exchange

Somebody recommended this book to me. I read it. The idea is good however the author is far from understanding the principles of math (one would argue about understanding economics which is half social half science). There are many wrong calculations. I tried to contact Mr. Hoenig as I am from Chicago, too. Left several messages, sent e-mails with disagreement - no response.
I don't recommend the book. It's a waste of time.

Any neckbone could write yet another 'get started investing, kids!' book. It'd be practical, perky, thorough, and sensible. And no one would read it.

Hoenig injected his personality and sense of humor into his book, turning out one of the most readable, informative and original investing primers ever. See, that's the thing about writing about money for those who don't identify themselves as money types -- you've got a few seconds to grab their attention, convince them that the topic matters and assure them that you can render it comprehensible, interesting -- inspiring, even.

As some other reviewers of this book have noted, Hoenig doesn't sound like most other money writers. How that can be construed as a flaw escapes me. Instead, Hoenig observes one of a writer's highest goals: a willingness to do whatever it takes to reach the reader. If that means pop culture references and a strange obsession with '80s music, so be it.

Jonathan Hoenig is a friend of mine. I like him and I admire him. And I quite like this book (even its mistakes are kinda charming -- misspelling the name of a CNBC anchor hardly impugns the advice). So I won't pretend any lack of bias here.

But at least I'll sign my name to my comments.

My husband and I were trying to learn about the investing world as we started to look to the future. This book was such an easy read that is made this topic easy to understand plus fun as well. I would recommend it to anyone, especially those from our generation, to get serious and think about saving money for the future. It is not that intimidating and actually can be interesting if presented correctly. Thanks Jonathan for making our first taste of investing a delicious one!!

I had read Douglas's Trading in the Zone before. I had a very high expectation on this one. However, I was very disappointed.

The author emphasized throughout the book the importance of entering the zone, a state of mind that you can neglect fear, greed, P/L, and just trade according to your feeling of the market, though he supplemented that with the need of analysis, hardwork, focus blah blah blah, and that different people have different means to enter the zone, illustrated with examples anonymous. Those might be true stories. However, the author just did not tell the readers how they could do it themselves without the assistance of a coach like the author's good self.

A reviewer of this book wrote that this should be read together with Douglas's Trading in the Zone and Mc Call's The Way of the Warrior Trader. One should read those two excellent books only, but definitely not this.

I personally admire Dr. Kiev's work and contribution to daily psychology. However I would suggest any trader - or any other person, for that matter - to read and apply the ideas in his " Daily Living Strategy". His goal-based approach is what I live on, and I certainly understand the positive comments made by his clients, but I think the reviews are concerning the book + the counselling they took personally from Dr. Kiev. By itself, the book is not complete. It is helpful, and it certainly adresses several important issues, but it doesn't go deep. Also, it is a product of Dr. Kiev's work with the professional traders working in huge trading firms or departments, and as such, addresses the problems and solutions that can be found in such settings. Even the trading methodology Dr. Kiev seems to advocate sounds very institutional: he is talking about how to get real info from analysts that call you up. Well, being a full time trader who strikes on his own, that didn't help me. Again I recommend buyiing his now-classic book, the Daily Living Strategy, and apply it to whatever it is you want to achieve in your life.

One of the most essential, yet least discussed, topics when it comes to trading is market psychology. While fundamentals and technicals are both critical in developing an understanding of a company and its inherent value, trading psychology is the processor of this information and the true measure of success and profitability. People who wish to excel in trading must have a firm grasp on their emotions to prevent them from falling victim to the same mistakes that dominate most traders. In his latest book, Dr. Kiev presents a much richer discussion of what it means to be trading "in the zone", including how to get there and how to stay there. He also expands upon some of the topics presented in his previous book, providing more detailed information as to the psychological forces at work behind the mask of fundamental and/or technical information. For an emotional trader like myself, it's reassuring to know that I am not in the investing minority and that, with work, I can overcome these self-inflicted barriers to success to achieve my personal and professional goals.

