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

I know there are a lot of negative reviews for this book. I have to admit that the first time I read it, I didn't understand anything and put it away. But I came back to it several months (or years?) later and, having gained experience, I now find that this book is a real gem. If you're looking for a Swing Trading book, don't look further...But please be prepared to work hard. Everything inside is insightful. Each sentence has a deep meaning, and forces you to think for yourself. Mr. Farley describes patterns, indicators, and explains why such or such things work, or fail. He always forces the reader to stand apart from the crowd. If you truly read and digest the first part of the book, reading a chart will never be the same thing again, because your eyes will be trained to see a lot more than what you could see before. The main part of the book presents his "seven bells". I'm really astonished when I read that beginners did not find them, when they are clearly described and half the book is dedicated to them : - Dip Trip page 261 : in a rally, buy a pullback to a predetermined Fibonacci level - very similar to the "Pullback" in Dr. Thomas Carr 's Trend Trading for A Living - Coiled Spring page 279 : in a rally, when prices consolidate (in a triangle for example), watch for an NR7 (defined in the book) because it signifies an imminent move - it's the same as Dr Carr's "Coiled Sping" setup, presented in Trend Trading For A Living - Finger Finder page 295 : a Reversal Japanese Candlestick, with a long leg outside a flat Bollinger Band, signals a trend reversal in a shorter time frame - Hole-In-The-Wall page 313 : go short after an unfilled gap in an uptrend - Dr. Carr named this setpup the "Gap Dow" in his first book - Power Spike page 329 : large volume spikes indicate an iminent move - Dr. Samir Elias described this setup in "Generate Thousands in cash etc ..." - Bear Hug page 345 : different tactics to go short, i.e. : after a 62.8% Fib support is broken, after an NR7, etc ... - 3rd Watch page 361 : the classical "cup and handle" revisited. All those setups work in the markets, and appear regularly. Alan Farley's website also provide free scans, to find stocks that match those setups. Alan Farley has given the trading community one of the most profound book on swing trading. Finishing this review, I've just noticed that he wrote the preface of Dr. Carr's first book "Trend Trading For A Living". I find it somewhat funny, as Dr. Carr's systems are greatly based on Alan Farley's setups.

This is a remarkable book. I learned so much. The flashy book cover makes it look like it's some run-of-the-mill trading book for newbies, but it isn't. It's quite big and dense and it goes quite deep. This book really teaches you a ton on how to read a chart. Why so many bad reviews? Here is the thing: This book assumes quite a bit of prior knowledge. So if you don't know already candlesticks, trendlines, chart patterns, indicators and quite a bit of other stuff, then this will be a very frustrating read. This book is a tome, and every single page is packed to the brim with information. Every single sentence teaches you something. I think I have learned more about Bollinger Bands in the few pages that he writes about it than anywhere else. If you lack prior knowledge it's all very difficult to appreciate, because it all blurs together into a huge mess. But if you are ready, this book is worth it's weight in gold. You need to read slowly, think about it, underline, make notes, re-read, and most important of all: take what he writes seriously and at face value. Look at many many charts to see the dynamics play out that he describes in order to gain confidence that the book is not just a bunch of bla bla. From what I can tell, most of the dynamics that he talks seem to be really there, I have just always overlooked them because the market is very subtle and multi-dimensional.

After seeing so many negative reviews, I decided to review this book just to shed some light on what it's really for and how it can help people who really do want to swing trade profitably. If done properly and with skill, swing trading can be a powerful way to capture profits in the stock market. Hypothetically speaking, just a 5% weekly profit could potentially generate very large sums of money in just a short time. Try this calculation for yourself: Beginning value: $1,000.00 Compounding rate: 5% Compounding periods: 208, (4 years compounded weekly) Ending Value: $25,549,017.66 You may not believe that figure, so you are welcome to prove it for yourself on a financial calculator. If you could capture just 1/10th of that theoretical limit you would be a millionaire in 4 years with just $1000 dollars compounded at 5% week after week! Swing trading is not for the novice trader. The writer mentions that the books content assumes "knowledge of basic market mechanics and technical analysis." So, if you are an absolute beginner, this won't be the book to get. You'll be exposed to many of the authors own personal terms without first learning terms that are commonly used in technical analysis . I found myself wondering what the benefit was in creating an original term for something that could have been explained better by just sticking to the common way of saying it. The people that will get the most out of this book will be the ones who have been trading in the markets for a year or two and have developed a basic understanding of the indicators, support & resistance, trend lines, and volume analysis. He uses candlesticks for all the charts, and if you haven't learned to appreciate candlesticks you'll be put off by the illustrations. I would have to give the author credit for stimulating an appreciation for Bollinger bands. I have never much cared about them until reading this text. I'm inspired now to use band trading and candlesticks to try and capture some of the theoretical profits that I mentioned above. One other thing that might be off putting is the author's writing style. I think this is what has generated so many negative reviews, which were probably written by novice traders that weren't able to grasp what he was saying. He uses short declarative statements that are strung together one after the other over entire paragraphs. He packs a lot of information in the shortest possible space. An experienced trader will be able to get through this, but a beginner will have a hard time taking so much information in all at once. For the beginner I would recommend "Short-Term Trading in the New Stock Market" by Toni Turner. Fully absorb this book first before you read "The Master Swing Trader." Is becoming a Master Swing Trader worth the effort? Yes. Will this book help you reach that goal? Yes. Just keep in mind the weaknesses mentioned above. When you read this book, have a second book handy when the author's writing style starts to become monotonous or draining. So, all in all, the positives outweigh the negatives. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for some good insights on swing trading.

