The Guts and Glory of Day Trading: True Stories of Day Traders Who Made (or Lost) $1,000,000 [Hardcover]

Mark Ingebretsen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 25, 2001

Jump Into the Day-Trading Trenches and Sharpen Your Own Survival Skills
Every battle has its winners and losers. Every day, thousands of day traders take their battle positions in front of their computers to go head to head against the world's best, and most powerful, trading institutions. There are casualties—many casualties. But there are also victories—moments when an individual trader reaches the pinnacle of our capitalist system to take a profit from the market.
Making money isn't easy—with a 75 to 90 percent failure rate, only the strong survive, and only the most savvy live to trade another day. But despite the negative press, a wildly unpredictable market, and the possibility of losing their shirts on any given trading day, these market mercenaries continue to trade, and day trading continues to grow as a profession. What drives them? How do they do it? What are their secrets? In The Guts & Glory of Day Trading, you'll read the astounding stories of those traders who have been skilled enough to make significant money, and the gut-wrenching dramas of those who were unfortunate enough to lose vast fortunes.
Whether you're a trader yourself or just a casual investor, their stories and strategies will keep you on the edge of your seat. The valuable lessons from this trading dozen tell more than just the pits and peaks of stock trading. They teach the survival skills and tactics necessary to live to trade another day. You can learn how to improve your own trading or investing techniques by learning what most of them did right—and what some of them did wrong.
"An excellent successor to Jack Schwager's Market Wizards. I highly recommend it to anyone serious about trading and investing." —Zhiwu Chen, professor of finance, Yale University School of Management
"Mark Ingebretsen subtly debunks the worst day-trading stereotypes. The stories offer real-life lessons that any trader can profit from." —Jamie Heller, editor-at-large, TheStreet.com
"Invaluable reading for anyone who considers making money in the stock market a priority." —Kris Skrinak, general manager, ClearStation.com

Editorial Reviews

Review

Previous praise: "An excellent successor to Jack Schwager's 'Market Wizards'. I highly recommend it to anyone serious about trading and investing." Zhiwu Chen, Professor of Finance, Yale University School of Management "Mark Ingebretsen subtly debunks the worst day-trading stereotypes. The stories offer real-life lessons that any trader can profit from." Jamie Heller, Editor-at-large, TheStreet.com "Invaluable reading for anyone who considers making money in the stock market a priority." Kris Skrinak, General Manager, ClearStation.com --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

Jump Into the Day-Trading Trenches and Sharpen Your Own Survival Skills
Every battle has its winners and losers. Every day, thousands of day traders take their battle positions in front of their computers to go head to head against the world's best, and most powerful, trading institutions. There are casualties?many casualties. But there are also victories?moments when an individual trader reaches the pinnacle of our capitalist system to take a profit from the market.
Making money isn't easy?with a 75 to 90 percent failure rate, only the strong survive, and only the most savvy live to trade another day. But despite the negative press, a wildly unpredictable market, and the possibility of losing their shirts on any given trading day, these market mercenaries continue to trade, and day trading continues to grow as a profession. What drives them? How do they do it? What are their secrets? In The Guts & Glory of Day Trading, you'll read the astounding stories of those traders who have been skilled enough to make significant money, and the gut-wrenching dramas of those who were unfortunate enough to lose vast fortunes.
Whether you're a trader yourself or just a casual investor, their stories and strategies will keep you on the edge of your seat. The valuable lessons from this trading dozen tell more than just the pits and peaks of stock trading. They teach the survival skills and tactics necessary to live to trade another day. You can learn how to improve your own trading or investing techniques by learning what most of them did right?and what some of them did wrong.
"An excellent successor to Jack Schwager's Market Wizards. I highly recommend it to anyone serious about trading and investing." ?Zhiwu Chen, professor of finance, Yale University School of Management
"Mark Ingebretsen subtly debunks the worst day-trading stereotypes. The stories offer real-life lessons that any trader can profit from." ?Jamie Heller, editor-at-large, TheStreet.com
"Invaluable reading for anyone who considers making money in the stock market a priority." ?Kris Skrinak, general manager, ClearStation.com

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Crown Business (January 25, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761528032
• ISBN-13: 978-0761528036
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,731,782 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The worst book about day trading I've ever read, October 5, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Guts and Glory of Day Trading: True Stories of Day Traders Who Made (or Lost) $1,000,000 (Hardcover)

"What is a day trader? Maybe it doesn't matter."

