Mastering Elliott Wave: Presenting the Neely Method: The First Scientific, Objective Approach to Market Forecasting with the Elliott Wave Theo

I picked up technical methods after losing half my money in mutual funds run by MBAs that are taught what markets "should" do rather than what they actually do. In retrospect, a coin flip would have yeilded a better result. The first big breakthrough came with Prechter and Frost's book: The Elliott Wave Principle. I saw in that book what I had myself been witnessing but unable to codify into a coherent theory. I would notice how nothing went straight down or up in markets but would move in a fast, sharp move and then "take a break" before moving in a fast sharp move yet again. Then, ultimately, at some juncture, the trend would change and move in the opposite direction with the same behaviour, move fast, rest, move fast, rest, etc. The traditonal tech analysts refer to such behaviour as "bull" and "bear" flags, etc. but the Elliotticians found a way to predict reversals with Fibonacci ratios. Then along comes Neely. He sees what no one else does and like a great genius ties it into a code of rules for wave analysis much more strict that those before him. He extends Elliott's original work. For doing so, Prechter is unhappy with Neely. Prechter has spent the last 18 years calling for a crash that has yet to transpire and giving Elliott Wave analysis a bad name. Meanwhile, Neely continues to innovate with new patterns he sees such as "NeoWave Diametrics". The only unfortunate part of buying this book is that it does not contain Neely's latest insights. Perhaps he will release a new edition in the near future. All of this being said, this book is VERY HEAVY reading and only for people obsessed with market patterns. Good for Neely for breaking free from the notion that one must follow and never lead the way into a better understanding of the psychological patterns that drive the human animal! Prechter may go down in history for reviving Elliott's theory but Neely will go down in the books for extending it.

If you are looking for a general introduction to Elliott Wave theory and practice this book is not for you. I would suggest starting with Prechter's "Elliott Wave Principle" from 1979. If you are prepared to spend a lot of time working through the minutiae of the rules and conditions contained within this book, however, (especially using your own data) you will find this a most rewarding endeavour. Wave theory is not for the faint-hearted, it requires a lot of time and application to give you the building blocks to come up with a view of the market.

This isn't the easiest of books to understand out there, but it is the best by far concerning Elliott. If you are really prepared to take the time to read this book, slowly and have the time to apply it on the markets on a frequent basis, then I would recommend it entirely. If however you only scored 2220 on the GRE, then stick to fundamental analysis.

Glen Neely is one of the foremost Elliott Wave experts on the planet. I've seen his frequent quest lectures on television and radio business channels and in business section editorials.I think this book makes a great complement to professional trader Larry Connor's "Advanced Trading Strategies." My perspective is that "Mastering Elliott Wave" contains everything one needs at all levels to master Elliott Wave, with clearly drawn pictures, complete computations, and exhaustive detail. Where "Mastering Elliott Wave" provides the detailed "language" specification, Larry provides the more specific Elliott Wave "code" applications to trade the market. It seems that each book complements the other synergistically. Mastering Elliott Wave provides you with all of the tools, where Larry's book gets you to think more practically about logic and system design variations using the EW tools. Many strict Elliott Wave tacticians hand draw their charts to get a better feel for market movement and direction. I kept a hand-drawn chart of Silver futures and I was better able to see and even feel the turning points that way, made some money, and it wasn't difficult.

This book is actually for those who want to "master" the Elliott wave theory. Though Mr Neeley explains his method from the scratch, you have to spend a great amount of time to understand how to identify the waves and how you should apply the rules and guidelines even if you know the theory. After long hours of studying the book and applying the techniques on the price charts, you will surprisingly find out that your view on the technical analysis and Elliott wave theory changed. "A large portion of market technicians spend their time trying to manipulate price data to find that "magical" key-indicator. How can a transformation of price data be better than the original data?" says Mr Neeley. If you're in the search of the "magical" key indicator(s), this book is not for you, since there's not even a word about the technical indicators, but when you finish studying the book, you will see that you don't need to look for an indicator. Since Fibonacci numbers and golden ratio are the most important parts of the wave theory, you have to know how to apply them on the charts. This book is the best one I've ever read about how to apply Fibonacci techniques on a price chart. Not only the price distance, but the time elapsed to form the waves are dependant with the Fibonacci numbers and this book teaches you how to use them.Author also defines clearly how to apply the Rule of Alternation, Rule of equality and Rule of Complexity. Further you read, you learn how to analyse complex wave structures and what to expect when the waves are advancing to form larger waves.I have to warn those who want to learn some trading techniques using the Elliott Theory or Neeley Method, since there's nothing in this book about trading, but do not forget that this book is mastering the the Elliott Wave. Do you think you still need a pre-made trading technique after mastering the theory? I don't think so.