This is a classic book describing a simple method for achieving outstanding results in the stock market by investing in a selection of five stocks from the Dow Jones Industrial average. There is one little problem. The method hasn't worked very well recently. Taking some data from the table on page 204 of the O'higgins book we see the % gain or loss of the selected five stocks compared with the Dow Jones Industrial Average: (Year, Five stocks, Dow Jones Average);(1994 8.6 4.9),(1995 30.5 36.4), (1996 27.9 28.9), (1997 20.5 24.9), (1998 12.3 17.9). The method has faied to Beat the DOW every year since 1994. My own calculations shows that this under performance continues into 2001. The Motley Fool Group has done extensive research on this method and after their initial enthusiam they have recently terminated their recommendation. Serious students of the market should buy this book. Further study of this approach may lead to new methods for "Beating the Dow".

"Beating The Dow" by Michael O'Higgins offers the following simple investment strategy. You simply buy the ten highest dividend paying stocks among the Dow Industrial Averages. The Philosophy is that as the value of the stocks increase, via stock price lagging or falling below the market, the dividend yield will tend to rise. (i.e. the assumption is that dividend yield is a proxy for value. One problem is that not all Dow stocks pay out the same level of earnings, so some stocks will tend to have higher dividends.)

While I tend to be skeptical of any investment strategy that is too simple, if you must use such a simple strategy, then you could do far worse selecting the highest dividend paying stocks from the Dow. Of course, the other option is just to index your money in a mutual fund that buys the entire stock market. Vanguard Funds is the leader in such index funds. But, I like dividends.

The difficulty with simple investment strategies is that they tend to be arrived at via data mining. The proponent of the investment method asks "What worked in the past?" and then tries to draw up a canned investment method. Almost always, the proposed method then starts to lag behind in the present and future stock market performance. (the recent performance of this strategy is discussed in another person's great book review. See that.) This is not due to market efficiency or that the method is becoming well known. It just means that the method wasn't entirely valid as a predictive method.

There is the old joke about the "X investment strategy." When a computer was asked to vigorously evaluate the stock market and look for predictors of future investment success, the computer spit back the answer, "Invest in stocks whose name begins with an 'X' and whose name ends with an 'X.' " Xerox was the top performing stock over the period.

"Beating The Dow" is one of those books, if read all by itself, might mislead a new investor into an over-simplified investment strategy. Yet, you might enjoy reading it. And, as stated, you could do worse than holding the ten highest dividend-paying Dow stocks.

"Beating The Dow" also mentions what Michael O'Higgins calls the "Penulatimate Profit Prospect (PPP)" which involves buying just one stock. The Stock with the second lowest price among the ten highest yielding stocks. I consider that Penidiotic. We conservative investors do love our stock dividends, and the focus on dividend yield gets "Beating The Dow" a solid honorable mention.

Peter Hupalo, Author of "Becoming An Investor: Building Wealth By Investing In Stocks, Bonds, And Mutual Funds."

Some people might laugh at this book specially the brokers who make living by sucking the commision out of an average investor. What had happened in the NASDAQ in 1999 before the correction was absolutely mind blowing and this book might have looked like a bad joke i.e. advocating to invest in companies like International Paper! but now that the dotcoms are down the drain, the valuations are somewhat back on earth, the margin-debt bitten people are done crying, maybe it is time that us i.e. average investors read this book.

This book as the name says is all about investing in Dow companies, the giants of the US and global economy. The companies which I truly believe that world could come to an end but GE would still be there. The book covers all the Dow components individually along with their historical financial performance, weaknesses, strenghts and their power to stay in business by being profitable over years and years. There are many different 'low risk' investment strategies covered in this book such as 'High Yielding 5'. These are the 5 Dow stock that you pick annually based on the criteria described, HOLD it for 1 year, redo the math (barely any)and pick your 5 stocks again. You also sell some at this point that didn;t meet your criteria and pick the new ones to fill their spot.

