day-trading

This is exactly as described a how-to book for daytraders. There is a perfunctory rehash of the basics of technical analysis and execution systems. The material here is helpful as a stepping stone if the reader has never been exposed to the material but there is nothing groundbreaking presented. That alone is of interest to me. Here is a trader that has been successful on the floor with little more that a few support and resistance numbers in his head. It is clear from his book that you will make bigger profits if you understand the market, even if you invest little time reading the latest book from newest technical analyst.

There are sections about how to prepare for the trading day, the dynamics during the trading day and how to use time effectively after trading is done. Again, the material presented is basic in nature. Perhaps when a book is written with such a large scope, it would be impossible to add much depth to the various topics. Borsellino is a legend of trading. But I would recommend Schwartz's Pit Bull over this effort.

One of the trading legends of this generation , I'd imagine it might have been painful for Lewis to "talk down" and write the book in this total trading newbie tone. Experienced traders will find little information here of any use. Just very basic TA, bit of overworked trading principles and the customary psychology chapter. I did find one page discussing fair value and premiums to be interesting and there are a few pages going over the economic indicators at the end of the book that might be worth taking notes on. Overall, a decent pick up for a total beginner though useless for any seasoned trader.

Lewis Borsellino has earned a reputation as one of the greatest for his 20 years of pit trading at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Now that computers have brought trading to offices and homes around the world, Lewis is able to teach people lessons he has learned the hard way and that are as applicable now as they ever were. This book offers the essential ingredients that have given the author what it takes to become one of the best. Through Lewis' real-world experiences, the virtues of mental preparation, technical analysis, devising a trading plan, execution and discipline, should hit home with clarity.

The first chapter of the book is dedicated to mental preparation, and the importance of fully understanding the basic truths about trading. Lewis has seen people from all types of professions think they can take what they have learned in their fields and apply it to trading. This is not the case. When Lewis shares his experiences, it is clear that the market requires a certain "frame of mind" that is like nothing else.

At one point in Lewis' career, he had gained $4.5 million in profits, but saw it evaporate to only $100,000. From this loss, he learned that certain errors in his thinking were the culprits. For example, trading in big size may be good for the ego, but it can get you into situations that a poor market won't accommodate for. As Lewis said:

"I couldn't fling around hundreds of contracts to satisfy my ego or because people in the pit expected that of me. I had to trade what suited both my own plan and the market conditions. After that my trading was noticeably on track."

With a proper mindset in place, a good trader needs a good plan to execute. Essential to Lewis' plan is technical analysis. According to Mr. Borsellino, technical analysis, as far as drawing up the images, is the easy part; interpreting them is where the real expertise comes in. With this book as your guide, insight into what Lewis looks for in a chart will be made clear. The goal here is to identify the trend at an early stage and stay with the trend until it has ceased. Just learning the patterns will only get you so far, it takes the advice of a real pro to gain a superior edge in the markets.

The most important aspect of trading for Lewis is discipline. This means adhering to a plan, focusing on the trade, not the money, and goal setting. Without discipline, the best strategies in the world will fall apart. Knowing when, and when not to trade, as well as not letting matters outside of trading interfere with your decisions, are the results of practicing good discipline. This challenge is something even Lewis deals with now in his career. Through sharing personal experiences, the author gives tips and advice on how to incorporate good discipline, and to avoid common pitfalls that will wreak havoc on your account. Again, just being familiar with the importance of discipline is one thing, but having Lewis as your guide is a real treat.

I will admit that I am a trading book junky and find something to learn from just about everything I pick up. But this one comes from the perspective of one of the world's greatest, and with co-author Patricia Crisafulli, this well-written read will help solidify what's really important when it comes to obtaining success. As Larry Connors, CEO of TradingMarkets.com, puts it, "If you're looking for theory, this is not the book for you. But if you want to learn how to trade in the real world, Lewis is your greatest teacher."

This book may prove more useful to day traders, but it is also helpful to short-term traders whose defintion of short term means 2-3 days. The section that has been most useful to me is chapter 10 which deals with price spikes and price probes.. Also you will find some useful ideas on money management.

1 Star was the lowest rating I could find, if "SCAM" was na option I would have selected it. This book will soon serve as "exhibit A" in the case against these highway thieves. Do your homework first. Look at this post before you spend anything on this book[...]

Proceed with caution!

