All about Market Timing: The Easy Way to Get Started
$9.72
All About Market Timing arms investors with simple, easy-to-use timing techniques that they can use to enter rising markets, exit (or go short) falling markets, and make consistent profits in both market environments while protecting against catastrophic losses.
Author’s Introduction:
Market timing can be defined as making investment buy and sell decisions using a mechanical trading strategy which employs one or more indicators and/or proven strategies. The objective of a successful market-timing system is to be invested in the market during up trends and to be either in cash (or in a short position) during down trends, especially during brutal bear markets.
Market timing can be applied to all types of investments including stocks, stock and index options, mutual funds, bonds, and futures. This book therefore focuses exclusively on using timing with index funds, sector funds, leveraged funds, and exchange-traded funds. It is your choice as to which of these investments you prefer to work with because the timing principles remain the same for each of them.
All About Market Timing is a “tell-it-like-it-is” book. There is no fluff just the unvarnished truth. I am not a certified financial planner, stockbroker, portfolio manager, or investment newsletter writer. I am an individual investor, just like you, and I’m tired of being misled, by not being given the full story on investing by the Wall Street clique. In writing this book, I have assumed that you have some knowledge of investing and index funds. My emphasis is on the importance of market timing and how to use it to improve your investment performance, while limiting your risk and protecting your principal.
Contents:
- The Stock Market = Bull Markets + Bear Markets
- The Buy-and-Hold Myth
- Market-Timing: What You Need to Know
- Ten Indicators to Determine the Market’s Health
- Specialized Mutual Funds: Index, Sector, and Leveraged Funds
- Exchange-Traded Funds
- Calendar-Based Investing: The Best Six Months Strategy
- Combining Presidential Cycle Years with Seasonality
- Using Moving Averages
- Value Line 4 Percent Strategy
- Nasdaq Composite 6 Percent Strategy
- Market-Timing Resources: Newsletters, Web Sites, and Advisors
All about Market Timing: The Easy Way to Get Started By Leslie Masonson pdf
| Author(s) | |
|---|---|
| Pages | 272 |
| Format | |
| Publication Year | 2004 |
22 reviews for All about Market Timing: The Easy Way to Get Started
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Ermias Yang (verified owner) –
If I had to recommend one book to someone who wanted to learn about the stock market, this would be the one. It’s well researched and documented. Even if you choose to not use any of the techniques that are discussed, it will provide a good foundation for future reading. The seasonal pattern with MACD indicator is probably the best way to improve performance for someone who doesn’t have a lot of time to devote to their investments.
Cayden Escobar (verified owner) –
From the first page, the information is flowing, it is writing in an easy to understand language, that any layman can appreciate and yet it is insightful and jam-packed with details.
Finely the proof is in, market-timing strategy have consistently beaten buy and hold strategy hands down.
Scout Guevara (verified owner) –
This is the first book I’ve read on market timing. I found the book wetted my appetite for more information. All it does is cover the basics. William J O Neil how to make money in stocks and shares gives a more detailed analysis on one method, his own. This is what the book needed, a more detailed analysis rather than moveing averages and staying out of the market in September. If you know nouthing about market timing then I would recommend this book as a start point.
Tommy Haynes (verified owner) –
Les Masonson shares many ideas using well respected indicators. The book is a great start for anybody looking for timing ideas. His chapter on missing the best and worst market returns days is a must read for buy and hold investors.
Frankie Hickman (verified owner) –
A great book on the understanding of market timing. I found the book easy to read and gave me ideas to implement on strategies used to help ride the bull market while watching out for the bear markets. The book gave me good insight on things I need to know to make money in these ever changing markets.
Paula Soto (verified owner) –
I have been investing since the mid 60’s and the philosophy I follow, spelled out by all the stock mavens, is to buy “quality” and “hold”. Masonson’s book points out the folly of this approach. He makes a convincing case that in spite of all the wisdom that I have absorbed over 40 years, that “it ain’t so”. I will need to spend more time digesting his simple marketing timing strategies. In the future, I expect to be a smarter investor and not sit tight when the market is collapsing. Thanks for opening my eyes to the real world of investing. This book is well written, has tons of interesting facts, and lays bare the critical importance of cutting losses short and investing with the odds in your favor.
Kamari Mueller (verified owner) –
This is not a “know it all” or a “I’ve got a system that can’t lose” disertation. It doesn’t “talk down” to the reader, yet it reaches both the sophisticated and the novice. It is a history of market timing and a valuable reference of techniques, historical facts and references that anyone invested in the stock market would do well to keep as a guideline. From new ideas as well as old theories – Masonson will keep you awake and interested. What separates this book from others like it is that it is NOT boring, NOT filled with complicated charts and indicators and NOT “all-knowing”. Masonson presents interesting, thought-provoking info and makes you think. It is up to you to decide what approach is best suited for your investment style. Plus, the price is right! You can spend much more for a whole lot less.
