Chart Your Way To Profits: The Online Trader's Guide to Technical Analysis (Wiley Trading) [Hardcover]

Tim Knight (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 5, 2007 | Series: Wiley Trading (Book 280)

Chart Your Way to Profits shows you how to harness the technology available on www.prophet.com to analyze markets and make informed trading decisions. It discusses the fundamentals of technical analysis and shows you how to design your own charts and indicators in a way that enables you to easily monitor the markets and make solid trading decisions.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Making money in today's markets isn't easy, but with the right approach, you can succeed. No one knows this better than author Tim Knight, who has been charting and trading the financial markets for more than twenty years. During this time, his passion for the markets led him to create Prophet.net—a Web site containing an innovative array of technical analysis tools—which has been consistently ranked the number one site for technical analysis by Barron's and Forbes magazines.

Now, in Chart Your Way to Profits, Knight shows you how to use the powerful technology available online in conjunction with technical analysis to analyze markets and make the most profitable trading decisions possible.

Written in a straightforward and accessible manner, Chart Your Way to Profits covers a lot of ground with respect to technical analysis and charting. You'll be introduced to the charting tools ProphetCharts and JavaCharts, so you can discover how to perform your own analysis with the help of hundreds of real-world examples. Along the way, you'll also become familiar with some of the most important rules of sound trading.

Filled with in-depth insight and practical advice, Chart Your Way to Profits also:

• Examines a variety of chart types currently available, how to size and arrange them, and the differences in charting stocks, options, indices, and other financial instruments
• Discusses the mechanics of managing watch lists—as well as chart styles—and how to use them effectively
• Highlights essential indicators, including moving averages, Bollinger bands, the parabolic stop and reversal (PSAR), and moving average convergence divergence (MACD)
• Explores numerous analysis methods for financial charts, such as saucers, multiple tops and bottoms, trendlines, channels, and Fibonacci studies
• And much more

Consistent analysis produces consistent profits. And through the ups and downs of financial markets, technical criteria and charting allow traders to be completely objective in their assessment of price action, while leaving emotion out of the decision-making process. Chart Your Way to Profits can help you do the same, as it shows you how to combine technical analysis with powerful online tools to achieve trading success.

From the Back Cover

Praise for CHART YOUR WAY TO PROFITS

"As a former pit trader and a technical 'newbie,' I have found Tim's new book to be the best resource I've seen for the everyday trader. With its fun and informative style, it has allowed me to understand and appreciate the professional world of technical analysis."
—Tom Sosnoff, cofounder and CEO, thinkorswim, inc.

"Tim Knight is a chartist's chartist—I can't recommend his work highly enough. Few people have done as much as he has in providing the sort of quality online resources technical traders need in order to make money in the financial markets. Chart Your Way to Profits is a twenty-first-century blueprint on how to use technical tools to achieve trading and investing success."
—David Penn, Editor, Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities magazine

"Tim has written the best guide to leveraging ProphetCharts and technical analysis in the market today. This is a complex subject and can leave new and old investors buried in too much data or impossible learning curves. Tim breaks these complex ideas down into actionable ideas and strategies. I would recommend this book to anyone that wants an education in the latest and best tools and methods professional technicians are using today."
—John Jagerson, Vice President of Content, Investools author of Profiting with Forex

"Tim Knight presents charting in a clear and straightforward manner with lots and lots of annotated charts—the way it should be. Learning just a few of the techniques presented will help investors get better results, no doubt about it."
—Michael Kahn, columnist for "Getting Technical," Barron's Online

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (March 5, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470043504
• ISBN-13: 978-0470043509
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (75 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #322,271 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tim Knight is a full-time hedge fund manager who uses ProphetCharts and technical analysis as the basis of his trading decisions. He wrote his first book (The World Connection) at the age of 16 and wrote a total of twenty books about using personal computers. An active stock and options trader since 1987, he founded Prophet Financial Services (Prophet.net) in 1992 and sold it in January 2005 to Investools (which later merged with thinkorswim and, in turn, was acquired by TD Ameritrade).

