Customer Reviews

Beyond Technical Analysis: How to Develop and Implement a Winning Trading System (Wiley Finance)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm a bit surprised by some of the negative reviews of this book. I've got most of the popular books on building mechanical trading systems - eg. Kaufman, Katz, Faith, Pardo, Pring, and a few others I can't remember off the top of my head. And I would say this is one of the more useful books on the subject.

Another reviewer suggested that some of the systems were weak - I guess he means they're not incredibly profitable in their generic form. Well, I read books like this simply for some new ideas that I can take away to work on myself.

After all, where's the fun of having all the work done for you by someone else? If in my dotage I ever find the energy to write a book on system design, you can bet I won't give away my most profitable systems in their finished form. I've spent far too many years and tens of thousands of dollars perfecting them. Why would I give that away to some lazy so and so for a few bucks?

The value of this book is that it has a few fairly original ideas (and more than a few conventional ones) that can form the basis for further research. Some of the material may be beyond the novice trader, but intermediate to advanced mechanical traders will probably find something of value here. And Chande's discussion of equity curves and data scrambling is significantly better than many other books on the subject.

Chande is a respected technical analyst, but his book is lacking. The trading concepts he brings out are interesting, but the systems themselves are weak. Someone might be able to take his concepts and improve upon them by writing better systems based on his ideas. For example the "channel-break pullback" pattern is a very valid concept. The code does not capture, in my opinion, a real life breakout and pullback. To place an arbitrary number of days to buy on a pullback, instead of using conditions to verify the completion of the pullback is like saying the market will always top or bottom after "n" number of days.

I was very disappointed especially with the high price of the book. These systems will not improve your bottom line. Pass.

I read this book a while back, on the recommendation of Bennett McDowell who wrote "A Trader's Money Management System" A Trader's Money Management System: How to Ensure Profit and Avoid the Risk of Ruin (Wiley Trading) and finally have had a chance to put my thoughts in a review.

I'm surprised by the negative reviews of this book -- it is an effective book on getting you to analyze your risk, and he even gives you the 1-1/2% and 2% risk of ruin tables to do that. Nice of him to do the programming so that we can determine which is the right risk amount to take on each trade at the lower end of the percentage scale.

His equity curve chapters are also important in helping to shed light on how to look at performance in a meaningful way. This is one of the most useful books available today -- in a sea of not so useful books. It's really worth adding to your library.

Chande goes beyond the average book on technical analysis to some of the most important topics of trading. Unfortunately, he is stuck in an old paradigm of one contract/market at a time. As a result, his conclusions are not at all accurate. This is a disappointment because he really is trying to take the trader to the next level. Interesting, but be careful of the results.

This is a great book on trading because it does not examine just one topic in trading it brings together all the areas of trading one must master in the markets and shows the reader how to turn it into a complete trading system.

This book points out that technical analysis by itself is not going to make you a successful trader unless it is incorporated into a system with a trading plan.

The author explains that while creating your trading system you must understand the following:
1). Capital conservation is as important to top traders as capital appreciation.
2). Top traders do not trade anything until after they back test the system for historical performance.
3). There is a big difference between discretionary and mechanical system traders.
4). A proven system will give you objectivity and consistency to trade your system not the news.
5). A good system will have you taking profits slowly but cutting losses quickly.
6). A long term system should eliminate much of the emotions out of any one trade, you are concerned about the long term performance of the next 100 trades not the current one.
7). You must create a system that matches your beliefs about the markets.
8). Your system must match your tolerance for equity draw downs and risk.
9). You should limit your system to 10 rules or less.
10). You must understand that your system will perform only when the market is conducive to that system.

Your system will consist of what markets to trade and indicators to use for your signals. You will have to determine position size based on volatility and risk of ruin. You need an entry signal to open the position. Also you will have to determine an exit signal whether it is a stop loss, a trailing stop, technical signal, or profit target. These are items that should be determined by personal preference and extensive back-testing to ensure you have a robust system.

The most important part of the system is the trader's ability to follow it. We must understand that all trading systems have draw downs. We will have those ten losses in a row eventually. We must ensure we have confidence to stick with our system once we have tested it to our satisfaction. We must always risk no more than 1%-2% of our total equity per trade so we avoid blowing up our accounts during times when the market acts adversely to our system.

I highly recommend this book: a new addition to my top ten most useful trading books. This book may be the missing piece for many traders trying to cross that bridge to success in the markets.

This book is very well written and explains everything clearly and in an understandable way. I have used the techniques and have seen these to work pretty well over the last ten years or so.
The book gives some basic information on trading systems - enough to make your entry and exit strategies. It also covers the basic material on money and risk management. To be honest these advices saved me a fortune in the last stock market crash. I would strongly recommend this book for individual investors who have a medium time horizon for investments.

This is an excellent source of trading knowledge. I checked a copy out of the college library and was impressed enough to order my own copy on Amazon. To my chagrin they sent me an International version! It is a hard cover, but the paper and print quality are vastly inferior. The library copy (sitting right here on my desk) has 'Printed in the United States of America' on the copyright page while the copy I received from Amazon does not. To their credit, Amazon offered me a full refund and sent me a mailing label. I also contacted Wiley and they volunteered to send me a new copy as well. So, kudos on the follow-up service. However, Amazon, please put some processes in place to prevent this in the future!

If I need to pick a single book to survive: it is this one!
It contains not only a classification for the speed of Entry and Exit signals, but also many examples. Thushar names many important factors, that build your personal trading system, that fits your beliefs.
Note, that Thushar covers EndOfDay systems. They may or may not apply to day trading as well.

This book differs from many trading books geared to retail trading. It is comprehensive and its test-based approach puts many trading strategies under a proper review. It analyzes how different strategy performances can be compared and how risks can be put under control. It is filled with many interesting ideas. As it is to be expected, there is no gold strategy that one can use immediately as it is. The reader must think and cook its own strategies. But most, if not all, ingredients and the methodology are given.

An updated version covering the current markets and the state-of-the-art tools now available for strategy testing is much in need. New chapters could also cover the latest version of Tradestation's EasyLanguage (used in the text) and what has been learned from trading strategy performance testing in the past decade.
But it would be wrong to say that this book is outdated. It is still very valuable. Highly recommended.

I found this book helpful in formulating ideas in how to develope trading systems.It could have been formated better to make reading easier.The formula's should have been written in both Metastock and Easy language code.