Sounds simple, yes! and that's the way it should be. Not only you can ride out the swings of the stock market in this way but also save a ton on commisions, taxes and most importantly be less stressed.

If you read the Motley Fool, you'll notice some of their strategies are derived from O'Higgin's methods.

A must read for all investors, specially younger people like myself who want to start building the nest yesterday!

I just finished studying for the NT Exchange Server 5.5 exam using this book and passed the test !!! The book is very easy to read and understand, and the authors have taken great pains to give you all the information you need to know to pass the test. They even tell you what you DONT need to know! A true lifesaver for me and I would reccommend this to anyone who would like to learn about Exchange Server 5.5 and pass the test. Good luck folks **smiles**

This is a great book! It's very easy to read and very informative. I was able to use the information to pass the exam on the first try. The authors should have done a better job mapping the end-of-chapter questions to the actual test, but that shouldn't keep anyone from using this book to pass the Exchange 5.5 exam. Especially with Exchange 2000 on the horizon, this is an especially important test. I recommend this book and these authors highly!

This is an excellent book if you are pursuing the MCSE cert, it's very easy to understand all the concepts of the Exchange Server 5.5 exam, the autor goes right to the point with very concise and easy terms, if you want to understand all the concepts needed for the exam, this is your book, it includes a cd with transcender demos, and a prep test tool that all by itself is worth the money you pay for it, you can use it to test yourself and see if you are ready for the real thing, and if you really want to be a master of exchange server 5.5 use this book for the intro to the basics and then buy Exchange Server 5.5 secrets by Guaraldi, Sides, Studt and Condon for the very technical knowledge.

There is not a whole lot of information in this book. Even when the author is trying to present some information, it is not done in a clear and understandable way. Really disappointed.

Well I'm pleased to say that Tony Redmond has produced the best exchange 5.5 book currently available. I work with exchange and recently completed my mcp exams in both exchange 5 and 5.5 so spent a lot of time and money reading lots of exchange material.

There are lots of books out there that claim to be able to give you all the knowledge you need to pass the mcse, what I like about this book is that it is not an mcse book. This book covers exchange in a corporate production environment.

The author goes into the most indepth detail of the exchange architecture that I have ever come across. Utilising his experience at Digital as the world's number one implementor of exchange, he uses many real world examples of how to deploy maintain and support exchange 5.5.

If your going for the exchange mcp exam save your money, don't buy the 101 mcse exchange guides that are out there buy this book. Also if your considering deploying exchange, or are simply a systems person who would like to know more about the product, buy this book.

This is a great book on Exchange. As well as the technical information there's alot of details on how you should design and implement Exchange - and at the same time the author takes the time to explain why. The thing I like best about the book is that whilst Tony Redmond is obviously a fan of Exchange, he is not afraid to point out its limitations.

I found "Trading in the Global Currency Markets" really useful in general, and for the technical analysis ample coverage, in particular. While I had some basic understanding about about technicals before reading Luca's excellent book, I can now say that I am able to use most of these tools with a high degree of certainty. Luca's approach is very systematic, and I felt I added layers upon layers of understanding. I think that the book caters well not only to novices, but also to professionals like me, who need to brush up their knowledge.

Excellent book if you need to learn what's truly going on in the currency markets! I can finally make sense on how forwards work and how to put together cross pairs the right way. The technical analysis is so comprehensive! Need to go once more over it. Really a useful book for the FX heads.

Mr.Luca has out done himself. I am a 11 year veteran of the futures markets and I have written three book on futures trading. Mr.Luca's book exceeded my expectations. I read it and was completely enlightened at the chain of connections that drive the currency market. His technical analysis on forex trading was easily adaptable to my own strategies, plus I learned a few new tricks.

