Customer Reviews

Swing Trading For Dummies

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I always thought "swing trading" referred to trading with a time horizon of a few days. This author, however, defines it as trading with a time horizon of a few days to a few weeks. So this book is geared to trades that could last a month or long--something I consider outside the realm of short term trading.

In any case, the book is split into five parts: Part 1 discusses the fundamental info (how markets work, what things to look for in a broker and deciding whether to trade using fundamental analysis or technical analysis). What I did appreciate in Part 1 is the author's focus on multi-asset classes and global stocks. Most short term trading books I've read seem to believe that only one asset class exists in the world: U.S. stocks. This one takes a different approach. The author stresses the importance of looking beyond the traditional pale of U.S. stocks and examines international stocks, commodities (via ETFs) and currencies. By expanding your investment universe, you're more likely to find securities with the right characteristics.

Part 2 has three chapters on technical analysis covering (1) charting, (2) indicators and (3) trading ranges or trends. Almost any technician knows how to interpret MACD or Stochastics, but how to use them properly is key. For example, the author stresses the importance of "only going on green". That is, we often find charts or indicators with buy signals but you can only buy the day a signal is actually given.

Part 3 is all about fundamental analysis. I don't use fundamentals that much in my trading so I read this part more with an eye to understand certain concepts. The discussion on debt and leverage was helpful given the current financial mess we're seeing. The author appears to have been right on his call that Marvel was highly leveraged and not worth swing trading on the long side.

Part 4 is perhaps the most important part of the book (and why was it put last?). It discusses risk control, developing a trading plan, using intraday charts and walking through an actual swing trade. By far, the most useful chapter was the managing risk chapter (10) because it covered position sizing, placement of stop loss orders and how to limit losses at the individual stock level and portfolio level. The last two concepts seem to be similar to Alexander Elder's "shark bite" and "piranha bite" concepts.

Part 5 is the "Parts of Tens" which is made up of two "top ten" chapters: Ten simple rules for swing trading and ten deadly sins of swing trading. If you've read Parts 1 through 4, you'll already have covered both top ten lists. The sins include things like starting with too little capital, gambling on earnings dates, trading penny stocks and violating your trading plan.

I was pleasantly surprised when I picked up this book at a bookstore. I normally have low expectations for Dummies titles. Let's be honest: you don't usually find gems among "Dummies" or "Idiot" books.

But I can state that Swing Trading for Dummies is my favorite book on short term trading. The book is the only one I've found which provides proper coverage on all aspects of trading--from designing a trading plan (part IV) to managing risk properly (chapter 10) to performing intermarket analysis (chapter 6). While most swing traders shy away from fundamental analysis, the book covered the essential items traders should understand in a company's financial statements and how to arrive at a ball park estimate for a company's shares in a few minutes.

The book has several charts to illustrate trading examples and stresses the importance of simplicity in designing a strong trading system. There was also good humor throughout which made the book an easy read.

The first 60 pages focus on the absolute basics of trading. After that the author gets into basic aspects of technical analysis and discusses indicators such as the accumukation boxes,trend lines etc. One take I have is that the book advocates the use of the ADX indicator to enter stocks and trade with the trend. My experience has shown that by the time the ADX moves above 30 especially in volatile markets the trend tends to be close to mature. I have read other books that advocate looking for low ADX and using other indicators to assess accumulation and then enter before the trend takes hold and this have been more effective for me. Also the use of DMI+ and DMI- to exit trades may not be the best way since these indicators tend to whipsaw and crossover multiple times in a short period.
The book spends many pages on fundamental analysis on how to evaluate company balance sheets etc. While this is good if you are an investor it can bring your swing trading into a halt. I cannot count how many times my losing swing trades were in fundamentally solid companies since there are many other factors involved such as naked shorting,long squeezes,a large fund wanting to exit that can drive a sound company's stock down.
On the other hand I do agree with the authors that you should trade stocks in technically strong sectors. In fact I have used this idea regularly with my trades before I read the book and recommend others use it . A recent examle is when CAB came out with good earnings I looked for other gun makers and traded SWHC for a good profit.
If you are a beginner, this book will introduce you to the necessities , but I would recommend you read other books to get different perspectives on the technical aspects of trading.

