<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: author doesn't understand the theory of linear filters
Review: A fascinating and practical book. Some of Blau's systems can be immediately applied to whatever type of trading system you are currently using. I especially enjoyed his discussion of filtering techniques, which reduce false indications in areas of price congestion. Blau presents this information is a very clear, concise way than can easily be understood by almost anyone. I'm very impressed.If I had to pick one characteristic of the book that I did not like, it would be that it was too short. It would have been helpful to include more backtesting data, and maybe some more chart analysis. The end seems to leave the reader wanting more. A truly great read for the trading hobbyist or professional!
Rating:
Summary: Not impressed
Review: I thought this book was very short to begin with (only 104 pages of actual text, plus some small apendixes)...hardly worth $42 for a small amount of text. It's also very old (written in 1995). The content which is in the book is very difficult to apply because you really need a research tool (like tradestation) to apply these ideas. Numerous ideas in earlier chapters are brought back in later chapters and you have to go back and re-read to see what each indicator meant. I think all in all he just applies his idea of double smoothing to filter out misleading chart data....nothing revolutionary, and hardly worth the price.
Also, as odd as this may seem, with all the math involved, 90% of the charts which he derives from these mathematical formulas look exactly like a line chart of the security!
If you have access to tradestation, this book is worthwhile if you put the time into understanding all the concepts involved.
Rating: 
Summary: EXTREMELY great book
Review: OK where did my previous review of this book go? I wrote it months ago was it lost? Can't be bothered writing the whole thing again, so in summary: it is an excellent book, picks a main concept of smoothing and constructs some excellent indicators, and many different ones, has great ideas, inspires great ideas, has code / formulas you name it, extremely worthwhile for anyone who is serious and capable of putting these things into use. That means constructing them and understanding them. Some reviewers seem disappointed ... I suspect some people think "momentum" is some magic bullet that will get them into a stock before it moves, other reviewers are arguing definitions, all I can say is that when I first got hold of this book I took a look and did not really like it, but after working my way through it found it to be truly a gem. Very worthwhile. And where did my previous review go? grrrr
Rating: 
Summary: Decent Idea Generator
Review: Ok, in the introduction to this book the author states this book is about price change and utilizing double smoothing as a means of determining entry and exit points. So, for the previous two reviewers, did you not read the intro, or the rest of the book? First, this is an intro into the subject and the use of EMAs is a common method (and he in fact discussed the lag inherent in this and other methods). Second, the book never purports to be about reading price patterns, it is about price change and the use of double smoothing so of course indicators will be its focus, indicators are a powerful (not sole) tool in many traders toolboxes. With that said, the author guides you through the True Strength Index, Stochastics, Tick Volume, Directional Trending - he includes their calculations and the Easylanguage Code for everything discussed in the book. That is something I like because some books, like Strategies for the Electronic Futures Trader by Bernstein do not include code and the systems are once again for the novice. The charts he displays are all daily charts so it is not even geared for the intraday trader if that is what you are after, but they do in many cases contain several subgraphs so you can compare the difference between the various indicators and their tendencies. The author also states clearly that these tools and the examples are not meant to be trading systems by themselves, so there are no black boxes here. Just ideas, so if you are looking for a new look at momentum or want to try something new with your own indicators this might be a nice book. I was able to pull a couple of ideas out that I am incorporating into my trading to better transition from trending to congestion (a large focus of the book). However, I checked this out of the library and it was worth the gas to pick it up, but would I have paid 40 bucks, now that I don't know. As for the reason I only gave it three stars is mainly for content, this is an ideas book, not anything more, and for its size I feel that to be a good rating.
Rating:
Summary: Decent Idea Generator
Review: Ok, in the introduction to this book the author states this book is about price change and utilizing double smoothing as a means of determining entry and exit points. So, for the previous two reviewers, did you not read the intro, or the rest of the book? First, this is an intro into the subject and the use of EMAs is a common method (and he in fact discussed the lag inherent in this and other methods). Second, the book never purports to be about reading price patterns, it is about price change and the use of double smoothing so of course indicators will be its focus, indicators are a powerful (not sole) tool in many traders toolboxes. With that said, the author guides you through the True Strength Index, Stochastics, Tick Volume, Directional Trending - he includes their calculations and the Easylanguage Code for everything discussed in the book. That is something I like because some books, like Strategies for the Electronic Futures Trader by Bernstein do not include code and the systems are once again for the novice. The charts he displays are all daily charts so it is not even geared for the intraday trader if that is what you are after, but they do in many cases contain several subgraphs so you can compare the difference between the various indicators and their tendencies. The author also states clearly that these tools and the examples are not meant to be trading systems by themselves, so there are no black boxes here. Just ideas, so if you are looking for a new look at momentum or want to try something new with your own indicators this might be a nice book. I was able to pull a couple of ideas out that I am incorporating into my trading to better transition from trending to congestion (a large focus of the book). However, I checked this out of the library and it was worth the gas to pick it up, but would I have paid 40 bucks, now that I don't know. As for the reason I only gave it three stars is mainly for content, this is an ideas book, not anything more, and for its size I feel that to be a good rating.
Rating:
Summary: Decent Idea Generator
Review: The formula for his TSI. Great.
Rating:
Summary: A great discussion of momentum
Review: This is a book about momentum. It will show you what momentum is and how to interpret it. There are several vey unique indicators developped in a masterful way. You will get many new ideas, and should be able to improve your use of these indicators, and make better interpretation of other mainstream momentum indicators. You will understand smoothing and lag. A must read for any technician.
Rating:
Summary: Well worth the time
Review: Very concise and to the point in covering what momentum is and how to use the tool of double smoothed averaging to smooth noise without lag. Essentially, that's the one main idea and the book takes it through a number of different flavors of implementation. The one confusion I had with the organization of the book is that the chapters are not explicitly related to one another using introductory and concluding review paragraphs. It reads like a series of independent smaller articles (which maybe it was from Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities). On the plus side, it's very short and a quick study. I use Metastock and although the formulas are in Tradestation-speak, I did not have trouble converting them. Email me if you want them - irosenthal@yahoo.com.
<< 1 >>
| 
