Interesting Look at the life of a day trader
354500
I received this book for free in exchange for my honest opinion.  I was about to turn this book away thinking it was a guide but this is a story and an interesting one at that.  Great look at the ups and downs of a real day trader.  Lessons learned and a lot of money thrown away!
1762028
It was very good read with a lot useful tips for a beginning trader. Not a lot of jargon. He had a very honest take on his personal trading strategies and market theories.
4163900
Excellent read for a new trader. This book allows you to peek into the minds of the big money players. The principles in this boom still apply in this day in age. You'll find that these traders have different styles but you are able to pick bits and pieces from their style to fit your own.
2694173
This is a personal account of what Guy Spier learned after leaving Oxford and Harvard to join an investment firm. He subsequently set up his own firm.  The book starts as a typical business biography - goal-oriented and driven. It morphs into character studies and emphasizes values. Many people realize late in their career the value of relationships and Guy Spier is no exception. He delightfully describes the values that matter to him. He also explains how to use checklists to track investments.

There's a bit of suspense as to how he will meet Warren Buffett in the beginning, but gradually the story unfolds.

What I like most about the book is the challenges Spier had because he went to good universities.  I empathize with the challenges he faced in learning to be a savvy investor.  For me, Guy's insights into blind spots because of his education was the most valuable part of the book. I too learned similar lessons.
4220352
Heitkoetter's The Complete Guide to Day Trading is a good book if you are interested in becoming a day trader.  This book covers all areas of trading, from your Internet connection to developing and testing your strategy.  It gives a great overview of items that need to be thought about and investigated before you put your hard-earned money into the markets.

Heitkoetter provides solid information on picking markets to trade, capital requirements and risk tolerance, and some basic technical indicators used to develop a trading strategy. From there, he goes into how to test that strategy and develop a trading plan.  Novice and experienced traders alike will benefit from this section.  I enjoyed his "Keep It Simple" approach to trading. I would definitely recommend adding The Complete Guide to Day Trading to your library of trading guides.
1616722
It was interesting to learn a bit about the key players in the commodities markets. The author Kate Kelly made a nice selection of people coming from banks, hedge funds, trading firms and corporate hedgers. She could have done a much better job though. She went into the usual clichs that she thinks the public wants to hear, while she had the opportunity to write something truly interesting and educative to readers. She over simplifies many things and exaggerates on many points. She could have taken the opportunity to educate the general public about commodities trading but instead she's just pandering to stereotypes and serving over-simplifications.

How could one have a $8billion crude oil position, oil prices moving down 15% in a week, and the hedge fund manager losing only $500mil. Her description would imply a $1.2billion loss. Clearly it shows that she overstated positions to make it more dramatic. Or she probably doesnt understand that the leverage was coming from options and not only from futures. Also as if a commodities hedge fund would borrow from banks! Clearly they dont, they can get added exposure from futures and options that have embedded leverage, and they always have a very high cash balance.

It shows she doesnt master her subject and has a very poor understanding of high finance. And then she goes on to push for more regulation in those markets. But the commodities markets have barely moved for 5 years now! Is that also the fault of speculators? The bull run in oil prices in 2007-2008 actually is the reason why US shale oil production is what it is now and growing at such a pace. The oil bull run actually saved the US economy and the world economy. If prices stayed too low for too long, there would be no shale oil today, US production would be much lower, and we would face an enormous energy shortage and much higher prices today. It would have been interesting for her to explain that instead of going into the usual nonsense. I also suspect she doesnt depict the real personalities of the players there, and just want to make them into the usual stereotypes.

Somebody who made 2,000% for his investors over 10 years, with only one down year, and who not only survived but excelled during the crazy moves that commodities witnessed over that period clearly MUST have a lot of introspection, a great system, a very detailed understanding of the market and not only think or speak about kickboxing or home-design.

The book could have been so much better. But Im sure some readers will enjoy it though.
4906252
I have just finished this book and I really enjoyed his light style, there are a lot of quotes with footnote markers on them which are at the back of the book but on a eBook this is quite hard to get to quickly to have a quick check, some things you just can't do quickly on eBooks like a good old fashioned paper book.

With that in mind many of the commandments actually indite the status quo on technology, day trading and all the mainstream dogma most beginner traders are fed from the media, their brokers and other people in the finance food chain. Its an alternative way of thinking about trading and how to enter and exit trades from quite a high level and is more of a philosophy than hard sets of rules or a full system.

If you like sage wisdom in a clear and concise manner and want a different approach to trading the markets have a look, if you like fundamental trading and long only with some mutual funds, skip it unless you wan't to be upset, very upset.
4270164
This is an interesting look at a self-absorbed and humbled investor who fell for the allure of the markets and the get-rich-quick mantra of the late 90s.  It chronicles, cliched though it is, the rise and fall of a man's portfolio, along with his ties to some of the more notorious corproate crooks of the past few years.  It is worth 4 stars if only because the author is remarkably candid about his greed, his desire for quick riches through the market, and his admiration and jealousy of the 'rock star' CEO embodied in Sam Waksal.
There's not much original in here, or interesting beyond that rare candor.  Candor, however, is a rare quality in writers, and such makes this an interesting trifle of a read.
1243559
Investment Psychology Explained was a very informative piece that details some of the emotional problems that traders and investors alike must face within themselves when playing the stock market.  At the same time, however, Pring uses many real world examples that show how some of his theories and tips have either been applied or ignored and the results that followed.  These real-world examples, in my mind, added to the book's entertainment and helped illustrate how Pring's tips can be transferred over to the reader's own investment style.  The main idea that I walked away with from the book is that letting emotions interfere with investment decisions is like mixing oil with water...they don't blend at all together and only result in a big mess.  However, I did feel that Pring's book did a lot of summarization of others' ideas, and more concrete plans of action for the daytrading speculator would have been in order.  Overall, I found the work to be worth the money and ! a very interesting reading.
1695981
This book is about day trading.
It implies that you already know the tools and indicators, have proper discipline, money management skills and are "organized" (have a trading journal, etc ...)
If this is not the case, this book is not for you yet : read Trend Trading For A Living by the same author, and Dr. Elder 's Come Into My Trading Room ,for example, before.

