Trading Systems and Methods (Wiley Trading) [Hardcover]

Perry J. Kaufman (Author)

Book Description

Series: Wiley Trading | Publication Date: November 16, 1998

For more than two decades, futures traders have turned to the classic Trading Systems and Methods for complete information about the latest, most successful indicators, programs, algorithms, and systems. Perry Kaufman, a leading futures expert highly respected for his years of experience in research and trading, has thoroughly rewritten and updated his bestselling guide, which remains the most comprehensive and instructional book on trading systems today. This detailed, hands-on manual offers a thorough analysis, using a systematic approach and explanation of each method of calculation or operation.

Trading Systems and Methods continues to be the single best resource for the trader or market analyst who wants to create or choose a successful trading system.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Probably the most comprehensive guide to trading systems ever written from one of the foremost experts in the field. This is an invaluable reference work for anyone with an interest in trading systems." -Jack D. Schwager, author Technical Analysis and The New Market Wizards

"This is a remarkably insightful book about the ins and outs of the futures market. In his usual inimitable style, Perry does a wonderful job of showing the beginner and the experienced person what it takes to build and use a successful trading system. Whether you're an old pro or a beginner, this book is an excellent source for analyzing, evaluating, and forecasting price movements." -Mark J. Powers, President, Powers & Dubin Asset Allocation and Management Co.

"An original and masterful approach that provides an in-depth analysis of the most popular trading techniques. The entire process for developing and testing trading strategies is put into a cohesive framework." -David Krell, Chairman, K-Squared Research, LLC

From the Publisher

Futures traders are always hungry for details about the latest, most successful indicators, programs, algorithms, and systems. The third edition of Trading Systems and Methods covers the latest developments, including neural nets and genetic algorithms.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 720 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 3 edition (November 16, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471148792
• ISBN-13: 978-0471148791
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 7.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,142,299 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best - but a great book for Tradestation users, December 28, 1999

By 

A beginning trader (Seattle) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trading Systems and Methods (Wiley Trading) (Hardcover)

My bookshelf now has about 50 books on options, daytrading, TA, bonds, futures, fundamental analysis, and the psychology of trading. This book is one of the best on TA. Though I do not have Tradestation this book should come with the program. Many of the trading systems that it talks about are laid out in easy language (the way to input into Tradestation). Since I use WOW it would be nice if it laid out the programming for WOW so that I did not have to translate it. But now Omega owns WOW so let's hope the best of each come out of the merger and not the worst (like easy language).

For TA it is up there with Murphy's and Schwager's and perhaps goes a bit beyond in how to take the indicators and put them together into a system. Also it explains many of the systems that various market Gurus expound. Where most of the books on the market try to explain it all like beginning addition and subtraction this book is many steps beyond the first grade and does take some serious study, which I appreciate.

In short, if you are interested in TA and how it combines to form a system of trading this book will be worth you money.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the better books in the WTA series., October 14, 2000

By 

Martian Bachelor (Feminacentric America) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trading Systems and Methods (Wiley Trading) (Hardcover)

This is not so much an encyclopedia as it is a fairly complete compendium of various trading tools and strategies. Almost all such research focuses on the futures markets; the closest these get to the stock market is the S&P 500 index. This is true of technical analysis in general, so if you're interested in the stock market you will generally have to extrapolate.

Kaufman is a pretty able and knowledgeable reporter on the research results of others, but I have to say that in places the transcriptions are confusing, unclear and ambiguous. Even though the book is nearly 700 pages long, some of the coverage is too sparse -- while in other areas it seems too wordy. This 3rd edition could benefit from a start-to-finish re-organization/re-write, as some ideas are explained multiple times in various places and other ideas which are introduced early and deemed important are then ignored throughout the rest of the book. I'm thinking primarily of the basics of statistics and tests for significance; much of what might work at times is superfluous. My impression is that while Kaufman is very experienced in the markets and with trading systems in general, that he's a dilettante so far as really rigorous mathematics is concerned. Pick and choose among the many clever ideas here carefully. 3 1/2 stars.

61 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Be aware, March 5, 2004

By 

Hui (New York, New York, United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Trading Systems and Methods (Wiley Trading) (Hardcover)

Don't get me wrong, the author doesn't seem stupid - he developed his own adaptive trend following method. But he has completely no idea how the market works and what can possibly work in the market. This book is a compilation of many technical trading methods, but most of them are stale and some ridiculously insane. Page 376-377 he has a chart and program to compute the moon's phase, because we should buy at full moon and sell at new moon? The selling point of the book is it contains some source code, but most of them are naive. Page 640 betrayed that the author only wrote the programs over twenty years ago when there was no graphics output. In regression he had to use many "*"s to draw the line. And why would any reader need the Fortran source code in the appendix to do regression? Remind you that those ten pages would cost you a buck.

In short, the book has no value for professionals. For individual investors, be aware - the book could actually be harmful because it gives you false confidence. In the investment world half bottle may be worse than you know you have nothing in the bottle.