Customer Reviews

High Probability Trading Strategies: Entry to Exit Tactics for the Forex, Futures, and Stock Markets (Wiley Trading)

5 star:		(72)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Before we get started, if you are looking for a mechanical trading system, give this book a pass.

The author presents four very useful tools for trading stocks, commodities, or currencies. These are: two time-frame momentum indicators, Elliott waves, Fibonacci with price, and Fibonacci with time. You can use these four tools as a discretionary trading system, but the Fibonacci discussion is especially valuable in and of itself. The author has been around 20 years providing trading advice - an indication of some quality.

I appreciate that the author isn't trying to hard sell his software and newsletter. You can apply the ideas in the book without buying anything more from the author! That is an honest touch that is appreciated. Still the author sells a software package that make things slightly easier, I would imagine. UPDATE: Many people comment negatively that the book is just a sales pitch for the software. Since the book discloses all the four tools, I think such a statement is untrue. However, some of the tool will require you to print out the charts and do manual calculations if you don't have his software.

The style of the text can be somewhat annoying at times; it is repetitive and has too many comments about not-so-good advisors out there somewhere. (No need for the author to point this out unless he wants to name the offenders.) It would have been good if the author told the reader how this book compares to his earlier book Dynamic Trading: Dynamic Concepts in Time, Price & Pattern Analysis With Practical Strategies for Traders & Investors. My take is that the current book introduces the two time-frame momentum and streamlines the other information on Elliott and Fibonacci, but it would have been useful to get this information from the author. Is the previous book superceded in his mind or does it still have value?

All positive reviewers (13 of them at the time of writing) have only reviewed this book and nothing else. Clearly the author has a fan club. Irrespective, I can really this book. I am not part of the fan club and I try to give out as many one star and five star reviews.

do not think that this book will make you a more successful trader by simply following a set of hard-and-fast rules. It will give you some interesting ideas to kick around in your head and try out on your own trades. If you want to save yourself the trouble of reading the book, here are its key points, in a nutshell: 1.) Graph momentum below your stock charts and know what the Oversold/Overbought lines mean and where they are. 2.) Learn about Fibonacci Retracements and learn how to set them on your main stock chart, superimposed over your graph lines. 3.) Know how to set stops that will only drain your account up to 3% if the market heads the wrong way after your entrance point. If you master those points and tangential topics that go with them pertaining to money management and trading mindset, you will have the book pretty much down pat and be able to do your own prognosticating. Remember, though, anyone, and I mean ANYONE, can do after-the-fact "prognosticating" with historical charts in hand, and then fiddle around until a "system" is found that can fit that data. Once Miner starts getting into the charts and logic of his system, anyone who has a taken probability and statistics in school will see that a little fun is afoot. It simply is "mathematical justification voodoo" at its best. To give Miner his due, he freely admits that you will never win all of the time. He even says you will most likely lose a great deal, and gives the stats on what percentage of traders go bust after just their first six months (variously 70-95%!). I was struck, though, about half-way through the book, that all of Miner's complicated systems analysis charts, and such, exist to help sell his software and trading services, although he comes off, in so many words, like that is not the case. I don't believe it, for one minute. He mentions "proprietary" data analysis in his software that his company uses, and you can bet the farm that he is baiting you to pop big bucks for that. Another thing, the charts in this book are terrible, as it is tough to clearly make out, in many cases, what Miner is trying to illustrate, and they are discussed on pages other than the ones on which they appear. Talk about frustrating! In the end, this book is similar to many others. It is written by a clever guy who has taken to heart the old, familiar words of PT Barnum, which you should know, as I'm not telling you, here. You can read it, get frustrated, figure, "Oh what the heck. I'll just buy his software and let it make me millions!" BUZZZZZZ! Wrong thought. What the software will do, according to those who have bought it and discussed it online, is to relieve you of your hard-earned money, and little else. It does not, according to the same folks, give you definite entrance and exit points, at all. In closing, ponder this, as with all other folks who write these types of books, if Miner was the trading Guru he seems to come off as in this book, his protests to the contrary, why would he need to do anything other than sit at home, in his mansion, and make trades all day? With him being the absolute master of his own system, he should make billions, literally. He doesn't, though, from trading, and neither will you. UPDATE: I have been experimenting with Miner's system and, by pure serendipity, made this discovery: If you are looking at 1-minute charts on one screen, and 5-minute charts on another, for the same, exact stock, guess what----Momentum may be exactly opposite on the two charts! In other words, the 1-minute chart may show you that a stock is overbought and, thus, ripe for a short position, while on the 5-minute chart the stock is shown as oversold and, thus, ready for a long position. I understand that this can be spun to make sense if one counters by saying: "Well, it all depends on if you're making one or five minute turnarounds, and considering one-day or five-day charts." Thing is, it just has a bad "feel" to it. To me, it simply is another indication that Miner's system mumbo-jumbo is just that: Complex-sounding permutations applied to very basic trading tools, put together in such a way that you become convinced that you absolutely need his support materials to succeed in trading. Please consider everything I've said in the above and read other reviews on here before you fork over your cash, and/or jump into trading. Good luck! Update 11/15/10: In this book you are advised to not trade when momentum charting clearly indicates highly overbought/oversold trades. FWIW, I have found that selling/buying at precisely those times leads to consistent success. I have had very few losing trades following my own strategy. Of course, find what works for you.

Miner is one of the few trading authors that seem to have some practical, successful trading experience. His book offers a complete trading plan from identifying the high probability trade setups for any market and any time frame right through the exit strategy. High Probability Trading Strategies is not the typical compendium of the old tried and true indicators and Fib retracements but a logical and practical approach to high probability trades with small capital exposure.

