Customer Reviews

Tools and Tactics for the Master Day Trader: Battle-Tested Techniques for Day, Swing, and Position Traders

5 star:		(65)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(52)

 

 

The people who previously reviewed this new book by Oliver Velez and Greg Capra seem to have started in the middle of the book, looking only for The Holy Grail to lead them to immense profits heretofore undiscovered by anyone else. I found the real value in the first half of the book, which tries to show you why you haven't been a successful trader up to now and what to do about it. This is worth the price of the book in itself. They are teaching you how to fish, not giving you a fish, as the old saying goes. They should include a mirror with every copy, as I see myself in every page when they describe the mistakes made by beginning traders. I started trading commodities in 1989 and switched to stocks in 1998, so I have had the rare opportunity to make all the mistakes they describe and more. But the good news is...that's what makes you a success later on. Chapter 5, "The Seven Deadly Sins of Trading", doesn't just tell you the sins, but actually tells you how to eliminate them. This chapter alone is worth the price of the book to me.

I became profitable in 1998 and support my family totally from trading income, using many of the tools described in this book. I have tried many of the software "black box" programs out there, been to many seminars (some great ones, some worthless ones), bought many trading books, and it has all led me to where I am now. If I had let an unfavorable review like the ones here steer me away from a fantastic book like this one, I would not be trading today and making a living working for myself half a day and hiking, biking and skiing the other half. So what if they promote their own seminars, web pages, trading room, etc. in the book. Wade Cook and many others use their books as free advertising the same way...nobody is forced to buy the other products. We all have the ability to decide whether or not we will delve further into these products, don't we?

To be fair to the other reviewers, they may already be successful traders that don't need the advice in the first half of the book and were only looking for a book that would reveal a system or method to double their income in the next three months. All I can say is that I have been trading for eleven years and the book will probably double my income in the next six months even if I never read the second half. Buy it, read it and decide for yourself.

Overall the book is a great source of information for novice traders. The psychology related chapters are very important and essential for the survival of traders. The techniques are simple but have been around for many years, but nonetheless great tools for traders.

Now, let's comment on the very positive as well as very negative comments regarding the book. The negative comments appear to be from "well seasoned" traders with 10-20 yrs experience, that emphatically emphasize the phrase "I'm a succesful trader". Well, it is my experience that if you are really succesful then you would hardly gloat yourself on this attribute. Much less buy a trading book IF you are indeed a 10-20 yrs experienced trader! Now, that's hard to swallow. So, here's my grain of salt on these comments.

I'm very open to new ideas and this book will provide the novice trader with simple and effective ones. Now, let's make it clear! This book, in any WAY, SHAPE or FORM will make you a Mastertrader from day to night. This is a hard road my friends where 95% of people fail to finish! What this book gives you are bit and pieces of a never ending puzzle that must be assembled by YOU and only YOU.

My other comment is that most people fail to mention that 99.5% of the books out there about trading, DO NOT provide entry and exit strategies and simple trading strategies. This book does! There is a very fine line between technical analysis and trading. You can know everything about TA, but to put it to work on the trading arena is a VERY VERY different story.

I must add that I recently attended a seminar offered by Mr. Capra, and I have to say I was absolutely satisfied by the course material. I also realized that the book does not even scratch the surface regarding trading. As for the comment that I read on this site, that Velez and Capra do not trade, I have to say that this is simply without foundation, and at best a comment made out of bad faith. The two day seminar pretty much showed me what Capra knows, and let me tell you, he knows a lot. But what I saw was a whole bunch of ill-prepared and dreamers hoping to make big bucks from day to night on the world of trading during the seminar. I then soon realized that most of the bad comments might come from these individuals that failed in the trading arena after reading the book or attending a seminar.

I didn't read all of these reviews until I had bought and read the book. And it was quite by accident that I did read them. I was looking for other books like it. While a number of the critics said the book wasn't as good as others, oddly, one critic bashs the authors of this book then recommends Toni Turner's book for which one of these authors, Oliver Velez, wrote the introduction.

Here are some actual results of their system. I checked my last five days of trading and found my results gave me a 5.2% gain on three losses and three wins! This is the 50/50 deal that is dismissed by one of the critics who said their system produces.