Now, if you are looking for systems that generate *daily* income, this is a very good book.
Eight systems are completely described : 5 that are intraday (notably a system where you place a trade at the beginning of the day, and exit on close, and another one to trade exclusively during lunch time ; those are nice for those who don't or can't watch the screen all day long), and 3 that are multi-days, that enable traders with less than $25,000 in their account to generate profit each day without the account being frozen by their broker.

The systems are clearly described, and scans are provided by the author (in stockcharts "language").
I think this book is ideal for all those who have some experience with position trading, and don't want to suffer during market corrections.
It takes time to master all the setups, but the author provides some rules to follow, to help master them.
Moreover, the author provides a "plan" to begin day-trading, that has some real good financial, moral and religious values (the author appears to be a devoted Christian), which are not that common in trading literature.

All in all, a very good step-by-step day-trading manual, to use only, to my opinion, if you already are a successful longer-term trader.
3434847
If you are only looking for a trading book, save your money as you won't find it here.  What you will find is a very interesting personal story of how one person found his way through life.

The first take away is seeing how a person grows and adapts his interests to fit the realities of life.  Thoughout the book you see a gradual transformation from doing what was once unthinkably mundane to seeing the value of the task and embracing it.  This is often accompanied by short term pain.

The second take away concerns the prospects for anyone considering entering a career.  The author makes a pretty good case for not attempting to enter academia.  Simply too hard for most people to ever be tenured.  One the other hand he makes a pretty good case for staying off Wall St. as well.  The industry trends of consolidation and shifts from analytics to marketing probably mean it will be much harder to even get started much less succeed.

Finally I find it fascinating just how naive Wall Street can really be.  The crudeness of the models used only 15 years ago is staggering.  I cannot imagine doing the valuations for an entire trading desk by typing in quotes to a lotus spreadsheet.  Yet this was the standard practice less than 20 years ago.

I was a member of an exchange in the early 90's and what we were doing was not "rocket science" by any stretch of the imagination.  However it seems that some of the biggest names on the street were not nearly as far ahead of us as I thought.

This leads to an interesting question (in my mind anyway).  How did these firms really make their billions?  Did deep pockets allow them to weather the storms until trades moved their way?  Was it a case of having one eye in the land of the blind (meaning they were a tiny bit ahead of the rest of the world and that was enough)?
4597096
It's an easy to read book, which makes you to take a step back and review if your approach to trading or investing is going to reward you. I am an investor rather than a trader, but I still find the book interesting. His idea of EXPECTANCY, although not very rigorous and I do not like his informal approximation, is useful concept. Is this his origianl idea or did anyone find a similar concept with other authors?
4577907
Liar's Poker is an excellent view into the bond trading industry during the 1980s.  It offers details on specific events that shaped and changed Salomon Brothers as well as the ethical and moral behaviors of bond traders during the time period.  It touches upon the issues of money (compensation), loyalty to the employer, loyalty to the customer and LBO attempts.  The book did not flow as well as it could, but overall it was an interesting read.  I recommend this book if you want to learn more about the 1980s bond market or are interested in compensation and office politics.
823370
I've been a momentum investor for many, many years so I found this book interesting since the author pretty much changed his stock religion. It was an interesting read although it was a bit repetitive with his adoring love of Buffett. It's not a long book but it will give you some perspective into other styles of investing.
760584
I would recommend this book. As it helped me begin day trading and helped me understand the whole concept and how to get started. As it may not be for everyone it really was a big help to my career and understanding the whole thing at once.
3746673
This is not the most intellectually challenging book to read but entertaining nonetheless. Especially from my point of view, a shareholder in TheStreet.com.
Here is a story of an egomaniac who tries to paint an objective portrait of himself but comes out as a self-promoting and self-congratutory. No wonder he is not one of the well-liked people on Wall Street.
Nevertheless, his life story from the middle class Phillie to Harvard Crimson to LA reporter back to Harvard and to Goldman Sachs is interesting in a yuppie-ish way. Maybe a bit like Fitzgerald intrigue. And he did shed light on what goes behind the scene on Wall Street which I find fascinating.
This is a sort of book that I would haven written. I, with absolutely no talent in writing, but always dreamed of getting published. Maybe that is a bit too harsh:)
4266674
Frankly, I wasn't particularly interested in investing in this marketplace, so when Carley deflates a lot of fantasy thinking, I was not bothered.  That's much of what she does as she explained the nuts and bolts of this complicated way of buying and selling goods.

She communicated very carefully and clearly, in such a way that you need no background in business whatsoever.  I think she organized the topic well, and helped me understand why these trades would be done this way, and how to work with this system.  In particular, the author shows me just how important the commodity trade will be in coming years.

I suspect professionals with an MBA would already know much of this material, but I don't think it's dumbed down at all.  Even an expert might find this useful as a reference.

I will add that I'm surprised at the price, and hope that's adjusted in the future, because I think a wide audience should find this topic interesting.  Now that I understand more about trading and have been warned repeatedly and clearly about several pitfalls, I'm probably going to begin applying Carly's tips and making a few careful trades.