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Trade the trend and you can trade for a living

If you're going to play the stock market, play to win by using a fundamental strategy of most hedge fund managers-trend trading. In Trend Trading for a Living, the trading coach and hedge fund manager known on Wall Street as “Dr. Stoxx” shares his personal strategies for analyzing markets, picking stocks, and knowing when to buy and sell.

This step-by-step book offers a practical road map to get yourself familiarized with the stock market and into the driver's seat of your financial future. In five progressive parts, Trend Trading for a Living helps you:

• Configure your platform: setup your home computer to trade online with the best brokers
• Learn the basics: understand trend trading, select stocks to watch, and interpret market signs
• Get in the game: select the most profitable bullish and bearish stocks and pick your entry and exit prices
• Leverage your portfolio: learn how to trade with options to increase your financial rewards
• Turn pro: with patience, determination, and a strategy grounded in fundamentals, you can “trade for a living”

User Reviews about Trend Trading for a Living: Learn the Skills and Gain the Confidence to Trade for a Living

The book is very good. It doesn't deserve some of the criticisms that have received:
1. The author clearly recognize all his influences and literature sources, including that of Alexander Elder;
2. The book is not vague at all. I have to say that it is the most detailed I read so far (and I have read more than 50). The author clearly individualizes:
a) The market to be traded;
b) ENTRY SETUP;
c) Where to put STOPS;
d) Where to take profits;
e) How to create a watchlist;
f) What are the market characteristics that make the setup even more profitable.
Therefore, I can't understand why the book has been called vague;
3. It is true that the author frequently makes reference to his website and newsletter. But it is not overwhelming or irritating at all. It's not a promotion book!!!

I am very satisfied with the money I paid by the book. -- Well written, practical, and detailed

This book was a pleasure to read.

The Foreword by Alan Farley is a Gem. He states: "Learn the unique traits of the market day, week, and month. These repetitive tendencies affect how prices move and how traders trade. They reveal telling quirks that produce high-probability trades. ... Develop your own trading style and don't run with the herd."

Dr. Carr has a very readable language style, the publisher's have produced an easy on the eye, and appealing printing style. The Introduction (first 25 pages) may vividly portray author's transition "From Passion to Profession", but does it provide the reader with any useful idea(s)? But for the beautiful writing style and language of Dr. Carr, I would say `Skip It'. But definitely skip the first Chapter `What you need to Get Started'. Chapter 2, `Becoming A Chart Reader' covers the `Sexy Six' indicators (SMA, MACD, Stochastics, OBV, RSI, and CCI). This can help as a review for intermediate readers (who have already read about these topics in a Beginner's Book on Trading, such as Constance Brown's `Technical Analysis Demystified' and/or Tina Logan's `Getting started in Candlestick Charting'). The section on `Hermeneutics' is highly interesting, especially since this is the topic of the author's Ph. D. thesis; but, is it useful to the average trader-reader to know "we each bring our own experiences, biases, and personal preferences to what we are reading"?

I am tempted to say, read the Foreword and then skip the first 70 pages of Dr. Carr's book unless you are a reader like myself who enjoys good writing style even if the content is not quite relevant to the topic at hand. Chapter 3 `Developing a Trader's Mind' contains gems such as `a passionate feeling for the markets, a "fire in the belly," is a real plus for the trader.' This chapter also includes 2-3 page elucidation of ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, which is highly readable, educational and informative; but is it useful to the average trader? Has Dr. Carr written this book merely to record his own life's journey, or to present a cogent set of guidelines to help the average trader? The chapter does end with excellent sticky notes for your trading monitor: (Trade only your own picks!; Never average down!; Let winners run!; Cut losses short!; No impulse buys or sells!).

The chapter on "The 10 Habits of Highly Successful Traders" is simple, readable and useful to the average trader. Even here, Dr. Carr can't resist showing his philosophical genius "Wealth shared is true wealth indeed".

Perhaps I enjoyed Dr. Carr's book not just for the sheer joy of reading a well written book (covering trends, philosophy, psycho-analysis, religion etc.) but because his trading philosophy matches mine: `swing trading for larger moves with day trading to exploit intraday moves'.

Part II (Trend-Trading Basics) and Part III (Get Started in Trend Trading) cover the subject matter very well (Stock Screening, Watch Lists, Recognizing Trends, proper use of Indicators, etc.). The reader can easily grasp the subject matter and use it as a guide or road map for Trend Trading.

In Part IV of the book `Trend Trading with Options' Dr. Carr attempts to cover Option Basics and some strategies for trading options (with a Bullish or Bearish outlook for the underlying). In choosing to write about Options without a single Profit/Loss Profile for the options strategy Dr. Carr is taking his readers into dangerous waters without a life preserver. Before attempting to trade options using the strategies discussed in Dr. Carr's book, I strongly recommend that the reader refer to one or more of the following books on Options Trading (Guy Cohen's Options Made Easy, James Bittman's Trading Options as a Professional, Anthony Saliba's Option Spread Strategies, Dan Passarelli's Trading Option Greeks, etc.). Dr. Carr's discussion of Options strategies does not include a single Profit/Loss diagrams. Without Profit/Loss diagrams it is difficult to comprehend and evaluate option strategies and the reader may make gross errors while implementing option trading startegies. For example, while describing `Basic Option Parameters' Dr. Carr states (Page 261):
"Puts bought make money as the market goes down.
Puts sold or written make money as the market goes down or stays flat."
If the first statement is true (which is indeed the case), the second cannot be true. After all, Put Buyer and Put Seller are participating in a `Zero-Sum Game' and the Buyer's gain is the Seller's Loss and vice versa. The Profit and Loss diagrams for Long Put (Puts bought) and Short Put (Puts sold) are mirror reflections of each other.

In summary, Dr. Carr's book is written in a beautiful style, has excellent coverage for Trend Trading, and includes interesting (but extraneous) topics such as `Hermeneutics', Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) which you do not expect to find in a book on Trading. I would recommend this book for readers interested in trend trading with this refrain: Do not trade options if your only exposure to options trading is reading about them in Dr. Carr's book.

-- Dr. Stoxx Leaves me Feeling Good but Wanting More!

I am almost done reading this book. It is fantastic! Dr. Carr writes like he is your friendly neighbor that is sharing wisdom with you in hopes that you will be able to profit from his lessons learned. The order arrived quickly and in perfect condition. I highly recommend.
-- Trend Trading is GREAT!