His Multiple Time Frame Momentum strategy is brilliant in its simplicity and execution. The Beyond Fib Retracements chapter shows a couple of unique strategies that help you to identify in advance which retracement level should be support or resistance. He also explains in a logical and practical way how to use simple pattern and timing strategies to identify the targets for trend reversal. Miner focuses on exit strategies as much as entry setups for a complete trading plan from entry to exit, just as the title describes.

Especially valuable is the video CD that is included with the book. I've had several trading books that included a CD but most of the CD material did not complement the book, let alone appear to be professionally produced. The 2 hour video CD with High Probability Trading Strategies is a valuable complement to the book material as Miner goes through several trade examples bar-by-bar. I think any trader will be very pleased with what they learn from High Probability Trading Strategies.

This book covers the complete trading strategies, from start to finish. It explains every aspect of a trading system in thorough detail. But if you don't know anything about charts or technical analysis, this book won't get you started. Robert runs at full pace to explain his manner of approaching trading, so don't expect to have your hand held through it. And it seems that the reader should already have or use his Dynamic Trader software with special indicators. He does not tell you how to set or create these indicators in other trading software packages. I admit, as a beginning stock trader, that his process of looking at the markets makes a lot of sense. The accompanying CD shows several live examples which really brings his trading style into focus, compared to charts in the book. This book is for the serious trader only.

Chapter 4 and 5 (Beyond Fib Retracements and Beyond Traditional Cycles) were written with Miner's Dynamic software in mind. Most (if not all) of his Fib strategy is proprietary software and cannot be duplicated in other trading and charting platforms. Without this ability, you really miss out on the meat of his strategy. I use thinkorswim and have chatted with the support folks who verified that they are not equipped for these techniques.

My recommendation would be to not buy this book unless you are also going to purchase Miner's Dynamic trading software.

High Probability Trading Strategies: Entry to Exit Tactics for the Forex, Futures, and Stock Markets (Wiley Trading), written by Robert C. Miner aspires to a be a guide to high probability setup. However, it quickly ends up in untestable statements, a load of untestable statements and very few insights into how and if the setups actually works over time. At best, it is unscientific, at worst it is probably a rip-off.

It relies on dual indicators that have to align themselves in certain ways in order to be a predictable, profitable setup. Most of them are momentum, Fibonacci numbers or oversold / overbought indicators. However, yet again they are mostly urban myths rather than testable statements.

The book is written in a style that somehow indicates that Robert has too little to say and needs to fill out his text with a language that is fluffy and sometimes digress into topics that hardly has something with the short term trading approach, such as bashing other trading instructors or newsletters.

This one is probably not one for the shelf... regret that I spent the money on the book.

There are some great entry and exit strategies as well as trade management ideas in this book. However you have to have the authors charting software in order to do any of the strategies. for example he has a proprietary momentum indicator called DTOSC that is not in any charting software packages but his own... and also the custom fibonacci levels and fibonacci TIME retracements are only available with his special software. I rated this book 2 stars because it sucks to buy a product and wait 2-3 weeks for delivery, only to find out it wont work 100% unless you purchase some other product that the company happens to sell.

I give this a 4-star rating only because nothing's perfect; I'd give it a 9.5 out of 10 if that were possible, and no, I'm not a friend of Mr. Miner (maybe someday). Too many times, I've regretted shelling out for stuff that cost more and offered less than I expected. This book is definitely NOT in that category.

In spite of Marcel Link's review in which he expresses resentment of the use of the "High Probability Trading" part of the title from his own book (which I also intend to buy), I think Bob Miner's book is an amazing value. It's rare to find this much useful information in one place to explain (and with the accompanying CD, to demonstrate) a complete trading system. Add to that the bonus of access to more video examples at the associated website, and it's hard to believe the price isn't MUCH higher.

If you're looking for a book that can show you something you didn't know, or can explain things to you in a different way so that it helps you to understand a concept better, then this is certainly well worth your time and money. If you've never been exposed to the concept of combining price, time and pattern with momentum indicators, then this book can open your eyes to a new world in analysis; and Miner's observations on money/trade management could be just what a new or intermediate level trader needs to improve their trading.

High Probability Trading Strategies: Entry to Exit Tactics for the Forex, Futures, and Stock Markets (Wiley Trading)
I have been a commodity trader for twenty years and have used Elliott Wave analysis and Fib retracements for probably ten years. Robert's book is the best description I have ever seen of how to use these tools. You can predict both time and price levels when looking to entries and exits from trades. Remember the old saying, "don't tell me what to buy, tell me when to buy it". If you are interested in seroius trading and are willing to work hard, this book will help you devise a trading plan. Without a plan, trading is at best a frustrating experience, and at worst can be a financial disaster. I wish I had this book ten years ago. It would have saved me a lot of time learning the basics.

High Probability Trading Strategies by Robert Miner is very well written. I highly recommend the book to all levels and all types of traders. The trading concepts are basic and easy to understand. Before I read the book, I had an understanding of all of the concepts which he talked about. The book brought it together for me and helped me improve my trading success.

The onething I would have like to seen more of in the book, is trading examples on the charts. The charts in the book have easily identifiable trade setups, but it does not include examples of more elusive and complex trades. I guess Mr. Miner could write a second book for the more advanced trader.

This book is also well complemented by another book, Fibonacci Trading, How to Master the Time and Price Advantage written by Carolyn Boroden. I recommend reading High Probability Trading Strategies first and then refining your skills with the second book.