Customer Reviews
A superb book for technically-orientated traders - By: N. Burgess, 11 Apr 2008 
This book reallly opened my eyes to the power of technical indicators as real world trading tools. Dr Elder very clearly explains the important inidicators & how to adapt them to your trading method. He also explains some new indicators that he devised himself, as well as the importance of analysing markets in different timeframes. He also spends a huge amount of time on trader psychology which he is very well qualified to do being a professional psychologist. His psychological insights are fascinating & a must read for anyone serious about trading.
Not too bad ...... - By: A. Cresswell, 22 Nov 2007 
I bought this book in 2002 & find myself re-reading it once a year. It's got some good basics & is helpful in formulating your own trading rules & maintaining that discipline. I day-trade & also use CFD as well as classic long term longs ... I use MetaStock to get my information & use a l2 streaming service to day trade. All of this is part of a personal method & plan I follow based upon my own experience. The book won't tell you how to be successful but more like it acts as a guide as to developing yourself & your skills to get the best out of any situation. I'm tempted to see if I were to start alll over again I'd probably go do a trading course. Sure it's wayyy more expensive but it's far more confidence building & being confident & positive is 90% of the battle when trading.
Misleading title and introduction - By: book maniac, 19 Nov 2007 
The most part of this book deals with technical analysis; a few pages explain how the individual & mass psychology influence traders. Unfortunately, the author says little about 'money management'. Actuallly, the author places great emphasis on psychology & money management in the 'Introduction', so I assumed that he would take up & explore the two issues: 'psychology' & 'money management' in details. However, it appears that this book is organized in a way which fallls short of the goals stated in the 'Introduction' & blurs the subtitle of this book.
Having said alll that, the second part of this book provides a good overview of technical analysis. It's still a good read, but don't expect any in-depth psychology or money management analysis from this book.
Excellent - By: , 06 Jun 2005 This is the book that got me started in trading (I actuallly read the UK version, 'Financial trading') & it should be compulsory for beginning traders.
You will progress as a trader far quicker if you read this book, simply by avoiding the pitfallls that most of us go through & which are described in detail by Dr Elder.
While a fellow reviewer complained that 60% of the book is on technical indicators & that the author appears repetitive, I believe this helped me greatly (and probably helped that reviewer too). The reason I say this is because at the end of a comprehensive read of this book you have the fundamentals of trading (technical & psychological) absolutely drilled into your mind. Given Dr Elder's background as a psychiatrist it does not suprise me that he reinforces these concepts so often.
Unlike many average trading books that receive five stars this (and the author's other book, 'Come into my trading room') genuinely deserve maximum praise & both should be read before & during your trading career; independent or company supported.
An amateurs' dream - By: , 12 Jul 2004 I was impressed by the credentials of Alex Elder , coming from the background that he did.As an amateur I am, as it were, walking through a minefield. This book has shown me that in very clear terms.I am in the very early stages of learning how to trade & the psychology in this book makes great sense.On the downside , although Elder states clearly the pitfallls facing amateurs ( those who trade from home)he doesn't say how best to avoid them.Slippage & commissions are two such problems. Commissions have to be paid , yes but slippage is something which no amateur can combat. As "paper", amateurs are at the mercy of the trading floor.How to avoid being wiped-out by this would be a very usefull piece of information.The book is well written, if sometimes obscure in its use of the English language.Caution is my watchword but I will be buying his other book just as soon as I've finished this one. Buy it.
