A Short Course in Technical Trading

Investors and traders who have been battered by the markets in recent years may find themselves saying, ‘There must be a better way.’ There is: systematic trading. In this timely book Perry Kaufman provides an excellent introduction to the world of systematic trading, where rules–not emotions–rule.

TA is a highly sophisticated topic which cannot be covered thoroughly with a 316 page book. That’s for sure. In fact, the author had been honest not to over promise with the humble title of his book. The scope of discussion is limited to chart patterns, trendlines, channels, moving averages, Fibonnaci numbers, MACD, Stochastics, RSI and a few others. As the author had emphasized his objective to make his book only an introduction to TA, I am not going to comment on the variety of TA tools covered. However, I still want to criticize on some of the weaknesses:
1) Number of real life examples/price charts are few.
2) The choice of parameters for MACD and Stochastics had not been discussed
3) False breakouts are so frequent in the author’s graphs samples (that’s a fact of life, I admit). However, the author made little attempt to teach readers how to avoid such traps with the use of multiple TA tools.
4) The relative weak Q&A sections that questions are focused on readers’ understanding of the definition of jargons instead of the usage of TA tools.

Though the price is affordable, I am hesitant to recommend it to any aspiring trader/investor who are serious to get an elementary but quality course on TA. It’s not the cost of the book that matters, but the cost of time and potential trading loss for reading it.

Looking for a book to get started in TA as a complete novice to the field? You might give this book a try. It’s a nice introduction by a guy well known in the field of system trading and technical analysis. Kaufman has also written a pretty comprehensive work of almost 1.000 pages on technical analysis, well worth considering if you’re serious about technical analysis.

This book is just what the title says it is, a short introduction to TA. He’ll explain all the concepts to the reader in an understandable way so you can apply most of the concepts.
He’ll show you how to apply this stuff on futures and stock charts, probably the reading why you will be buying this book.
In my opinion he could have spent more material on technical indicators and oscillators, instead of all those chart patterns, but that’s personal taste. Another disadvantage is his part on the RSI indicator. I’m not sure how he did it, but he completely messed up the explanation on this indicator. Normally this is a pretty simple technical indicator to understand, but he uses confusing formulas which didn’t help at all understanding this indicator.

Limited, dated, reference diagrams are poorly placed. Little to no discussion of the various free on line sources for using techniques. Great Excel modeling formulas but why use bother with plentiful great progrms. I don’t know why I gave it two stars. Worthless, really.

Clear and easy to follow explanations from a professional point of view. This is a down-to-earth method used for teaching my masters-degreed daughter how to trade-for-a-living when she couldn’t find a job coming out of school. If you are serious this book is a must.