37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book and very unique, February 13, 2005
This review is from: Trading Day by Day: Winning the Zero Sum Game of Futures Trading (Hardcover)
I have read hundreds of trading books and this is probably one of the top 5 books in my library. This book explains a very simple way to use indicators (or lines as Chick calls them) successfully without having to overanalyze the situation. It does'nt go much into pattern reading which personally I dont focus too much on. Pattern reading in my opinion should be secondary in the trade decision process and ones main focus should be on price which is what the indicators (the lines) follow. Chicks method uses three simple indicators as follows:
1. A long-term trend following indicator (the tail)
2. An intermediate-term indicator (the body)
3. A short-term indicator (the head)
Chuck compares the movement of all three of them to a snake which body parts I labeled above in parantheses. The art to reading the indicators is being able define the signals before they actually arrive by using what he calls a margin-of-error putting you a step or two ahead of the crowd. He uses a simple mathematical counting system on all three indicators to give you a status (bullish, bearish, neutral) on the markets you are trading.
Ive been trading for years an I am very reluctant to add new ideas to my arsenal but the ideas in this book really fascinated me. This book is a real gem and I highly recommend it to anyone with a basic knowledge of charting and the markets.
It really shows the reader a less-stressful way to trade at the discretionary level.
I have dedicated a small stake of my account to trading equities using Chicks methods and have done quite well for the last 3-4 months. The book discusses futures but the methods could work very well for a good stock picker.
Dont think twice about buying this book. Ive read hundreds and I can tell you that 97% of all the books ive read are pure garbage. There are very few good books written by successful traders and this is definitely one of them. IMO no other book explains the art of using indicators like this one. Chick has really made an effort to go into his minds eye and reflect that into this book. The Real-time trading examples are excellent and ARE NOT trades taken after the fact. He randomly selected around 10 futures markets and started all them on the same date. He then goes forward day by day on all of them through about 65% of the book.
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25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best book so far on trading technique, December 2, 2004
This review is from: Trading Day by Day: Winning the Zero Sum Game of Futures Trading (Hardcover)
This book holds your hands, lays down the rules, shows the technique, and walks you through the technique - day-by-day for various futures market. Haven't read such a book on trading! I have applied his principles, and seeing the clear (positive!) difference in my trading.
The theme of the book is to trade with the trend. Look at he long, medium and short term trend, and trade.
Basically, he points out...
There are three natural laws of trading-no more, no less-and they are:
1) THE FUTURE IS UNKNOWN (Don't waste time to predict the price, rather look back)
2) CONTINUATION IS MORE LIKELY THAN CHANGE (trade the trend. Look in the past, if prices are going up, they will, if going down, they will, and if sideways, stay aside from that market, in short, trade the high probability markets)
3) PRICES FLUCTUATE (Take profits, and cut losses, after all, trading is a business).
There are numerous examples, suggestions, and guidance from author's 30+ yrs. of experience. Of course, there is no holy grail, and he admits he makes mistakes too, but as long as emotions and trading decisions are kept away from each other (and this book shows how), you increase the probability of winning.
Normally, I never mark or underline anything in my book, but this book prompted me to underline various points. Highly recommended.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Quality Trading Book, September 13, 2005
This review is from: Trading Day by Day: Winning the Zero Sum Game of Futures Trading (Hardcover)
I have successfully traded with the method described in the book for over 10 years . Daytrading or position trading ---the three line method as described in the book will work. This a no joke type of book. This is not a get rich quick method without any work. If you want to learn trading as a craft and are willing to put in the effort this book is for you. [...]
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