Mr.Luca's writing is very indepth and many beginners to forex trading will find a lot of information to wade through in order to find the nuggets they are looking for. That being said, any serious beginner will not have a problem with getting a thorough education in this fascinating subject.

Intermediate traders will see there mistakes and hopefully correct them by using this book.

Overall, this is a great book by Mr.Luca and I keep a copy as a refernce.

a more suitable title for this book would be macro investing strategies, which i don't advise. why be a jack of all trades and diversify into bonds, stocks, global currencies and what not. boucher gives us good insight into an overall stategy albeit vague at times. the average investor would not fair too well on so much diversification, after all how many soros's are truly out there? hedge funds should be synonymous with market neutral investing and arbitrage. you won't find that here.

first, in boucher's defense, other reviewers have misunderstood the term "hedge fund" to mean "market neutral." the term "hedge fund" simply means the ability to go short in a portfolio. in that regard, the title is not misleading at all. this book does outline several short strategies based on an understanding of the liquidity cycle.

however, boucher, for as much as he espouses the austrian economic method, has forgotten that one tenant of that methodology is a total diregard for econometric forecasting. the relationships he defines in this book would have had many people in trouble in the early 2000s because, as the austrians state, what happened (past economic relationships) in the past does not have to happen in the future (these once dependable relationships may break down - with your money on the line). current monetary policy has been ineffective, and therefore, so would any of boucher's systems that rely on monetary indicators. these indicators would have been screaming "buy" the equity markets, while the equity markets themselves would have been screaming "sell us...now!"

that being said, the primary reason not to buy this book is that some of the systems that boucher gives are insightful logically, but dubious in execution. while he may give you a system, he does not give you all you need. the reader assumes that he is giving valid systems, with all pertinent information. but, he leaves certain important points out. for example, on page 138, he says that you should buy stocks when up volume on the NYSE is greater than 77% of total volume and then he gives past buy and sell dates for the strategy. after much testing, i figured out that he is not using total volume on the NYSE, but rather total volume less unchanged volume. in other words, total volume is up volume, down volume and unchanged volume for all shares trading on the NYSE. boucher's "total volume" is just up volume plus down volume. this makes a huge difference.

also, any time he uses 30-year t-bond data, good luck to you trying to figure out what he's actually using. the fed has a constant maturity series that goes back to 1977. boucher can go back to 1943 for this data. hmmmmmm. i'm sure he's using something, but i have no idea what. so, what good is the system if you don't know what he's using as the "30 year treasury yield"? and, through no fault of boucher, the 30-year is not issued any more.

he also relies quite heavily on the dow jones 20 bond index. this series was discontinued. this is not boucher's fault, of course, but just another reason to steer clear of this book.

i will say that i learned quite a bit from this book, however. it was fun to read. my problem simply resides with the somewhat tricky way that some of his systems are given. hey, i don't expect the guy to give away a proprietary system, but if you give a system, step up to the plate and tell the reader you're going to leave out some things (he actually does do this when he relays someone else's strategy). i find his method a bit disingenuous.

...

There is so much information in this book that it demands at least two readings. First, there is a wealth of material on trading. The chapter on technical analysis and reading the markets is solid and contains some good tips I've not found elsewhere. There is an entire chapter on containing risk, a large focus of which is money management--this information is worth the price of the book in itself.

Boucher also offers good material on selecting equities, evaluating other asset classes, and yes, hedge funds. However, the material on hedge funds does not take up a huge amount of space, and at first I wondered why he gave the book the title it has. I have since concluded that the title reflects his overall strategy, which is one of limiting risk by spreading ones' investments among many types of securities and asset classes, both onshore and offshore.

Aside from the above mentioned material, however, Boucher also has a couple of chapters on basic economics which I found to be invaluable background information for traders (like me) without business or economic degrees. His description of the liquidity cycle is brilliant. He explains the economic theory of Austrian alchemy, and shows how that model makes better sense than Keynesian economics. He has also provided data to convince me (a social liberal) that corporate taxes have a negative effect on a nations' citizenry.

