A good & complete TA book
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...too true. BTW, the Velez rec was meant as a joke to rile anybody up. There is a lot of good stuff in Katz and McCormick, which I am still reading, on the performance of neural nets and genetic algorithms. Not TA but interesting.
Actually, I'm not anti-Velez like everyone else seems to be. The setups they offer are pretty basic, much like Raschke's or TFMS or RealityTrader. The value of any particular setup will increase or decrease depending on volatility, trendiness, the cycle, etc. But as long as one understands that there are only three basic setups - tests, retracements, and breakouts - and that everything else is just a variation on one or more of these, then he can put it all into context.
I should point out here also that earlier, when I referred to the "chartist" school of TA and the "indicator" school, I should have divided the chartists into those who focus on price-volume and those who love patterns. The source for price-volume relationships, including accumulation-distribution, is Richard Wyckoff. Schabacker is the source for patterns.
...that depends on what you mean by introductory. It is not an introductory TA book, but it is an introductory book on mechanical system development and trading. I'm working my way through all of the ones that get good reviews on Amazon. The Cliff's notes version of K & McC is that nothing works on all markets, but in every market there is SOMETHING which works astonishingly well. Trade the best thing in every market and you will be rich by the end of the day.
In particular, they like genetic algorithms. Personally, I think one is better off studying pure price action intraday on a volatile vehicle and finding one's own way by testing ridiculous ideas. Very strange things happen when you backtest stupid ideas. Often you find something so BAD that it suggests a contra strategy which works pretty good. These tend to be equivalent to fades of conventional TA. IMO there are unsuspected market structures out there which reveal themselves through the backtesting equivalent of statistical analysis. Random entry don't work, but random backtesting sometimes does.
In particular, they like genetic algorithms. Personally, I think one is better off studying pure price action intraday on a volatile vehicle and finding one's own way by testing ridiculous ideas. Very strange things happen when you backtest stupid ideas. Often you find something so BAD that it suggests a contra strategy which works pretty good. These tend to be equivalent to fades of conventional TA. IMO there are unsuspected market structures out there which reveal themselves through the backtesting equivalent of statistical analysis. Random entry don't work, but random backtesting sometimes does.
...I don't have any Wyckoff because I don't know which of the several monographs to buy. There are those under his name and under the pseudonym. Which do you recommend? Thanks.
Actually, none, unless you really like to read. It is possible to get something out of them if you read all of them, but the gold you get after the panning may not be a high enough grade to have made it all worthwhile.
The best introduction is probably Charting The Stock Market by Hutson et al. You can also obtain Wyckoff's original course, but it costs big bucks.
...thanks. I'll look up the Hutson.
I have gone through many of the books mentioned here but struggled with them due to weak math and technical skills. Recently, I browsed through The Technical Analysis Course by Thomas A. Meyers at Borders and thought it was more on my level. I liked the explanations as to what each analysis is good for and why it is important. I did not read the book and would appreciate comments from any who have.
Geo.
Geo.