The Master Swing Trader: Tools and Techniques to Profit from Outstanding Short-Term Trading Opportunities

I read many trading books. However, this one really lays the practical groundwork for swing trading and investing styles. It helps both aspiring traders and seasoned "pros" build their knowledge of the trading science (and art!). I was first attracted to this book at my local bookstore, so I checked it out. I had intended on merely reading selected chapters and taking some notes. However, as I got into the book, I realized there was much more meat here. There must be a copy on my personal bookshelf. I quickly purchased it, and with my highlighter in hand and notepad, I started devouring this book. Farley's work reminds me of a college textbook in its thorough approach to technical analysis of the stock market. I need this kind of detailed background so I can properly watch both the market and specific stocks. The charting techniques he explains give both the investor and trader far greater insight into probable price trends. This will significantly increase their rates of return. I've been waiting for this trading book for the last 8 years.

I just spent more than 6 weeks reading and enjoying every single chapter of The Master Swing Trader. What a great addition to my trading library. Of course, it's possible to get through this excellent text much more quickly, but doing so misses many of the valuable TA lessons and insightful trading observations. This book is much more than a well-written trading manual, although it does a great job in that regard. Its real power lies in the way that it shows us how to escape the "trading knowledge game". It is possible (and very likely for some) to spend an entire lifetime reading TA books and attending live seminars, but NEVER learn how to successfully trade stocks or futures. The book goes directly to the heart of this issue and clearly describes the building blocks that create trade setups in the first place. It then shows the reader, in great detail, how they can construct any trading strategy they can imagine from these individual pieces of price patterns and market behavior. To me, this is a revolutionary point of view, and definitely NOT one that will please the current crop of mediocre trading writers and seminar leaders. An astute reader (with a decent background in the markets) could realistically never read another trading book after this one, but still grow their skills and strategies for an entire career by applying these classic principles.Finally, I have to agree with almost all of the book comments that I've seen here so far. I think The Master Swing Trader will definitely stand the test of time, like Elder's Trading for a Living or Murphy's Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets. It is also obvious that a few readers will never "get it" and walk away from the book in a bad mood. Many of today's traders are used to getting their knowledge spoon-fed to them in little bits and pieces. The complexity and deep content of this major acheivement may just be too much for them to deal with. Better for the rest of us, who will be using these classic trading strategies for at least the next decade.

Alan Farley's book is aimed at the trader who knows the basics but has yet to put it all together in a way that works for him or her self. The book presents many strategies but its real strength lies not only in the specifics (of which there are plenty) but also in the philosophy it conveys; i.e., essentially it is up to the individual to study the markets and to develop creative and original trading strategies. As Farley says in the Introduction, "Market knowledge comes from the most unlikely places." Perhaps the most unlikely place is from within oneself. Farley gently, but relentlessly, gets this message across. The book is chock full of concrete strategies, charts and examples but the message is, "don't imitate, think!" There is no easy road to riches: however, the road that Farley presents is both interesting and challenging. Trading is presented as an art, not as a money machine, and becoming good at this art will bring its own rewards, even if that is a soccer mom making the lunch money.The book is well written, well presented, and very funny in parts in a dry sort of a way. This book is an expansion on Alan's excellent trading course (http://www.hardrightedge.com) which, for not much more than the price of the book is an incredible bargain. Together with the book you have an introduction to advanced trading that is unequalled at any price. In addition, Alan Farley's site, "The Hardrightedge" is one of the very best trading sites around and, remarkably, it is totally free (the Intelligent Speculator website is also excellent, free, and somewhat complementary to HRE, although more focused on index futures.)The markets are complex and trading is also complex. Farley uses multiple and original approaches, e.g., looking for convergent signals or patterns of support/resistance in multiple time frames. The charts in the book clearly show how to do this and it doesn't take long to get the hang of it provided one has decent charting software. Success in trading demands that one master this multi-dimensional way of thinking.I would have liked to have seen the book perhaps spend a little more time discussing the impact of such things as transaction costs. In fairness, though, the emphasis of the book is clearly elsewhere and this topic has been covered well by Ralph Vince and others.In summary, Farley's philosopy seems to be: "don't give a man a fish, teach him how to fish instead." To benefit the most from this book the reader will have to put in a lot of time fishing, but there is no such such thing as free money, and, besides, isn't fishing supposed to be fun? After taking losses of thousands of dollars many new traders proceed to drop several more thousands on courses and other trading paraphernalia. The smarter thing to do is to spend $200 total, on this book, the HRE course, plus a terrific bottle of Russian River Cabernet Sauvigon and have some fun in the process!Great book! Buy it and forget the expensive courses, subscriptions and newslette

This book is probably one of the best books on Swing Trading to be published in the last twenty years. It is a concise book on what you need to learn about trading stocks. I feel that the author should have broken the book down to three books, becasue human nature forces us to try and finish the reading as fast as we possibly can. We must however remember that it took a full semester in college to study a book of this size, and I feel it will probably take even longer than that to master the content in this book. So my only complaint to the author is that he has given us too much great content at once. It is similar to having your favorite desert at a restaurant. How much of it can you possibly have before you you surrender and say no more today?Take your time with this book and study it! It will imrove your knowledge of the market. My favorite section of the book was the 7 Bells. I feel that that section alone is worth far more than the price of the book!

The Master Swing Trader by Alan Farley will improve your chart reading skills faster than any other trading book I have read (and I have a LARGE technical analysis library.) Whether you trade from 5 minute charts or never look at the market during the trading day, this book will improve your bottom line. Every book claims it is going to help you understand chart patterns, but then limits the coverage to items like the classical head-and-shoulders or triangle patterns using standard breakout techniques. Alan takes you inside these patterns, and often shows you how to beat the crowd by understanding what is really happening. His approach has much lower risk and often a higher profit potential.And that is only the start. Classical patterns are the ones that "everyone" knows, but unfortunately, what everyone knows seldom makes money. The Master Swing Trader takes the concepts that make up patterns, and shows you where invisible trades often exist. But since the general public doesn't see the early trade, they buy or sell after you have established your position. This improves your risk/reward ratio even further.This book is not for the absolute beginning trader, since it assumes some knowledge of basic technical analysis. There are several points in the book where Alan assumes you have already heard of Vic Sperandeo's 2B Top or Dr. Alexander Elder's Triple Screen method. (Keep reading - they are eventually explained.) But if you are looking for a book that does more than just rehash existing materials, this is the one you've been looking for, this is the one.