This book requires dedication to get through certain sections, but it is well worth it. Its strength is its clear elucidation of trading information and techniques, supported by a foundation of economic theory and historical data, which enables the reader to understand the context in which s/he trades.

Lowenstein believes, among other things, that the chairman of the board and the CEO of a corporation ought to be two different people.

On that basis, he ought to approve of Enron's decision to separate the two posts, early in 2001. Skilling was never the chairman of the board of Enron. He was the CEO and Kenneth Lay was the chairman.

Lowenstein doesn't connect those dots. But he does ask us to consider "how inappropriate would the description President and Chief Justice sound, or Head Coach and Quarterback. The board's job, like that of the coach, is to monitor those on the field....Indeed, the merging of these roles in America stands out as a unique institutional mistake." In his view it has helped create the star-quality of CEOs which in turn made star-worshipping investors eager to part with their bucks in return for overpriced stocks.

Lowenstein might have done something more than given Ken Lay this accidental pat on the back. He might have offered some empirical evidence of the badness of such merging. He might, for example, have cited two corporations who faced similar circumstances otherwise - one with a chairman who was also CEO, the other with a severance of the two positions. If the former company suffered from a bubble-and-bust that the latter company avoided, that fact would be germane for empiricists. Or he might have referenced corporate earnings or productivity or any other measure of anything valuable tends to increase when the two roles are severed. But he doesn't. One need not expect empiricism from an author pushing a hot thesis.

Instead, there is a good deal of discussion of the absurdly high salaries CEOs make these days, which prove (he thinks) that boardrooms have become excessively chummy places. Indeed, he can play heads-I-win and tails-I-also-win. If Skilling had been chairman as well as CEO, his subsequent indictment would show why those roles should never be combined. But since in his case they weren't combined, the same facts show ... what? Apparently that they should be occupied by non-chums, by people who are wary of one another.

This is a demand that we don't make in the case of a head coach and a quarterback. If they are both sharing in the credit for a winning team performance, they are likely to feel rather chummy. As for their salaries, that will be determined by the supply of people capable of doing their jobs, and the demand for getting those jobs done.

Of course, in the case of Enron in early 2001, they were NOT getting the job done, they were only pretending to. But Lowenstein doesn't have a handle on the whys and hows of that.

There are only two emotions that motivate the stock market: fear and greed.

In his latest market history, Roger Lowenstein explores how the theme of creating shareholder value morphed into unbridled greed and led to the latest stock market crash.
Delving back to the 1970s and 1980s, Lowenstein spins a compelling narrative, of heavy hitters -- Jack Grubman, Sandy Weill, Frank Quattrone, Henry Blodget, Mary Meeker, Abby Cohen, Bernie Ebbers, Frank Lay, Jeffrey Skilling, Gary Winnick -- who checked their moral scruples, fiduciary responsibility and better judgment at the door in the pursuit of personal wealth. Along the path, they co-opted the system's traditional restraints: full disclosure, public accounts and corporate attorneys.

I was disappointed Lowenstein failed to include the Richard Grasso incident. As the head of the New York Stock Exchange and regulator of virtually every individual mentioned in the book, his pursuit of personal wealth at the expense of those he was charged with regulating would have served as the icing and cherry on top of this tale of greed.

Regardless, this well-researched and powerfully written portrait of the rise and fall of the bull market of the 1990s will studied by market historians for decades to come.