Now I will take that sort of gain any time. If I could have that every week it would give me a 268% profit for the year! Not bad for a beginning.

I give you specific trades I made to produce these results. Check them for yourself.

The trades were made from January 23 to January 29,m 2004.

1-23-04 - Bot ANDW @ 16.763

- Shorted SNDK @ 60.58

1-26 - Sold ANDW @ 17.467 (loss .704)

- Covered SNDK @ 58.33 profit 2.25

1.27 - Shorted CYBX @ 32.40

- Covered FRNT @ 10.80 profit .851

- Covered CYBX @ 31.80 profit .60

1-28 - no activity

1-29 - Shorted ERTS @ 46.30

- Covered ERTS @ 47.16 (loss .86)

- Shorted RYL @ 75.01

- Covered RYL @ 75.85 (loss .84)

Results: (losses = 2.304), profits = 3.701; net gain 1.497 on total of 240.554 share prices of initial trades, for a net profit of 1.497, or 5.2% gain in five trading days.

(Note: This does not include the holdings still in the account at the end of the period, only the trades actually made in the period. The FRNT was shorted @ 11.751 on 1-20, but was not closed until the period of these trades. The account still held RYL shorted (again) on 1-29 @ 75.76 and DHI shorted at 27.40 on 1-29. RYL was up .26 at EOD and DHI was down (.34) at end of day.)

Don't overlook the fact that the market had two huge correction days during this period, January 27 and 28, when virtually all the indexes were down on heavy volume.

I also would like to unravel a bit of the negative comments that have been posted here. Many of them have to do with the seminars that these authors conduct. I have nothing to say about the seminars, having never attended one, nor having any intention of doing so.

The rest of the negative comments about the book seem to revolve around the fact that there is 'nothing new' in the book, that its concepts are old news. That seems more positive than negative. If they are old techniques then they are to be trusted more, for they work well enough to still be around. Yes, I too found them to be old, but I need constant reminding of the techniques.

I can't recall one negative comment that didn't have a good word about the psychology that the authors propound in the first half of the book. Well, to me, technique is about fifteen percent of a good trade and psychology as well as risk management are the other eighty-five percent that make the difference between winning and losing in the market. At least, that is true of me. I have usually lost trades because of one or the other of these two being out of kilter. So, for me, these two - psychology (mine as well as the other players in the market) and risk management - are the pivotal elements in making good trades.

One other observation. A number of the critics have aimed their charges at the character of the authors, and their hype of their seminars and other products. To me neither of these are relevant to the system presented in their book. Either it works or it doesn't. That is the key.

I have found many of the books about the market to hype other products their authors have for sale. In fact, the one guy I follow the most, William J. O'Neil, may be the greatest hyper of them all. He owns Investors' Business Daily. He sells his books in ads on about every other page in IBD, as well as his chart service, his seminars, e-subscriptions and other books and services. Still, it is hard to beat his CANSLIM system for trading.

This book has good stuff for those who are serious about trading. As one reviewer said, the material on entry and exit strategies are worth the price alone. And do not under-estimate the psychology these guys are selling. It is key!

I couldn't take it anymore. Every paragraph tells the reader that he must join the Pristine Chatroom. My questions to the authors is, "If your chatroom and stock picking services are so great, and you have a limit of 500 people in your chatroom, which has been established back in 1995, why do you only have 60 members in the chatroom? If your service was so good, I am sure there would have been a wait list to get in your chat room.

I saw one of the authors give a presentation in California last month. This is what he said, "I would rather see you lose all your money trading the Pristine way than make a million dollars trading the wrong way!" Needless to say, I was in shock.

This book is very well written and is full of good information, but I feel as if I am being taken in again by the "Pristine PR Machine". I hear Mr Valez touting that his personal portfolio is up over 700%, yet his daily newsletter throws out pick after pick, then they tout the one or two winners, ignoring the 99% that lose.

I hear Mr Valez talk about Rags to Riches in his struggle to the top, and being evicted 27 (thats twenty seven) times in his youth while trading. These are all great stories, and good on him for overcomming struggles, but I keep asking myself why should I follow someone who has bilked 27 homeowners out of hard earned cash. As a homeowner I dont take this lightly.

Am I being taken again with this book I keep asking myself? Is this another "Wade Cook" PR machine? Between the Newsletter track and evictions I think I will push the "pass" button. Take the information for what it is worth, but dont chase the hype.

