Rating: 
Summary: Renegade's Review
Review: The Austin Renegades are a team of comodity traders and PhD level mathmaticians that are examining the strategies and models put forth my Mr. Williams. Using chaos math (as preached by the infamous "Predictors" of Santa Fe) as a harsh judge of Larry's hypothesis, the results are completely as advertised.Beyond his algorythmic success is the more important theme that long-term good trading is a result of hard work, discipline, and most of all, money management. Assuming the above, Mr. Williams breaks down trading success into two components: Market Bias(set-up) and Entry/Exit Strategy. He hammers home that both are necessary for long term sucess. In short, his work is not a "Holy Grail" of trading to be followed blindly, but a definitive trading tool to be incorporated into one's own personal style. An absolute must for any traders library. =========================================================== As an aside, we have read some the vituperative commentary directed at Mr. Williams via the forum of these book reviews. We speculate on the motivation since the diatribe was not focused on the publication, but he author. ===========================================================
Rating:
Summary: Renegade's Review
Review: The Austin Renegades are a team of comodity traders and PhD level mathmaticians that are examining the strategies and models put forth my Mr. Williams. Using chaos math (as preached by the infamous "Predictors" of Santa Fe) as a harsh judge of Larry's hypothesis, the results are completely as advertised. Beyond his algorythmic success is the more important theme that long-term good trading is a result of hard work, discipline, and most of all, money management. Assuming the above, Mr. Williams breaks down trading success into two components: Market Bias(set-up) and Entry/Exit Strategy. He hammers home that both are necessary for long term sucess. In short, his work is not a "Holy Grail" of trading to be followed blindly, but a definitive trading tool to be incorporated into one's own personal style. An absolute must for any traders library. =========================================================== As an aside, we have read some the vituperative commentary directed at Mr. Williams via the forum of these book reviews. We speculate on the motivation since the diatribe was not focused on the publication, but he author. ===========================================================
Rating: 
Summary: Big book, few nuggets
Review: The author has good credentials but I found it very difficult to find much in his book that I could use. Pros: some good stuff on entry and exit points. Cons: book runs on and on, lacks salient points, ends in "buy on strength, sell on weakness", "buy new highs, sell new lows", and some kind of diary that made no sense at all. Includes a long winded discussion of back tests on futues that was not convincing. My guess is that Larry has some real wisdom, but he needs somebody to help him put it on paper.
Rating: 
Summary: Bright market wisdom, but not secrets
Review: The content of the book deserves five stars. However, the author might have been so used to his newsletter style, that the book is a little bit disorganised and one star is deducted. Anyway, the book is well dosed with market anomalies, adages, technical methods and useful stuff. I dont mean that all the materials are useful. I do cast doubt on some of his program trading methods (which gave an ROE of over 10000%) which I think the calculation had been manipulated from hindsight. Nevertheless, what the author said is by and large applicable. Emphasis was placed on 1)trading system, 2) money management, 3) patience + knowledge + focus as the essentials for successful trading. Not secrets, right? Most of the trading books in the market talked about these. It's just that the author had more credibility and better story telling skills. I believe most traders would enjoy reading it, especially those chapters telling the author's failures or copying his past newsletters. p.s. I would like to quote two phrases here. "I have developed a powerful and profitable belief system: I believe the current trade I am in will be a loser... a big loser at that." (Stops are must)
"If you cant follow it, what good is a system or strategy?"
Rating:
Summary: Might as well flip a coin...
Review: This book is an excellent example of why non-statisticians should be prohibited from writing books on statistical subjects. With some computer program and a bunch of historical data on the futures markets, Williams is able to find dozens upon dozen of trading systems which *would have* produced spectacular results if they had been followed. A fool will no doubt believe that this is the real deal, but the law of averages guarantees that future results applying the same rules to the same markets will produce equally spectacular losses. Markets change. Duh. More importantly, Williams breaks every law in the book regarding the design and testing of trading systems. He massively overfits his data to "profit spikes" and doesn't bother to forward-test any of his systems on data which they haven't yet seen. These alone are fatal flaws and guarantee the invalidity of the systems. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing... Even worse, the concept of statistical significance seems to be beyond Mr. Williams, who is even proud of his lack of mathematical ability. If enough systems are tested with enough data, one is bound to turn up cases where 80% or 90% of the trades would have been winners. If all that wasn't a big enough disaster, this book is littered with typos and inconsistencies -- places where one thing is said in one paragraph and then another thing is said in another, or appears to be the actual case in a related diagram. This makes the actual rules being profferrd difficult to discern at times. These flaws are simply inexcusable in a book costing this much and pretending to be of a professional caliber. It's also aggravating that the technical terms (about two dozen of them) in the computer printouts with which the results of the numerous models are presented are never adequately explained. And Williams is inconsistent in his rules: at one point in the text he's advocating following the trend, at another point trading against the trend is the way to riches. On top of all that, one has to endure endless silly platitudes and the recounting of numerous trading war stories. Ugh. I couldn't get through it fast enough. Given thousands of traders in the markets, it's a statistical certainty that a handful will be outrageously successful. That they think it was because of something they did, and then go and write basically worthless books about it, is little more than hubris. If Williams has done anything right which is quantifiable, it's my guess that it's the fact that he's used stops to prevent taking the big loss. This is hardly news. Save your money and hope that maybe the local library was dumb enough to buy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: more of a primer n my opinion of money tree-(code)
Review: This book was a primer too subjects skimmed over in money tree coarse. I would reccommend that a trader especially a newbie start out with "The money tree or cracking the money code" they better give you a starting look at the commodity markets and their underlying driving forces. The information in the book is useful but may be potentially dangerous to a inexperienceed trader. So learn the basics first folks.
Rating:
Summary: Stands above the crowded field of trading books.
Review: This book was rather refreshing to read after having suffered through other day trading books. You will benefit whether your trading time frame is one minute or one month. The many strategies outlined are supported by many years of research and experience. I took away one point because I considered the political statements throughout the book inappropriate and distracting. Basically, everything republican is good and everything democratic bad. I appreciate the insight but not in a trading book.
Rating:
Summary: Zero sum game.
Review: Trading can be a rewarding endeavor, this book is geared for the intermediate student of the markets who has at minimal a basic understanding of the markets. I reccommend this book over the numerous ones i have read and digested on trading, which includes making and losing money. This is one of the handful that stands out. Not in any particular method though it has a few that i have used profittably, but more in an understanding of the markets and some insight into making one's own trading system. The thought process into making one's own system(s) and following it is where i feel many people lack, and most traders are losers. This book shares some insight into various systems that if followed blindly you will never make it, but if seen as a thought process into developing a system one can stack the odds into one's favor in the hopes of turning out more winners than losers.
Rating:
Summary: All Traders know One Thing!
Review: We know what risk is! We know that the markets are alive and constantly changing. We know the joys of a winning trade as well as the pain from losing trades. We know what it's like to have sleepless nights with a mind full of anticipation and constant thinking. Most of all, when it comes to fine tuning our trading skills, we absorb what is useful and discard what we don't need. 'Long-Term Secrets to Short-Term Trading' It's here, use it. I am a trader, and if you have ever traded, then you know that trading involves moving in and out of the market at the right time in order to make a profit. This book may help some people do that and others not. But you will never know unless you give the book a try! True traders don't have time to put down other traders in defense of a favorite "guru" or bias opinion against another. We are too busy trading! (Let's face it, our money is on the line!) If you have traded then you know what I mean! 'Long-Term Secrets to Short-Term Trading'- Use from it what you need, then keep on trading!- I did [ XenoWorld ]
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