Customer Reviews

How to Get Started in Electronic Day Trading: Everything You Need to Know to Play Wall Street's Hottest Game

5 star:		(69)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(27)

 

 

The information in this book is simplistic and (in my opinion) there does indeed seem to be a not-so-hidden agenda aiming readers toward the author's courses and his trading firm. On the other hand, if you don't know much about trading, it's a pretty good introduction to the basics.

Most of the strategies discussed would work equally well simply by using any of the reputable on-line brokerage firms such as Waterhouse or E*Trade for trade executions. In my experience, placing appropriate limit orders with a good online broker results in almost instantaneous executions and if you want to play the level II NASDAQ game, well, good luck! May I say from many years of trading: If you wish to "scalp" or do short term swing trading, or make money on 1/8 point moves at the speed of light, beware! (At least the author warns of the inherent dangers lurking to snag the day trader.)

It's OK to be optimistic, and this book certainly is. It's a little reminiscent of the now-infamous "Wall Street Money Machine" (by a former cab driver who will go un-named) but to be fair, it's not nearly as irresponsible. It IS a GREAT idea to simulate trades before you use real money and, to the author's credit, this rational approach is advocated. Then details get quite fuzzy and the clear message seems to be: For more details, take my course.

In the 1990's I have watched friends and aquaintances jump into the various "hot" and "exciting" arenas of OEX options, option writing and buying, commodity futures, short-term-day trading, and the like. These are not dumb or untrained people, but PhDs in engineering, business professionals and the like. Results have been, to put it kindly, mixed, and one of them got wiped out to the tune of $200K rather efficiently.

My wife was a financial analyst for a Fortune 500 company and I have been a trader for many years. Now that I am retired from my engineering career, I have lots of time to dedicate to the craft of trading...I choose the word "craft" deliberately...and my advice to those who "have a passion for trading" is: Take a cold bath for the passion, learn as much as you can as long as you can, and then start with teeny trades, one at a time. Maybe one day I'll actually meet somebody who was an instant success in this challenging area, but I haven't yet.

I read The Electronic Day Trader and thought that was dumbed down for the layman until I read this book. A more appropriate title for this book is Electronic Day Trading for Dummies. Though incomplete and self-serving in the end, I think that this book helps the absolute neophyte dabble in day trading terms and dynamics. Start with this book to get a feel for day trading and then graduate up to The Electronic Day Trader to understand what tools are best for you. When you are proficient with the trading tools, take a look at Hit and Run Trading or Stock Trading Wizard to learn how to successfully apply those day trading tools.

I read the book, learned the basics and did some trading. level two and direct access especially enhanced my trading abilities, and one key reason was the ability to see ahead of the market price if the marketmakers are going lower or higher and the second is the ability to get your price because of the high speed of access. skill in trading go beyond these tools, however, I found experience and logic being your most important skills. The book was invaluable in learning to use level two and in providing content that would be of interest to a beginner trading. I found holding one stock til I get a decent return better than trading that same stock day after day though, but for entering and exiting a trade and the ability to watch a trade closely is best with level two and for a beginner this is a good book, but its not a free ticket to easy gains. the level two can get you into trouble just as quick as any other method. Having said that, for understanding the market and information on how to use level two, the book was great for a beginner. The gains come from using all your tools intelligently. I made dumb mistakes that cost me but I did learn from the mistakes and made it to positive steady gains now after 6 months. I found understanding the market will always be an ongoing learning experience everyday, there are no templates that last for long except good company fundamentals. My advice is practice paper trading or with a simulator for 6 months for the cheapest learning curve after reading the book and know your stock from watching it trade on level two. The book talks about styles of trading, I have found that just watching and papertrading one stock day after day with level two a great insight for eventually trading the stock for the first time while keeping in mind the macro environment of the market and how that particular stocks sector is doing for daytrading purposes. The book also has good references and links.