In his professional role as a full-time money manager today, Tim relies on technical analysis as the primary basis for his investment decisions, and he leveraged his passion for the markets to fuel the innovation for which Prophet.Net is known. In fact, Barron's and Forbes consistently named Prophet.Net the #1 Web Site for Technical Analysis.

Before starting Prophet, Tim was Vice President of Technology Products at Montgomery Securities in San Francisco, where he led the development of an institutional online-trading platform. Additionally, he has held various positions in marketing management at Technical Tools and Apple Computer and is the author of 20 computer books. Tim is a graduate of the Santa Clara University's Honors Program and holds a bachelor's degree in business management.

He writes the widely-read (and usually bearish) blog Slope of Hope (http://www.slopeofhope.com)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Book on Charting Principles, April 11, 2007

By 

G. F. Steeg "TradeCrafter" (Northern VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chart Your Way To Profits: The Online Trader's Guide to Technical Analysis (Wiley Trading) (Hardcover)

Knight covers using chart patterns for technical analysis exhaustively and completely. He covers Prophet Charts extensively, which is not surprising since he is founder and continuing principal architect of that software. His book is especially useful for Prophet Chart subscribers who have access to market data through the Investools and ThinkorSwim investing and trading (respectively) providers.
For those who disdain technical analysis in favor of fundamental analysis, a careful reading of this book convinces that you don't have to believe in technical analysis but you can't ignore it.
The book contains an e-mail address for the author, and concludes with a "Practical Guide to Trading" chapter.

30 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, a desktop reference on charting that I can use/understand, March 15, 2007

By 

David P. Hart "dhart_1951" (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chart Your Way To Profits: The Online Trader's Guide to Technical Analysis (Wiley Trading) (Hardcover)

I found out about Tim Knight's new book, "Chart Your Way To Profits: The Online Trader's Guide to Technical Analysis", from reading his blog (which by the way REALLY ROCKS). And, boy am I glad I found this book. It would not have appeared on my standard Amazon lists, so I figure this is fortune (i.e., $$$$) calling.

I've skimmed the book, and found lots of topics of interest. As an INVESTools student, I have already been using the new ProphetCharts charting software for about 3 months. I thought I knew how to use it. I'm finding features of the software I didn't know existed (I won't bore you with my lack of knowledge, get the book and see for yourself).

And I'm already getting a feel for how a professional trader uses charts. This is the real reason I got the book. Reading Tim's blog every day, he includes a LOT of relevant charts, but little reasoning about "why he created the chart the way he did". Reading his book is becoming a desk reference, helping me to understand why he created the chart the way he did, which is also helping me create my charts.

This is a must-have book for any INVESTools student, ar any investing student that wants to start "playing like the big boys". It is an easy reading book, filled with examples and ideas. There is even a little humor, which makes remembering the concepts easier. I'm going to read this an hour every night, but not before bed (it would keep me up, and make me want to go to the computer and try some of the charting techniques on some of my current trades).

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Should be required reading for Prophet/Thinkorswim users, July 14, 2008

By 

D. Mason (San Francisco, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chart Your Way To Profits: The Online Trader's Guide to Technical Analysis (Wiley Trading) (Hardcover)

I'm an active sell-side options trader and came across this book almost by accident. It is very well written and filled with lots of current examples of the most common and reliable chart patterns. I have no connection to the author or company, but I have a retail account at Thinkorswim and find the Prophet charts excellent, even as a more advanced trader.

The book should be required reading for anyone that uses Prophet charts, as the book lists lots of suggested settings which are only relevant if you use the product. Specifics aside, it is still an excellent book and much easier to read than most of the other ones out there, charting can be a very dry but important subject to study, this book is highly recommended for the beginning and intermediate technical trader.

Good stuff.