The StockTwits Edge: 40 Actionable Trade Set-Ups from Real Market Pros (Wiley Trading) [Hardcover]

Howard Lindzon (Editor), Philip Pearlman (Editor), Ivaylo Ivanhoff (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 5, 2011 | Series: Wiley Trading (Book 510)

Profitable trade set-ups from StockTwits leading traders

One of the biggest secrets on Wall Street is that to become consistently profitable, you need to specialize in a distinct setup. That is, you need to know how to read the signals that can help you identify an opportunity to buy or sell. In The StockTwits Edge: 40 Actionable Trade Setups from Real Market Pros, both well-known professional masters of the market and lesser-known individual traders describe their highest probability setups to teach you about an assortment of time frame and asset class-related market methods along the way.

Drawing on the wisdom of some of the top minds at StockTwits, the leading stock market social networking site, this book has something for everyone, giving you exactly what you need to come up with profitable ideas and avoid financial risk, every day.

• Includes key trading insights from the experts at StockTwits
• Explains which factors of a setup are important, and why

While there are many factors involved in successful trading and investing, the ability to identify profitable situations is paramount, and The StockTwits Edge gives you everything you need to achieve that goal.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

The Internet as we know it has changed many things for stocks, markets, and finance in general. The "social web" and advances in technology have helped create tools and platforms that are empowering traders and investors, and allowing them to capture consistent profits along the way.

StockTwits® has emerged as the leading stock market social network, providing individuals with a vehicle to exchange ideas and receive real-time market insights. Made up of over 100,000 people from all corners of the world, trading thousands of instruments, StockTwits is all about crowdsourcing the best ideas and talent, and that's exactly what you'll find here in this new book.

Created by StockTwits cofounder and CEO Howard Lindzon and his colleagues Philip Pearlman and Ivaylo Ivanhoff, this unique guide is comprised of over forty contributed chapters from both well-known professional traders and individual traders who have attracted a following on StockTwits. While some of the people you'll meet have been trading for years, others have been in the business for just a short time—but each has an amazing focus and belief that if you can master one thing well in the markets you can succeed.

In The StockTwits Edge, each trader and investor presents his/her favorite setup in detail, highlighting

the underlying psychology and real examples for better understanding of the rationale behind each step, including risk management. You will learn how to use their approach to find new ideas yourself.

Divided into seven comprehensive parts, this reliable resource covers a wide range of topics that can help improve your trading endeavors, such as:

• Trend following

• Value investing

• Day trading

• Swing trading

• Options trading

• Forex trading

• The art of trading

Whether you trade every day or every so often, the ideas found here can help you make the most of your time in today's markets. Armed with each contributor's favorite setup, you can excel on your own or visit the StockTwits website and gain real-time insights into leveraging the wealth of information contained within these pages.

From the Back Cover

Praise for The StockTwits Edge: 40 Actionable Trade Set-Ups from Real Market Pros

"Howard Lindzon has tapped into a unique talent pool: He has 'crowd-sourced' the task of figuring out who the up and coming traders and fund managers are via social media. Unearthing the next Stevie Cohen via social leverage is a fascinating concept. Kudos to Lindzon for figuring this out long before most of Wall Street even knew what the hell Twitter was."
—Barry Ritholtz, President of Fusion IQ, author, Bailout Nation

"The perfect book for traders, whether new or existing. It is fast, fun, and smart; with something for anyone who wants to understand how their trading peers can help them secure their financial future."
—Paul Kedrosky, Entrepreneur, editor, Infectious Greed

"I affectionately regard my friend Howard Lindzon as the Larry King of social media. He and his talented team at StockTwits created an online Grand Central Station for active traders. This book showcases some of the many talented traders you will find on the 'stream' daily. For those interested in learning a variety of ideas on how to trade stocks, The StockTwits Edge is a great resource."
—Mark Minervini, Stock Market Wizard, 1997 U.S. Investing Champion

"I wake up, I have coffee, I exercise, I read, I write, I go on StockTwits to get stock ideas, I then make money with them. I eat. I sleep. Repeat."
—James Altucher

"StockTwits is a truly unique community where thoughts, opinions, and ideas on economics, finance, and trading are shared, debated, and sometimes even agreed upon. Its users are passionate about their involvement and this real-time conversation is built on the simple idea that markets are a social eco-system—an ever-changing wealth of information. The StockTwits Edge exemplifies this collective passion and breadth of knowledge."
—Allan Schoenberg, Director, Corporate Communications, CME Group

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 341 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (July 5, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1118029054
• ISBN-13: 978-1118029053
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 1.1 x 10.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #768,965 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

84 of 88 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Shameful! What have you contributed to your readers? September 25, 2011

