Three questions: 1. What is your opinion of the "Studies in Tape Reading" book written by Wyckoff? 2. How does Schabacker's work compare with Wyckoff? 3. Can you recommend any other books on tape reading? Thanks, B
A lot of people might disagree with me on this but, I believe that Tape Reading is dead....or over rated. It USED to be a good tool to have during the Livermore era, but when computers came around...better yet after he internet bubble burst.....things changed.. When you state tape reading... I think of TA...for some reason....and price fluctuation......but what do I know?
i thought the wyckoff / rollo tape / humphrey neill books were useful. they're 70+ years old, but the reprints are inexpensive - i think around 10-12$ each? they're NOT the first books, or second books, or anything like that which you should get. and as the previous poster stated, what was "tape reading" is now (to me) seeing the chart combined a little bit with the time and sales, but the computer has made the term tape reading a bit different than it used to be. one of the books from 70 years ago said something about the ticker really clicking fast, and how it was a turning point after a long move. well, now you look on the chart, and see a huge volume spike after a parabolic move - it's the same thing.
Tape reading is now "time and sales" and "order flow." As the prints don't lie with the exception that some programs or big orders are 'bergs waiting to get tagged and once hit must be acted upon quickly. That's where the skill comes in handy after countless hours of seeing the same stuff over and over eventually accumulation/distributition whether subtle or not becomes apparent. Just a thought
1. Excellent. 2. Both men were interested in how the movement of price reflects the thinking and subsequent behavior of traders, but Schabacker was somewhat more interested in pattern than Wyckoff. When Schabacker died, his brother-in-law, Robert Edwards, finished up his work and published Technical Analysis of Stock Trends with John Magee. If you can get an early edition of this book, before others started screwing around with it, along with the Wyckoff tape reading book and Schabacker's book, you'll be in good shape to learn how to read price. 3. Vad Graifer's book on tape reading, as well as Humphrey Neill's. That's about it. LC
I would add to that list Alan Farley's book. And read Jack Hershey (aka Grob 109) here. It's free. What you learn trading Jack's way will be priceless.
i use market delta software (marketdelta.com). works best on highly liquid instruments such as ES. it shows the level of aggresion by buyers and sellers, or more accurately, it looks at order flow - actual voulme traded on the bid and ask.
Hypostomus Meryy Christmas and Best Wishes for 2007 to you. Yes, I totally agree, Jack's contribution to fellow traders is priceless, thanks Jack!. And it won't take very long to follow Jack's principles, I believe SpyderTrader's postings explain his system in detail. re point 3 of the OP Also watch the Level II on the three major indexes. I suggest that you also study Elliot Wave, extreemly usefull too. Maria.
The Rolo Tape book is a useful but a tad gramatically dense due to the fact that the writers employed a more formal writing style back then. ALSO, the examples he discusses are FLOOR traders attempting to keep prices from moving up or down. Very interesting and useful reading but if you're a newbie, you will have to reread and reread certain sections to really get it. Even though the book discusses ticker prices and floor action, reading this book I got a much better understanding of candlestick/bar chart patterns. Definitely NOT the first book to read because of its early 20th century writing style, but extremely useful nevertheless. Make this the 3rd book you read on Technical Analysis. It is definitely a classic text though and should be read by any professional investor/trader. Remember what Mark Twain said about classics: "A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read." This one is worth plowing through, just don't use any speedreading techniques on it.