In three words....GREAT TRADING BOOK. I am a full-time proprietary day trader working at a NYC trading firm and I've read at least 20 books on the subject of trading. I wish I had read this one first instead of last. It would've advanced my success rate substantially. Velez starts off by talking about the psychological & mental aspects of successful trading and explains, in clear & simple language, how to mentally prepare for the trading process - from entering a position to exiting it. The remainder of the books goes into various technical analysis strategies, buy & sell chart setups, entry & exiting strategies, stop loss strategies, for both swing & intraday trades. In summary, this book is a great book for an entry level or seasoned trader & is well worth every nickel. I can honestly say that this is one of the top three books Ive read without a doubt. You will not be disappointed by this book, it's all meat-no fluff.

Jim R.
Maywood, NJ

The people who previously reviewed this new book by Oliver Velez and Greg Capra seem to have started in the middle of the book, looking only for The Holy Grail to lead them to immense profits heretofore undiscovered by anyone else. I found the real value in the first half of the book, which tries to show you why you haven't been a successful trader up to now and what to do about it. This is worth the price of the book in itself. They are teaching you how to fish, not giving you a fish, as the old saying goes. They should include a mirror with every copy, as I see myself in every page when they describe the mistakes made by beginning traders. I started trading commodities in 1989 and switched to stocks in 1998, so I have had the rare opportunity to make all the mistakes they describe and more. But the good news is...that's what makes you a success later on. Chapter 5, "The Seven Deadly Sins of Trading", doesn't just tell you the sins, but actually tells you how to eliminate them. This chapter alone is worth the price of the book to me.

I became profitable in 1998 and support my family totally from trading income, using many of the tools described in this book. I have tried many of the software "black box" programs out there, been to many seminars (some great ones, some worthless ones), bought many trading books, and it has all led me to where I am now. If I had let an unfavorable review like the ones here steer me away from a fantastic book like this one, I would not be trading today and making a living working for myself half a day and hiking, biking and skiing the other half. So what if they promote their own seminars, web pages, trading room, etc. in the book. Wade Cook and many others use their books as free advertising the same way...nobody is forced to buy the other products. We all have the ability to decide whether or not we will delve further into these products, don't we?

To be fair to the other reviewers, they may already be successful traders that don't need the advice in the first half of the book and were only looking for a book that would reveal a system or method to double their income in the next three months. All I can say is that I have been trading for eleven years and the book will probably double my income in the next six months even if I never read the second half. Buy it, read it and decide for yourself.

I guess I'm spoiled by Martin Schwartz's excellent book Pit Bull. I was expecting a trader's autobiography something along the same line with The Day Trader, but what I got was the first 130 pages of Borsellino talking about what a tough guy he is and about his mafioso father. After that he dips into a high-level discussion of the changes to the commodities and NASDAQ exchanges over the years. There is virtually no mention of trading technique or psychology, outside of the constant tough guy braggadocio, which is pretty sad to hear from a 40-year-old guy. And definitely don't buy it if you're looking for trading advice or techniques. There is none to be found. If you want a nice biographical read about a trader, read Pit Bull or Reminiscences of a Stock Operator instead. Borsellino simply doesn't write well enough to keep this one interesting. The story wanders around too much and is too repetitious.

While the title has disappointed some by leading one to think that this book contains the secret strategies of a successful day trader (it does not), I found this book to be perfectly appropriate for teaching everyone about an often overlooked concept and the one thing that kept him in the trading game: heart.

Through the lens of this notion, Borsellino gives folks a first-hand look of what it takes to make money in the S&P futures pits of the Chicago Merc. Much more than that, "Big Italy" gives you a no-holds-barred account of his humble beginnings and some of his more interesting episodes as a day trader on the Merc. The best story I ever read was about how he was able to earn over $1.3 million dollars on one trade...in about 1 minute! If you want to see what its like to be on the other side of the daytrading fence (the very profitable side) take a look at Borsellio's "The Day Trader". Also useful is an interview he gives in "The Best: TradingMarkets.com Conversations With Top Traders". There he discussed order flow and support and resistance from a pit trader and a pc-based traders point of view. Some useful nuggets there.

The book is not a tech how to book but in all fairness the auther doesn't claim it as one. This book is more of an autobiography and in that category it is a 5. The auther brags about himself at times but anyone who is that successful has a right too. Excellent read well worth the time!

I only gave 1 star because they won't let you give no stars. This type of trading book goes under the genre of 'very expensive because theoretically, you can get your money back by making just one winning trade.' Don't fall for it: this book (at app. $1.00 per page!) is absolute and total rubbish. Basically, it tells you to look for a stock making a 20 day high, then after a one day pause, enter the breakout on the so called 'trigger' day. But get this: on page 22, the author(s) make the following stunning admission and I quote: "As you can see, this method is simple and easy to identify. Here is the catch: Most trigger days will never occur. This is one of the keys."