I purchased Swing Trading for Dummines ( along with Online Trading for Dummmies, Technical Analysis for Dummies and Market Timing for Dummies.) and I found this to be a great book that is very useful and informative and well fitted to my trading style. I'm a short term trader with little capitol avaiable to invest ( less than 1500 ) and this book has given me a solid foundation and taught me many things that I didn't know before.

My copy of this book is full of pages with folded over corners which I marked because they had especially useful and significant information. I found the sections on chart reading to be especially helpful, valuable and informative ( though the Technical Analysis for Dummies book covered chart reading in much more detail).

This is a PRACTICAL book that should be useful, informative and valuable for any beginning or intermediate short term investor.
Highly recommended.

I am surprised to find a Dummies book this good. Lots of Trading Gems in this book and it is well worth a read especially if you are a beginning trader. I find it better than Toni Turner, Alex Elder and similar books targeted to beginners.

I purchased this book at [...] in Adobe digital edition format after seeing that it had 10 reviews all five stars; however, after starting reading the very first chapter I thought the book wasn't that good, kept reading till chapter three, and decided to go back to amazon.com to check on why reviewers had been so generous with this title. I clicked on each reviewer listed below, and realized that all of them had only a single review: Swing Trading for Dummies. So, for me these reviewers are actually the writer or the editor because this is not a good book on swing trading. I was a dummy for believing that.

Reviewers with only one review (for this book) as of 20/10/2009:

I am not the most knowledgeable about trading but as a physician who prefers to manage his own money rather than have an advisor lose it for me, I picked up several trading books: among them, Swing Trading for Dummies. It was extremely helpful, the most concise, and the easiest to understand. Whatever trading jargon I didn't understand was followed up with well thought out explanations.

I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to understand swing trading better. Whether you are already knowledgeable in the field or just picking it up for the first time, this book will teach you a lot.

This was a very good book. I really expected a rubbish book when it was handed to me to review.

The actionable trade ideas work very well in a back tested setting and the real world. The authors use of the 4/9ma crossover is great trading tool for finding stocks starting a new uptrend. I prefer a 5/20ma cross but that is just me. Using a service like stockfetcher or telechart, you can input the different formulas the author suggests to find quality picks.

This book is worth reading.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank both, Mr. Bassal and Wiley, for this book. Without the benefit of Omar Bassal's wisdom and advice, people like myself, would be ships without ballasts, adrift in pirate-ridden international waters, vulnerable to every form of aggression! Trading is not my academic milieu - I'm a CPA. Somehow, somewhere along my life, I developed a keen interest in trading and began reading voraciously. The more knowledgeable I got, the bigger my fears grew, until I became so inhibited that I couldn't execute a "buy" or a "sell" without first second, third and fourth guessing myself. By then, the "bubble" would have burst, while I remained on the sidelines. I have bought charts, books, and software, newspaper and journal subscriptions. I have read and re-reread my many tomes, but nothing was able to boost my confidence, or provide me with the proper trigger, so as to be able to actually pull off a superb event. Mr. Bassal's book talked me down, gave me logical and scientific parameters to consider, chart patterns, fundamental and structural analyses, a set of "tells" to use, in order to enter or exit the market or expand or reduce my position according to the environment. There are other trainers too - but sooner or later their theories fall apart in the most embarrassing spectacle; but Omar Bassal's construct never fails to be of assistance. I am aware of the fact that it is not smart to say that I find only "........for Dummies" book enlightening. However, the truth is that the series would never have been wildly successful, had it not been for the truly educational value one gets from those books. And Omar Bassal? He is the best of the best!

Excellent publication, well written, easy to read and comprehend. As a swing trader it gave me the wear-with-all to undertake and understand swing trading.

Would recommend to anyone undertaking technical analysis and swing trading.