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Looking at the first volume of “Harmonic Trading” I already arrived at the conclusion that there was something special about it. Maybe the combination of technical analysis precise tools with some interesting applications of mass psychology to trading, maybe the quick and informal style of Scott Carney, who knows… Bottom line, I enjoyed the new twists on the old techniques of “wave trading” or pattern recognition on the tech analysis.

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Nothing is better than continuous education. And in this respect, we at doitinvest.com did read and review quite a lot of books in the technical analysis field lately. We don’t have any statistics readily availabel, but I suppose that doitinvest.com has become a top reviewer of the trading books and materials published since 2009…
Now back to work :). I recently got for review one of the books deemed to be a full encyclopedia of techical analysis techniques. So I got quite curious - was it so?

The first look at the book content was quite convincing. The book is very well organized and takes the reader from the basics to the most advanced techniques. It starts with the fundamental assumptions of the technical analysis field - is the random walk theory valid? Are the trends predictable? What is the blend between mass psychology and statistcis which allows you to make money from analysing the markets? What are the main assumptions behind technical analysis and how well do they stand the test of practice? and so on.

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Well, I was looking for a long time after an easier book on technical analysis techniques using a programming language. In other words, I was in for a book where you do not get only the usual lengthy descriptions of various trading techniques and their charts with pointers. After all, it is easy to develop a technique and let it fit with any possible trading - in hindsight.

What I was looking for was a simple way to improve my trading skills and to limit my forex trading risks. If possible, for a book which could be rather practical than conceptual, from which I could learn some code snippets and apply those to trading.

The good news is that there is such a book. “Volatility-Based Technical Analysis: Strategies for Trading the Invisible” by Kirk Northington fills a gap between the individual knowledge of a single trader and the collective wisdom of the large financial institutions. In other words, Northington teaches you how to trade individually using the techniques and the leverages of a large institution. This is a big advantage, especially since the rise of the trading platforms which are so easy to use nowadays online. And where the risk is so high and it is so easy to loose large amounts of money in the blink of an eye

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Well, a book on investing on shares by a Forbes columnist who has more experience than my professional age? Could be interesting, don’t you think?

And indeed it was. Ken Fisher writes in a somehow difficult manner. He sidetracks with his three questions back and forth on the same subject. And repeats quite obsessively some of his ideas in the 400+ pages of this project. But at the end of the day I found “The only 3 questions you need to ask” informing and well documented. And full of (arguably) useful insights on shares investing.

What is the book about?

Well, about investing in shares and about how you can sustainably beat the markets.

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If you are a seasoned professional working in corporate finance or as investments analyst, it is very probable that you saw them all. This means that you saw the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) endorsed books, such as the US famous “Investments” by Bodie and Kane. You probably saw also the stock market analysts’ books – those written by the guys or girls who have been very successful as investor managers. You also probably saw the books written by various academics in the field of finance. So probably right now your head is spinning only at the invocation of all these names and handbooks.

If this is the case, you probably noticed that much of the information is repeated. You can find the same topic in various shapes and sizes coming to you and waiting to be served in various shapes and with changed examples. Take for example the dividend payout theory – we all know that a company should pay a dividend as long as the expected outcomes of the company’s actions are less than the cost of capital.

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Jack Schwager was one of the first investment authors to write a pretty comprehensive guide to trading in various markets, a guide fully dedicated to the so well developed nowadays field of technical analysis. The guide contains a pretty classic structure, also used quite often by the other authors in their books. (Which, in my opinion, represents a sort of a tacit recognition of the fact that Schwager was one of the first authors to formalize its method.)

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