The Master Swing Trader: Tools and Techniques to Profit from Outstanding Short-Term Trading Opportunities 1st Edition

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: $1,000.00Compounding rate: 5%Compounding periods: 208, (4 years compounded weekly)Ending Value: $25,549,017.66You 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.