Review : Jens Clever "Master Trader"

Title : Master Trader e-book
Author : Jens Clever
Web-site : http://www.daytradingcoach.com/



This ebook is suitable for active traders who are into day trading, momentum trading.

Mr Jens Clever explained a few ways that he had used to trade with certain successes.

One technique that he teaches is buying when there’s a breakout from a period of consolidation. The other involves buying when a stock pulls back to a support level. Mr Jens Clever explained very clearly how to look for indicators like candlestick formations, support & resistance, volume etc. to confirm one’s entry.

For example, Mr Jens Clever shared that the hammer candlestick is a reversal indicator which might occur at trend bottom, a possible bullish indicator. On the other hand, the shooting star candlestick, also a reversal indicator, might occur at trend top, a possible bearish indicator.

Most importantly, he advised would-be traders where to put in a stop loss to protect every trade’s capital. The in-depth explanation of how to look at Level 2 code to determine one’s trade is useful too.

Generally, I find that this is a very resourceful ebook packed with many good techniques on how to trade stocks based on certain momentum patterns. However, mastering such techniques require a fair amount of trading experiences & familiarization of the various indicators, setups and techniques shared selflessly by Mr Jens Clever. He also mentioned that it takes time to build one’s emotional tuning towards trading. Thus, he advised beginners to paper trade first or trade in smaller lots until one is successful with one or two of the trading techniques and stick to them consistently.

Conclusion : Highly Recommended for active traders who want simple-to-follow techniques to trade stocks based on Mr Jens Clever time-tested momentum patterns & signals. The Master Trader e-book sells for $89 but you can NOW grab this excellent e-book at 1/2 the price at $44.50 by clicking this special link.


Yours Truly
Carol Leng

Review : How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market

Book Title : How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market
Author : Nicolas Darvas
Date of Publication : 1986



This stock trading book was touted as one of Wall Street Classic, and I believed it has lived up to its name.

Mr Nicolas Darvas was a famous dancer when he stumbled upon the fascinating world of stock market back in mid 1955. Just like most amateur stock traders who started trading, Mr Nicolas Darvas would buy up any stocks based on tips, rumors, broker’s tips and advisory newsletters, which would inevitably led to failure.

Then Mr Nicolas Darvas decided not to “gamble” his money away this way and developed a more fundamentalist approach in stock trading. That, however, led to his first crisis of a $9,000 loss.

But that loss led to his discovery of a technical approach in stock trading which let him recovered his losses. He later refined it to a more techno-fundamentalist approach which eventually earned him an amazing $2,000,000 from the stock market.

Mr Nicolas Darvas discovered a way to trade shares based on a technique he called “box theory”. He would pick the stocks he wanted to trade by carefully studying their price & volume action and would enter a trade when the price breakout from the top of the “box” . He would then let a winning stock run and adjust the “box” of this stock accordingly so that the “stop loss” would lock in his profits if the trend of the stock reverses. Mr Nicolas Darvas reiterated the importance of setting stop loss in every trades no matter how confident a trader feels. In fact, setting a stop loss in every trade has helped preserved his capital during the bear market.

Mr Nicolas Darvas gave ample examples of his real trades in the book to demonstrate his “box theory” trading technique and his trading discipline.

Conclusion : In short, a good book with a unique technique in stock trading with sound trading principles, you’ll like it.

You can read this wonderful book online by visiting here

You can also read further reviews of this book from Amazon.com before buying it. This book retails at $10.36 at Amazon.com

Yours Truly
Carol Leng

Rreview : How I Trade For a Living

Book Title : How I Trade For a Living
Author : Gary Smith
Date of Publication : 1999



This was the very first trading book that I have read. I remembered I was still very new to the stock market when I picked up this book. However, Mr Gary Smith's free-flowing writing style enabled me to understand the trading rules, principles and techniques shared by him.

In the prologue, Mr Gary Smith described the routines he would go through in every typical trading day. The steps he took might seem “boring” and mundane but after I started trading on my own for a period of time I realised that the steps he took every day were important. To be a good trader, I realised that he or she must have the discipline to monitor the market, especially the market indexes like the Dow, Standard & Poor’s (S & P), the Nasdaq 100 etc. diligently & consistently so as to equip oneself with the latest information about the market sentiments before making an important decision to enter a trade or to exit a trade. His diligence was revealed in how he described he would tape CNBC programs to review them when he weren’t available to watch them live.

Mr Gary Smith shared various kinds of sentiments indicators that he has tried and tested in his trading journey and the relevance of these indicators in his trading decision.

