In Trading Without Gambling, Link shows how to create and use a sound game plan to improve every aspect of trading–including finding trades, timing, knowing how much to trade, where to exit, and how to adjust risk–while leaving very little to gambling. Many people perceive trading as nothing more than a gamble. But there are still people who consistently make money trading. How do they do it? They’ve learned to separate gambling from trading. And the way they do this, says author Marcel Link, is by developing a proper plan.
Author’s Introduction:
If you took everything from the first book, put it into a funnel and strained out the fluff, the key things would all boil down to one basic concept and that is the importance of making a trading and game plan to trade with, and following it, of course. This new book will take that concept and expand on it as I believe it to be the key to successful trading.
Many people look at trading as a gamble, and yes there is risk involved, but a well-prepared trader, with a solid game plan and discipline can learn to trade without gambling, the same way the professional gamblers do.
Though I’ll show examples of my trading and talk about technical analysis, this book is not about how to pick market bottoms or giving you great trading systems, instead it will focus on how you can become a better trader. They key to winning in the markets is planning for it and knowing in advance how to react to certain situations, and this is what a game plan will do for you. Trading is not simply about buying and selling, but about the knowing when, and why to do so.
Contents:
- Everyone Needs a Plan
- The Trading Plan
- The Game Plan
- Get to Know Yourself
- Trading Strategies
- Know Your Markets
- After the Close
- Before the Market Opens
- Drawing Up Scenarios
- Taking the Gamble Out of Trading
- Getting In
- Getting Out
- Reviewing and Managing
- How to Keep from Overtrading
- Money Management
- Trading Rules
- Focus and Discipline
- Learning How to Win
Trading Without Gambling: Develop a Game Plan for Ultimate Trading Success By Marcel Link pdf
Emir Strong (verified owner) –
Five stars
Ivanna Guerrero (verified owner) –
It’s true what the other reviewer said and I am also disappointed. After I read the first book this one have nothing more to offer as always the same story. Plan your trade, trade your plan. When you would trade on the level the book is edited you will lose all your money. Anyway,for an intermediate trader there is no value. For a beginner I would recommend the books from tony turner ( daytrading-short term trading ). You get two books and still save a lot of money. By the way, it’s already suspicious when the author himself is the first one who write a comment about his book and praise it with 5 stars as best ever…isn’t it ?
Karsyn Frazier (verified owner) –
I must be fair and say I have never read Mr Link’s first book so i can not compare it like other reviewers have. But i found this to be one of the best trading books I have read and it has definately improved my trading, especially the chapter on Money Management.
I strongly recommend it to anyone who is trading and wants to improve thier game
I do look forward to picking High Probabilty Trading by him
Rex Collier (verified owner) –
This book is as good as Mr. Link’s first one but even more entertaining. It’s very insightful on how the mind of a trader works. Very easy read and I highly recommend it if you’re serious about improving your skills as a trader.
Princeton Enriquez (verified owner) –
After have read Marcels first book (I rated it 5 stars, that book is the best) I wondered would could possibly go into this book that he didnt cover in his first.
In this book he goes in a little deeper what you really need in your game plan and trading plan. The book is ok, its alot of repeating but thats not bad nescesary. I read all my trading books as it was school books, and then the reapeting is good. I defenetly DONT regret that i bought it and read it.
So i recommend it and think that you will get something out of it, but if you havent read his first book yet do that first.
Thanks!
Makayla Hancock (verified owner) –
After reading Mr. Links first book High Probability Trading I had high hopes for this book. I was very disappointed to say the least. What we have here is 270 pages of repeated advice. At times I felt like this book was written by some illiterate author who just started writing. Topics and ideas are all over the place, something that he mentions in chapter 3 is seen in chapter 5 then 8. The author himself admits that he’s being repetitive, I have no idea how this book was published as is. I’ll save you guys some money and tell you the central theme around this book is to Trade with a plan, but this is not the book to help you come up with a trading plan it simply tells you what the required steps are. Something which could have been done in 3 chapters but instead is repeated over and over to make a book.
Nellie Sosa (verified owner) –
This is an enjoyable book! Regarding some of the other reviews, it was definitely written in an off-the-cuff conversational manner.
If you are looking for a serious, strict provide-specific trading rules/plans then this book isn’t for you. If you actually enjoy some trading tales and dont mind some repetition – I would highly recommend the book.
There is alot of good information contained within the pages, with plenty of reminders of what sets apart professional traders from amateurs. (hint: there isnt a holy grail. There is just creating your own game plan – trading it – and constantly monitoring your positions.)
Simply put – if you are the type of individual who would like to sit down with a professional trader after the market closes, pick his brain, and drink a beer or two while listening to his thought process and hearing some good stories (the $8000 nooner is classic) – than this book was written for you. If that sounds like torture – take a pass and read his first book (High Probability Trading). Both are excellent. I am assuming this one shows his personality a little bit more, which I find refreshingly different! (Lets face it – most trading books are about as dry as an Arizona summer!)
Alondra O’Connor (verified owner) –
I’ve read Mr. Link’s first book “High Probability Trading” and also had high hopes for this one. Unfortunately, I found this book to be written in too personal a way with the author going off on tangents completely unrelated to trading on what seemed like every other page.
