Customer Reviews

New Market Timing Techniques: Innovative Studies in Market Rhythm & Price Exhaustion

5 star:		(58)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

Laurence Connors in the introduction of his excellent "Advanced Trading strategies" mentions two of the most important characteristics of successful trading. Strategies must be simple and one's ego cannot come in the way. This book is exactly the opposite. A desperate attempt to impress with verbosity, numerous trademarks, deliberate complexity of what could have been perhaps enlightning analysis if presented by someone really wanting to pass on a message. As said elsewhere, "insufferable" is the thought that pops up at every page. I am only surprised that the pages are not numbered and patented as TD Page1, TD page2,etc.. such is the spirit of this useless book.

Sorry to many people that say that this is one of the best books in Tech Analysis. It is impossible, because this is the worst book in this matter. You will spent a hell of a long time studying it and trying to understand any paragraph due to the redaction and the hidden ideas. Moreover you will find a lot of inconsistences between the graphs and the text. Therefore: The most unprofessional thing I have EVER seen in terms of writing and ideas. Sorry but i need to stop the abuse to the readers.

This book needs to be edited - badly. It's very difficult to read. Sentences a page apart contradict each other.

The author repeatedly claims that these techniques are simple and mechanical but they seem to me to be just the opposite. I found them very difficult to understand and he allows so much variation in the parameters that the interpretation becomes very subjective.

Worse, he explains a technical indicator and cites specific parameters and then goes on to point out that the reader may want to vary these parameters all over the place! Excuse me, sir, but I thought that was why you did all the research - to figure out what the proper parameters were. If you tell me that I need to experiment with them then why do I need your book?

DeMark is a noted, productive author. He has at least one other book and numerous articles in Futures magazine to his credit. Some of his methods for trading do not require computer power to use, just price charts.

His writing, however,is insufferable. Faults include the following:

Verbosity: On page 16 I found a sentence with over 90 words, followed at once by another one even longer. I have three college degrees, but I want to be taught, not challengd.

Failure to Verify: This man comments unfavorably on other mehods, but fails to present any data on how well his suggestions have worked in tests.

Repetition: His copyrighted TD Sequential method appears in both his books and in Futures Magazine as well. Other methods cited in this book are found in recent Futures articles as well.

Annoying Egoism: I remember who developed the ideas, without preceding each name with "TD."

What a bunch of dribble! I have never read a book about technical analysis that contains so many words and so little useful information. I have read several chapters over and over, thinking I must be missing something, and I still don't get it. I want my money back.

This book offers a tremendous amount of information on market timing indicators with leading/predicative value as opposed to trend-following/lagging indicators. The detailed explanation of Sequential and his new indicator Combo are outstanding. Quite frankly, this book contains more ideas than I could digest the first time through, but it will be well worth the additional study. The book does review some topics from the author's previous book, but includes valuable new information on previously disclosed methods and a significant number of new methods. The only shortcoming of this book is that the author developed his methods prior to computing and his understanding of many market relationships is expressed somewhat qualitatively. Simply meaning he describes many of the indicators in words rather than equations. I would have preferred a more mathematical presentation, but that's probably because I'm an engineer. In total, the book is an excellent contribution to technical analysis. Most of the ideas presented are truly unique and not derivatives of widely used methods. The book does refer to frequently to software packages which are available containing the author's indicators. Unfortunately, this software is not included with the book, but I was able to construct almost all the indicators presented in Metastock without unreasonable difficulty.

Many years ago I resigned myself to the fact that trading is not only a serious business but also a lifestyle. I sought out and read most of the crdible books written on this subject. My detemination and bottom line evaluation is that if one is truly interested in becoming a first class researcher and trader, it is imperative that he equip himself with the best tools of the trade. This book is far superior to all others. Sure it's difficult reading and the author's staccato writing style leaves much to be desired. But the message is there to be gleaned from all the prose. Trading is serious work and being successful is not a turn-key operation. Prepare to be challenged but the fruits pof your labor, after having read this book, are enormous. I recommend this book, as well as his previous book, to all who want to learn the intricacies of the market and trading.

I just purchased this book as a Thanksgiving gift to myself. It was recommended reading for my MTA examination and it was recommended strongly by the head trader at Goldman as well as the head technician for Morgan Stanley. Although it is difficult to grasp all the information on a first time read, my second pass has given me a deeper understanding and appreciation for the research the author has conducted. It's not intended to be s ubstitute for my decision making, rather it is a complement and if I may say so myself, it is a ingenious perspective and definitely original. It's enabled me to perfect my trading style of selling strength and buying weakness. I can tell why the author has worked with the best minds and most successful traders in the investment industry.

There are both good and bad things about DeMark's book.

Good - two chapters on Sequential and Combo. It is the most detailed examination of the various contingencies one finds himself in when applying these indicators. The text is sometimes copy/paste identical - but that's partly because the indicators are similar.

DeMark took a very intuitive, but confusing notion of trend exhaustion and designed two systems around it - built primarily on the time aspect of trading.

I also find DeMark pivots useful in combination with other indicators.

Bad - droning monothone of the presentation. The two "good" chapters, for example, would have benefited greatly from a flow-chart presentation of the indicators.

Bad - excessive self-aggrandizement and trade-marking of things known long before him. Retracements - both relative and absolute - go back to at least 1920's. Similar for TD Lines, TD Channel I-II and, let us not forget, TD Wave...

I guess, I wouldn't mind if he were to simply explain why 1/4 of a Fib. retracement makes a good daily channel (because it's so darn close to a round number of 5%) - it's the endless TD'ing of everthing in sight that is objectionable.

If you are just beginning trading, I cannot recommend this book. Tom has pretty good ideas on his books, and this one is no exception! The thing is, this book won't be easy to grasp if you still don't have the basic know how about this business.

Tom explains a lot of indicators (how they are calculated and variations about the way you can use them) on this book, including his own - If you use Tradestation, you'll love using his indicators on a backtest of your favorite markets - but won't teach you how to build a trading plan. But there other books for that chapter!

He also doesn't write in the most clearer of ways - sometimes you'll find yourself rereading several paragraphs back to completely understand some concepts. All in all I consider this to be a valuable book to add to your library with fresh and innovative ideas on some old concepts.