Fred McAllenTrading the Trends

This book is a great place to start as an investor or trader seeking ways to understand the markets and how to trade it. I enjoyed the conversational tone and examples laid out in the book.I plan to read it a few more times just for clarity and understanding.

I wish I read this book years ago! This book is a must read to both traders and investors. You will learn safer ways to how to trade for short-term, and invest for long-term! You can learn a lot to protect your money, just from using simple technical tools!

I would rank this book at the top of the list for the individual investor. Provides highly usable and practical information for the DIY investor who does not want to be bilked by his financial advisor. Most Robo Investors can do the investing for you, but I learned that they over diversify with conservative investments that do not keep up with the S&P 500 returns. All you need is knowledge and patience which Mr. McAllen's book provides in perfect detail and do the investing yourself.

Only con is the charts and screenshots used in the book are from 2008-2011, which is not very high resolution.Other than that, this is a great book. I understand options in much less time than reading other books.

Trading The Trends - by Fred McAllen - this is the second book after 'Charting and Technical Analysis'. This is a must read after finishing the first book. In Trading The Trends, a broad approach to the market is taken and then builds with greater detail as a strategy is selected and trade plan is used. Much of the knowledge from the first book is used as this second one rounds out everything with profit in mind. Whether you are a long term investor, swing trader, shorter term trader/day trader, techniques are discussed with examples and goals in mind. Entry and Exit points, moving averages, and other indicators are discussed. I skipped the 'Covered Calls' section because I know I won't trade that way, but it is consistent with the rest of the book. Covered Calls involve owning stock and using call options - this lines up more with the 'investor' strategy versus short term trading strategy I was exited about. Income strategies using options also are discussed such as a bear call spread. For Butterflys and Condors you might check out other sources, but some brief mentions about blue chips and utilities is covered. Advancing and Declining securities overall seemed helpful to me such as looking at the New York Stock exchange and index as a broader scope versus the DJIA for instance. The 50 DMA and 200 DMA are discussed with examples. The support and resistence concepts are vital and are thoroughly discussed. All in all, I have bolstered my trading with this book and have switched gears from being stubborn prematurally with puts on banks and the fractional reserve banking issues to a different strategy altogether with a shorter time horizon. These short term trade examples helpfed me greatly to hone my skills. Some things discussed I knew, others I only vaguely knew of, but were clarified by the author and explained well such as the 3-5 concept within a primary trend. The reason perhaps is that Fred had more exposure over more years than myself even though I know many of the techniques he discussed. In summation, Fred's book Trading The Trends is a MUST read!

I found this book to be fun and easy to read and very informative. I enjoyed this book so much that I wanted to see what other books were written by this author. My recommendation is to skip the one about common sense investing and just read this book - "Trading With Trends" is better written and includes the most important concepts that are included in the other book and many important ideas that are not included in the common sense book.

This was life changing for me. The section on viewing the big picture of how the market cycle works is worth the price of this alone. I really like his approach on keeping things simple.Forget all your fancy indicators, if you can get really good at spotting trends, then you will be ahead of the game. I've made several good trades after reading this book, by spotting trending stocks, and buying the dips during a retracement.Obviously, you don't want to educate yourself from one source, but if you get the following out of this, you are headed in the right path:1. View the big picture of the market.2. Draw quality trend lines, channels, and support and resistance zones.3. SET A STOP LOSS4. I'm sure other fancy indicators can help, but I haven't been using them so much. A trending stock should be easy to spot.5. Don't try to pick a bottom.6. Understand when the smart money is accumulating and distributing.7. A trending stock that is in an uptrend and starts trading sideways, doesn't mean there is going to be a huge sell off, it could just be a consolidation to another leg up. Be very careful here, and listen to Fred.I've been looking for biotech stocks that have had huge declines, and wait until I see a breakout and a new trend emerge. I don't recommend you do this at all, but the possibilities are endless.Thanks Fred.

Clear, concise and to the point. An alternative to traditional buy and hold strategy with the tools needed to actively manage one's investments. The author covers a wide range of topics sharing his insights and strategies for dealing with an ever changing investment landscape. The basic approach is consistent regardless of what is being discussed making it easy to follow and understand. Highly recommended for anyone that desires tools to navigate a challenging market giving the confidence ended to establish individual investment approaches.