Customer Reviews

Day Trade Online

5 star:		(57)
4 star:		(37)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(20)
1 star:		(49)

 

 

I've read Farrell's books several times and have been trading the way the book says for a few months - I made over $7,000 last month - I've refined the strategy to fit my risk profile - avoid illiquid stocks and stick with NYSE listed, more active low priced stocks instead- even ones that trade 1,000,000 shares a day are great, so long as they are below $10 per share - I really think it is the best daytrading book written because it caters to the online trader, not the high end daytrader- apply the teenies strategy to low priced stocks that have bottomed and you have a very good chance of making money - I have - and, avoid the dogs - for instance, a $5 stock that may have come down from $20 over a few days but has stopped falling and is picking up on high volume - stocks like that are done falling -the strategy works even better by lifting offers and then offer a 1/16th point higher on a limit - it is like initiating momentum - the genius of the this book is that the strategy exploits the online brokers - you can trade 5000 shares at a time of a $5 stock and make a 1/16th once a day and make out nice and really anger the online brokers in the process - my best trades are making 1/4's on 5000 share lots - buying a 5 3/8 and selling at 5/8 - thats $1250 bucks on a $10 trade commission - not to shabby - if it goes against you, just get out and lose a 1/16 - no big deal -

thanks for a great book -

I have been trading for many years and have won several stock-market awards....This system will work if you follow Farrell's Rules that he pounded in our heads but he also mentioned some crucial rules only once...so if you skipped lots of pages because of the repetitive thoughts and ideas, you better read it again. He lists hundreds of stocks in the book but only a select few during select times of the day can with no doubt turn a profit. A lot of concerns with partialfills....just choose stocks trading over 150,000 shares (I promise they are there)...no problem getting in and out of a position such as this if and only if the spread looks something similar to this: 8 to 8.1875 bid size----5500 * 5000----asksize. This is just one of tons of similar opportunities but my point is that both the bid and ask ordersizes must be low....If you sit at that computer and keep checking your list of 10 you will find these opportunities and will make money--it may be a lot of waitng around and searching (stressful,frustraing, and sometimes boring) but hey you're at work. To limit your risk put a sell-floor limit such as $7.75 (up above example) in the rare case this 0 beta stock will even move an eighth much less a quarter. I've studied many monthly,yearly,3years, 5year charts on these stocks and the right stock fluctuates within $7-$12 trading range over the longterm and fluctuates about 25 cents monthly. HOw can you lose big money this way...Once you master the screening process and know what to look for and join DLJ Direct not etrade or ameritrade for fast dependable executions you will profit from this strategy. The important thing is that your onlinebroker has CONTINUAL real-time quotes opposed to getting snapshot real time quotes and having to click back and retype the ticker in - it will kill you. also, you need bid/ask spreads and sizes with quick execution.....try it out with $5000 of your money and $5000 of brokers. With floors and limits there is no way to lose big--aim for 7/10 profittable trades..... Notice that most of the critisizers are market makers and they are sick and tired of us taking food out of their mouth!!! people practice this strategy all day long--I watch and see so many opportunities vanish in seconds--suck it up and move on-Farrell warned of the disadvantage of the online trader..If you work hard you'll get 'em .....its an adventure .....please e-mail me with comments---anyone!

I skimmed through this book recently at a Borders Bookstore to see if it was worth buying through Amazon, since I now buy most of my books through Amazon. (Does that make me evil or what?) My thoughts are:

1) Great education on the specialist and market maker system. 2) Book is too repetitive. Good, but repetitive. 3) His trick for trading in the spread and taking some of the specialist's profits works, *if* you find the right stock and trade in high enough volumes, with low-enough commissions. 4) I started testing his method in an AMEX stock, but since I could only afford buy 300 to 500 shares at a time and pay $19.95 per trade, I had to make at least 1/8 on each round trip to profit. Waiting for the 1/8 movement takes a lot longer than waiting for a 1/16th, as Farrell recommends. 4) I've made 2 successful round trips so far and anticipate a 3rd soon, but my profits are tiny tiny tiny (like from $7 to $22 per round trip, after commission). 5) When I have more capital available, I hope to be more profitable, like the $128 per round trip while scalping 1/16hs, the way Farrell outlines. Time will tell. 6)The book also has a very short section about day-trading mommentum style (instead of bid-ask spread scalping). The techniques mentioned sound great, but I'm too poor and too chicken to try them right now.

7) Oh wait, The BEST part about using his technique is not the measly $32 I made so far, it's the sense of satisfaction I got from goosing the specialist. With patience and the right stock, you really can buy on the bid and sell on the ask, for NYSE/AMEX stocks) instead of the other way around.

Summary: If you want to understand the system of specialist (NYSE) vs. MM (Nasdaq) and you want to make $128 per round trip scalping teenies all day, BUY THIS BOOK NOW. The enjoyment I got from goosing the specialist is delicious (I just hope he's not reading this review).

If you want to play mommentum day-trading, or score big every day trading volatile internet stocks, buy some other day-trading book.