Before I purchased this book I read the many reviews posted here on Amazon. I was curious to see such a wide and distinct difference of opinion. There were either five star raves or one star pans. How could there be such disparity? So, for all of you wondering the same thing, let me shed some light: This is an excellent book with great insight into trading techniques and the mental state of a master trader. Make no mistake about it -- this is one of the best books (if not THE best)I have read on the subject (and I have read many). So, what about all those pans? I can only draw one obvious conclussion: They must be failed Pristine students. It's the only thing that makes sense. In fact, you'll notice many of the pans sound similar. That's no coincidence, that's probably one disgruntled trader. Yes, these guys constanly flog their Pristine.com service, but who can blame them? They're smart businessmen. As a very successful trader I only have one complaint for Velez and Capra - Stop giving away our secrets!

Here's a heads up from someone who actually has taken the time to read the book and put money on the table to test its strategies in real-life trading situations (after I paper traded them, of course).

To avoid undue negative bias, I recommend not listening to the reviewer that "heard" that the authors don't trade (what a bunch of bologna)...and also try to ignore the guy that talks about the "performance" aspect (Pristine posts a trade once a week on their website...since I've been following it --quite a few months now-- the win/loss has about 50/50) -I guess the writer of that review hasn't realized that trading is a numbers game...it's not about being right more than you're wrong, it's about cutting losses short and letting profits run (the most profitable trader in the world was only right 42 percent of the time, and that was his best year). Finally, please try not to laugh when you read the review by the guy that only "skimmed through" the book at B&N...give me a break...maybe he ought to actually READ it before he bashes it.

Anyway, I think that this book is ideal for people who may just be entering the arena of trading. It cites some basic, yet proven, high-probability price pattern formations and some simple but effective technical indicators. I've personally traded the core tactics (the Key Buy/Sell setups) on many occasions and have made lots of money doing it. Part 1 has some useful info about the mental aspects of the game...of course, controlling your psyche is what it's all about when everything's said and done.

Bottom Line: Don't believe the negative hype... This book is well worth the 40 bucks.

Recently I had the opportunity to munexpectantly meet the author Velez and his staff including Capra at the Online Tradeshow after I had read their book. I am a second generation marketmaker and am very successful at daytrading. I must say that these people can sell to novice wannabe traders but would never be able to stand the rigour of Wall Street. Anyone on Wall Street would laugh at the claims of these authors particularly with regard to pattern recognition. This simply does not work. Furthermore, these individuals claim they have in depth knowledge about how to protect their traders interests from those of market makers, but they gave me wrong and ignorant answers to me at the show. Its just unfortunate for those ignorant wannabes that would buy any services from these bogous amateurs.

I am constantly on the lookout for reliable, fresh talent so that I can bolster my trading knowledge. After performing some simple due diligence on the authors I have concluded that I cannot allow either Velez nor Capra to further their public misrepresentations. After searching the publicly available NASD website, I discovered that Mr. Capra simply does not have the proper background to give out stock advise. According to the NASD, Capra owned Capra Service Center which was apparently a Gas Station. Velez was previously an employee of Jumaycan Theaters where he held clerical duties. Velez also indicated that he was evicted from 27 homes and has managed a hedge fund, both of which there seem to be no records. Furthermore, Velez mentions on his website that he services 70,000 or either 10,000 accounts but in fact has less than 100 people in his chat services. Also both Capra & Velez show through the NASD that they are registered as series 7 brokers for a company called Mastertrade which has the same address as their business. The track record on their website indicates a track record that emits a 50/50 chance or less of success. Velez has the tone of a preacher with a meaningless message and has no business dealing with the public in that all of their claims are clearly bogous.

Thanks gawd I didn't trust those 1 star review and bought the book anyway since the index of the book was available on a different site. I have read over 20 books so far and this is one of the best book on trading ever. Yes there is some hype on the pristine service (and some other web site) but far beyound, a great advice from a man who has been there and done that. This book includes some advice (and wisdom) not found anywhere else. If you are serious about becoming a master daytrader, go beyond the noise and the smoke and get to the real thing. Do not enter a single trade before the completion of this book. Very well done Mr. Velez and Capra.