Can you believe that?? If most trigger days NEVER occur, then what the heck are you looking for? The authors provide some arcane and screwy explanation, saying that you are looking for many small trades with minimal losses and app. 1 in 6 or so trades will work. Aha, so that's the KEY? (LOL). Hey, aren't we ALL looking for many small trades with minimal losses? Problem is, tradiung is an extremely difficult and complex thing to do, thousands of books have been written on the subject, and the above method is surely not THE ONE.

As if this isn't bad enough, the book is poorly written with very weak and incomplete examples. For example, the so called 20 day high, pause and trigger days are shown by a series of seemingly random OHCL bars, but what exactly are we looking for here? Dojis, high-low, low-high bars and in what sequence? Also, no examples of securities with precise entry points in terms of price are given.

Readers should always be extremely wary of home grown trading books (this one appears to be self-published), written by folks without established financial credentials trying to snag a quick buck from information-hungry or novice traders. Truly shameful.

The book is only 40 pages, but it gives the reader and in-depth explanation of one trading strategy. Setups for this strategy don't occur on an everyday basis, so you can't use this strategy for your everyday trading. What I really liked is how the explanations of this one strategy taught me to look at specific components of trading setups and helped me develop and track my own trading strategies. Not great, but very good.

Simplicity. There is nothing like it. I have often thought that the simplest method can often yield the best results in all areas of life. This strategy is no different. For those of you with backgrounds in technical trading, I think that you will really appreciate what this book has to offer. Folks who are not familiar with moving averages and bar charts may not be able to fully appreciate the power of this simple strategy. In any case, if you need a strategy that will help you find trading opportunities day-in and day-out, then you should give this book a good, long look.

Not even sure that I can recommend this to a beginner, as these methods are very simple, very vague and often have no money management. The only positive is that it's a quick read and cheap.

The book starts out with a word of caution, which is almost a refreshing break from the hype that has risen up around day trading. For those of us who have been trading for years, these words ring true. If you want the "holy grail" watch an informercial, if you want some ideas for trading, buy this book.

I know Charles Lebeau because I meet him at Dr. Tharp's seminars about building a winning trading system that fits you. He is honest in that saying daytrading isn't for everyone. It increases the opportunity and the cost. If your like most traders and make classic mistakes the increased cost and # of transactions will deplete your account. If you understand the rules the ideas in here may help increase your profits. I would reccomend buying the orginal Market Wizard's book by Dr. Tharp called Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom and then you might have something to work with by reading this book.

The author admits she hadn't done any day trading before late 1998, and that she held on to an Amazon short position for more than a year (as it rose one hundred points)! Is THIS someone you want to take money advice from?

Just to give you an idea of what to expect from this book: 1) lots of screenshots of web pages you've probably already visited; 2) lots of references to Troy's three trading tips, which amount to little more than "buy low, sell high" (gee, thanks); 3) a complete lack of information about how to develop day trading skills.

You'll like this book if you're interested in the history of electronic systems available to day traders. Otherwise, pass.

I would have given this no stars but Amazon doesn't allow that. This book was useless except for the laughs I got reading about the authors "daytrading" adventures. For someone serious about daytrading there are MUCH better books out there. If you want to open a browser based online trading account with $2500 and do position trading then maybe, possibly, although I doubt it, you might find something of interest in this book.

Don't be misled though - this book has nothing to do with true direct access daytrading. For that check out the excellent "Electronic Daytrading Made Easy" by Sarkovich.

Good Trading

It forced me to give it a star, I wanted to give it zero stars! What a useless book! Half the book is the authors' interviews with various CEO's. The book will tell you what most of you already being online already know. A whole chapter is devoted to telling you which web sites to go to for financial info, like CNN and the Motley Fool. Another tells you which brokers are online. You can get this info at Yahoo. This book is a glancing overview of online trading. No real info, no info on techniques, no info to make you money. Don't waste you time or money. Get Toni Turners "A Beginners Guide to Day Trading Online" for real info.

Any book that will make me stay up late to read it will get at least 3 stars from me. Very entertaining, and perfectly fine for passing time (which is the reason I will usually read a book anyway). I was very intrigued with the storyline, it's interesting and fast-paced, and the 'leave-us-hanging-page-turner' quality rates high as far as I'm concerned. The first-person singular, present tense (that 1 reviewer criticized) I didn't mind at all -- many I've read fall into this category. What I didn't like about this book -- and the reason it doesn't get a higher rating -- was its inconsistency. Some of the other reviewers have touched on this. The protagonist is insightful enough and pays close attention for many things, yet seems to be completely clueless about other things (like his marriage and his best friend). But even worse, there were a few completely bizarre scenes that didn't fit at all. Here we have a seemingly very nice gentle guy, yet for no apparent reason he nearly kills a friend's psychic. This happens out of nowhere -- in the middle of some completely unrelated scene -- he apparently decides he'll find out what's really going on with everything and 2 sentences later he's choking the life out of this poor woman just to know whether she really could see the future a few days earlier or whether she was making it all up! What was up with that? Why???? There are other examples of unbelievable bizarre behavior -- stuff that totally doesn't belong and should have been taken out of the first draft. But aside from those things, I found it a very entertaining read.

