The Day Trader's Survival Guide: How to Be Consistently Profitable in Short-Term Markets [Hardcover]

Christopher A. Farrell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 24, 2000

With fortunes made - and lost - in the blink of an eye, online day trading has become the modem equivalent of the California Gold Rush. And, like so many of the intrepid but unprepared souls who set out on the trail West, most beginning day traders are woefully ill-equipped for the challenges they will encounter. As a highly successful hedge fund manager, author Christopher Farrell has the experience to help readers make sense of this exciting but volatile arena. He instils a deep understanding of day trading as intellectual combat, pitting investors against institutions and each other on an electronic battlefield. Clearly and thoroughly, Farrell maps out the dangers, providing solutions and revealing dozens of insider secrets for coming out on top, allowing anyone to become a more successful day trader.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Read with horror as author Christopher Farrell pulls back the curtain to expose how market makers and specialists manipulate stocks to fleece traders and investors. Then follow as he shows how you can turn the tables to work the markets to your own advantage. "If you approach day trading the same way that you approach investing, you are sure to lose money," Farrell warns in The Day Trader's Survival Guide."One of the early mistakes that novice traders make is that they get caught up in the hype of the online trading revolution. Just because you can get a trade executed in a second with the click of a mouse, does not mean that you are on a level playing field with the rest of Wall Street. Remember, all of Wall Street is out to take your money."

Rampant market manipulation is the order of the day, and it puts traders and investors at great disadvantage. Quoted markets that are not what they seem, hidden orders, head fakes, and other deceptions are described and illustrated in detail in this guide for traders with at least some experience. It's a kill-or-be-killed market, and Farrell shows how traders can side with the pros, game the spread, profit in illiquid issues, and find arbitrage opportunities. Market makers armed with the profit motive have the means and the opportunity to annihilate starry-eyed new arrivals daily. This book shows exactly how they do it--and what it takes to outmaneuver them. It's a must-read for any trader who has the will to survive. --Scott Harrison

From Publishers Weekly

Though its title may invite novices, this guide to successful day trading is clearly designed for more experienced investors, since it explores complicated topics such as market makers, arbitrage traders and illiquid stocks. Farrell, author of Day Trade Online and founder of a hedge fund, argues that anyone comfortable enough to day trade should be able to reap extraordinary profits, provided they follow his techniques and avoid the "secret" pitfalls. He clearly believes that Wall Street often consciously hinders day traders: "the minority of successful day traders... are disliked because, as a group, these day traders have undermined the Wall Street money-making machine." Section headings further support Farrell's position that there's a war between day traders and the rest of Wall Street. For instance, he says: "First Dirty Little Secret: Payment for Order Flow... they are 'buying' the orders because they feel reasonably certain that they can use their trading edge to exploit you for their own profit." The most practical chapterD"The Day Trader Strikes Back"Dis also the most compelling and offers concrete strategies for investors. By focusing on the old Wall Street way of doing business and its impact on day traders, Farrell offers a different perspective than that found in other books on this subject. With the number of people trading online increasing by huge numbers, this book should easily find its readership. (Nov. 1)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 236 pages
• Publisher: HarperBusiness; 1st edition (October 24, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0066620856
• ISBN-13: 978-0066620855
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #438,243 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

CHRISTOPHER A. FARRELL is a national bestselling author of two books, "Day Trade Online" and "The Day Trader's Survival Guide". "Day Trade Online" is currently in its second edition, revised, updated and released in December of 2008.

Written as a first time author at the age of 25 back in 1998, his book Day Trade Online became a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek and USA Today "business" best-seller, and he has been a guest on numerous television and radio programs, including CNBC , BBC World News, and Fox 5 Good Day New York. His works have been featured in magazines such as The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Worth and Online Investor Magazine and he has been a guest speaker at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.). Chris has also written articles on trading for Active Trader Magazine. Farrell's books have been translated into numerous languages worldwide, including Korean, German, Russian, and Italian. He is a graduate of Colgate University.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars surprised and blown away, November 11, 2000

By 

sarah (atlanta) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Day Trader's Survival Guide: How to Be Consistently Profitable in Short-Term Markets (Hardcover)

as a somewhat active online trader, i was both surprised and blown away by alot of what I read in this book - particularly about the kind of nonsense that is allowed to go on in the NASDAQ -

As someone who has bought about 14 day trading books in the past year,I guess I'm as good a critic as anyone - this book is so far ahead of the other daytrading books in both quality, illustrations, and content that it stands alone -

I am a firm believer that if you can walk away with 1 or 2 lasting ideas from any book than you are ahead of the game - Farrell book has about 15 such ideas - not to mention I think that the 3 sections on how the market makers, NYSE specialists, and day traders manipulate stock prices is the most informative chapters in any of the daytrading books out there -

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This book begs for an update, May 8, 2005

By 

G. Kuhn (Woodland Hills, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Day Trader's Survival Guide: How to Be Consistently Profitable in Short-Term Markets (Hardcover)

Written near the end of the Dot.com glory days, this book offers many good basics for any day trader. However, it desperately screams for an update that reflects the current status of online trading, data services, and even the change from fractions to decimals. One glaring deficiency is the lack of reference to the availability of the NYSE Open Book, which offers a very similar picture as that of Nasdaq Level II. Perhaps when the book was written, that data was inaccessible for the online trader, but now it can be purchased by anyone. It is essential for anyone who wants to trade NYSE stocks.

Also, the references to companies with intraday swings of 40-60 points is so unfathomable in today's market, that it really diminishes the effectiveness of some of his examples.

Nevertheless, even with all the failings of this book in relation to the trading climate of 2005, it still provides some useful insights and information for the beginning day trader. I would recommend this book, as long as you can get it cheap. You won't find it to be a reference book (like "A Beginner's Guide To Day Trading Online"), so you might even save your money and check this one out from the library.

I wish Christopher Farrell would go back and revise the book to reflect the changes in the market, because they are quite signficant compared to the crazy days of the Dot.com boom.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars insiders look at what makes day trading so difficult, February 27, 2001

By 

Roger from Vail (Vail) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Day Trader's Survival Guide: How to Be Consistently Profitable in Short-Term Markets (Hardcover)

I bought this book after reading the recent positive review in Online Investor Magazine (Feb issue) - this book is not some loose, "how to" book on day trading - instead, the author spends his time slicing and dicing many of "the shady ways" in which both the NASDAQ market makers, and NYSE specialists operate -

is by far the most in-depth day trading book of the 10 I have bought because it talks about issues that, literally, none of the other day trading books I have ever read even mention - this books wastes no time on the "getting started 101" nonsense that so many other day trading books talk about (how to get started, what broker to choose) - also, this guy actually worked as a bond trader on Wall Street before he got started - so I think his perspective on "the shady side" of how Wall Street works is a bit more accurate than the others - Here is why I liked the book: Farrell attacks things like: why the NASDAQ can be so tricky, how the NYSE specialist can made a stock collapse by cancelling bids, how big firms like Goldman Sachs can hold a stock down with the appearance of 100 share sell orders, how hidden orders affect the supply and demand in a stock - this is all stuff that I had absolutely no idea even went on -