Customer Reviews

Street Smarts: High Probability Short-Term Trading Strategies

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

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!

This ridiculously expensive book (booklet?), mostly outdated and primitive-looking charts with oversized text and plenty of useless appendices to fill more pages contains a collection of multi-day (aka "swing" trading)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.

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.

I read the book and basically confirmed some of the patterns that I've been trading for years. Everyone has it's own name for the setups, but regardless of the name, the patterns describe in the book, do work!

Everyone has their own twist to these patterns. I notice one reviewer had mentioned that he profited on the exact opposite strategy that the book had described. Selling new lows and buying new highs. Personally I think this is more dangerous than the strategy in the book(Buying new lows and Selling new highs). That is what swing trading is about. I do the same exact strategy as they mention in the book, and make money from it frequently. But I am also aware of the fact, that new lows/highs are set for strong fundamental reasons, so instead of using regular stops, I use Stop and Reversal(SAR)type orders. These order give me the best of both worlds. If my estimate is correct, I get an early fill as the market decelerates in one direction and accelerates in the opposite. If the trend continues, my SAR order gets me out, and fills me in the direction of the momentum. Price, Momentum, Time and Volatiliy and how you react to them, is the key to swing trading.

It's not set in stone that these patterns work everytime, but as the title mentions, it's the probabilities of the markets reaction when these patterns form. Like any other method in trading, nothing works everytime, but as years go by, you find out what works best for your trading style and what doesn't. This book didn't teach me anything that I already have found out through experience, but for traders interested in swing trading, it's a fantastic starter book and worth the investment if purchased. It excerises the mind's of traders on how to anticipate the market, thereby always thinking one step ahead of it. And when your anticipation is wrong, get out!

One other important factor. Rashke was a former successful floor trader and Connors was a hedge fund manager. These people know how to trade professionally. They know how other floor traders trade on the floor, and how institutional giants such as ADM,Refco and Rosenthal Collins play their cards and make money. In other words, their livelyhood depended on their attention to detail in the area of trading. They aren't like most us that trade, that have a job to fall back on. This is their job and main source of income! My point is, don't just learn their techniques,setups and strategies, but more importantly, learn their mindset, and what they do when the market moves in favor or against them. Determine how they react to such conditions and take notes! Through time and experience, you'll soon notice that you will be able to react with percision and timing as these professionals do, without doubt but with full confidence!

Six years ago I decided that I wanted to get into the listed derivatives field and have since that time devoured a great many trading texts whilst at the same time being employed in the industry. One of the great difficulties faced by the trader looking to build on his/her knowledge base is the glut of books in recent years and therefore which to choose. However, having built up a quite considerable library, this is the book that I place above all others. Until reading Street Smarts I was a breakout follower, familiar with all the standard charting patterns but relatively unfamiliar with the concept of swing trading. The benefits are twofold in that stops become tighter and secondly profitable trades become more so than previously because they are entered into earlier. Linda is one of the most successful independent traders in the US and fortunately fothtcoming with practical trading strategies, something that is hard to glean from the other 'market wizards.' It's an excellent education for a comparatively small cost.

In my daily work as a Stock Broker in Sweden I encounter questions about good trading books all the time. Customers feel that most trading books are quite expensive, and a good way to avoid overpriced, worthless items is by asking an experienced professional.

While I truly do not feel that the mystery of the markets can be revealed in a book, I can honestly say that this book is well worth its price. Above all, it gives the open-minded reader insights in highly effective approaches, concepts of trading which I have used successfully for many years. In fact, strikingly similar methods to the methods in this book have been "discovered" and used by investors, brokers, and traders that I know, even before this book was published. In my mind, this is another good indication that many of the patterns presented are valid in real-life trading.

While I do not use the patterns in this book in the exact same manner as they are presented, the concepts and the insights are the same. Time spent studying these concepts will be time well spent. I consider Street Smarts to be among the best trading books I've read, and I certainly feel that it is the best book out there concerning Swing Trading. It contains no hype, just precise and sound swing trading techniques. I recommend it highly to all market participants, novices and professionals alike.

Some of the other books that I consider to be among the best are:

Market Wizards 1 & 2, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, Trading Systems and Methods, How to make money in Stocks, Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets, Investment Secrets of a Hedge Fund Manager, Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques, Secrets of Profiting in Bull and Bear Markets, Technical Analysis of Stock Trends, Trading by the Book, Exceptional Trading.

Of the hundreds of trading books I have in my personal library and the thousands which I have access to in my professional life, Street Smarts still remains a personal favourite.