That sums up this book. Hidden in this tomb are the secretes to trading success. But the as seen from the many negative reviews, the average person will not even recognize it. I first attempted this book when I was in my late teens and just getting into stocks. I felt the same way most bad reviewers feel. The language was so abstract, and the ideas so condensed, it was hard to understand. And there seems to be a lot of contradiction, but that is how trading stocks is, like have rules and knowing when to break them. I am 26 now and have become moderately successful in stocks. Rubbing the dust of this old book and reading a few chapters I realized - it was all there. All the lessons I learned the hard wear. And a little older and a bit more versed, I can understand and decrypt the passages. I agree it is hard to read book. It is like eating condensed soup. The book has a lot of chapters on specific patters. In my opinion you can skip these, patters come and go and are over-rated. Stick to parts on basic principles: disciplines, timing, volume, support/resistance, breakouts, etc.

It is less of chore to go to ipsum[dot]com and understand market dynamics than to attempt to read the first four chapters of this book. I'm sorry to say this but no one can write like this on accident. This author gets the Chopra award for investing pseudo-babble. Each word makes sense on its own but when he places them together things go wrong. Horribly wrong. There is no explanation to this madness. I want the chunks of my pre-frontal cortex back. Almost any other book, even the dummies series should inform better.

As a young trader who has been tempted to seek the short road to riches....... I knew prior to this read that anything worth doing is worth doing poorly at first. Trading is no different. Trading offers freedom and a life style that allows a mna or woman to avoid the mundane world of an 8 to 5 job. While I work longer hours as a trader they are hours of joy and excitement as I try to decode the process that is always changing. Farley give his readers a "decoder ring" that includes detailed explanation of proper usage of indicators. To those who have taken time to become aware of the long journey they have begun.... this book will offer some very nice surprises that can be used almost instantly to improve results To those seeking a dollar lottery ticket and a sure 6 number winner do not wast your funds. Pages 260 thru the next seven chapters to page 423 Offer detailed explanations on trade strategies with set ups 1. How to buy the dip 2. Coiled spring offfers ways to better anticpate the intense moves up that we all try to find "just before" 3. Finger Finders offers an new way of examining candle formations that I found fantastic 4. Gaps called holes in the wall are examined and offers a fresh expression on a successful process. I loved it from beginning to end.... Now its not exciting but the knowledge is well worth its costs.

If you are a full-time professional trader, this book may be helpful, otherwise, I believe it will only be an enigma to you. It seems to contain all this great information complete with many charts, deep discussion and analysis of market activity, and very intelligent sounding statements and recommendations, but the bottom line is that there is very very little I was able to actually use in my trading. I strongly believe any book should be read at least twice to get the full benefit, but I think I would have to read this book 5 or 6 times to get anything from it, and I am not sure that what you would get would actually be worth it when you see how thick it is. Some of his intelligent sounding statements are actually just confusion - I cannot tell if the writer just has the engineers mind-set and expresses himself in a very technical manner, or if he is trying to sound more profound and intelligent than he really is. In any event, his writing style is difficult and tedious, and say what you will, that makes the book harder to understand and less likely to be of any real benefit to you. His discussion on the 7 bells was pretty interesting, but it is not anything that I, as a part-time amateur trader, have been able to use. Again, if you are more advanced in your trading, you may be able to apply this information. For the money, I would recommend you pass on this book and buy High Probability Trading (Marcel Link) and The Professional Commodity Trader (Stanley Kroll, if you trade commodities). Both of these books are very, very helpful, give very good advice, are very easy to read and understand (both books are actually fun to read), and therefore, will be much more helpful to you.

One of my favorite movies (and Broadway plays) was Amadeus: wonderful acting, wonderful music, and fascinating story. One of my favorite lines in the show was when the King told Mozart that his music was good, but it had "too many notes"! Well, this line reminds me of Farley's writing in "The Master Swing Trader", though in this case it would be: "Too many words"! I must admit that I have not completed the book yet. And I am sure there are wonderful concepts buried in the 2" thick tome, but I find myself wading through far too many words to get to the nuggets Farley is trying to convey. I have read (and re-read, and re-read) whole paragraphs, even whole pages, and mentally re-written the underlying concept in a short phrase or sentence. I believe he is trying to be eloquent, even professorial, but in this topic it fails. As any good teacher should know: describe even complex subjects in simple terms so that students can understand and learn. This is far from what I am finding, and I can't help wondering if he was paid by the word for this work. I look forward to finishing the book, and I truly believe (and hope!) there are more solid concepts buried within. It is probably worthy of a 4-5 star rating for subject matter. But if you are looking for a straight-forward presentation of swing trading concepts in this book, you will be disappointed. So I am rating it a 3-star for its failure to truly teach in a way the reader can easily comprehend. Oh, and in case anyone thinks it is my fault, and that I am partially illiterate and unable to comprehend complex subjects and writings... Let me qualify myself by saying I am a summa cum laude graduate from Princeton University and magna cum laude post-grad from MIT. I say this not to brag, but to provide the context from which I write this review.

Not good

A very good and informative book

Excellent book on trading - the best I've seen so far. It's a must have for anyone who's serious about chart analysis.

Muy buena calidad tapa dura , excelente libro Solo falto los colores en la portada ya que trae una tapa dura azul plana

Me considero um trader de nível médio e o livro me ajudou a ver muitas possibilidades e precauções que antes não via. Excelente tmb para iniciantes terem uma boa noção do que é realizar operações na bolsa.