Lexi Singh (verified owner) –
AFTER ALL TIMING IS WHAT REALLY MATTERS, IF YOU KNOW WHEN TO GET IN AND TO GET OUT YOU CAN MAKE MONEY IN ANY MARKET.
THIS BOOK TEACH YOU NOT ONLY WHY BUT HOW TO DO IT. I RECOMENT IT TO EVERYBODY THAT WANTS TO UNDERSTAND THE TRUE MARKET MOVEMENTS , HOW TO READ THE MARKET AND STAY OUT OF THE NOISE.
Nash Maynard (verified owner) –
Les does a great job in all the work he does and this book does not disappoint. His views on timing are straight forward, sensible and well founded.
I especially liked the areas on mechanical trading systems and capital preservation methods. I believe every market participant must learn to survive before they thrive and this book addresses this reality very well. The buy and hold approach is simply riddled with risk that most investors never understand this fact until too late. Fund managers love to hide behind time-making claims such as-“it isn’t market timing but time in the market that counts”. This is yet another market myth that fund managers and analysts want you to believe, but Les make the real point by pointing out that time in the market is often the riskiest approach of all.
For these reasons alone (and many others) the book is well worth your money and more importantly your TIME! I would suggest this book to anyone.
Sebastian Stone (verified owner) –
I have been looking for a book like this all my life, something that demonstrates different investment strategies including backtests with proven success. I have always been afraid of investing fearing that I was getting in at a market top. this book shows how to make money in up or down markets. I had contacted the author via email regarding updates on some previous backtesting and we have actually been corresponding ! this book is very simply written and is for every type of investor. I hope he plans to write a follow up !
Barrett Best (verified owner) –
I was one who was hammered by the market downturn of 2000 – 2002 and it was because I was following the “buy and hold” philosophy. I was not and am still not very sophisticated in investing but I am paying very close attention now. But I’ve not had a good strategy. This book does a good job of giving me a good overall strategy to consider and equally important, other resources to look at.
I also tried contacting Mr. Masonson via the email address he provided in his book. Within 5 minutes after I sent the email over the Christmas holiday, he called me! We had a good chat and he offered more advice that I thought was very helpful.
Valery Estes (verified owner) –
Author Leslie Masonson has written a financial book on a series of relatively simple, yet highly effective technical timing techniques. His presentation of subject matter is logically organized and concise, which makes reading the material enjoyable. He makes an effective case against the “random walk” theory without spending half the book on it. Instead, he reviews specific trading techniques in detail. Yet you do not need a mathematics degree in order to implement them. The most valuable part of the book is the detailed list of market-timing resources, which include newsletters, advisors, web sites, software, etc. I have personally dealt with some of these individuals, and find his comments about them to be fair and insightful.
Carolyn Harvey (verified owner) –
I have been a trader for years, actively trading well over a 100,000 shares a day, while managing a substantial portfolio. I have read most of the “I have a winning stock market strategy for you” books over the past several years. Aside from a handful they all were relatively disappointing. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by this, “Market Timing”, book. Many of the, “Market Strategy” books I have read require the investor to spend an unrealistic amount of time managing their investments and require them to have an in depth understanding of the stock market. I found much of the information to be eye opening and enlightening, even for a professional, and the strategies quite useful. If the author’s goal was to provide investors with a No Nonsense perspective of the market and strategies to increase their total return while significantly decreasing their risk over the long term, then mission accomplished. I strongly recommend this book to amateur and professional investors.
Lexie Cervantes (verified owner) –
I have been trading stocks for about 17 years now and have read LOTS of books on the subject. Mr. Masonson does an outstanding job of laying out everything an investor needs to know regarding market timing. As he mentions in his Introduction, the beginner should begin with Chapter 1 and read the book through in its entirety, but the experienced investor can begin with Chapter 7. He provides an excellent balance of well documented strategies but without getting bogged down in all of the tedious details–he provides the sources for further study if you so desire.
Part 3 of this book is Market-Timing Resources. In it Mr. Masonson provides most every legitimate source for newsletters, websites, advisors and software available. This section is excellent and very complete. It is not just a listing of these resources, but he also includes lots of information about what they include, what niches they serve and the like.
The only other book that I’d read regarding market timing is The Right Stock at the Right Time by Larry Williams. Sure, you could read 20 more books on market timing and in doing so gain an additional 4-5% of actual useful information, but why bother? Everything you really need is included in these two excellent books, both of which are written by men who actually spend the bulk of their time putting their money where their mouth is… and doing so very successfully!
Scarlette Jackson (verified owner) –
When I buy a book titled “All about Market Timing” I expected a lot of theories on the subject of market timing (like the Dow Theory, Elliot Wave Analysis, various market ratio’s, the FED model, macro-economic models, …) and not a beginners guide written for people who are just starting out in the stock market.
