Tools and Tactics for the Master DayTrader: Battle-Tested Techniques for Day, Swing, and Position Traders [Hardcover]

I became profitable in 1998 and support my family totally from trading income, using many of the tools described in this book. I have tried many of the software "black box" programs out there, been to many seminars (some great ones, some worthless ones), bought many trading books, and it has all led me to where I am now. If I had let an unfavorable review like the ones here steer me away from a fantastic book like this one, I would not be trading today and making a living working for myself half a day and hiking, biking and skiing the other half. So what if they promote their own seminars, web pages, trading room, etc. in the book. Wade Cook and many others use their books as free advertising the same way...nobody is forced to buy the other products. We all have the ability to decide whether or not we will delve further into these products, don't we?

To be fair to the other reviewers, they may already be successful traders that don't need the advice in the first half of the book and were only looking for a book that would reveal a system or method to double their income in the next three months. All I can say is that I have been trading for eleven years and the book will probably double my income in the next six months even if I never read the second half. Buy it, read it and decide for yourself.

Now, let's comment on the very positive as well as very negative comments regarding the book. The negative comments appear to be from "well seasoned" traders with 10-20 yrs experience, that emphatically emphasize the phrase "I'm a succesful trader". Well, it is my experience that if you are really succesful then you would hardly gloat yourself on this attribute. Much less buy a trading book IF you are indeed a 10-20 yrs experienced trader! Now, that's hard to swallow. So, here's my grain of salt on these comments.

I'm very open to new ideas and this book will provide the novice trader with simple and effective ones. Now, let's make it clear! This book, in any WAY, SHAPE or FORM will make you a Mastertrader from day to night. This is a hard road my friends where 95% of people fail to finish! What this book gives you are bit and pieces of a never ending puzzle that must be assembled by YOU and only YOU.

My other comment is that most people fail to mention that 99.5% of the books out there about trading, DO NOT provide entry and exit strategies and simple trading strategies. This book does! There is a very fine line between technical analysis and trading. You can know everything about TA, but to put it to work on the trading arena is a VERY VERY different story.

I must add that I recently attended a seminar offered by Mr. Capra, and I have to say I was absolutely satisfied by the course material. I also realized that the book does not even scratch the surface regarding trading. As for the comment that I read on this site, that Velez and Capra do not trade, I have to say that this is simply without foundation, and at best a comment made out of bad faith. The two day seminar pretty much showed me what Capra knows, and let me tell you, he knows a lot. But what I saw was a whole bunch of ill-prepared and dreamers hoping to make big bucks from day to night on the world of trading during the seminar. I then soon realized that most of the bad comments might come from these individuals that failed in the trading arena after reading the book or attending a seminar.

Here are some actual results of their system. I checked my last five days of trading and found my results gave me a 5.2% gain on three losses and three wins! This is the 50/50 deal that is dismissed by one of the critics who said their system produces.

Now I will take that sort of gain any time. If I could have that every week it would give me a 268% profit for the year! Not bad for a beginning.

I give you specific trades I made to produce these results. Check them for yourself.

The trades were made from January 23 to January 29,m 2004.

1-23-04 - Bot ANDW @ 16.763

- Shorted SNDK @ 60.58

1-26 - Sold ANDW @ 17.467 (loss .704)

- Covered SNDK @ 58.33 profit 2.25

1.27 - Shorted CYBX @ 32.40

- Covered FRNT @ 10.80 profit .851

- Covered CYBX @ 31.80 profit .60

1-28 - no activity

1-29 - Shorted ERTS @ 46.30

- Covered ERTS @ 47.16 (loss .86)

- Shorted RYL @ 75.01

- Covered RYL @ 75.85 (loss .84)

Results: (losses = 2.304), profits = 3.701; net gain 1.497 on total of 240.554 share prices of initial trades, for a net profit of 1.497, or 5.2% gain in five trading days.

(Note: This does not include the holdings still in the account at the end of the period, only the trades actually made in the period. The FRNT was shorted @ 11.751 on 1-20, but was not closed until the period of these trades. The account still held RYL shorted (again) on 1-29 @ 75.76 and DHI shorted at 27.40 on 1-29. RYL was up .26 at EOD and DHI was down (.34) at end of day.)

Don't overlook the fact that the market had two huge correction days during this period, January 27 and 28, when virtually all the indexes were down on heavy volume.

I also would like to unravel a bit of the negative comments that have been posted here. Many of them have to do with the seminars that these authors conduct. I have nothing to say about the seminars, having never attended one, nor having any intention of doing so.

The rest of the negative comments about the book seem to revolve around the fact that there is 'nothing new' in the book, that its concepts are old news. That seems more positive than negative. If they are old techniques then they are to be trusted more, for they work well enough to still be around. Yes, I too found them to be old, but I need constant reminding of the techniques.

I can't recall one negative comment that didn't have a good word about the psychology that the authors propound in the first half of the book. Well, to me, technique is about fifteen percent of a good trade and psychology as well as risk management are the other eighty-five percent that make the difference between winning and losing in the market. At least, that is true of me. I have usually lost trades because of one or the other of these two being out of kilter. So, for me, these two - psychology (mine as well as the other players in the market) and risk management - are the pivotal elements in making good trades.

One other observation. A number of the critics have aimed their charges at the character of the authors, and their hype of their seminars and other products. To me neither of these are relevant to the system presented in their book. Either it works or it doesn't. That is the key.

I have found many of the books about the market to hype other products their authors have for sale. In fact, the one guy I follow the most, William J. O'Neil, may be the greatest hyper of them all. He owns Investors' Business Daily. He sells his books in ads on about every other page in IBD, as well as his chart service, his seminars, e-subscriptions and other books and services. Still, it is hard to beat his CANSLIM system for trading.

This book has good stuff for those who are serious about trading. As one reviewer said, the material on entry and exit strategies are worth the price alone. And do not under-estimate the psychology these guys are selling. It is key!