Street Smarts: High Probability Short-Term Trading Strategies [Hardcover]

Linda Bradford Raschke (Author), Laurence A. Connors (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0965046109 | ISBN-13: 978-0965046107 | Publication Date: January 1, 1996 | Edition: 1

Published in 1996 and written by Larry Connors and "New Market Wizard" Linda Raschke. This 245 page manual is considered by many to be one of the best books written on trading futures. Twenty-five years of combined trading experience is divulged as you will learn 20 of their best strategies.

Among the methods you will be taught are:

* Swing Trading - The backbone of Linda's success. Not only will you learn exactly how to swing trade, you will also learn specific advanced techniques never before made public!
* News - Among the strategies revealed is an intra-day news strategy they use to exploit the herd when the 8:30am economic reports are released. This strategy will be especially appreciated by bond traders and currency traders.
* Pattern Recognition - You will learn some of the best short-term set-up patterns available. Larry and Linda will also teach you how they combine these patterns with other strategies to identify explosive moves.
* ADX - In our opinion, ADX is one of the most powerful and misunderstood indicators available to traders. Now, for the first time, they reveal a handful of short-term trading strategies they use in conjunction with this terrific indicator.
* Volatility - You will learn how to identify markets that are about to explode and how to trade these exciting situations.
* Also, included are chapters on trading volatility, trading Crabel, trading the smart money index, trading gap reversals, a special chapter on professional money management, and many other trading strategies!

Editorial Reviews

Review

* * * * (out of 4 stars) ... excellent!, Commodity Traders Consumer Report, March 1996 -- Commodity Traders Consumer Report, March 1996

Product Details

• Hardcover: 238 pages
• Publisher: M. Gordon Publishing Group; 1 edition (January 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0965046109
• ISBN-13: 978-0965046107
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #36,275 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 84 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good source of ideas that need filtering, August 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Street Smarts: High Probability Short-Term Trading Strategies (Hardcover)

Street Smarts is one of the better trading books out there. However, as another reviewer rightly bemoans, the explanations are too short. The main problem with a lot of these patterns is that most require a heavy amount of filtering. The Turtle Soup strategy will kill you in a trending market, it needs filtering even in non-trending markets. It seems to have some promise in a high ADX environment only when used as a continuation signal and not a reversal. I tried it on the 5 minute S&P's. Trust me, I had to do a lot to make this pattern work. So much that I discarded the idea of using it. Also beware, some time frames are very bad for the anti technique. I know this is not how it is supposed to work, but from what I have seen there are certain intraday timeframes in the S&P which are just horrible for technical indicators. Play around, you'll see. The range contraction patterns have promise, however the authors neglect to tell you that most should be traded in the direction of the trend. I like the statistical studies in the back of the book. LBR is not a mechanical trader, she has mechanical patterns but she decides when to implement them. Do not trade these patterns mechanically unless you want to get ripped to shreds. Hence I refer back to what I have said from the start, the patterns in this book need much filtering!

146 of 156 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Overpriced to impress beginners, August 24, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Street Smarts: High Probability Short-Term Trading Strategies (Hardcover)

This ridiculously expensive book (booklet?), mostly outdated and primitive-looking charts with oversized text and plenty of useless appendices to fill more pages contains a collection of multi-day (aka "swing" trading) entry and exit recipes that are claimed by the authors to work well not only with futures --as most charts in the book are from futures-- but intraday and with stocks. You can find formulaic trading recipes and advice like this here and there and in other books without having to pay [item price]. When you learn how to trade, you will find that no one needs any magical recipes to go in or out of trades and that in the end anything works as well as anything else if you know how to do it appropriately. But if they told you this, you wouldn't buy the book. Each chapter contains a small description of a trading recipe and a set of ilustrations of the recipe, each one filling a whole page with three sentences and a chart that looks like it was taken from a snapshot of a computer screen in the early 1980's. Then, at the end of the charts sections, there are a few comments in dialog form.
Linda Raschke's comments on some of the magic formulas are more interesting and more believable than Connors'. She claims to be a daily scalper in the futures markets. Some of the materials in her old Web site were interesting too, though she seems to be spending a lot of time working the trading fair educational circuit. Is she making a great deal of money trading all of these finger-counting strategies, entering after 20 bars here and there and puting a stop just above yesterday's high when the ADX is under 20% and the S&P are in an inside day combining historical volatility with Tony Crabel's NR7, etc, etc, or does she need to supplement her income teaching seminars for $1500 an evening? As for the other author, the real "advanced" strategy Larry Connors knows well is how to make money out of the miriads of hopeful wannabes that overpay for his expensive books and for his TradingMarkets.com web site, which costs more than a thousand dollars per year and is just a hook to get the members to buy more overpriced "trading services", $5,000.00 tutorials, "ultimate" courses, fantastic techniques, videotapes, etc., etc. Just think of this before you dish out your money to this guy: if he knew any "advanced" trading strategies to make real money he wouldn't be peddling his overpriced merchandise for a living. Wouldn't it be nicer to live as a rich trader, trading from your yatch your great advanced strategies for millions, instead of busting your rear running a Web site in downtown LA to trap yet another fool who thinks that perhaps this new advisory service will "make him" money? Let Connors first show that he can make millions trading before he calls his strategies "advanced". Obviously, they are just not advanced enough to make him rich --though he will be soon, if you pay him [item price] for this mostly charts collection of unfocused advice. If you still feel you have to learn the basics from the popular self-appointed "gurus", do it at least with a minimal expense.

103 of 111 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved the book. Recommend it for serious traders, February 25, 2000

By 

T. Villarubia (California USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Street Smarts: High Probability Short-Term Trading Strategies (Hardcover)

First of all let me state that you must already have a certain concept of trading and trading terminology to benefit from this book. You must also understand and believe the importance of chart reading as a trader to fully understand what the authors are saying. I believe some of the negativity written about this books is because the readers didnt understand trading concepts as applied to chart reading or disregard chart reading altogether as a valid tool to trading.

With this said, I have to say that the book was beneficial for me as a short term trader. It helped me find patterns that I would've otherwise overlooked before reading this book. Let me also add that the turtle soup and turtle soup plus one does not really apply 100%, per say, to the fast momentum stocks I screen for. However, reading those strategies helped fine tune my entry and exit strategies when I enter a trade. It did so by helping me look for intraday swings and the probabilities of possible price action for next day trading based on what happened to the price at the close. If anything, the book helped me alot because it opened my mind to other trading possibilities and thus form ideas for myself.

Like another reader said, the authors are not mechanical traders. Thus these patterns and strategies should not be taken mechanically. Instead one should trade cautiously using discretionary stops. The book will only teach you about patterns in the market that have a high probable outcome. It's up to the individual to trade the patterns and use protective stops in the case the anticipated move goes wrong.