I've never read any Stephen Frey before. I read a lot of mystery/suspense books and I enjoyed this one a great deal. I had a tough time putting it down. However, I found some of the explanations of trading to be a bit trite. I wasn't sure I believed all of the facts of the "trading floor" until I verified with my husband that such places existed. I found the protagonist somewhat implausible. He could be incredibly smug and yet really naive and then at the same time, brilliantly figure it "all" out! The book is definitely worth reading and I think I'll try another Frey book to see how he does with other characters.

Having never been terribly interested in the stock market, I was rather amazed at how much I enjoyed this book. Being quite an ignoramus on this subject, I found his explanations very informative. He writes well, the pages turn themselves and I was even reluctant to finish it as I enjoyed the mystery. Will definitely read more of Stephen Frey's books. Was quite amazed to see so many negative reviews.

This book deals around a concept and from page one tries to relate that concept with W. D. Gann. Over the years I have noticed that when people wnat to sell a book dealing with anything relating to the financial markets they call for W. D. Gann to help. Gann as a trader used very simple rules (swing trading) and none of the mystical stuff which made him known. In fact the mystical stuff came AFTER Gann retired from trading. Now, it is up to you: the concept explained in this book is actually FALSE and does NOT work. There is a forthcoming book by this author together with someone called Robert Krausz. I have been given that book to read and I come to the very same conclusions: 1) they want to sell and make money selling books 2) to do that they think up of an attractive concept and, 3)they ask W. D. Gann for help. Concluding: if you plan to make money in the markets then you shouldn't even consider these books!

This book presents supposed statistical analysis of prices hitting, supporting or resisting intraday, depending on the previous day closing price and opening price based on pivot levels.

Some of the percentages present apparently good trading opportunites. However, there are six zones and hence 6 close x 6 open price combinations and the six levels which price the can hit during the day. You can get an idea as to how many permutations (trading setups) there are.

Although this is supposed to be a statistical analysis, with nice percentage numbers, the data would be more attractive if the P values and the n were included. Basically you will have to backtest each combination to verify the worth of the percentages for each promising setup.

Pecentages also vary quite a bit between different markets although some nice correlations do exist.

The book presents a lot lot more numbers than most books and therefore deserves appropriate credit. Some of the better stats can be tested in simple backtesting programs.

Would be more reasonably valued at a lower price than the listed retail.

.... this book is filled with lots of white space, blank pages and mostly useless information. It's a very quick read, and has some limited trading appeal. The logic is very similar to market profile and daytraders' pivot numbers. Price seeks to reach a middle ground "pivot" - shaped like a bell curve, with the most activity in the middle and least on the extreme ends. This book throws a whole bunch of stats of percentages of what happened when in particular ranges. This is similar to market profile, with a vague theory of generalities, and requires you to work with wide stops within zones. Market profile and floor pivot number traders may find this book useful in linking together a method , but overall .. this book isn't worth buying.

This is the WORST BOOK EVER! Sunny Harris should be ashamed of herself - or at least Locked Up!

The book starts with 112 pages of very basic information, information for the totally clueless newbie. If you have more than 3 months of investment experience or if you've read 2 beginner daytrading books or if you've surfed investment sites the last 3 months, you won't learn anything new here. The next 200 pages are references, website addresses, and stuff that belongs in a phone directory. Page 189 to page 313 is a listing of NASDAQ stocks!?!?!? All it shows is the ticker symbol, company name and which sector the company belongs to. NOTHING ELSE!!! I would have rated it zero stars if Amazon.com had such a rating. This book is all bun and no burger, I read my copy at the library (313 pages in half an hour). Leave this PoS on the shelf!!!!!

This book is 350 pages but all of the relevant information could be squeezed into 1/3 that amount. I got 1/3 of the way into reading the book when I realized that the rest of the book is all appendices. Approximately 127 pages of the book are names and the corresponding symbols of Nasdaq listed companies. This might have been helpful before the Internet, but now it is a waste of space. It does give some basic information for the begginer who has no idea about day trading, however if you base the price on relevant information, in my opinion, the price should be under 10 dollars. If you have a little knowledge about day trading, you will not get much more info from reading this book. If you have no knowledge about daytrading, you might want to look around first, in my opinion,you can do allot better.