I'm a beginner with everything that has to do with technical analysis... After some research, I think one of the two will help me a lot in the next few months and maybe even start trading a little: "Investing with Volume Analysis: Identify, Follow, and Profit from Trends" by Buff Pelz Dormeier http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0137085508/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER OR "Technical Analysis: The Complete Resource for Financial Market Technicians, Second Edition" by Charles D. Kirkpatrick II http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0137059442/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER Which of the two will do the job? I don't want to get into books from 1990 because I think they are outdated and newer books can do a better job. Thanks
Get both. Seems the second is The Bible. The first is a bit dated but has some interesting ideas. Usually, any book has at least one useful idea.
try technical analysis of stock trends by robert edwards and john magee - this is widely considered the best technical analysis book period - even if it wasn't written 5 mins ago.
How green are you? I have no experience with those two books, but they seem to get good reviews. If you`re as green as the grass over the septic tank, I would consider going through the free online course at babypips first. It`s been a while since I read it, but I seem to remember that it was a very accessible and fun primer on TA. You`ll also learn a thing or two about forex which may come in handy. http://www.babypips.com/school/ The first book I read on technical analysis was "Technical Analysis for Dummies". Most likely you will need to read several, but make sure you don`t overwhelm yourself and try to balance your studies with some actual chart analysis, trying to verify or disprove the claims from the books. Good learning! Regards, Laissez Faire
Technical analysis was a naive method for trading the markets people used in the 1980s and 1990s. They lost so much money that TA can be safely declared one of the most effective wealth transfer mechanisms ever developed and put in use. Let me ask you a question: would you try to solve a partial differential equation with split boundary conditions by hand? This is what you are doing when looking at charts trying to find patterns to profit from. Do you think hedge funds and professionals use TA? The answer is NO. They use algorithms that process price action and determine probabilities. Still, if you insist on learning a thing of the past that I ensure you won't make any money for you in its simple form taught in books, you can find anything you want along with statistics in Bulkowski's website. If you want to buy a book buy his: http://thepatternsite.com/ At least one book that was mentioned here was written in the 1940s. Come on you people! Most of the charts in that book are about companies that do not exist today. It is an authoritative, dogmatic piece with no explanations or justifications and you are supposed to believe the authors, no questions asked. Bulkowski is much better and down to earth. He has done a lot of work and he gives probabilities. Here is an article in the price action lab on TA and on some of its recent failures: http://bit.ly/A5EeVP
Technical Analysis for Dummies Really good for a complete beginner. I read that first a long time ago, when i was real fresh. It will help you learn what people are talking about, but TA itself won't help you much nowdays. Everyone knows about it, it's just a good basis for further analysis and derivation of available information.
Thank you guys for your inputs... greatly appreciated! To those who said that TA is not helpful... It's not helpful nowadays because of the volatility or it's not helpful now and won't be helpful in the future because of the complexity of the markets? So if TA is not helpful, then FA should be the way to go? or maybe a combination of them? How do you guys gather information to formulate your trading strategies?
----How do you guys gather information to formulate your trading strategies?---- by observing the markets and price action..there is no shortcuts..
I don't quiet get what you guys mean by hard work and no shortcuts.... I never said I wanted to find a quick way to become rich.... I have the patience to learn/observe the field. Currently, my only problem is that I don't have much extra cash to go out and try out things randomly. So, I would rather learn some trading strategies and research techniques before I go out and try on my own. I figured TA could be a good starting point, but for some reason some of you are strictly against it... So, if you are against TA, what do you have to suggest?