciate the graphic materials, which help me understand what Farley is trying to say. I also liked the layout of the book. It is well organized. Each new chapter builds on the previous one. This makes The Master Swing Trader a smooth read. My rating is 5 stars. This is one of the best and most important trading books out in the last few years. It is well worth its price and the time you put into it.
Rating:
Summary: WOW! 440 pages!
Review: I rated this book a five to prove a point. First, a disclaimer: I have not finished the book. I am reading it as I do most books from the first chapter to last and so far I am finding it extremely hard to follow. I have read many other trading books and by and large I am familiar with the terminology and logic of trading but so far, my experience with this book is not encouraging in my getting a clearer picture. Are there going to be gems in this book? or, some lessons in trading or setups? Perhaps, but beware, you will need a magnifiying glass to find it. Bad enough that this book is over 400 pages but believe me when I say, you will need to re-read it several times to get something out of it.
So, why did I rate this five stars? Because I am taking this 'technical analysis' one step further by applying it to this book rating system. There are (at this point in writing) 150 book reviews for this book. Some positive, some negative, some in the middle. If you look at the negative comments, you will find a common theme (this book is badly written) and detailed criticisms whereas if you compare them with the 5 stars, they are mostly accolades and (sometimes empty) praise (written by friends and family, perhaps?). Now, look further at the 'Was this Review Helpful to you' stats. Why is it that some of the simpler 5 star reviews that give little information about the book other than to say it is a 'bible' of sorts rate a 80-90% 'Useful' rating while the 1-3 star reviews that try to depict an honest and detailed cirtique rate less than 20% 'usefulness'. It suggests that the sellers of this book, whoever they are, are writing the positive reviews to boost the overall rating and then clicking on 'useful' to emphasize the fact. Reminds me of the days where you want to get your website to number one on the search engines by getting the most 'hits'.
This book is badly written - plain and simple. I will not comment on the substance as that has not struck me yet, but in all other literary measurements, it is difficult to read and digest. But don't take my word for it. Read a few excerpts from the sample pages and see for yourself. Just remember, there are 440 pages of this stuff to muddle through. Mr Farley, why make life so difficult for your readers? Get an editor, please!
Rating: 
Summary: Good but Wordy
Review: I own several books about trading and this thick book should worth the purchase price...If there is one important reason on why you should buy this book it is the depth of the subjects covered and the expertise of the author. However, this book gets a four star rating because of its D- score in presenting the materials and may give you a feeling that this book skipped the final editing. Here are the reasons why: 1. Most chapters are too wordy and use unnecessary jargons. Why make the book difficult to digest if it can be replaced with clear plain language? This is certainly not a book where you can read from the beginning to the end with strong enthusiasm because many times you're left confused on what the author is trying to say and need to re-read the paragraphs several times or bear with the author when he says more than he should. Read the other readers' comments and you'll find them sharing the same view. 2. Point number 1 above may not be a 'bad' thing for some people. What I find so disturbing is most charts (if not all) do not have text labels pointing to what each lines (trends, gray area, moving averages, patterns, small circles) supposed to represent for? What you see is a lot of circles, lines, darker color areas BUT "NO TEXT LABELS" on the charts. So, you end up spending extra time to search for their references. And to make matters worse, there are so many lines, circle, grays, pouring in a chart. Got the message? Again, this is a waste of time and at times can be confusing and dangerous because readers may interpret it differently and that wrong interpretation can cost you $$$. The bottom line is this book is presented poorly. I hope the next edition will be concise, clear and to the point.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for all types of traders!
Review: I would vote this one my favorite of all analysis books I have read. At the time I read it, it seemed to incorporate everything together. I have kept mine close by my computer and have referred to it many times. At the prices I have seen - it is a Must Read!
Rating:
Summary: More accessible if approached from a visual perspective.
Review: This is not a book about classic chart patterns as described in Edward and Magee's. It is a visual description of a conceptual framework for explaining market movements, and profit opprtunities (setups) at various phases of the market movement. The book expands on Toby Crabel's expansion/contraction concept and Stan Weinstein's market stages concept to create what the author calls 'market cycles'. The author tried very hard to create a mental picture of how these 'pattern cycles' work, and how you can take advantage of them. The book is a difficult read when approached from a logical perspective. The language used is often disjointed, imprecise, and repetitive, as many reviewers had pointed out. However the book is more accessible if approached from a visual perspective. Try to visualize the image the author is trying to paint, then you'll get what he is talking about and may even profit from what you learn.
Rating:
Summary: Short-term traders rejoice!
Review: How often do you find a comprehensive, yet helpful, guide to short-term trading in a lifetime? By my count, twice. Alan Farley's Master Swing Trader provides the reader with extensive research and a nice reference guide for intermediate level traders (like myself). I liked reading this book one strategy at a time, pausing, testing, trading and then moving on to the next. I think that reading this book straight through would overwhelm most. It's dense but it's helpful. The second book I found valuable as a swing trading aid was Dave Landry on Swing Trading. Between these two tomes you are able to get a pretty decent hold of how to trade the markets. If you don't own either, read Landry first and then Farley to reinforce concepts.
Rating:
Summary: This guy practices what he preaches
Review: I just finished up a trial of Farley's newsletter after reading this excellent book. All I can say is this guy knows how to trade. He picks his spots using the techniques in the book, and has no problem communicating the hows and whys of his setups. I'm seeing a lot of stuff I've missed up to now. Anyone who thinks this book is fantasy hasn't tried to trade with it. It works and works very well.
Rating: 
Summary: A critical review
Review: This book is about setups. It is also about one person's perception about what moves market. If you firmly believe that there is such a notion as a superior way to trading merely through knowing something technical that the majority doesn't know than you will like this book. Like a whole genre of other trading books that characterizes the late bull market, this book attempts to patronizingly soothe the ego of the simple minded by telling them that they too can be master traders, if they follow Mr. Farley's advice and trade with caution and intuition. The language of this book is very complicated. The psychological concept behind moves that Mr. Farley tries to explain are simplistic. The trading concepts, are simpler still. Disguising them with complicated language does not make them complex ideas. Do they work? Mr. Farley did not try to even convince any but the most simple minded that his ideas are practicable. The height of his effort is to impress the reader with many many well chosen examples of how they do not fail. That is always easy given the almost infinite possibilities in the market. There are further "transgressions" worthy of mention. Farley's ADA was created without either theoretical or practical justification. It's performance, or utility was not in any way elaborated on. There was one hilarious example of how it works in a certain situation when it rises and falls below internal trendlines drawn retrospectively- to give the impression of yet another unfailing high probability indicator.
This book is ultimately empty. It tries to emphasize that there are such things as "wise" choices or "stupid" choices in the market. This is wrong. In the market, there are only "right" and "wrong" choices. These two concepts are not synonymous. By trying to overly personalize the markets, into a fairy tale fable of bulls vs bears, swing traders against the crowd, it will only end up giving the potential unquestioning follower of Mr. Farley a lot of psychological baggage that he/she will ultimately find harmful. Mark Douglas's "Disciplined Trader" was inserted for cosmetic reasons in the bibliography. Did Mr.Farley read it? Perhaps. Did he understand it? Judge for yourself.
There was also no real talk of money management/position sizing and risk. If you believe in leprechauns, pots of gold at ends of rainbows, and Peter Pan, this book is a strong buy. If you believe in risk management, trading plans, hard work and the often complete uncertainty of the markets (which even the most die hard successful Elliott or Gann trader will concede to), then I am sure you can draw your own conclusion when you read this book. Should you then buy it? You never know what you might miss. As in the markets though, inaction is sometimes action.
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