WILEY How I Trade for a Living

As a number of reviewers before me mentioned, this is a terrific book that belongs in every trader's library. It is that good, and is easy reading. You will probably want to read it more than once just to get all of the concepts down. While reading Gary Smiths book, a light went on in my head. He mentions somewhere that approximately 90 per cent of new traders don't make it. Another words, less than 10 out of 100 people who set out to do day trading wind up making consistent money (a profit). This ratio is very close to the number of people who don't make it (or don't even try) to be self-employed - about 94% Think about this: 94% of the working U.S. population, is employed for the other 6%. Why is that? It's because most of us are not taught as children to think for ourselves. Our schools teach us to obey the rules and prepare us for a career or trade working for an established company (i.e. someone else). At our job, we are usually given instructions on what needs to be done, when it is due, and in some cases, how to do it. Nothing wrong with that, but this training can work against you if applied to the stock market. Day trading, is very much a self-directed profession. It requires you to make ALL decisions. There is no one to tell you when to start, when to stop, what securites to buy or how to buy them or especially how many to buy. In Gary's book he discusses all of these topics in detail, but not in a general way. Is it any mystery that so many don't succeed? I believe, that in order to be a good trader, even if you are working for a trading firm, you must have a self-employment mindset. Most of us do not. I recommend reading the following book along with Gary Smith's book in order to learn those ideas that were not taught to us when we were young. Reading this book will improve the odds of success significantly for traders just starting out and who have not previously run their own operation. The book is "Secrets of Self-Employment" by Sarah and Paul Edwards. Amazon.com carries this title ISBN 0874778379. This book will help you establish the right mindset for working on your own. These two books alone are not going to make you a super trader, but they are a very good start.

good to read.

There are tons of trading books out there, but this is book to me is very special. The reason? It was written by a guy who tried for many years to succeed, ran up against a wall for 19 years, and finally broke into the profit zone. Even more important, it was written by someone who has a verified trading account, with a performance that shows what compounding can do over the course of years. I don't know who else has such verified results! This book is the testimony of a real trader who trades for a living, who managed to learn the big secret to success - learning from failed trades, and setting concrete goals (in Smith's case, to be profitable every month), while eliminating the urge to get rich quick. Once those things happened, he emerged from break even land to excellent profitability. Smith managed to intra-day trade the S&P futures contract (full size) on a $2200 account over the telephone, without any computer charts (I wonder how many traders could do that today?). Once he built his account up to a respectable six figure size, he began swing trading mutual funds. Smith has his own views of the market and method of trading. That may or may not work for you, and Smith makes no attempt, as he said, to create a "Gary Smith clone" out of you. He is just sharing his way of doing things, and you are free to borrow whatever you like. Smith also attacks trading vendors and all the BS that they peddle. Very few, if any, books make such a bold attempt at exposing the truth about them. Two reasons why four stars and not five: first, the book is not as well organized as it could be, especially the area where strategies are discussed. There's almost a rambling style to them, which is okay but its not something a beginning trader can comprehend. Second, come on Smith, you're so anti-technical analysis yet you use the McLellan oscillator and the advance decline line for your trading strategies? What is that if not technical analysis? Plus, if you're such an anti-chartist, why do we have price charts in your book? A review of language would be appropriate here. Bottom line, get this book if you want evidence that you can trade for a living, and see what struggles it took a person to get there (struggles which you can avoid!) As for the strategy part, its a bit advanced talk for a beginning trader, but it might give you some interesting ideas. Overall, a highly recommended read.

This is probably one of the two best books I have ever read on Trading. I have over 38 books on Trading on one Shelf of one of my bookcases and there are none other than possibly Reminiscenses of a Stock Operator that I have read more times or referred to more often or have recommended to people more. This Author struggled Trading for about 20 years until he reviewed his trades for the previous 3 or 4 years and found out what he was good at and what he was weak at. He threw away his Chart Books before he made money, a thing I believe I could never do. He is a bit too modest though, he has a photographic memory. Maybe if I had a photographic memory I could throw away my Charts too. In any event if you want to attempt to have your account balance go up year after year dramatically with little or insignificant occasional monthly losses and eye popping gains in Bull or Bear Markets you need to read this book written by a Documented Winner. The secret is that you do not have to trade like this guy but you can find your own path to success Trading by paying heed to what Mr. Smith has already been through in finding his path to success and fulfillment.

This book is written by a contrary trader, and gives a very good introduction into the concept of contrary trading, which is basically rooted in the idea that “the market always does what it has to do to make the majority wrong,” as the author puts it. Therefore, figuring out what the majority of the public is doing (i.e., market sentiment) and betting against that would lead to profitable trading. The author does a good job of explaining that concept, and he also does a good job of exposing the “trading gurus” who make money by exploiting the public by selling them phony methods and systems. The book is outdated when it comes to market sentiment indicators. Many of them don’t work in today’s markets and others are readily available today on various Websites. For example, FinViz has a few on their homepage—namely, advance/decline line, new highs/new lows, etc.