The Art & Science of Technical Analysis: Market Structure, Price Action & Trading Strategies (Wiley Trading)


Product Description
A breakthrough trading book that provides powerful insights on profitable technical patterns and strategiesThe Art and Science of Technical Analysis is a groundbreaking work that bridges the gaps between the academic view of markets, technical analysis, and profitable trading. The book explores why randomness prevails in markets most, but not all, of the time and how technical analysis can be used to capture statistically validated patterns in certain types of market conditions. The belief of the book is that buying and selling pressure causes patterns in prices, but that these technical patterns are only effective in the presence of true buying/selling imbalance.
The Art and Science of Technical Analysis is supported by extensive statistical analysis of the markets, which will debunk some tools and patterns such as Fibonacci analysis, and endorse other tools and trade setups. In addition, this reliable resource discusses trader psychology and trader learning curves based on the author's extensive experience as a trader and trainer of traders.
- Offers serious traders a way to think about market problems, understand their own performance, and help find a more productive path forward
- Includes extensive research to validate specific money-making patterns and strategies
- Written by an experienced market practitioner who has trained and worked with many top traders
Filled with in-depth insights and practical advice, The Art and Science of Technical Analysis will give you a realistic sense of how markets behave, when and how technical analysis works, and what it really takes to trade successfully.
The Art & Science of Technical Analysis: Market Structure, Price Action & Trading Strategies (Wiley Trading) Review
I liked this book a lot. I have followed the author's writings since his days at "SMB Capital". His new work is at adamgrimes.com/blog. In my opinion, all of the author's work is worth reading. The book, "The Art and Science of Technical Analysis", is pretty hefty at over 400 pages. For me, there is a TON of relevant information within this book, so much that it's difficult to review, but I'll try.The author starts right in with an explanation of "Expectancy" and "Market Edge". What, in the author's opinion, defines a "trader's edge"? It's made clear in the book that the opinion is that market's, MOST of the time, are very efficient. The reason I emphasize "most" is because it's the opinion of the book that edge is defined as being aware of the moments when the market is NOT efficient and in that zone is where trading edge exist. This concept is covered in the first 5 pages and the remaining 400+ pages the attempt is made to present or make clear when markets are not being efficient. The author states early on that psychology is important and critical, but one can have the best mental attitude and emotional discipline and yet, without an edge, he/she will lose. The bottom line, as stated directly in the book, is that one MUST have edge, a clear statistical edge, and if this doesn't exist, everything else is futile. This entire book is about creating that edge.
Charts are broken down at first by showing simply swing pivot points. Then the moves within the swing are broken apart. Then the author gets into multiple time frame trading. How the higher time frame "controls" the lower time frame. I do a LOT of this in my own trading and it's very interesting. None of this is new per se, it's the author's approach that is new. I think what I'm trying to say is that we might know about multiple time frame trading, but if someone enables us to see something we haven't seen before then I think this is worth the time.
The author then gets into the "Wykcoff Market Cycle". There are 4 parts to this cycle and most traders I'm sure are aware of "Accumulation", "Markup", "Distribution" and "Markdown". Most traders are aware of this but it's the interface between the end of one cycle and the beginning of another on which the book concentrates. The author states that it's the miscalculation of these phases where losses and dangerous trading situations exist. A considerable amount of time is spent on deciphering these transition modes. These insights, for me, were new, interesting and seem valid.
The next part of the book is on "Market Structure". The first stop within this section is "trends". The author talks about what defines a trend and talks at length about trend trading, but also in this section "range trading" is discussed. The author states that failed breakouts are one of the most common patterns in trading. How to determine a failed breakout from a "legitimate" breakout is very difficult but I really believe that the author's insights into this area of trading can be very helpful.
As you go deeper into the book you see, and the author explains, there are 4 types of trades. There is trend continuation, trend termination, support and resistance holding and support and resistance failing. Now, these are the 4 types of basic trades but there are countless permutations of these formations. Each of these 4 types of trades is more appropriate during one market cycle then another. It can get confusing. This book does a more than adequate job at clarifying these trades.
The next part of the book gets into "Practical Trading Templates". In this chapter/section the author list trading patterns, or rather potential trading patterns. There's a lot here, but essentially there are Primary and Secondary patterns. The Primary trades are breakouts, pullbacks and trades from "failures".
The author then devotes a chapter to "Tools For Confirmation". This chapter I liked a lot since one of my several weaknesses as a trader is staying with the trade to fruition. I especially like his analysis of multiple time frame confirmations. I like the concept of paying attention to the highest time frame and then going down from the top.
There is an entire chapter on Risk Management.
In the appendix the author analyzes certain indicators, one of them being the MACD. He states that any trader should know his tools inside and out. They should know how the tool was designed and exactly what it is and what it's intended to be. I use MACD in my trading and I'm guilty of the exact type of ignorance about which the author speaks. I read this segment many times and I think it's excellent.
All in all, this is a meaty book and I read it twice. I'm still re-reading certain parts and I took a lot of notes and underlined a lot of points. I don't write many reviews and as far as trading books go my feeling is that they are long on price and short on relevance. I don't feel that about this book at all. The points are presented in a unique way and I like that. It makes me think about trading differently and enables me to see something I've looked at many times in a different way. That is certainly worth the price of a book. I'm working with some of the points and it will take some practice. In my opinion, this is definitely a worthwhile read. The author's blog is also a worthwhile read. Hope this helps.
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