Customer Reviews

Technical Analysis: The Complete Resource for Financial Market Technicians

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Charles Kirkpatrick II, CMT, and Julie Dahlquist, Ph.D., the authors, have decades of experience in using and/or teaching technical analysis on the college level. Their subject mastery is apparent in this well-written all-inclusive textbook , which is clearly and logically written. Each chapter builds on the knowledge learned in prior chapters. In addition, there is an extensive 18-page bibliography.

This 672-page 23-chapter book is written in a college textbook style. For example, each chapter begins with a handful of objectives, followed by the subject matter including large easy-to-read charts and tables (many created using TradeStation charts and data from Ned Davis Research, Inc.), and ends with a conclusion section, as well as review questions.

In the introduction to the subject, the authors review the history of technical analysis, as well as the importance of trends, and the controversy surrounding the validity of the random walk hypothesis and the efficient market hypothesis. Next, the focus is on market indicators (Dow theory, market sentiment, market breadth indicators (ARMS Index, 90% down days, new highs and new lows, and percent of stocks above their 10 and 30 dmas), cycles and patterns, and fund flows into the market. Also reviewed are breakouts, stop placements, retracements, and moving averages.

There is an extensive review of chart construction, chart pattern analysis and trend confirmation using bar charts, candlesticks, and point-and-figure charts. Also covered is a discussion on cycles, Elliott wave, Fibonacci and Gann. Furthermore, there is a discussion of trading and investing and market and issue selection. A chapter on system design and testing, and money and risk management provides additional insight into the subject.

The knowledge imparted by this book can benefit financial professionals, individual investors, college students; financial journalists who want to learn the key concepts of technical analysis, and other interested parties. In addition, this book can also be used as a study guide for the Certified Market Technician (CMT) designation.

This book is substantial in content and a welcome addition to the field. Those wishing to increase their technical analysis knowledge even further, can read books by John Murphy, Greg Morris, Thomas Dorsey, Martin Pring, Steve Nison, and of course the joint work of Robert Edwards and John Magee.

Technical Analysis by Kirkpatrick and Dahlquist has raised the bar and set the standard for TA books. It's far more advanced than Murphy's Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets, and a much easier read, as well as more scientific, than Pring's Technical Analysis Explained.

It consists of 629 pages loaded - I'm talking small type - with brilliant insights on stock analysis and market analysis. The book serves as a guide, a text book on TA, and a myth buster of some of the "pie in the sky" vodoo that tends to distort the image of TA. It tells you - with statistics and scientific research - what's effective, what was never effective and what used to be effective. After already having read several investment books on TA and fundamental analyis and having went to B-School, I still learned both fundamental things and TA things from this book.

This is by far the best book I have read on technical analysis. It is a complete guide to all the different aspects of T/A. The best part of the book and the reason it I give it 5 stars, is the fact that the author has tested all of the indicators himself (and his team), and if he hasn't tested them personally, he list someone who has. He provides you with the success/failure rate of different indicators, what % of the time the stock will rise after say a declining wedge, and how often contrarian trading works to your advantage.

If you have not read a book on T/A before, I would recommend reading something like Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets. I think you will get more out of the book if you already have a good knowledge base built up before hand.

If you don't know the field and want an overview this textbook is very good. You get the overview, but that is all. You have to do with very basic fundamental description. You don't get any information about the usefulness of each approach. So don't expect to use this book directly for trading. It will however direct your search for further information, even though I would have appreciated a "further readings" section in each chapter. If you already know the field, the book is still okay. Since it covers all areas of technical analysis it can be good to see what you have missed.

I give it only four stars for two reasons. First, I don't think it is essential to have a textbook at all. I prefer to go to the source material. Second, the authors use data from Ned Davis Research for some chapters. This is all interesting, but that data is only available for institutional investors so it does leave the independent investor/trader a bit in the dark.

I have written several short reviews on trading books. The best way is to compare the score on the books I've read. Many reviews on amazon.com are just glorious 5 star reviews. I use all five categories; sorry but everything isn't "great". Books rated 5 are very good. Books rated 4 are good solid books well worth reading. Books rated 3 can be bought by some people who read a lot or have very specific needs. Books rated 1 or 2 I would not recommend buying or reading. Naturally all in my humble opinion.

