Pring's Book: Technical Analysis Explained - Any good?

TGregg · Jan 18, 2003

Martin has another book out (does this guy spend any time trading?) called "Technical Analysis Explained : The Successful Investor's Guide to Spotting Investment". Sporting a list price of $55, I was wondering if anybody here has read it. Any comments on this text?

marketsurfer · Jan 18, 2003

Quote from TGregg:

Martin has another book out (does this guy spend any time trading?) called "Technical Analysis Explained : The Successful Investor's Guide to Spotting Investment". Sporting a list price of $55, I was wondering if anybody here has read it. Any comments on this text?

his first book "technical analysis explained" 1980 was my first trading book. it is a CLASSIC !!

best,

surf

Bouds · Jan 20, 2003

Hi

Good book for the beginner - tries to cover all aspects of TA in one book - hence by definition cannot be too advanced.

You do get the impression however that he simplifies things a little which in today's crazy market don't hold much water.

Hope that helps.

Bouds

TGregg · Jan 20, 2003

Quote from Bouds:

Good book for the beginner . . . cannot be too advanced.

Dang. That's exactly what I was afraid of. Thanks for saving me some money, Bouds.

Chuck_T · Jan 22, 2003

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pug · Apr 1, 2003

If you get it, get the study guide along with it. As I'm still learning, it made the reading less dry and was good with review. It's classic, and will probably be more applicable when the market settles down into some more reliable patterns instead of reacting to war news.

hwaxen · Apr 2, 2003

Quote from TGregg:

Martin has another book out (does this guy spend any time trading?) called "Technical Analysis Explained : The Successful Investor's Guide to Spotting Investment". Sporting a list price of $55, I was wondering if anybody here has read it. Any comments on this text?

I think the book is excellent if you are new or somewhat experienced in the field of technical analysis. My favorite books on technical analysis are the series from the publishing house of John Wiley, the books edited by Don Macke. This are older books that Wiley has republished.

Diamond Geezer · Apr 28, 2003

He went over the usual stuff, "head and shoulders", "double tops" etc, and added some newer stuff such as 2-bar reversals (A long white candle followed by a black one or vice versa, of very similar size).

When asked by one attendee whether any of it worked he shrugged and mentioned something about a group in Canada that was doing some backtesting, but nothing to confirm.

So my question is: How does one get up there and charge $195 per attendee and not know if any of these patterns can be incorporated into a workable strategy? Furthermore, he seemed blissfully unaware of research conducted by others on the validity of these patterns.

I emphasize: If it works on paper via backtesting, it may (or may not) work in the real world. If it doesn't even work on paper, don't bother trying to trade it. IMHO, much of what this guy advocates is of the latter variety.

I own his "Technician's guide to Swing and Day Trading" and have read portions of his other books. They are clearly written and illustrated, but that's about all I can say.

shellback · Apr 28, 2003

The third edition of this book was the first book I bought years ago. I consider it a classic.

logikos · Apr 29, 2003

Sorry, not a Pring fan here. I've always considered John J. Murphy's book "Technical Analysis of the Futures Markets" to be the definitive standard of technical analysis books. I also found Schwager's Technical Analysis book to be unique in that it builds in testing of your knowledge by presenting an actual chart on one page along with his premise in taking a trade. He challenges you to agree or disagree, and why. The next page shows the chart several weeks later, along with an analysis of why he won (or lost). He includes as many losers as winners and I found this testing format to be entertaining and informative.