The Guts and Glory of Day Trading: True Stories of Day Traders Who Made (or Lost) $1,000,000

Rating:
Summary: Learn from others' mistakes
Review: After reading numerous books on trading & investing. This book would have to be one of the most disappointing sharemarket books ever published.
Basically it's just interviews and stories about average people (with very limited market experience) who basically just gambled on and as one chaptered is titled "Betting it all" on the stockmarket during the heady days of the tech bubble. (and in most cases losing it all)..
I think the title would be more appriorately titled " True stories of day traders who LOST (or made) $1,000,000.
One story is about a lady, who "betted it all" on a stock - called e.digital. She bought at 70c, watched it go to $25 and "letting it all ride" and I guess praying for it to go back up (current price is under $1.00). Talks about how she is still keen on it - despite her losing millions on it. No stop losses - just a punt on it.
If you are looking for book on learning the share-market - look elsewhere. If looking for a book, with stories on how to basically just put thousands of dollars on penny-stocks and watching it disappear - this book is for you.
There are loads of great books out there. If you're looking for great "interview" book - I recommend any books by Mark Schwager - in his books, he interviews successful traders and investors (i.e people with many many years in the stockmarket game - i.e managers of huge hedge funds... people with records of steady returns over numerous years), as compared to this book, where the average person, has basically just quit thier day-job and decided to gambled it all on the tech bubble - watch it all go up, thanks to irrational times of the tech bubble and with the help of no rules - lose it all.
I love reading (particularly about the stockmarket/trading/investing etc) and have never give a book a bad rap - but unfortunately this book is one of the worse. Sorry for being so critical - But I won't feel right in recommending this book, as a buy and watching other people lose money on buying it, when it's been so much of a disappointment, in that, it has no useful information about the sharemarket at all.

So in conclusion - Save ya money

Rating:
Summary: Vicarious Thrills
Review: Ever since completing the Guts and the Glory of Day Trading: True Stories of Day Traders Who Made (or Lost) $1,000,000 by Mark Ingebretsen, I've been pondering the question, "How is it that after reading the following, I've been thinking about becoming a day trader?" "I danced through a minefield for a whole year." "I became obsessed with watching the market." "This was truly an example of addiction..." I got hooked by this book and found myself eyeing my computer and visualized myself trading aggressively in flannels while my daughter packed her school lunch. This represents the perfect read for an aging member of Bowie's coffee generation. Despite our collective caffeine rush, we'd generally rather watch other individuals take risks. Simply put, it was exciting living vicariously through the stories of these twelve day traders. Voyeuristically inclined anyway, I turned the pages as if plowing through a best selling thriller. It's a testimony to the author's interviewing that he was able to get such diverse individuals to openly share the "guts and glory" of their experiences both personal and financial. With an even-handed style, he serves as a steady, dependable and trustworthy guide regarding the effective trading strategies gleaned from the biographical vignettes. Perhaps the question best asked of Ingebretsen is "Why is it that addiction appears to be so much fun?" For now, I'll stick with drinking coffee and clipping coupons at the kitchen table.

Rating:
Summary: The Worst trading book i've ever read
Review: I am a full time equity & futures trader. I have read a lot of trading books. The Guts and Glory of Day Trading, has NOTHING to do with day trading. It's just story telling. No *exact* programming code revealed, no statistical analysis either. Overall, it tells you nothing at all about day trading.

Rating:
Summary: The Worst trading book i've ever read
Review: I am a full time equity & futures trader. I have read a lot of trading books. The Guts and Glory of Day Trading, has NOTHING to do with day trading. It's just story telling. No *exact* programming code revealed, no statistical analysis either. Overall, it tells you nothing at all about day trading.

Rating:
Summary: Amateur at best
Review: The 'error' in the title of this book is a representative of the appalling quality of the book. To be fair, the author cites his definition of 'day trading' which is *NOT* the industry accepted definition.

A couple of problems with this book:

- the author appears to have no idea regarding the topic of trading;
- it generally has little to do with day trading;
- most subjects in the books are average people who got lucky with apparently no skills (nor common sense);
- the book is written in a style suited to magazines, particularly those for pure entertainment - although unfortunately it is not entertaining at all. The author is unable to direct subjects to the appropriate topics and fails to extract anything substantial in any area; and
- there is very little useful and educational information in it at all (eg statistics / methods / psychology / money management).

There are many other books that are significantly better than this one, particularly Schwager's Market Wizards books.

If you're looking for some possibly fun (for those who haven't read anything in this area), brainless and easy reading - this could be your answer to boredom.

If you want anymore, I'd almost guarantee your disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: Market Wizards it ain't
Review: This book is billed as a Market Wizards of Day Trading. Well it tries to be but it isn't. It's a fairly shallow knock off.

The main problem that is that author is not a day trader himself which while not necessairly a bad thing in itself means that half the time he doesn't know where to focus. That's what makes the Schwager books so good. His book is written for traders by a trader.

The second problem is that no strict documentation of trading success was required.

The third is that the interview is all rehashed by the author and so you don't get the real dialogue which makes you wonder what's getting lost in the translation.

Having said all that, every book has some value so if you have the money go ahead and get it. At the very least you can take a look at some traders and their style. You may glean something.

But get Market Wizards or Reminiscences of a Stock Operator if you really want an introduction to trading.

This book is a far cry from those.