I didn’t mind when he discusses his bar business or family and how those things affect his focus on trading, but the book is laced with his side comments about how animal manure is contained in processed meat (p.74) or about how he knows a bunch of successful people who smoke pot (p.253) etc etc. He also talks alot about how he wrote the book and in what order and what he was originally gonna title the book in almost every chapter! I kept thinking to myself, “Who cares dude, let’s get back to the trading advice”
The book is full of these little anecdotes that I found extremely distracting. The author does state that he wrote the book like a conversation but I still found it annoying. Also, it’s full of spelling and grammar mistakes and I wonder if those kind people at Wiley even edited it.
Having said that, if you can get past the writing style, there are good nuggets of advice like in his first book. The chapter on drawing up scenarios was particularly helpful in demonstrating the authors thought process throughout a trade.
Jianna Phan (verified owner) –
After reading the first book. i felt cheated out of my money on this one.This book contains absolutely nothing new and seems like was written with the intent of just making money.
Bryce Rowland (verified owner) –
I know I sound like a shill, but the two BEST trading books I EVER read were Mr. Link’s first book, and Charles Wright’s “Trading as a Business” (which still may be available, for FREE, somewhere on Tradestation’s site. This one is also very good. Link, somehow, replicates–in a book, a great mentoring program—without the cost, and inconvenience—you REALLY feel that you are sitting RIGHT NEXT TO HIM, as a master trader explains the hows and whys of his trades. Priceless!
In all honesty, I believe, that you should read each of his books several times: first time, just read; next time, start taking “copious notes”—he has a gem on almost every page. (yeah, it’s work, but…hey, do you want to make a fortune…or not?)
Elisha Benjamin (verified owner) –
It is a good read, lots of stuff are from other books though like “How to make money in stocks”. Also too pricey.
Colby Chambers (verified owner) –
very good
Margo Monroe (verified owner) –
This book is about two things; a “trading plan”, and a “game plan”, with the main focus on implementing the game plan (for those unsure what the difference is, a “trading plan” is your signal generation methodology and money management, while the “game plan” is how you actually implement your methodology on a day to day basis). If you are new to trading, and are looking for a book to learn how to trade on the stock market, then I suggest reading “High Probability Trading” first, as that will teach you about technical analysis, dealing with news reports, trend following systems, stops, multiple time frames, and the psychology and discipline you will need. If you’ve read a few books on technical analysis, and know what methods you are going to use to get signals from the markets but don’t know how to put it all together, then “Trading without Gambling” is the book that will show you how to implement what you have learned and turn it into a trading methodology. This book was written near the end of 2007, when the stock markets crashed. As you read through the chapters of the book, the author shows many examples of a game plan being used on a day to day basis. It shows the thought processes behind each of the trades he makes, how he set technically correct profit targets and stops, and the how he created scenarios which told him when to get in and get out of a trade. I found this particularly useful, because it gives the reader the opportunity to see how an experienced trader makes decisions from chart analysis and implements them. The charts he uses as examples are taken from the Dow Futures at the time the market was turning into a major bear market, but written in “real time” so the author did not know the market was about to crash. Being able to see how an experienced trader manages positions during a crisis was invaluable, as any trader will undoubtedly go through similar situations in the future.
Callum Whitaker (verified owner) –
Good read, info I hadn’t read elsewhere
Maison Conner (verified owner) –
This book is in the top eight out of the over one hundred stock trading books I have read. It presents one of the most important principles of successful trading: DO NOT GAMBLE, ONLY TAKE TRADES WITH A HIGH PROBABILITY OF MAKING MONEY. Author Marcel Link covers in great detail all the areas that a stock trader needs for success in the markets.
First he explains the importance of having a detailed trading plan:
1. Entering a trade
2. Exiting a trade
3. Stop placement
4. Position sizing
5. Money management parameters
6. What to trade
7. Trading time frames
8. Back testing
9. Performance review
10. Risk vs. Reward
In two areas of the book he writes about how even though great traders have a huge amount of differences about them they all share one common trait:Discipline. Whatever your trading style you must have the discipline to follow your trading plan by taking your wins while they are there, cutting your losses when it is time, and never trade to large a position and risk to much of your capital.
He touches on some of the key aspects of trading strategies, but his main point is whether you trade based on technical indicators or fundamentals you must trade a proven system that has been back tested and once you make your system rules, follow them.
The author advises focusing on one market and really know how your market or specific stock trades. He believes you can really hurt your performance watching commodities, futures, bonds, or to many individual stocks, and having to many positions on at the same time. I agree.
You will receive advice to keep the right perspective and always ask yourself “If I did not have this position on would I buy now”? Try to look over your own shoulder while in a trade and give yourself advice like you are trying to advise a friend’s trading.
I really liked how Mr. Link said that you should avoid over trading and you should not always either be long or short a stock, that no position was a position in itself. (I had to follow this “no position” mantra in my major account in 2008 being unable to get a feel for any trend or support and resistance levels and saved myself from huge losses).
The author shares his personal trading rules, key principles for successful trading, favorite books and magazines. This book is a treasure test of information and advice from a real 20 year veteran trader who has done very well for himself and is sharing his knowledge with us. This is not a gamble, buy the book and use its principles and you will win in trading.