Trading Against the Crowd: Profiting from Fear and Greed in Stock, Futures and Options Markets
$20.06
| Author(s) | |
|---|---|
| Product Type |
Ebook |
| Format |
|
| Skill Level |
Intermediate to Advanced |
| Pages |
222 |
| Publication Year |
2004 |
| Delivery |
Instant Download |
Trading Against the Crowd by John F. Summa is a comprehensive guide to contrarian analysis—one of the most powerful and misunderstood approaches in financial markets. Summa demonstrates how extreme levels of fear and greed, when measured correctly, consistently provide high-probability opportunities across stocks, futures, and options.
Unlike basic sentiment books, Summa’s work is rooted in quantifiable data. He shows how to interpret put/call ratios, volatility indices, options skew, speculative positioning, volume spikes, and behavioral sentiment indicators. The PDF includes several rich visual examples—like the equity put/call divergence chart on page 38 and the VIX extreme reversal example on page 72—that illustrate how crowd-driven extremes often form near major tops or bottoms.
Summa also teaches traders how contrarian signals blend with technical structure:
- price exhaustion
- overextended trends
- option market imbalance
- divergence between sentiment and price
He demonstrates how traders can enter with confidence at points when the majority is trapped or behaving irrationally.
This book provides not just sentiment logic, but actionable trading methods using options, futures, and underlying markets. Summa breaks down how to structure trades using contrarian setups, how to manage risk when trading against extreme sentiment, and how to position at moments of maximum opportunity and minimum competition.
For traders seeking an edge built on psychology, behavioral extremes, and market imbalance, Trading Against the Crowd offers a complete, practical methodology supported by decades of market research.
✅ What You’ll Learn:
- How fear and greed create reliable market extremes
- How to interpret and trade using put/call ratios
- How to read volatility sentiment (VIX, skew, premium behavior)
- How speculative positioning reveals crowd traps
- How to use contrarian indicators across stocks, futures, and options
- How to identify key reversal points during sentiment climaxes
- How to combine sentiment extremes with chart structure
- How to enter trades when the majority is positioned incorrectly
- How to manage risk in contrarian strategies
- How to build a complete sentiment-driven contrarian trading plan
💡 Key Benefits:
- Identify major turning points before the majority recognizes them
- Use quantifiable sentiment tools rather than guesswork
- Improve timing through options- and futures-based sentiment indicators
- Gain psychological discipline by trading independently of crowd behavior
- Build a rules-based contrarian strategy with clear confirmation signals
- Learn a multi-market approach applicable to stocks, commodities, and FX
👤 Who This Book Is For:
This book is ideal for:
- Intermediate to advanced traders using sentiment as an edge
- Options traders relying on put/call and volatility analysis
- Futures traders analyzing speculative positioning and market extremes
- Stock traders seeking reversal timing techniques
- Behavioral finance students and market psychology enthusiasts
- Anyone wanting a scientific, structured approach to contrarian trading
📚 Table of Contents:
- Reflections of a Contrarian on Investor Psychology
- Measuring “Joe Options Trader” Sentiment
- Will the Real Put/Call Ratio Please Stand Up?
- The Options Trading Crowd at Extremes
- Does the Entire Group of Options Traders Get It Wrong?
- OEX Options Traders—Is This a Smart Money Crowd?
- From Statistical Tests to Sentiment Trading System
- Squeeze Play I: Pulling the Price Trigger
- Sentiment Squeeze Play II
- Squeeze Play II and LEAPS Surrogates
- The Tsunami Sentiment Wave Trading System
- Adapting Put/Call Ratios to Bond Futures
- Option Implied Volatility and Investor Sentiment
- Testing Option Volatility on Equity Indices
- Stock Options Volatility and Sentiment Long Waves
- Gauging Crowd Psychology with Short Selling Ratios
- Public Shorts: Still as Good as Ever as Crowd “Sentimeter”
- Trading Against the Advisory Opinion Crowd
- The Fourth Estate Crowd
- Postscript on Crowd Psychology in Financial Markets
Trading Against the Crowd: Profiting from Fear and Greed in Stock, Futures and Options Markets By John F. Summa
5 reviews for Trading Against the Crowd: Profiting from Fear and Greed in Stock, Futures and Options Markets
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Jameson Kline (verified owner) –
Mr. Summa’s Trading Against the Crowd provides traders with distinct insight into the art of trading on contrary opinion. His groundbreaking approach to quantifying news articles into a bullish versus bearish intensity index should prove to be a very valuable tool for professional traders worldwide.
Mylah Ward (verified owner) –
The old adage is still true: to make money, do the opposite of the majority. Trading Against the Crowd shows you how to do just that.
Sawyer Solomon (verified owner) –
Lots of books have been written about options and related stuff like Greeks or complex strategies like “Short Iron Butterfly”. This book is not about options per se. It uses options merely as a tool to predict market tops and bottoms. It uses very simple indicators like as put/call ratios and option-implied volatility. This book does not teach you about options. It assumes that you are already familiar with stocks and options market.
Many books have been written about contrary opinion in regards to investing, and most famous is “Security Analysis” by Graham and Dodd. Actually, many of the original works in the area of investor sentiment are from a long-term investing perspective, and largely examine the issue through contrarian analysis of stock market fundamentals, such as intrinsic value and growth prospects. The book “Trading Against the Crowd” ignores fundamentals and instead focuses only on sentiment technicals. In addition to option put/call ratios and volatility, it relies on short sales, advisory opinion, investor surveys, and quantitative news flow. By using these sentiment measures, it is possible to identify investor sentiment extremes and associated market turning points. A unique dimension to this book is the combination of price triggers with sentiment gauges.
Caden Logan (verified owner) –
Not what I expected…. It’s all style of writing on psychology of trading. Hard for me to understand the concept.
Kora Jordan (verified owner) –
I suggest this book to everyone who wants to finally make money.