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The Day Trader's Survival Guide: How to Be Consistently Profitable in Short-Term Markets

The Day Trader's Survival Guide: How to Be Consistently Profitable in Short-Term Markets

List Price: $29.00
Your Price: $19.14
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: High Marks For Clarity and Content
Review: I want to make a few comments - I bought this book and then I bought the two volume video version of it - I give both items high marks for clarity - Farrell takes some very difficult concepts and breaks them down into understandable morsels - for you football fans out there, Farrell's style is very similar to the "Fox Scope" that breaks down football plays - the author tells it like it is in this book, spending just as much time on the dangers of day trading as he does on how to make money doing it -

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: High Marks For Clarity and Content
Review: I want to make a few comments - I bought this book and then I bought the two volume video version of it - I give both items high marks for clarity - Farrell takes some very difficult concepts and breaks them down into understandable morsels - for you football fans out there, Farrell's style is very similar to the "Fox Scope" that breaks down football plays - the author tells it like it is in this book, spending just as much time on the dangers of day trading as he does on how to make money doing it -

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This is stuff ya gotta know!
Review: I've already read a few books on Trading and the markets...all briefly touch on "Market Makers" & "Specialists". But this book gives you a deeper explanation on how these people contribute to the fluctuations in a stocks price during the course of the day. If you don't use some of the tips he gives, I'm sure you'll find it an "enlightening" read....at the least!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Real Scoop
Review: In my opinion, Farrell's book is the most in-depth and informative book to come out on the topic - as someone who has studied the markets and invested in them for the better part of a decade, I learned more from this book about how the market REALLY works and what REALLY goes on behind the scenes than anything else i have ever read -

One of my favorite parts explains how to spot when one of the large market makers (brokerage firms) is carrying a massive sell order into the marketplace - and how the stock will typically drop like a rock in the seconds that follow - the book is filled with these kinds of insider tips

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Great book, don't day trade
Review: Read this, it will add to your education as an investor. Hopefully in the course of reading it you will realize that day trading involves capitalizing on the momentary flux of supply and demand, and thus really has nothing to do with long-term investing, i.e., anything longer than a few minutes. Read about it, but don't do it. The author purports to tell you to how to get around market manipulation by professional traders (market makers and specialists). Isn't just knowing that such people are manipulating the market and competing against you enough? Not to mention all the other day traders out there! Wise up.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Almost but not quite
Review: The Authors first book was worth the read and opened areas that most day traders were unaware of. More importantly they worked. Here there is also worthwhile information. However, some of the methods described could easily lead to financial death. This is covered by the authors comments "for experience or professional traders". However the risk is so great it causes the reader to wonder if anyone has every tried these methods off the floor. If you know the subject this is a good book to add to your collection. But, don't try this at home.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Complete Insight Into The Day Trader's Survival Guide
Review: There are many daytrading books out these days. I've read quite a few of them, each having a different slant on how to attain success at trading the stock markets successfully. Most involve trading Nasdaq stocks exclusively, while focusing on market maker activity, support and resistance, chart setups or patterns, etc.

Christopher A. Farrell's book stands out as a different and brutally honest look at both the Nasdaq and the NYSE, how they work, and the pitfalls they hold for traders. Numerous quotes by market notables supporting the author's contentions are interspersed throughout the book.

One of the book's major themes is technical and fundamental analysis are useless to the daytrader who is contemplating a trade where a large market maker could be manipulating the stock's price. I couldn't agree more. However, I believe the author goes too far in discounting the usefulness of these valuable tools, as he sounds as if he believes that charts and fundamental information would never enter in as valid trading criteria in any other styles of trading. Nevertheless, I found his insights about market makers to be invaluable.

Ways in which a trader can gain somewhat of an edge over the Nasdaq market makers are spelled out, such as how to use "hidden orders." Also, "Spoofing" was a very interesting tactic exposed by the author: the advertising of huge size to buy or sell on Level II with no desire to be filled, but to manipulate the stock higher or lower. The author is very experienced at trading.

Insights into the NYSE specialist's role are covered in great detail, as well as a number of NYSE daytrading tactics. The author puts us in the specialist's shoes, giving various scenarios of market conditions and what a specialist does in his own interest and in the interest of the public. A more informative piece I have not read.

The author concludes by speculating on a trading world of totally fair markets, or "The 24-hour Unified Exchange, the Virtual Specialist, and the Extinction of Wall Street." A nice sentiment, but a lot of big money and influence stands in the way. All told, this book is an excellent read for any trader.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A mixed bag
Review: There are some interesting aspects of this book, particularly the chapters on the NYSE specialist system. This seems to be the author's area of expertise.

As a professional trader, however, I think the author overstates the difficulty in trading NASDAQ stocks and the level of manipulation in the OTC market. Also, some of the information here is inaccurate. For example, he states that momentum traders avoid stocks like Intel, Cisco, and Microsoft. This is not true. I personally trade literally hundreds of thousands of shares of these stocks daily. In addition, he vastly overstates the volatility of NASDAQ stocks, saying that "500 share buy orders will drive the stock up 2 points". This is ridiculous.

All in all, not bad. The NYSE information is good, but take the NASDAQ chapters with a grain of salt.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Practical Trading Book, just some old info
Review: These days it's really hard to find trading books that are as practical and simple to understand as this one. Most of the info outhere is full of the same thecnical analysis jargon that makes you lose a lot of times. Basically most tehcnical trading books tell you the same story but organized in different chapters using different words and charts as examples.

Some places on the web have pretty practical information also. One site that I recommend is ChatHotStocks com. They have a pretty clear way for trading momentum stocks using easy to understand strategies. This is also one place where you can understand why the use of a Level 2 system is critical for trading the rally.

Understanding how to trade a rally is one of the most important aspects of trading, since for us traders it's all about the rally.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Lots of words, not much info
Review: This book is an interesting read, but you won't learn much if you've already been trading or have read other books.

The main focus of the book is explaining what the spread is and what a market maker does for a living. These are certainly things you should understand before you begin trading, but far from everything you need to "survive" as a trader. It's beginner stuff.

The book spends most of its time describing some of the "bluffs" that market makers employ to deceive daytraders or manipulate pricing. However, while the book does a good job explaining what they are, I believe it overemphasizes their importance. The author also provides no hints on how to distinguish these bluffs from honest supply/demand information. Finally, these tricks aren't so complex as to require an entire book to explain them.

This book is a quick read, and leaves a vast number of topics untouched: how the ECNs differ, how to get a good fill, how to compete with other daytraders, how to find a good broker and quote service, etc. Beyond a few specific examples, the author doesn't address how to generally identify good trading opportunities, and when and how to exit them.

I also tired of the many plugs for the author's commercial website. I feel a little suckered by this book.

My favorite introductory daytrading book remains Toni Turner's "A Beginner's Guide to Day Trading Online", a friendly, earnest, practical, and relatively compete guide.


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