In this 1931 Wall Street classic, author and noted economist Humphrey B. Neill explainsin Tape Reading and Market Tactics not only how to read the tape, but also how to figure out what’s going on behind the numbers.
Introduction:
Market-action – the buying and selling of stocks -is recorded on the tape. To the uninitiated eye and brain the tape means little – it is si.qiply a confusion of hieroglyphics and figures. To the student, however, it offers opportunities commensurate with the skill, judgment, study, and self-mastery employed. As the tape records money-transactions, I am going to ask you to forget, for the time, the word “points,, when discussing stock quotations and think instead in terms of dollars. The mention of dollars immediately conjures up the idea of buying and selling.
For instance, if you notice a 5,000-share transaction of Steel (symbol, X) on the tape at $170, call to your mind the fact that this means that $850,000 worth of common-stock certificates of the United States Steel Corporation have changed hands. If you then notice, some hours later, another exchange of the same quantity at $175, realize that this, translated, means an increase in value of $25,000.
To me such transactions take on a far greater significance if spoken of in terms of dollars than they would if someone said: ” Steel advanced five points.” Before we attempt to understand the technicalities of tape reading, let us picture in our minds the scene behind the symbols. If you have never visited the New York Stock Exchange, I suggest you do so at your first opportunity. In the mean time, visualize a market-place where hundreds of men are busily engaged in buying and selling goods. You see a little knot here in this corner where one man in the center has orders from his clients to buy, we will say, 1,ooo shares of American Can stock at $150 per share-an order totalling a value of $150,000; quite a sizable piece of business. The other men in the group may each have smaller orders to sell: one is willing to sell 300 shares; another, 200; and so on.
Contents:
PART ONE: STOCK SPECULATION
PART TWO: TAPE READING
- The Ticker Tape
- The Principles of Tape Reading
- Increasing Volume During an Advance
- Turning-Points on Heavy Volume
- Turning-Points on Light Volume
- Various Types of Top-Action
- The Tape Story of Loew’s
- Steel, The Market Leader
- Tips are Dangerous
- Some Important Observations on Volume
- The Effect of News on Market-Action
- Resistances
- Suggestions to Speculators
- The Rise and Fall of Steel During a Normal Bull Movement
Tape Reading and Market Tactics By Humphrey Bancroft Neill PDF
Jamal Novak (verified owner) –
Old time tape reading described in a text written in the 40’s that proves basic price/volume relationships still apply. Good reading.
Lincoln Costa (verified owner) –
The príncipes of tape reading and the prive x volume worth a read. But the rest of the book are worthless in today markets
Haisley Flores (verified owner) –
If you are looking to understand what tape readers used to do, the tape readers that would sit in front of ticker tape and trade from that, this book has nothing to do with that. Tape reading used to be done by day traders, I have no clue as to why this book is called “Tape Reading,” when
A) At the very introduction of the book he shuns day traders.
B) The subject deals with medium to long trends which lasts weeks to months.
So to re iterate, if you are looking for how to on tape reading, I would not get this book, if you want a larger education on overall different types of trading, then this can be a nice addition.
Kaiya Farmer (verified owner) –
This is an old school book. Literally, written in 1931. Much of it is outdated but if you’re a student of this kind of stuff, it’s a decent read. In truth I would have rather taken it out of the library – it’s a one-time read at best – but my library system didn’t have it. (Not surprising given its age and niche focus.) Not anywhere near as good as Reminiscences of a Stock Operator.
Walter Ray (verified owner) –
if you are smart and care about understanding why the big cats buy and sell the stocks .. you’ll enjoy this book.
Ruth Benton (verified owner) –
No, it’s not really a compelling read, or written in a flowery or dramatic way. That’s not the point however. There is one really essential lesson to be learned in this book, and that is the relationship volume has and it’s potential impact on stock prices. Heavy volume and stock’s moving up? How about heavy volume and stock staying in a tight trading range? How about low volume and stock’s moving up? How about low volume and the stock’s dropping in price? Is there a difference between heavy and super heavy volume? Can volume spot a market bottom or top? If so, how? This is an old book but the lessons are as relevant today as they were decades ago. The author gets to the point and gives a case study to teach his volume assumptions in motion.