In Origins of the Crash, Roger Lowenstein has written a fascinating account of the late 90's stock market bubble and subsequent collapse. The overriding theme of the book is that the culture of "shareholder value" was twisted from creating true long-term value into an obsession with the daily ups and downs of the companies' stock prices. It's an interesting way to view things and should prove thought provoking to many. Lowenstein makes a compelling case that the scandals of the past several years are not the work of just a few bad actors, but rather were symptomatic of widespread failures throughout all levels of business, government and the public. The cast of villains is extensive including the now common ones like Ken Lay (along with Skilling and Fastow), Jack Grubman, Bernie Ebbers (and Scott Sullivan) and Henry Blodget, but also includes the complicity of weak boards (and overall lax corporate governance), conflicted accountants and lawyers and an investing public (both individual and professional) that was too busy making money to worry about any of it.

I am not sure how much new reporting there is in this book... much of it is pulling together various stories that have been widely reported on. But it is put together artfully into a compelling narrative. It was fascinating to watch Michael Jensen, who was one of the earliest advocates of the use of stock options, eventually turn on his own creation. The section on Enron, while obviously not as extensive as some of the works devoted to the subject, is one of the best condensed accounts I have seen.

I do have a few quibbles with the book though. First, it winds up being something of a polemic. Reading Mr. Lowenstein's book, you get the distinct impression that there was not a single positive thing that happened at any time during the 90's. I found myself wondering if any companies managed to get it right... and if so, how and why? Second, in highlighting the abuses of options at the executive level, I think Mr. Lowenstein gives short shrift to the positive effects they can have on the lower levels of an organization. In the same way, he glosses over that there are some justifiable reasons for not expensing options. Finally, I question some of his comments about deregulation. He argues that the deregulation of telecom went to far or was perhaps even a bad thing. And yet, the purpose of regulation is not to protect the value of companies, it is to ensure access at the most reasonable costs possible. By that standard, deregulation of telecom should be seen as a success. Sure, lots of capital was destroyed and many companies failed, but it is not the government's job to prevent that.

But those issues aside, the book will stand as one of the more definitive accounts of the excesses of the 90's and Mr. Lowenstein's case against the culture of shareholder value will hopefully inspire some new thinking amongst executives, boards and investors. In short, I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in recent market/business history.

When I saw the cover of this book, with Ben Stein and his co-author lounging by the pool, bags of gold coins and gold ingots at their side, I thought it would be a send-up of investing books. Oops.

In spite of the kicky title and irreverent writing style, this is a genuine attempt to educate investors. It's full of rather conservative, long-term advice. Look for undervalued stocks. Don't jump in and out of the market. Diversify. When Stein and DeMuth talk about Market Timing, it is not a reference to day trading, rather to buying stocks when they are cheap. Buy low, in other words.

Their thinking on dollar cost averaging is refreshingly sensible. Instead of the Bob Brinker style of investing a fixed amount every month (or year or whatever) regardless of cost per unit, you should wait until the stock is cheap, then buy as much as you can. This assumes the investor has a brain, and enough discipline not to mess it up, which seems to be Brinker's fear.

Anyway, there isn't much new here. It's solid investing advice, breezily presented, so if you need a refresher, or are new to investing, this isn't a bad book to start with.

Stein and DeMuth succeed impressively in their primary aim, which is to prove that there are better times than others to invest in the stock market, and that a market timer who pays attention to the signals they describe can achieve significantly higher returns than a steady investor who buys in regardless of price. To determine whether the market is over- or under-priced, they rely upon valuation methods that will please the heart of a classically trained economist or business school student: price, P/E ratio, dividend rate, and price-to-book, comparing today's figures to the 15-year moving average. Examining the performance of the S&P 500 over the past century, they convincingly prove that a strategy of doubling up investments in "buy" (under-valued) years and avoiding investing in over-valued years delivers superior performance to a buy-and-hold (or dollar cost averaging) strategy.

Although what Stein and DeMuth have proven seems like common sense from one angle (buy heavily when prices are low), it is not what most of Wall Street and the financial press urges investors to do. Nor is it emotionally easy to follow this advice, since it means buying at times such as the middle of the Great Depression, when the popularity of stock market investing is at its lowest ebb, and it means avoiding buying when the market is zooming to the moon, and it seems as though every neighbor of yours is making a fortune in Internet and telecom stocks (the late Nineties). Stein and DeMuth do a great job describing these situations, to provide the internal fortitude needed to follow a buy low strategy.

