The Stock Trader: How I Make a Living Trading Stocks

There is much more to learning how to make money on the stockmarket than reading "how-to" books. There is another equally important task and that is how the markets work in real life. The real skill is often not losing money. Winning can be relatively easy, but so is losing. If you can eliminate most of your losing trades, success will be yours.One way to learn how to do this is from those who have "been there and done that". There have been hundreds of trading books written on this topic, but a stand-out contribution comes from Tony Oz, a professional trader. His book The Stock Trader: How I Make a Living Trading Stocks gives the reader a fabulous opportunity to track his trades over four weeks. He also reveals the skills used during the biggest crash of the past decade - the awesome April 2000 tech wreck.Oz's book is easy to read and sets a slick pace. For today's army of daytraders, it gives a unique look at how serious, aggressive daytrading is conducted, those annoying missed opportunities that we all waste our energies lamenting and, of course, the winning trades.It is a diary of a fascinating four-week hectic trading period that outlines how every trade was identified, managed and closed. The trades were taken only from the long side, or buy side, which is more applicable to Australian markets than other US books that concentrate on selling stocks.The book was written in response to a challenge and starts with $50,000 in a new account. Profits are taken out each week. These are real trades, not theoretical examples. The total return is 35 per cent in four weeks. There are 116 trades recorded, charted and then explained in a daily trading journal including illustrations and formulas.Oz explains the research and preparation, the joys and frustrations, the exhilarating victories and disappointing defeats. He gives us a blow-by-blow description of each battle between emotions, decisions, market makers and technology, and explains what he was thinking and feeling. Oz then outlines each trade's strategy, the profits and the losses. At the end of each week, he orders a cheque from his broker to clean his account and prevent compounding of profits. After all, he explains in the book, Friday is payday.There are 26 main chapters with some terrific topics such as Working on My Golf Swing, The Market is Always Right, Sitting on My Hands, Thank God It's Friday, Sweet Dream or a Nightmare, Cash is a Position and Thank You, But No Champagne For Me.Every chapter has something aspiring that even experienced traders can learn from. The chapters are informative and sometimes very funny; any trader can relate to the stories.There is an epilogue and a bonus pack that covers what happened next, tips, guidelines, rules and case studies. There are eight appendices covering everything from plans, records, statistics through to creating a constant watch list and some useful resources for the active trader. A full glossary of terminologies is included.Daytraders wil

This book is outstanding from the crowd of other books written on the subject. Not only, that Tony demonstrated, that it is possible to make money only on long trades during the crash in spring 2000. What's makes the book so outstanding is, that he describes every trade he made during this 4 week period in detail and the reasoning for the trade. His thoughts and descriptions of the emotions he went trough during this phase are very helpful for every trader. While reading the book, I really had the impression to look over his shoulder while he prepared and made his trades. Reading this book is a bit like watching a movie on daytrading. While I haven't found ( and didn't expect to find ) any new concepts, strategies and alike, it was very interesting to read about how a master trader executes well known methods in real live. The most fascinating aspect of the book is, that even the author had no idea in advance of what will happen through the 4 week trading period. So it was a real challenge for him as well

Many authors write books about trading for the sole purpose of marketing training or website access. Tony's books are different. They provide in-depth information that is clear and concise. The Stock Trader is the perfect compliment to his first book, Stock Trading Wizard. I found it to be absolutely fascinating and accessible for those with trading experience. It actually enhances my understanding of the first book because it adds the hands on insight which is so critical. The first book dealt with Tony's rules for trading. It's sort of like ground school when learning to fly an airplane.While this is the essential foundation of trading one also needs to see these rules in action. His new book does this perfectly. We move from ground school into the flying plane and get to see every move.As each trade unfolds all of the nuances of Tony's trading style become clear. He uses simple, easy to recognize, support and resistance coupled with effective analysis of Nasdaq level II and the major indices to find and execute high probability trades. This doesn't make successful trading easy, but as Tony says it does make it "doable". For me it also reinforced one of life's essential lessons: The simplest effective solution is almost always the best solution. In many respects Tony has taken the methods first illuminated in Reminiscences of a Stock Operator and showed us how to apply them utilizing today's technology. The information contained in The Stock Trader coupled with his Stock Trading Wizard are all experienced traders need to develop a successful trading style.Matt Kreegar

I found Tony's new book "The Stock Trader" to be a fantastic companion to his first book "Stock Trading Wizard." While I think that the book can be read by a relative novice (like myself) on its own, I do feel that it is better understood if it is read after "Stock Trading Wizard." Like STW, "The Stock Trader" shows that a simpler and more basic approach to trading stocks can be a very successful approach if the user maintains a high level of discipline and sticks religiously to his own set rules. It takes the lessons learned from "Stock Trading Wizard" and puts them into action. Tony literally put his money where his mouth was. From the first page I realized that this was not an ordinary trading book. Tony lets us go into his trading mind on a daily basis and see his approach and his discipline at work. I wasn't bogged down by rules, formulas and opinions. What I got was an entertaining and exciting (assuming you are interested in stock trading) trade by trade account of a successful trader at work along with his thoughts before and after each trade and at the trading days beginning and end. Afterwards I realized that, while being entertained, I was also getting a great trading education, without realizing it. I could not wait to see what the next chapter (day) would bring. This was especially true in light of the fact that the market was going through a major correction at the time and that I was aware, in retrospect, which days were going to be very difficult to successfully trade long in. Tony was not just telling me how to trade in this difficult market, he was showing me! I highly recommend this book.

Tony's latest book, The Stock Trader, is an excellent resource for all day and swing traders. This well-thought out 280-page book documents successful actual trades Tony made and has chart patterns and trade setups explained in detail on every page. Tony's the best trader out there who writes, with an easy-to-understand practical style that can help people actually become better traders. Unlike the other theory fluff books that abound out there, both of Tony's books are practical and well-written. This book is well worth 2-3 times the cover price and I have no hesitation in recommending it strongly to all our traders at ... as a "must read" resource.Thanks, Tony for contributing another useful, practical resource to the trading community. He put a lot of hard work into the book, and it shows. He documents "real trading in action" with risk/money management stops and profitable trades.Best of all, his book documents a genuine "look over the shoulder of a real trader in action" for a full month's worth of trades. Tony made a 56% return in 4 weeks, turning 50K into 78K (in a bear market month!). It's all here. Read it. He's a good trader.