Masonson has written a book here with a few large market timing models in it (seasonal analysis, presidential cycle, a moving average crossover system on ETF’s tracking the stock market, …). Not one new model, nor any analysis from the author himself is presented in this book. Also, if you would want to actually apply one of the systems he presents in his book here, I suggest you go look for them elsewhere. A lot of books explain the same market timing methods this author does, only in a more clear and elaborate way.
Some books I liked better on market timing:
– Victor Sperandeo
– Winning on Wall Street
– Robert Rhea
– Schwager -Market Wizards
Karsyn Nava (verified owner) –
I’ve tried duplicating the NASDAQ Composite results for both the 25-WMA strategy and the 20-DMA strategy by backtesting using Wealth-Lab Pro. I’ve found that both strategies do not beat buy and hold in my own backtesting with regard to net profits, and are in no way anywhere nearly as profitable as reported in the book.
I believe this is due to the author not factoring in the commission. You would be surprised how a so-called “discount” commission, such as a $7.95 per trade flat-rate, can cause the results over time to be worse (less profitable) than buy and hold especially for strategies that would result in hundreds of trades over time. The commission really affects the results more that one would think, because the compounding of profits, over time, is greatly reduced by the effects of commission. (even “discount” commission adds up over time and reduces the effects of compounding.) Further, the slippage you would encounter in real life would make the results even worse. My tests were with a 100K initial account size with 7.95 per trade flat rate.
I would give the book a higher rating if some of the backtested results on strategies involving moving averages weren’t too good to be true. Slippage and commission (even for “discount” brokers) would eat you alive.
Further, results on indices themselves tend to be “magical” in my opinion. Lets face it…you can’t actually trade an index itself. You could trade an ETF that mimicks and index, but the ETF has an expense ratio associated with it which affects net profit over time, and the ETF, when traded, is subject to slippage compared to the index.
I still think it is likely one could come up with a simple system using moving averages to reduce drawdowns compared to buy and hold, even when factoring in slippage and commission. Such a system would need to be traded on a large enough time framce which would reduce the number of round trips and lesson the effects of commission and slippage. However, in my opinion, if you trade a simple system utilizing, say, a single moving average or, say, a dual moving average crossover, the odds would NOT favor beating buy and hold in the long run. You might reduce drawdowns and risk, compared to buy and hold, which is a desirable goal, but beating buy and hold in terms of profit over the long run would be unlikely.
Imani Parrish (verified owner) –
I have read over 50 books about the market and this book should be in your top five books to read. Whether you are new to investing or a seasoned pro, this book provides useful information that you can directly apply to your investment activities. The author provides excellent background and ‘back-testing’ proofs of the effectiveness of a number of market timing methodologies. While many of these ‘systems’ may seem exceedingly simple, my own experience in the market leads me to believe that simple is better — way better! You will benefit from reading this book whether you follow and use the author’s systems or not.
Hakeem Brennan (verified owner) –
I have no hesitation to recommend this to all beginnners who dont have the slightest idea of moving averages, seasonality effect, presidential election year effect and so on. It’s an easy read, for sure, and I appreciate much the intelligent pick of quotes in the beginning of each chapter. However, I am obliged to comment that the author had focused so well to make it fit for the newbies that many essential elements are missed. For those who commit to profit in this extremely unforgiving arena, “High Probability Trading by Marcel Link” would be a far better choice. In case historical reference on various timing effects is what you need, ” The Right Stock at the Right Time: Prospering in the Coming Good Years by Larry Williams” will suit you well.
Izabella Sutton (verified owner) –
A great encyclopedic overview of market timing. A classic essential for beginners and veteran traders alike. I really can’t add much to the positive reviews already made here, as they’ve said it well. I wish those stuck in buy and hold would read this book to see there is another way. It’s worked tremendously well for me. I haven’t read the revised edition yet and am looking forward to it. Les Masonson has put it together like no other author. Required reading to be investing literate.
Saoirse Gates (verified owner) –
A lot of wasted pages, and generic stuff written about in other trading books. The title gives impression that there is something special written.
Catalina Watkins (verified owner) –
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning the difference between market timing and buy and hold. Filled with data that backs up the case for timing and against buy and hold. This book also has a helpful chapter for web sites and other sources related to the topic.
Erin Colon (verified owner) –
As a financial planner one of the most difficult concepts to get across to clients is that “buy and hold” strategies are more risky than timing strategies. Les Masonson in the introduction and three chapters presents a convincing argument that will show you that buying and putting away mutual funds is good only for the portfolio managers running the funds. Why stand in the way of a freight train as the market crashes for three years in a row? While the first part of the book alone is worth the price, the rest of it presents simple and carefully worked techniques that you can use to protect yourself from crashes and take advantage of the big rallies that separate them. It takes just minutes from time to time during the year to employ these techniques. I urge you to get the book and read it.