Customer Reviews

The Day Trader's Manual: Theory, Art, and Science of Profitable Short-Term Investing

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I was looking for "How To" Day trading book. Reading this book was torture. I felt Mr. Eng was trying harder to impress upon the reader his vast knowledge of the theory of economics, rather than teaching one how to day trade. I admit, I couldn't force myself to read the whole book. By the time I finished part two, feeling I'd gained nothing out of those 186 awful pages, I moved on to more exciting authors.

I'm an advanced trader and only bought this book because a very good friend who is a retiring physician suggested I do so. The book is written in three separate parts. The first part discusses the theory of day trading. The second goes into the details of applying current strategies. The third, and this is where the meat is, takes about 14 trading examples and applies the thinking process of how to trade to actual markets. This book goes far beyond what most other "how to" books on market trading is all about. The other books I've read goes and tells the intricate details of what techniques and how to use them. What Eng does in this book, and other books, is to tell how to use the techniques to make money. This is what I am, as a trader trying to make money, looking for. I don't want to know that a 7 day moving average is better than a 13 day moving average. I just want to know how to make money. Eng tells me how to do so without bogging me down with useless details. I hate to say it (and I wonder what readers of this will say) but most books on trading is really "masturbation of the mind." All play and no substance. Here, Eng gets down to the details: it's all in the management of the trade, once you have it on. This is what Eng writes about: manage, manage, manage. The last part, where the successful trades turn to profits, is where he guides me through the successful management of the trade. I think most beginning traders will find this book to be too advanced because it concentrates on how to make money and it doesn't concentrate on how to make the reader a proficient technical analyst. Take it from me, I've spent years learning about moving averages. It's only when I figured out that I had to do something to make the trade profitable that I started to really make a lot of money. Eng might be too far ahead of the curve for the rest of the readers to figure out. I've read some of Eng's works and he does go into tremendous details in his other books. In this one he does token explanation and focuses on the management of the trade. As far as I know there are no books out there by other writers that concentrate on the real money-making aspect of trading. I spent years learning the details, but in this one book Eng makes it very succinct: it doesn't matter what techniques you use, just use them, and then successfully manage that trade to money!! In my library this book is highly ranked.

The simple and straight to the point title, The Day Trader's Manual, says it all. This is a compact (at just over 300 pages, with pages of detailed graphs -- no frills, nonsense, or jargon junk -- although Eng deftly incorporates terms that all traders do or will know), but invaluable text. As Eng points out in his preface, the Manual guides the beginner through the science, art, and theory of day trading. Experienced traders can use it to refresh their memories of the basics of day trading while tackling the more difficult ideas. Being a beginner trader myself, I don't think there's any other book I found more helpful, insightful, and worth my while. This book is an education in itself. Trading is a complex arena and requires experience, thought, and hard work (besides preparation)...and Eng has provided a definitive Bible that sets one off on the right path. Modest throughout, Eng includes some of his own experiences [note: in almost every book about investing or markets the author includes personal experiences, whether good or bad, to convey either one, that he or she, too, has made mistakes but from then on never did and is thus a certified good trader and can write a book about it, or two, the experiences show that this trader did something correct, or incorrect, but either way, something was learned and that's the main point] and the bottom line is that there was something to be learned. He presents different methods and approaches to trading, and covers all the ground there is; no one can leave this book without an upper hand. Still, and perhaps just another subtlety of the author's that makes this book a must is the stress on you, the reader, and your personality. Trading is not just a numbers game, and becomes a part of who you are. And accordingly, who you are affects how you trade. Eng stresses the importance of your own preferences after you gain some first hand experience trading. He tells us what he looks at in analysing data, or researching a graph, but reminds us that if we are more comfortable with the other approach, or find a better way, then by all means go for it because the point is to be a better trader. A classic that explains the complex science of day trading. This manual is meant to teach the rudiments and rigors of the technical science and art of trading. The psychology of trading indeed is its own topic, and for that you should look at Alexander Elder's _Trading for a Living_, also published by Wiley Finance.

I anxiously waited for this book to arrive and was disappointed. Though the material may apply to some traders, it was like reading a physics manual. Very little up to date practical info. Candlesticks are not discussed at all. This book may be OK for a casual look over, but there are far better books such as Profitable Candlestick Trading by Bigalow, Toni Turners books, Nissans Candlestick books, Elders books, The Disciplined Trader, The Market Makers Edge, and many others that get into the real meat if you want to learn the art of day, swing, and position trading. Trading is not a get rich quick scheme, it is not gambling, but rather a deliberate planned approach to trading stocks and futures for fun and profit. It takes a lot of hard work and years of study to be consistently successful. You are going to have to focus on the art of the trade, not the money to get it done. Reading all of the books you can find on the subject is definitely suggested. But this one, I cannot recommend.

Way too much unusable information. I kept waking up throughout the book, hoping to get to the parts about day-trading I could put into practice. (It never happened)

I had rated the author's first book "Trading rules: Strategies for success" with 5 stars. I never expected such a frustration with this book.

Perhaps the trader did try to make this book as a day trader's manual by including everything he deemed fit into a 322 page book: trading psychology, rules drawn from his own experience, chaos theory and in particular many TA tools like Market Profile, Elliot Wave, Gann Fan, RSI, Stochastics and so on. He then used nearly 40% of the book in 14 cases to elaborate those tools. The problem is, though I believe it's the intent of the author to make the book as concise as possible, it's simply impossible for most, even some professionals, to grasp the usage of the aforesaid TA tools. Even worse, the cases just did not help at all.

In a word, a big disappointment for this one and I suggest those who would like to give the author a try to bet on his first book "Trading Rules: Strategies for success".

This book looks good, had one or two good reviews. But I wasted my money on it, because it put me to sleep. Written for the older crowd, with techniques used in the 80's. Definetely did not help me much, even though I sadly read %70 of it.

Although this book appears at first glance to contain an impressive discussion of technical analysis as it may be applied to day trading, a more thorough reading reveals that the author wholly fails to explain how the reader can use these technical tools to improve his/her daytrading skills. This book certainly is not for the beginning trader and is not worth its relatively steep price.

I returned this book primarily because it is fairly dated, given the technical advances in electronic trading since the publication date of 1993. I am a fairly active trader and have an earned doctorate in physics; Mr. Eng's discussions of Chaos, Entropy and Randomness left me with the suspicion that scientific buzzwords are employed to justify the empirical ideas of chart analysis. Friedfertig and West's 1998 book, The Electronic Day Trader, is a far more useful and current title.

With all due respect to Mr. Eng, the book really skimped on detail. It mentioned myriads of techniques and styles, but failed to provide adequate information to fully understand them or actually use them. Instead, in almost every case, the reader was referred to another book, usually written by Mr. Eng. If I had known I needed all his previous works to use this one, I wouldn't have wasted my time. As it is, I sent the book back.