The Trader's Guide to Key Economic Indicators

Good book as an intro into economic indicators. I enjoyed reading about how and why they were developed.

The book answers every question a trader/investor would have regarding the various key economic reports that move the markets. Very detailed and informative. -JL www.weeklyta.blogspot.com

I found this book to be very readable and balanced from start to finish. Sure, some of the material became a little dry, but each chapter was readable in a single sitting. The excellent consistency between chapters with respect to the writing style and use of charts made the book well worth the time to read. The author has done a great job in pointing out what matters for each index he described. I wish all books on finances could be written with such clarity. This book is ideal for anyone who wants to learn more about spotting trends in the economy by learning the significance of the dozen economic indicators the author presents.

This book was surprisingly easy to read and understand. Very interesting material for anyone curious about the factors that influence the economy and what measures to watch to understand where we are heading. Concentrates on the major indicators and tells you where the data comes from. Illustrated with lots of charts and tables to help you understand the relationships over time. Organized so that the information builds up to the more complex relationships. Though written by an economist, this book is surprisingly easy to read and the material was interesting (even for someone that slept through econ 101, like me). The most useful economics book I have run across. Highly recommended.

Even if you once knew all the ways that economic indicators are defined, data collected and reported, chances are that all of this has changed (unless your knowledge is less than 2 years old). In addition, the best way to use these indicators is constantly changing as new analytical tests are developed and back-checked. So if you are the chief economist for a Wall Street investment bank or brokerage firm, you probably don't need this book. But if you hold stock and bonds in the United States less often than 10 years, you can profit from this book.Each chapter provides a delightful history of how a relevant indicator was developed, how the measurements are made now, how to apply the indicator for stock and bond investing and the latest technique for getting an "edge" on just looking at the indicator alone. The material is written in the kind of simple language that almost anyone can easily understand. The math is simple, too. If you can do arithmetic, you can understand this book.There are individual chapters GDP; leading, lagging and coincident indicators; employment; industrial production and capacity utilization; indices from the Institute for Supply Management; manufacturers' shipments, inventories and orders; manufacturing, trade inventories and sales; new residential construction; consumer confidence and sentiment; advance monthly sale for retail trade and food services; personal income and outlays; and the consumer and producer price indices. Each discussion looks at how these data help you understand the future business cycle, interest rates, corporate profits and Federal Reserve actions. I thought that the graphs were one of the best parts of the book. You can judge for yourself how powerful the relationships are that Mr. Yamarone outlines.As I finished this book, I realized how nice it would be to have similar books for consumer decisions (like when to refinance your home, etc.) using the same kind of indicators in different ways..