This will be a short review. If you have any desire to learn more about Technical Analysis, every aspect, from zero level to advanced. This is the only book you need. I trade actively and this book is always within reach. 95% of all financial investment books are crap, picking your pocket, this book is worth the price. We refer to it as the bible in my trading firm. Fear not.

I am a 30 year "buy and hold" sytle investor who is entering the world of short term trading. This is the third book I've read on technical analysis, and the best. This book provides an easy to understand overview of most technical analysis techniques. It took me about 4 months (at about an hour per day) to read the book. This included a significant amount of time spent comparing the information in the book to other popular sources of technical trading information and reviewing some of the references provided in the book.

While this is an excellent book, it does have several deficiencies, some probably related to the fact that it was written as a college textbook. First, it has some complex charts that are not well explained. Including an explanation with each chart, as is done in Edwards and Magee, would have been helpful. Second, for many technical analysis techniques, they provide information on the success rate of the technique. For other techniques, they don't. It would be valuable to get their opinion on the value of every technique discussed. Third, they don't provide data sources for some the technical analysis techniques discussed. Some of the data sources they do provide are very expensive, or only available to institutional investors. Fourth, It would be nice to have access to the correct answers at the end of each chapter. For obvious reasons, they couldn't do this.

Despite some deficiencies, this is an excellent book for anyone wanting to learn the basic concepts of technical analysis. I hope you find this helpful.

The book covers all aspects of technical analysis in detail, and with helpful assessment of the various techniques to help the novice active investor/trader. It is a textbook yet it is written in easily understood language. It could be a resource for a beginner, yet a more advanced investor trader would find plenty of useful information.
I highly recommend it.

I read this because it was required reading for the CMT exam and I really wish I'd read it when I started trading a few years ago. It's easy to read and conveys a wealth of information that anyone who trades would find useful. The chapters on the TA controversy, charts, trends, MAs, and cycles are especially clear. Also valuable is that it's a serious book with none of the hype thrown in by authors of TA books who are really selling themselves. My only criticism is that the authors seem to believe they have to throw every technique and oscillator they've ever heard of into this book, regardless of whether they're of any value. But this allows the CMT people who prepare the exam to throw in questions on obscure topics as well.

The book is written in the style of a college-level textbook. The subtitle indicates the text is intended to be a "complete resource for financial market technicians." In general, the information presented is thorough and logically sequenced beginning with a narrative about the history and emergence of technical analysis. Kirkpatrick and Dahlquist are efficient writers, so the material is easily read with most concepts/indicators clearly and sufficiently described. The page layout is very good and this helps keep the reader focused throughout reading/study sessions.

I have two primary complaints. Though the printing is high-quality, the paper weight is very thin. It was surprising to leaf through a 672-page reference book and encounter pages that are so light-weight and insubstantial. In this respect, the book felt really cheap. I realize other readers, perhaps the majority, may not share my personal dislike for the thin paper. The biggest issue, and the one that prevents me from recommending this book, is the completely botched index. A book of this breadth requires a proper and robust index. The actual index is a token effort, surprisingly incomplete and inadequate for fully searching and finding convenient topical references. The publisher made a bad decision to cut the editing budget, choosing not to provide a detailed index suitable for a complete reference, library type of book. Before the next edition is published, hire a professional researcher/indexer to do the job right! Until then, the book is not worthy of the price and prospective readers may wish to consider alternate titles.

This is the most robust reference book about the technical analysis (TA) I have ever read. If you read it, you'll acquire the big picture of what TA is all about. Nothing is left over, except for the voo doo methods, like Gann analysis. The authors are reasoning in a logical way, and refer to external research results as much as possible, rather than just their own experience. The authors are not high about any method, like most of the other authors on the topic. They describe the bright and dark sides of every TA tool. A balanced and objective judgement makes you trust the authors. If you start in TA, it's the best book to get started - you'll get a realistic view of what TA is all about, without any bias towards any of the methods (well, maybe except for the long term chart patterns and Bollinger Bands?). If you're advanced, you'll get all your knowledge properly sorted and tested.