The debate over this book arises over how applicable it is to the average individual investor (its target audience). All the research conducted by Stein and DeMuth concerns the S&P 500, and they freely admit that the conclusions they draw do not necessarily apply to other indices, markets, or individual stocks. Furthermore, they look at 20-year results, so the final verdicts for the last 20 years (including the bull market of the '90s) are not in yet.

However, Stein and DeMuth cite many others studies that are aligned with their general strategy of buying under-valued stocks, and summarize the superior results that these other studies report. Because of this, and the book's sharp wit and hard-hitting style, this book is a great introduction to value investing and the fundamental methods of valuing stocks. The boom and bust of the late Nineties and early 2000s prove that far too many investors (and professionals) don't pay enough attention to stock market valuation.

This book won't tell you how to make a quick fortune. It won't tell you how to identify the next Microsoft or Dell Computer. But it does tell you how to identify better times to invest in stocks, and can help you avoid huge losses from investing in bubbles. Because of the strength of the book's advice, which recent history proves is so often ignored, and the fact that it is a short and entertaining read, I highly recommend it.

Finally, at last, a book about the financial market that combines great advice with true wit and common sense. I've bought it for everyone I know. (Including my three year old son... A must for every Mom who'se thought about entering the market, but has never quite felt able to trust it before. With these chaps you're in safe, informative, entertaining hands. Alison Larkin

As a Foreign Currency Dealer, I was NOT helped from this book at all! Actually the title is misleading since he does NOT concentrate on FX, he only shows some graph examples using FX crosses instead of stocks... The author just refers to a lot of TA indicators only reviewing their typical Buy and Sell signals that are written in every TA book, and furthermore the sections are very bad structured. Really very very disappointed!!!

I have had a measurable improvement in my profitability since reading "Technical Analysis Applications in the Global Currency Markets."
Although I have traded currencies for nearly seven years, I've never had the opportunity to systematically train in charting. Adding insult to injury, I listened many times to the "expert advice" of some ill-prepared reporters, who deliver opinions devoid of information. Needless to say, I lost money in several instances.
What "Technical Analysis Applications in the Global Currency Markets" brings to the table is a complete and systematic set of tools that will enrich every trader's arsenal. It's been working for me well consistently. It's hard to believe that I missed so many opportunities in the past.
There are many technical books out there. But I am a currency trader, and I'd rather see examples in FX, without the bias of "buy-and-hold" that you see in most other books that focus on equities. Besides, with the way they are going, who wants to trade equities, anyway?
I learned a lot from this book, and I feel confident that I can always go back to it to refresh my knowledge. Frankly, a lot of candlestick terms were at best fuzzy before reading is book. Now, I am fully confident in my understanding, and this translates in increased profitability.

I traded FX for 15 years in major banks in New York and London and I now have a retail FX firm. I found "Technical Analysis Applications in the Global Currency Markets" to be an excellent review for myself and a vital training tool for my traders.
In a short period of time junior traders drastically improved their knowledge and, more importantly, performance. At the end of the day, all that counts is a decent profit.
I found the clear structure and complete coverage to be big assets, particularly in a market devoid of consolidated research. In fact, this is the only technical analysis book on foreign exchange that I know of.
Junior traders were very pleased with the excellent explanations, diagrams and real-life examples in this updated edition. In particular, they found trend analysis, candlesticks, and point-and-figure charts to be consistent profit boosters.
The clear explanation of the benefits of moving averages and of the entry/exit points is valuable as well. Most recetly, these ntry/exit applications worked wonderfully for both the euro and the yen.
I strongly recommend "Technical Analysis Applications in the Global Currency Markets" to anyone who toils in the volatile currency markets.