The Compleat Day Trader Trading Systems, Strategies, Timing Indicators and Analytical Methods

Trading especially short term trading need great concentration and a full-time commitment. Professional traders write few or no book.
Mr. Bernstein's books and articles are everywhere. Sometimes I came across his publications, I scanned through a few pages to see what he had to say about trading. Mr. Bernstein makes statements which are generally safe and easy to say. For example, I read his article the other day. He tells the readers "Do your homework.", "The trend is your friend." etc. Of course, these are the common rules for traders. But what are the concrete steps to implement these rules in the real-life situation? Well, I could hardly find any. On the other hand, he stated in that article: "...I maintain that a good trader can make any system works." I found this statement unprofessional and phony. The reasons:
1. Many systems on the market are just trash and can not be used at all.
2. Good traders wouldn't pick up any system and risk their money with it. Good traders are very selective and only trade a few systems that have proven record and are suitable for their individual styles.
I found similar problems in other works by Mr. Bernstein. Should I bother to buy this book? No, thanks.
I have read books from many different writers and have more than 10 year active trading experience. So I know something.
A few tips(IMO) for choosing good books on trading:
1. Only a small percentage of books on the market are good or great.
2. Popular books are not necessary good books. If you automatically think so, you've probably fallen into "Herd mentality" thinking.
3. Trading is a bottom line business. Find books written by traders who had proven long-term(5 year or more) successful trading records. They are the ones "know how".
4. Be wary of the authors who write many trading books.
Good luck.

Comment | Was this review helpful to you?

Most books for "day traders" are so general that their techniques and advice can be successfully used by swing-traders (those who keep stocks for several days), and even by longer-term investors. This one is different. The author, Jake Bernstein, strongly advocates real day trading, when no securities ever kept overnight. Therefore, his techniques are usable for very short term trading only.
The advantage of this book is that it has very little general rhetoric and comes straight to the point, that is to the techniques which the author finds profitable. Basically, 90% of the book is about the use of technical indicators (such as various moving averages and oscillators) to determine potentially profitable entry and exit points. The topics discussed in particular detailed manner are the use of moving averages, stochastic indicator, moving average channel (MAC), relative strength index (RSI), momentum, and techniques for trading of opening gaps. The author also suggests several oscillators of his own. However, despite the simplicity of these indicators, one has to own software such as Omega Research Trade Station to calculate and plot these home-made oscillators in real time, or write a program yourself. There are also several chapters applicable to futures only (actually, the whole book is about trading in the futures market, but 95% of techniques are equally applicable to stocks).
The great advantage of the book is that it is very specific, clearly illustrated, and gives plenty of detailed technical advice and a number of potentially profitable trading techniques. Be advised, however, that those who are interested in trading but do not have enough capital to take profits from half-a-tick changes (and I, too, belong to this group) cannot really take advantage of this book. No trend and no trade longer than a few hours is discussed there! Therefore, this book is for the serious day traders, and only for them. If you are a day trader, this book is a must; if you are not, do not bother buying it but rather consider other options, e.g., the excellent book "How to get started in electronic day trading" by D.S.Nassar which is good for traders on any time frame.