By The Duke

Format:Hardcover

This book was incredibly disappointing. The book promises to teach you 40 actionable trading setups that you can use. The editors of this book (the book is compiled by editors from the writings of many authors/traders) start each section by praising the trader who is supposedly going to teach you the trade setup and then that trader starts to talk about himself and his experiences as a trader, if that trader has a company, he throws in a plug for it in the same section. The trader then talks to you about a couple of trades that he has made in the past using his set up. But what is his setup?? You will find yourself asking this question over and over again. One of my favorites is a guy called Michael Bigger who talks about value investing and gives examples of companies he bought and made money selling but never gives you any setups?? He never shares any debt to equity ratios, percentages of earnings growth that he looks for, or any "accounting homework" that he does prior to buying a stock. He shares NOTHING! Another time waster is Eddy Elfenbein who absolutely shares nothing!!!!! And the day traders and swing traders are just as bad. So many of them have basically shared the same thing. Consolidation breakouts, moving averages, RSI, MACD, wedges, and my favorite, nothing! The generic setups that maybe found here are half-assed you can't really use them. They haven't provided enough information to you so that you may use them. Remember they didn't share their edge. They just gave you the generic part. The book has probably about three setups that were useful and the authors behind them were sincere in sharing and were not trying to hide their edge. People like John Lee are traders I respect.... Furthermore, please be careful when you read the five star reviews of this book; one of the reviewers is actually non other than the editor himself! (you can check for yourself). With the large number of authors for this book it's hard to tell who some of these reviewers are. It's a shame but this book only serves the editors; it provides them with a platform to stroke the egos of traders who contribute to their website. The editors get to make money publishing what the traders share without them having to do much work! too bad in the process of self service the "value" to the reader is lost. Read more ›

41 of 47 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Hold on a second. July 6, 2011

By protrader

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I was really looking forward to this book coming out. I preordered it and even got a bit elated when Amazon said it was going to show up 2 days before the original ship date.

The book was a very easy read, I think I was finished it in an evening or so. I liked how the book gave a nice back story to each of the traders it showcased. The problem I had was the biography was as long or longer the trade setups. The only real actionable trade setups were from @superbee and @upsidetrader. The rest were less than actionable.

If your looking for a book to help you learn a trading style. DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK. If you looking for something fun to read and want to lean bits and pieces of other trading styles well then buy a used copy.

Being a professional trader for over 10 years, I found every little "Edge" in owning this book.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Great Idea but content is crap October 26, 2011

By bus books

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I jumped at the idea to read about other traders and their styles. I thought this would be like the series where they interview hedge fund guys but only these are real people. Well they interview them but each chapter doesn't follow any structure. And some of them are down right short. You can barely gain any additional information from readying this book. The best chapter is stockbee who I now regularly follow. Buy this thing used or get it at the library.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars The Stock Twits Edge - Only for Twits December 12, 2011

By Raymond

Format:Hardcover

I use an aggressive variant of CANSLIM and I am open to learning something new, honing my edge. I bought this book with the expectation of learning something.

This book is awful and does not deliver on its claim of actionable trade set ups.
1 - too much useless prose, mostly sly social marketing
2 - standard set ups rehashed by every scammer on the web
3 - no declaration on when they work and do not work - think market alignment and risk management
4 - little help in pre-trade prep, in trade monitoring and post trade analysis - this is critical, especially for the newbies.
I bought this book with positive expectations, almost threw it in the trash, returned it got my money back.

A better bet is James Altucher's Trade like a hedge fund. The set ups in that book are presented with more clarity and completeness. It too lacks in the area of market alignment and risk management, but its a better book than this piece of marketing garbage.

Read James' book along with William O'Neil's works and Dr Chris Kacher's work, develop a written trade plan of your own that you understand completely and keep looking to refine that plan. Keep a strict stop loss on BS like this book, don't give up and don't get suckered.

Raymond

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars it's a lie May 28, 2012

By Kerry T. Lynn

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

its title says 40 actionable setups, there are possibly three or four. if you enjoy about reading boring biographies, this is the book for you, i dont give a twidlly where these people hail from.
i want 40 actionable setups. it's a shame we can't jail people.
the title is a lie, the book is terrible.

15 of 21 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Book Review from the Aleph Blog July 15, 2011

By David Merkel

Format:Hardcover

This is an unusual book. Like most books that involve the internet, the pace of change is so rapid that it will probably not be valuable two years from now. But in the short run there can be benefit.

The book is 46 essays from people who are engaged to some degree in using StockTwits, a popular internet site where traders and investors exchange thoughts about investments. The internet encourages fast exchanges of data -- after all, it is called StockTwits because of Twitter, not because they are fools (Twits). There's another investing site for Fools, Motley as it is, and it has its own charm.

But speed in gathering information on investing is more suited to trading than investing, and so it should be no surprise that the book is 90% geared to trading, and 10% to fundamental investing.

Thus the book has the most value for those who want to learn to trade better -- there are 42 traders giving their opinions on how to trade. But the average chapter is only 8 pages long, so all you get of any trader is a taste of what they do.

My advice would be to read the book, scan for the traders/investors that fit you personality well, and talk with them at their websites to get a fuller picture of what they do. (My favorites were Eddy Elfenbein and Todd Sullivan.)

Quibbles

Personally, I would have done a book with fewer participants and longer chapters. I also would have included more about how StockTwits itself improves investing. Finally, I would have had that great internet finance curator, Tadas Viskanta write the last chapter. It would have really added to the book.

Who would benefit from this book:

Traders looking for a taste of the strategies of others would benefit from this book.... Fundamental investors will find this to be thin gruel. Read more ›