Stock Trader's Almanac 2006 (Spiral-bound)

~ Hirsch Organization (Author), Yale Hirsch (Editor), Jeffrey A. Hirsch (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Jeff Hirsch is following in the great tradition of his father, Yale Hirsch, with this nonpareil almanac of Wall Street data. It's a treasure for investors who want to remember the past as they plan for the future."
—LOUIS RUKEYSER, host and commentator of the world's favorite money program, Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street and Editor in Chief of the monthly Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street and Louis Rukeyser's Mutual Funds newsletters

"Information is key to successful investing and investors will find the Almanac a chock-a-block source of need-to-know stuff."
—STEVE FORBES, President, CEO, and Editor in Chief, Forbes

"I have every issue since 1976 in my bookcase. The Stock Trader's Almanac is an invaluable resource."
—MARTY ZWEIG, author, Martin Zweig's Winning on Wall Street

"The Stock Trader's Almanac should be on every investor's desk. It's an invaluable source of investment advice, trading patterns, and Wall Street lore. It's also fun to read. I refer to it frequently throughout the year."
—MYRON KANDEL, CNN Financial Editor

Product Description

This time-tested guide to stock trading, published every year since, 1968, is a practical investment tool with a wealth of information organized in a calendar format. You'll learn about little-known market patterns and tendencies that will help you forecast market trends with accuracy and confidence. The data in the Almanac is some of the cleanest in the business, and its analyses are relied upon by savvy professionals, from well-know money managers to journalists. As always, the Almanac encapsulates all the historical price information on the stock market, provides monthly and daily reminders, and alerts users to seasonal opportunities and dangers. In addition, this mid-term election edition focuses heavily on the presidential election cycle and tendencies often resulting in major market moves.

"Information is key to successful investing and investors will find the Almanac a chock-a-block source of need-to-know stuff." -- Steve Forbes, CEO and Editor in Chief, Forbes

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Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 192 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (October 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471709565
• ISBN-13: 978-0471709565
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #609,605 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superior Resource for Trade Ideas, December 13, 2005

By	Brett Steenbarger (Naperville, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As someone who maintains two free trading websites that attract a reasonable amount of traffic, I am regularly asked to review (read: promote) various trading services, software programs, books, and other products. The vast majority of these requests I decline. Almost everything I review is something that I have used or currently use myself and have found helpful to my own trading. In this review, I will bundle two related books: Stock Trader's Almanac 2006 by Yale and Jeffrey A. Hirsch and The Almanac Investor by Jeffrey A. Hirsch and J. Taylor Brown. Although there is inevitable overlap between these volumes, they meet different needs.

I am a short-term trader by design-my holding periods average minutes, not days or weeks-so the information found in the Stock Trader's Almanac is most helpful to me as context. The Almanac is a spiral-bound book that is designed as a desktop companion for traders. Much of it consists of a calendar annotated with historical trading tendencies for that day, major holidays and market-moving events, and thought-provoking quotes. A typical notation in the calendar, for example, reads, "Week After Triple Witching Dow Up 11 of Last 14". Next to days that have significant historical directional tendencies, there is a picture of a bull or bear. That is the kind of context that is helpful to a short-term trader.

Where the Almanac shines, however, is in its pattern-based research. Among the broader patterns described in the book are market tendencies following bullish and bearish Januaries; best performing months in the market; best performing days of the week; and best performing months of quarters. Such information is useful context to longer-term investors as well as traders. Literally dozens of seasonal patterns are detailed in the book. It's a true research accomplishment.

This brings us to The Almanac Investor. It's a larger book, subtitled "Profit from Market History and Seasonal Trends". The first part of the book is organized month by month, reviewing the seasonal and historical patterns associated with that month's trading. As such, it is an organized review of the major findings of the Almanac. The next segment of The Almanac Investor is arranged by time frame and details trading patterns that range from half-hourly to weekly, monthly, annual, and beyond. A fascinating section revisits George Lindsay's "Three Peaks and a Domed House" pattern-something probably unknown to many newer traders who never experienced Lindsay's pioneering work. (For the record, his observations on "separating declines" and "middle sections" of moves might be more valuable than his more eye-catching peaks and dome pattern).

The next section of the book is where it really shines. There is a detailed accounting of the seasonal patterns associated with various market sectors, using long-term historical data with sector indices to establish the tendencies. For instance, The Almanac Investor tells us that the banking sector tends to be strong from October through June, but natural gas issues trade well from February to June. From these data, seasonal trading strategies with sector-based portfolios can be constructed. A very useful compilation of all available exchange-traded funds (ETFs), along with their price histories and major holdings, is designed to help readers implement such portfolios.

If I had to put it in a nutshell, I'd say that the Stock Trader's Almanac is a day-to-day desktop tool for staying on top of daily and larger market patterns; The Almanac Investor is a tool for trading those historical and seasonal tendencies. Both are clearly organized and well-written. My only caveat is that the analyses do not include actual statistical tests of significance, which is understandable given that they are not academic treatises. If you set alpha (the probability of chance occurrence below which you're willing to say a finding is significant) at .05 and then run analyses on every day, month, season, and year, you're bound to identify a number of tendencies that occur by chance alone. For that reason, I would not trade any of these patterns mechanically. I do, however, focus on the most robust patterns and utilize them as context for trade ideas. That alone makes both volumes highly worthwhile.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Great Reference Book for Trading, March 15, 2006

By	Hawkeye Richardson "Author of -- Getting Your... (Tucson, AZ) - See all my reviews

As with all the previous editions of this book, it provides a great deal of reference material on the 'probabilities' that the stock market will go up or down during any given hour, day, week, month or year. While you might not want to base your primary investment strategy on this information, you would be a fool to intentionally trade against the odds on a continuing basis.

If you are more of an 'investor' (over months/years) than a trader (over hours, days and weeks) you may or may not need this book. For longer-term investors, the same author's book "The Almanac Investor" is probably a better choice. All in all, both are worth the price of admission.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Got to get one every year..., February 27, 2006

By	Yannick Salgleda "Yannick" (Charlotte, NC United States) - See all my reviews

I really enjoy The Stock Trader's Almanac not just because it has some great market statistics but because it gives me ideas for new trading strategies and helps me refine some existing ones. My favorites strategies from the Almanac include the best 6 months strategy for the S&P 500 and the Best 8 days for each month. It is always handy to know when the next FOMC meeting is scheduled and the daily quotations are fun to read. If you are a savvy investor, it is another great tool for your arsenal.