Unfortunately for us readers, this statement (taken from the book) is not meant as a joke. Many of the chapters are about people who have absolutely nothing to do with day trading. It is amazing that the author claims to have selected these people from a much longer list of candidates. Well, maybe it isn't that amazing when you consider that everything in this book is based on phone interviews in which the "traders" presented their own stories. No trading records were reviewed, not a single account was audited.

Let's look at two examples taken from the book:

Example 1: "Barbara Hamilton" (her real name was not given in the book): divorced and received $525,000, which she turned into (the text isn't very specific about this) a little more than one million...by buying and holding internet stocks in 1998 and 1999. Despite being considered a "day trader" by the author, she was still holding them all the way down, and lost most of her money. The chapter ends with the words: "And she was bound and determined to make back her million."

Example 2: Mary Pugh: Bet all her money (!) on one single penny stock, held it on the way up, held it one the way down. Needless to say, that's a little different from what I consider day trading.

Just as an aside: The cover blurb ("Real-life lessons that any trader can profit from.") was written by Jamie Heller, editor-at-large at TheStreet.com, the web site Mark Ingebretsen used to write articles for. I guess that's what friends are for.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Amateur at best, December 24, 2003

By 

vikingtraider "vikingtraider" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Guts and Glory of Day Trading: True Stories of Day Traders Who Made (or Lost) $1,000,000 (Hardcover)

The 'error' in the title of this book is a representative of the appalling quality of the book. To be fair, the author cites his definition of 'day trading' which is *NOT* the industry accepted definition.

A couple of problems with this book:

- the author appears to have no idea regarding the topic of trading;
- it generally has little to do with day trading;
- most subjects in the books are average people who got lucky with apparently no skills (nor common sense);
- the book is written in a style suited to magazines, particularly those for pure entertainment - although unfortunately it is not entertaining at all. The author is unable to direct subjects to the appropriate topics and fails to extract anything substantial in any area; and
- there is very little useful and educational information in it at all (eg statistics / methods / psychology / money management).

There are many other books that are significantly better than this one, particularly Schwager's Market Wizards books.

If you're looking for some possibly fun (for those who haven't read anything in this area), brainless and easy reading - this could be your answer to boredom.

If you want anymore, I'd almost guarantee your disappointment.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very disappointing, September 25, 2001

By 

A.P (Sydney, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Guts and Glory of Day Trading: True Stories of Day Traders Who Made (or Lost) $1,000,000 (Hardcover)

After reading numerous books on trading & investing. This book would have to be one of the most disappointing sharemarket books ever published.
Basically it's just interviews and stories about average people (with very limited market experience) who basically just gambled on and as one chaptered is titled "Betting it all" on the stockmarket during the heady days of the tech bubble. (and in most cases losing it all)..
I think the title would be more appriorately titled " True stories of day traders who LOST (or made) $1,000,000.
One story is about a lady, who "betted it all" on a stock - called e.digital. She bought at 70c, watched it go to $25 and "letting it all ride" and I guess praying for it to go back up (current price is under $1.00). Talks about how she is still keen on it - despite her losing millions on it. No stop losses - just a punt on it.
If you are looking for book on learning the share-market - look elsewhere. If looking for a book, with stories on how to basically just put thousands of dollars on penny-stocks and watching it disappear - this book is for you.
There are loads of great books out there. If you're looking for great "interview" book - I recommend any books by Mark Schwager - in his books, he interviews successful traders and investors (i.e people with many many years in the stockmarket game - i.e managers of huge hedge funds... people with records of steady returns over numerous years), as compared to this book, where the average person, has basically just quit thier day-job and decided to gambled it all on the tech bubble - watch it all go up, thanks to irrational times of the tech bubble and with the help of no rules - lose it all.
I love reading (particularly about the stockmarket/trading/investing etc) and have never give a book a bad rap - but unfortunately this book is one of the worse. Sorry for being so critical - But I won't feel right in recommending this book, as a buy and watching other people lose money on buying it, when it's been so much of a disappointment, in that, it has no useful information about the sharemarket at all.

So in conclusion - Save ya money