I remember a satiric article years ago in the National Lampoon about making money in the stock market. The writer advocated buying 1 share of stock and when it went up 1/8 you sold it and made your tidy little 12.5 cents and when it went down 1/8 you just doubled your purchase and when it went back up, you were even again! Well, that's sort of how Mr. Farrell's book sounds, but I'd say that the majority of profitable, stable entities in this country are that way (profitable) because they operate in a steady manner, consistently accumulating profits. We're bombarded daily with glamour stories of the rich and famous superstars who make sudden wealth- well, that's the exception, not the rule! I have a feeling those who are really critical of this book are people who want to get rich quick, and have no long-term view of life. Look- even Bill Gates didn't get his $90 billion overnight! Sure Microsoft was profitable but his wealth compounded on what he earned, the same as what this book is suggesting. Unlike other authors, Mr. Farrell is not dangling a 'get rich quick' carrot in front of the readers but is instead giving the reader a concrete plan to follow. Those who criticize, please be specific about why you criticize instead of calling names or dancing around the issue.

Sorry folks, although a good educational read, this book is outdated (1999). His technique is to get in between the bid and ask on low voliatile NYSE stocks and thereby skim a 1/16 (teenie, 6 cents) out of the spread. Sounds promising, but unfortuanetly, the NYSE no longer uses fractions, its all decimals and has been that way for a good while!! Given today's 'decimal' market, scalping the spread can be easily blocked by a bid .01 greater.

I would be interested in knowing if Farrell is still trading and if so, how might his techniques have evolved. Any updated books out there???

I have been applying the "Teenies" strategy, discussed in Christopher's book, for over a year and a half. The cashflow I bring in daily averages from $600 to $900. That's the net from both my winning and losing trades.

The are two brilliant, yet simple elements to this strategy. The first is the focus on singles, not home runs. Home runs are the illusions that kill most daytraders today. The second key element involves limited risk. This strategy sets you up to be disciplined. You don't need a whole lot of money to make this work and you don't need to put your entire portfolio into each trade. You put on a bunch of small trades which limit your risk while increasing your odds of success. Best of all, the "teenies" strategy works in all types of markets (up,down, sideways).

A book worth reading? Absolutely! It's paid for itself many times over.

Kirk H. Alamo, CA

By far, this is the BEST book on online trading. Mr Farrell's methods make perfect sense and the beauty of it are their simplicity. I suspect this (the simplicity of the methods) is why so many reviewers here rated the book so lowly, because they simply couldn't swallow the fact that they could have thought of it and wrote the book first before Mr Farrell.

For one, Mr Farrell is neither a gambler nor a risk-taker. His methods, though won't make you an instant millionaire unless you have a few million dollars as risk capital yourself to start with, are nevertheless almost fool-proof. If you have the patience and are not overtaken by greed, you can actually make a decent living as an online day-trader if you follow the book throughout.

I was holding a day job and contemplating quitting the job and becoming a full-time day trader for quite some time till this book came along. Now, I'm able to make a decent living as an online day-trader, thanks to Mr Farrell.

Book is good on market mechanics of NYSE stocks and the specialist system - to my knowledge, it is the only online trading book that devotes almost the whole thing to NYSE - almost all of the other daytrading books are for NASDAQ traders -

here are my thoughts after experimenting -

(1) strategy works but the problem is not making money, it is actually getting the execution at your buying price - I made money on about 80% of the trades that I was actually able to buy - but, I only got filled on about 1 out of 6 of those bids in thge truly low volatile stocks that trade less than 40,000 shares per day -thus, much of the day is spend tending to buy orders that never get executed - so even though it is a "high percentage" trade, the skill lies in picking those stocks that are most likely to trade at your price.....which was difficult for me as someone new to the strategy....

the book talks about wide spreads - if you take a stock that is 6 to 6 1/4, the strategy is to bid 6 1/16 - if you can buy it there, the odds say that you will make a profit - but, the odds of buying it there are probably 1 in 6 -

(2) it can be tough to sit there all day and watching stocks like a hawk that only trade a few times per hour -

(3)would like to have seen more than 30 pages of book devoted to NASDAQ......

(4) should have been more ink on what happens when trade goes against you

all in all, for $20, I learned a great deal about a market that is often shrouded is misunderstanding and secrecy - can I turn that into cold hard cash? if my orders get filled, yes - if they don't - no

This was the first book which actually introduced me to the principal of why you might want to day trade over buy-and-hold. Gives clear undertanding of how to create marginal advantage for yourself by understaning spreads between bid and ask. I dont day trade but I have stopped buying stocks at market and only buy at limit and otherwise try to take advantage of the spread. This to me was the most important lesson and I have learned it well. I would recommend this book to a thinking person.

A pamphlet would have accomplished what this guy said in the entire book! I wanted to strangle him! Repetitive, condescending, overly simplified and so BOOOoorrring!!! Here is the nuts of it all: Pick a stable stock with a narrow spread between bid and ask. Buy 2000 shares and then sell it 1/16 higher right away. Everything else is simply preamble... over and over and over. Hope I saved you 20 bucks.