Mr Gary Smith used mainly pure price action (momentum & divergence) to trade mutual funds. Chapter 12, considered the most important chapter by Mr Gary Smith, detailed the various momentum & divergence patterns eg. V-bottom upside reversals, late-day upside price surges, Friday-to-Monday momentum etc. that he had used in his real trading between 1998 and early 1999 to show investors how he has harnessed this patterns to grow his portfolio. Frankly speaking, I have yet to find out whether such momentum patterns would be applicable to stock trading, but Mr Gary Smith did mention that such momentum patterns might be applicable when trading tech-related futures & options, though he traded mainly tech-related funds when such patterns evolve.

Conclusion : In my opinion, I find this trading book an interesting & informative read for investors of any levels. If you are a momentum trader, this would certainly be an important book for you, especially the different momentum trading patterns shared by Mr Gary Smith in Chapter 12. Do tell me your experiences and your opinion after reading this book.

You can also read further reviews of this book from Amazon.com before buying it. This book retails at $30.40 at Amazon.com

Yours Truly
Carol Leng

Review : How To Make Money In Stocks: A Winning System in Good Times or Bad

Book Title : How To Make Money In Stocks: A Winning System in Good Times or Bad
Author : William J. O'Neil
Date of Publication : 2002 (3rd Edition)



This is an excellent book on stock trading. The author, Mr William J. O'Neil, has developed a simple-to-remember yet powerful formula known as the CAN SLIM stock trading system to guide investors on how to pick the best performing stocks from among the thousands in the stock market.

Each character of the CAN SLIM stock-picking formula is actually an abbreviation of 7 the characteristics to look out for in a winning stock before it makes potential price movement.

Mr William J. O'Neil devoted a chapter each to describe these 7 characteristic of the CAN SLIM stock-picking formula. Basically, the 7 characeristics that an investor should look out for in a good stock include the company’s earnings performance, whether there’s new management in place, whether there's new products rolling out, level of institutional ownership, a company's relative strength in respect to the industry sector it belongs to etc.

I personally like the chapter on characteristic "M" – concerning Market Direction. This chapter advocates the importance of monitoring the daily market trends ie. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 Index and the NASDAQ Index to determine the market sentiments closely. Mr William J. O'Neil also guides investors how to spot bearishness trend developing by observing days of distribution from price & volume actions. Of course, Mr William J. O'Neil also guides investors how to look for signs of possible breakout to bullish trend.

This trading book is filled with many great stock trading principles and rules. Mr William J. O'Neil teaches us the importance of setting stop loss to preserve our trading capital in case a stock stops performing and the stock price starts falling.

If you have been trading stocks using technical indicators, Mr William J. O'Neil has also included a chapter to describe a few chart patterns to look out when buying a stock. But Mr William J. O'Neil did warn that such buying charts patterns might not work in a bear market situation.

Mr William J. O'Neil took the opportunity to introduce some of the subscription services offered by his company, William O’Neil + Co.. These include the Investor’s Business Daily newspaper and web-site, IBD SmartSelect Corporate Ratings subscription etc.

I have personally subscribed to the IBD SmartSelect Corporate Ratings service, which I find useful & informative. This service provides investors with a comprehensive analysis of every stock classified under the proprietary "197 O’Neil Industry Group". By studying an individual stock's corporate ratings like Earnings Per Share Ratings, Relative Price Ratings, Sales and Return on Equity Ratings, Group Relative Strength Ratings, Accumulation/Distribution Ratings, an investor can make use of the information to determine whether a stock is currently a good performer in a strong industry group thus would probably continue to performer better or is a stock currently a poor performer and should be safely ignored.

Conclusion : I find this book to be important to anyone who has intention to commit his or her hard-earned money or has already invested some money in the stock market. It will surely guide you to be a better investor in picking the right stocks and at the same time preserve your trading capital in case the market turns negative or when the stocks start showing signs of weaknesses.

You can also read further reviews of this book from Amazon.com before buying it. This book retails at $10.36 at Amazon.com

I welcome any comments from readers who have read this wonderful book. Thank You.

Yours Truly
Carol Leng

Trading Books Review

Greetings to all trading books lovers, especially those who are stock traders.

I've always wanted to write reviews of trading books that I've read over the years and share my opinions of what I'ver read from these books with stock traderswho take a keen interest in trading. My interest is in the trading of equity or stock. Thus, most books I've read were about the stock markets or trading techniques relevant to stock trading. But I realized that some of the trading techniques could also apply to forex trading, options trading, futures trading or commdity trading.

I think you would agree that are literally thousands of trading books available in the market. Some were written in a concise and simple to follow manner while some were filled with complex trading methodologies which I find difficult to even set up a trade. But from my experiences I do come across some trading books which provide investors with simple & effective trading techniques coupled with sound trading principles & rules which I would share in this blog.

Do bookmark my blog and check back once in a while for my preview of some of these great trading books which have provided guidance in my stock trading.

I am sharpening my trading skills everyday from what I've learnt from the trading books. I hope to become a full-time stock trader when I have success with a consistent stock trading plan & accumulated a good amount of trading experiences.

Yours Truly
Carol Leng