The Complete Trading for a Living: The Legendary Approach to Trading with the Companion Study Guide 1st Edition

Not without some admitted snobbery, I consider myself more an investor than a trader. So, despite all the other 5-star reviews of Elder's book, I avoided it.O.K., I admit it. I make some lousy decisions and my decision to snub this trading book was among them. I don't know why I decided to give it a look, but it was among my better decisions.Elder was trained as either a psychologist or psychiatrist (I don't recall which and am too lazy to look). It served him well as a trader and will serve ANYONE well to see just how it did. His claim -- and I back it up with my own experiences -- is that successful trading/investing is far less reliant upon high IQ or stock selection or chart reading or anything else than it is on one's psychology. It's the latter that will have you bailing in panic or buying in greed -- succumbing to fear and greed. And, he provides a distinction that I found brilliant -- that if you're confused about the market it's your head, not the market, that's at the bottom of that confusion.Don't look here to get the Cliff Notes recap of his ideas because the recap is insufficient. Read Elder and be open to letting him convince you of what he KNOWS. That will, almost certainly, prove profitable for you.

Not too many authors are blessed with the gift of being able to take a complex subject and explain it, in detail - in such a way that it can be easily understood. To me, Dr. Elder has that gift - and he does it with creative, humorous analogies and examples. This would be a good read even if you were not into trading. This book is packed with so much valuable information on the "how's", "why's", "when's", and "when not to's" of trading, as well as the psychology of what it takes to be a winning trader and how emotional trading can lead to disaster. Technical Analysis is covered in such a way, including advanced indicators written by Dr. Elder, that just about anyone could improve their trading skills by reading those chapters. A strategy for money management and protecting your capital is included, as well as how to create a trading system that you are comfortable with - and how to evaluate the effectiveness of that system.For me, this was not a read once and put it back on the shelf type of book - this book is a "tool" that I will continually use to hone my trading skills.

I really liked a lot of this book. The writer has a very interesting way about him. The triple screen trading chapter is what I bought the book for, overall a great book. Excellent chapter on psychology. I would give it 5 stars, but lets be honest, not much of his trading style would be very effective today. But there is a lot of great info in this book.

I am happy I purchased this book. It is one of the better books I have read concerning trading and it written in a manner that makes it easy to understand. If you're a book lover, I suggest getting 2 copies, one to keep and one to mark up. The book starts out addressing why people trade, touches on the psychological issues (emotions, etc.), and then moves into technical analysis (TA). It doesn't address fundamental analysis. The author provides his recommended trading system and then talks about money management, an essential part of trading. The book closes with a Study Guide for the material in the book. This provides not only an analysis of how much one has learned and retained from the book but also an opportunity to revisit the material and test again until one is completely comfortable with the material. In my copy, the book itself covers the first 279 pages and the study guide goes from pages 281 to pages 471 and then closes with an afterword, a list of sources and index. I highly recommend it.

I am a forex trader and have been loking for a book that would give me information that not only focused on stock. Being an 80% technical analysis based trader, I really found the book to be useful. It really broke down the various technical indicators I already knew about, and introduced a few I had heard of before but wasn't really familiar with. Also I like the fact that Elder cites other trading books and a few non trading books. This is helpful if you want to know more about a certain topic. I think the books greatest strong point is the study guide. I helps you internalize how different candlestick patterns and other chart patterns, which really helps when you need to make decision quickly and accurately. I recommend this book for beginning traders or seasoned veterans alike. Its principles can be applied to any behicle you can trade with a chart (i.e. stocks, commodities, futures, and forex)

I bought this book back in 2007. Ten years ago!When I first started trading, I was ok but I traded emotionally which is the worst thing you can do!Dr Elder applies psychology into trading. Every trader should read this or the updated version.Emotions whether panickin or being over cocky or even falling in love with the stock can put many traders out of commission. In my years of trading (retired now) I've seen many traders come and go (usually leaving after blowing out their accounts).The market doesn't care who's money it steals; read and learn as much as possible.

Don't waste your money on this book.

You know when you go to the Doctor but you don't want to go to the Doctor but you know it's the right thing to do. I'm on chapter four, this is a true textbook and you will learn more about yourself than you would have ever thought. Spend time with each chapter. Read, read the questions, read again, answer then maybe outline. I don't intend on becoming a trader but this book is invaluable both for my real estate investing and stock option writing strategies.