I rank it as one of the 5 best books on trading I have ever read...

I have read a number of the other reviews and like to add my thoughts.

First of all the book at full price is a very expensive, but if you look around long enough you can pick one up at a considerable discount either here at Amazon or Half.com/Ebay.

Second, I feel this book is not for beginners.
The strategies described in the book and the patterns offered as examples are in their purest form. If you don't take other market conditions into consideration, i.e. trending vs. range bound or are aware where support/resistance lies and volume, then these patterns could betray you. One example is the Turtle Soup and Turtle Soup Plus work best on low volume breakouts and markets in a trading range.

You also have be familiar with and market indicators such as ROC and RSI to name a few. I would recommend you first read a book on technical analysis which discusses these indicators. If I may suggest, Trading for a Living: Psychology, Trading Tactics, Money Management by Alexander Elder, I found to be veery usefull.
Additionally you will need to be using charting software that is customizable to the specs given in the book.

Having said that I will say that I do think this is a very well written book. The wording is easy to read which makes for fast learning. The experienced trader can incorporate these strategies with his/her existing ones to increase his/her success. The book kept my interest.

I recommend this book to traders already familiar with technical indicators, has good discipline and risk management skills.

I want to start out by saying I have read lots of trading books and I am a full time commodity trader. So when I bought this book years ago I was interested in running some tests on the computer in order to really tell if the systems, there are aproximately 10 - 12, recomended in this book were profitable or not. Most of the systems in this book are tough to trade without a computer. I actually paid for the systems in the book and ran tests through my trading software and found out they were indeed profitable. But the average profits were very small, from what I remember under $100 a trade.Also they were just around 50% accurate. Most people have a hard time trading something that will only make money 50% of the time. I know I do. But the real kicker is the low profits. Trading for less then $100 is not what I would call worth risking my money for. If you are hoping to find some good trading systems in this book to use you now know what to expect. You might be able to get some ideas from this book to use in some other systems, I don't know. I personally didn't find it very useful. I also didn't like that there were no published tests in the book to show whether or not the systems in the book were profitable, kind of buyer beware. Before doing any trading you have to know whether or not your system is going to make money otherwise it is just a shot in the dark and that is not what trading is about. I don't know whether the other reviewers actually spent money running tests on the systems in this book or not. All I know is that I did and can only make a judgement by what the computer told me. I am only writing this to be of benefit to others who like me are wanting to find value in what they read. There are much better books out there in my opinion that will help traders a lot more for a lot less money. Linda Raschke is a supertrader and definitely knows what she is doing. But I think the general population would have a hard time making profits from this book. Go to Linda Raschke's website and take a look at the books she recommends before you buy this one, I think you will find it interesting. My advice, keep looking because if I had of known then what I know now I would not have bought this book.

I began trading futures at the advent of the internet in the household back in 96. Charts and real time feeds were virtually unavailable except for the brokerage houses willing to pay the expense. I relied on my broker, a fax machine to get the charts, and voice mail to follow the real time price quotes.

I wish I would have known about Linda's book from the start and about 7 years later now that real time charts are right at our finger tips and inexpensive. I then could have made my own decisions rather relying on others. Word of advice here - don't ever rely on your brokers to know better than you.

Although this book written some years ago may seem outdated, it still follows the true elementary path of technical trading, is easy to understand, and involves probably the slightest risk possible. I read at least 30 books on this subject, (including Larry Williams, Jake Bernstein and Jack Schwager, (who are very dry and hard to follow) and Ken "what's his name" requiring you to enter these contracts for several months. What trader could do that without several hundred thousand dollars of capital?

So trust me when I say, although seemingly overpriced, the book is immeasurable in education as well as exciting and fun. Linda encorporates a lot of the ideas of others (giving them full credit) but gives it her own personal flair.

Swing trades are the way to go with the least risk and least capital AND without keeping your nose on the computer all day. This is the first book any wanna be trader should read before setting up an account and trying it for real. I'd also recommend finding a broker who endorses her style.

The authors of Street smarts may be expert traders and must be excellent in the art of making money ( you can tell from the price of the book!), but are hopelessly choppy teachers. Either they have not re-read what they have written, or they truly do not want to disclose their secrets in a step-by-step way. The looks of the book are as if everything is explained step-by-step. There are great diagrams and the steps are numbered 1,2,3 etc. But there are such big gaps in their explanations. In every single method they have written, the explanations are so ridiculously brief and so hopelessly inadequate that it is bound to leave a reader very frustrated and angry for spending such a lot of money on such a choppy book.