A decent book for the beginning day trader, although too general to use as a direct reference for trading technique. Author tries and fails to conceal his marketing hype for his E-DAT trading company & trading school.

Needs more tech info to enable the neophyte to drill down from the general info to the specific.

Example: Author mentions scalping several times, yet fails to identify scalping techniques. Instead author focuses on general indicators.

The market maker phsycology/tactics are perhaps the most useful portions of the book, also defines many common terms.

Actually, it's not a book at all. It's a promo packet for market wize investing, the author's company.

Skip this one!

David Abers

I have read most of the books for 1st time day traders (Secrects of the Soes Bandit; The Electronic Day Trader; The Compleat Day Trader; The Compleat Day Trader II) and I consider "How to Get Started in Electronic Day Trading" to be the first book all beginning day traders should read. It is covers the whole arena of daytrading (primarily NASDAQ & NYSE stocks as opposed to commodities or futures). Nassar takes little for granted. He explains the basics of the markets, order types, and the avenues electronic traders have available to trade in. He goes on to explain what he considers to be the key indicators to follow when trading. Then comes one of the BEST(!) explanations of how to use technical analysis for a first time trader that I have ever seen. This chapter entitled "Understanding Technical Analysis Keeps You Flying High", makes the book worth many times it's price. Next comes an excellent tour of the minds and methods of the Market Makers. Do you know how to trade b4/after earning reports, how to trade splits, and how to trade rating changes? This book has the answers. All this plus more makes this book the BEST value for the dollar I have seen for the beginning day trader. This book will get you started on the right foot. For some this could be the only day trading book they ever need to read (though Nassar does acknowledge the field is constantly changing so one must keep up with any new trading systems that work in the electronic environment).

Of the five daytrading books that I have read in the last sixmonths this book is by far the most informative. It has the leastadvertising for seminars or schools. Using the techniques in the book I increased my capital investment on a simulator by 124% in three weeks. It will give you a strong foundation to trade and learn from. Keep your head about you. Cut your losses. Good Luck

I found the book complicated to understand at times due to the technical nature of the information. There is alot to know about trading on the internet that I was not aware of and this book was very helpful to explain difficult information in a relatively understandable way.

I read several other books and found this book to be the best I have read. Forbes said this was the best book on electronic trading that it reviewed. After reading it, I totally agree this book is the best on the market.

I read Harvey Houtkins book and it was terrible. I will read many more before beginning to trade direct which the author of this book suggests, which I feel was very objective on his part.

Direct trading is much different than trading on the internet and the techniques taught in this book are invaluable.

I run a trading firm that caters to professional traders, and I try to read all the books I can. I have no reason to hype or pan any book, outside of simply being interested in developing good traders. This book was obviously written with an ulterior motive of hyping Southwest Securities and the firms that clear through Southwest. In my humble opinion, new traders first needs to focus on the psychology of trading, and then work to develop the techniques and money management skills to truly grasp the market. There is very little in the way of original information or direction for a new trader. The best book I have seen recently is Trading to Win by Dr. Ari Kiev. I'd much rather see someone read that before coming to me. This is one of the few books out there truly offering good advice to begining-and experienced-traders. It might seem that I have another agenda with reviewing the book so harshly, but I don't. I've had several people come to me after reading this book, and they don't understand the market, which means that I have to un-teach them, and then teach them. If I can avoid this unnecessary work, then I'm happy and they lose less money.

The author goes on and on and on about what is presumably his company Edat. I thought I was getting a book about day trading, what I got was a book about day trading with this guys company, what a rip off! I'm already trying to sell this stinker on eBay, just trying to recoup some of the loss. The book was so out of date that I actually turned to the copyright page to see when it was written, its copyrighted in '99 but it reads like it was written about 1996, and as I'm sure you know everything about online trading has changed DRAMATICALLY since then. Hey I'm interested in day trading and have read several books on the subject, some better than others, this is the hands down worst, don't waste your money.