Electronic Day Traders' Secrets: Learn From the Best of the Best DayTraders (Hardcover)

~ (Author), George West (Author), Jonathan Burton (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The literati of the day-trader universe, George West and Mark Friedfertig helped to popularize day trading with their bestseller, The Electronic Day Trader. Their second book, Electronic Day Trader's Secrets, written with Jonathan Burton, is a collection of interviews with 13 successful day traders. Whereas their previous book looked at the mechanics of day trading, this book considers the people who trade. And what's most striking about the traders interviewed is not their various trading philosophies, but what they have in common: male gender (young men--half under 30); similar backgrounds (most were either brokers or floor traders before they became day traders); the stocks they trade (NASDAQ high flyers: Intel, Cisco, Amazon.com, Yahoo, Dell); the money they lost when they started (lots--Eric Fromen is typical: he lost $53,000 in his first six months of trading); and their current success (why else would they be interviewed?).

With chestnuts such as "Flexibility is a key to successful day trading" and "Controlling your losses is key to not digging yourself into a hole," the book may ring hollow to those seasoned in the art of speculation (consider Edwin Lefevre's classic Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, instead). But if you're looking for a major course correction to your current day-trading tack, you should find useful guidance here.

However, those uninitiated to day trading should watch for sandbars. This book dangles the possibility of lucrative careers for successful day traders, which for many is simply an oxymoron: matching wits with Wall Street's best (not to mention these guys) can be the quickest way to the poorhouse. But if you fit the profile above, have money to burn, want a fast and exciting career, or are just simply curious, Electronic Day Trader's Secrets is a tantalizing glimpse into what interviewee Jim Shaw describes as "the church of what's happening now." --Harry C. Edwards

Review

The best-selling authors of The Electronic Day Trader have written another _must read_ for the growing population of day traders. Electronic Day Traders_ Secrets is a compilation of interviews with 13 highly successful free agents. The group is a snapshot of the industry: All 13 traders are male, most are under 30 and most started out in the securities industry before giving it all up for the promise of electronic day trading.

The tales are fantastic. Imagine losing $180,000 before you_ve finished your morning coffee, or making $30,000 on a day that the Dow plunges 550 points. These traders have experienced it all, and none is planning to change careers soon. The interviews reveal there is no single strategy for successful day trading. Each trader_s madness has its own method, and this page-turner tells all.

The success of the men profiled is almost enough to make you quit your day job. Electronic Day Traders_ Secrets cautions, however, that a career in day trading is risky, and newcomers should be prepared for significant losses. But just as in Vegas, there_s always a chance that the next hand will be a winner.

– Megan Barnett -- From The Industry Standard

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Trade (March 31, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071347674
• ISBN-13: 978-0071347679
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #165,233 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #48 in	Books > Professional & Technical > Accounting & Finance > International > Finance > Finance & Investing
  #51 in	Books > Business & Investing > Economics > Exports & Imports

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Electronic Day Traders Secrets, January 21, 2002

By	Matthew Biety (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

In short I would say the book is ok. The book is dominated by young guys who have not been trading for even five years. They have not traded a secular bear market, a secular bear market for tech stocks, had to deal with decimalization, or have had to deal with incredibly rangebound and lackluster markets of years past. While not doubting the talent or the results of the traders interviewed in the book, I would like to see where everyone is in 2010. This book was written in the sweetest spot of the NASDAQ market most of the traders, myself included, will probably ever see in our life times.

If you are a new direct access trader this book is worth a read. If you are an experienced trader just trying to continually polish your game-I'll save you a 250 page read and twenty-some bucks. Cut your losses, let your winners run, be disciplined, use instinct, be a fast typer, trade with the trend, get long stocks in a strong market, get short stocks in a weak market, don't monetize your trading results, don't let your ego get in the way, and the market is always right. These phrases were repeated over and over. You just learned the lessons of this book without having to read 250 pages.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No substitute for the trenches but a good read, September 22, 1999

By A Customer

Take it from us at streetforce.com, there is no substitute for the trenches or the sweat and blood of  working the markets day in and day out, learning and applying lessons that can never be taught in any book.   However, in order to develop trading frameworks and to learn from others' mistakes, it is often useful to consult outside sources.  Not just any source as there are literally thousands of so called "trading" books out there that are not worth the paper they are printed on.  However we believe that the book you see here is not in this category. 

Friedfertig and his partner have put together a work that should be of interest to anyone who is a student of the markets regardless of whether or not you are a day trader.

Their first book focuses on basic strategies used by daytraders to beat the market makers and, in some cases, trade like market makers.  Topics covered include bid and offer issues, interpreting level II quotes, price patterns based on time of day and many other issues.  Even if you are not a daytrader, this information alone is worth the price of the book unless you are content to remain a faceless victim of market makers who don't believe in taking prisoners.

In the follow-up book, they take the discussion to a new level through a series of interviews with supposedly successful daytraders.  It is amazing to see the similarities between some of what they say and the strategies we espouse here despite the fact that we do not daytrade.  This just proves the point that all trading is the same, regardless of the time frame involved:

1) Having a strategy prior to a trade-You have to have formulated a game plan before any trade is executed.   This must include the following at a minimum: a) the basic strategy underlying the trade in the first place, b) the entry and exit points that correlate with the basic strategy, 3) The point at which you will exit if the trade moves against you or if the underlying assumption is proven invalid. 2) Maintaining focus on what's important-Forget the minutiae.  Focus on what's important.  Just because we have broken support does not mean that a long position is necessarily bad.   Everything relates to the initial assumption upon which the trade is based.   If that has gone wrong, then get out, if not, consider remaining even if less important factors point you in the other direction. 3) Stick to a familiar group of volatile stocks-Almost without exception, successful daytraders trade the same stocks day in and day out.  They become familiar with fundamental developments but more importantly, unique price movements and inflections at specific times and under specific conditions. The meat of the book is the interviews.  Many of the subject traders have been featured in Forbes and other well known magazines.  Almost all had different strategies but the common thread was that they stuck to them and all had the ability to see early on when a trade was going bad and were able to get out.  To a man they all agreed that this was the most important   characteristic of a successful trader and that it was not based on technical or any other kind of analysis.  It was a "feel" developed through experience.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The only problem with this book is the title, July 17, 2000

By	Derek G (Redneck, South Carolina) - See all my reviews

I think a lot of people were mislead by the title, thinking these traders would just give away some holy grail method to make millions of dollars. Nobody's giving away any secrets. Don't forget, once the opening bell rings, these guys are trying to take your money.

What you will get is a peek into the minds of some of the most successful traders in the market and you will notice a lot of common characteristics. If you want to make money in the market, you need to learn from the people who do (not just the ones who say they do.) Recently, thousands of people paid $200 to see some of these guys talk for a few minutes out here in Ontario. You get a more in depth interview for less.

Like the other reviewers, I don't recommend this book until you become familiar with trading terminology. If you're a novice looking for insight as to what daytrading will be like, I recommend you read Dumb Money by Joey Anuff and Gary Wolf.