Wednesday, May 1, 2013

The Candlestick Course 1st edition, Steve Nison



This candle stick book wont cost you much.. but trying to make money from it certainly will cost you many more times than the price of the book.."

I must say, I read this book about 4 years ago. I was just looking to sell many of my trading books that I don't use and this is one of them.

I really loved this book when I read it, its well explained and has lots of examples you can do.. but years later, and several thousand trades later.. and after backtesting my own systems. I've come to realise one thing. ITS ALMOST A STATISTICAL CERTAINTY THAT NONE OF YOU GUYS APPLYING THIS BOOKS INFORMATION LONG TERM ARE GOING TO MAKE ANY MONEY.
Infact I'd bet against you; that you'd lose money.

Why?

Statistics and numbers!

Ok, before I start, let me say I hold a British Diploma in Technical Analysis (STA) [equivalent to the American MTA]. So I have some background in TA.
There is technical analysis and then there is making money. The two do not necessarily go hand in hand. Now you can certainly use some TA methods to help make money, but most practitioners of TA are analysis's and dont trade their own money, which in my opinion, makes their analysis pointless. Most TA methods are theories without statistics behind them and therefore in my opinion useless.

The book will tell you about doji bars, hangmen and 3 black crow patterns etc. BUT NOWHERE is there any statistics on these claims.
Steve will say 'when you see these candles it means the market should go up..' but with no stats, its a useless comment.
I'd like to see statements like eg over a 20 year period in the Dow Jones index, when this pattern showed up, 65% of the time it proved to be correct and 35% of the time it was incorrect..
There is no information like that whatsoever.
Any more importantly, there is no statistics on what you lose when you are wrong and what you make when you are right. The book makes vague suggestions of where to place stops. But without statistics, its just useless information.

For 6 months I started I tried trading using candle patterns (and other technicals), but I hadnt done my own statistical analysis. I just followed the advise in Steves book (and others) blindly. I didn't make money. Sure it could have been because I was making some mistakes or even not understanding what Id read correctly. But again regardless, in a any science theory, when you make a statement, you must backup up with evidence.. I have long got fed up of 'financial gurus' making wild statements without backup it up with data. Without this evidence, the view might as well be just pure fictional rubbish.

Now lets talk about candles quickly. I DO actually use candle stick charts.. I like them visually because I can see 4 bits of information all at once (Open,Close,Low,High) as well as magnitudes.. but I do NOT use the patterns. The main point of using candlestick charting, according to Steve Nison, is to use the candle patterns. When I look at a candle chart, I've completely forgottern about the patterns now, I pay no attention.. instead I look for other information eg support and resistance, or setups/patterns people like Larry Williams mentions in his books..

Steve Nison is a book seller, and a TA theorist, he is not a trader. His money comes from selling books and DVD's and doing seminars.
If you want to make money, instead of reading this book, I'v suggest you check out these books:

Van Tharps 'Trade your way to financial freedom'
Curtis Faith 'The Way of the Turtle'
Larry Williams 'Short Term Secrets to Long Term trading' (this book is a bit cryptic, but this guy is the real deal)

"This candle stick book wont cost you much.. but trying to make money from applying its principles certainly will cost you many more times than the price of the book.."

Actually I purchased this book at the request of my husband. He has read it and stated on several occasions that it is difficult to understand and not an easy read. That being said, he does like it!! He says he is learing (all be it slowly) but at least he is enjoying it. I looked through the book and it looked like it would be difficult to understand unless you know EXACTLY what they are talking about. There has been a few instances where my husband did not know what the writer was talking about or referring to on some of the grafts. I dont know, for that much money, I want to understand EVERYTHING in the book. In my opinion, the book was entirely too expensive! I wanted to wait for it to come out in paperback, BUT it already is paperback! I guess if you are into the stock market and investing, this book is ok.

The kindle preview of this book shows us: nothing.
Not a single pattern is contained, so I am left with the feeling that the author/publisher is ashamed to show the content? Afraid to ... what, publish a secret?
Many kindle books are hardly usable for their bad grafics. How am I to decide about this?
I won't buy the book under this circumstances. Period.

Mr. Nison is a fountain of knowledge and renowned expert on this topic. He is also a superlative teacher. Some reviewers have commented that this book is a bit simplistic; to which I say, well, I personally can always use a good refresher. One caution for newbies: candlesticks will NOT, in themselves, equip you to trade successfully. As Mr. Nison--much to his credit--consistently points out, candlesticks are best used "in conjunction" with "Western" indicators/moves. Mr. Nison even teaches HOW to use candlesticks with the latter. His experience, attention to detail, and writing/teaching ability inspire confidence and lead directly to real-life, practical results. Candlesticks are just hard to beat as that final piece of validation needed to make a trade. I depend on them, and would say that Mr. Nison does a fantastic job of making them intelligible for everyone.

As far as I know, this is Steve Nison's latest book on candlestick charting. What it does, it does very well indeed. It's the best book for newcomers (especially self-study types) to the subject that I've ever found, and I've checked most of them. In fact, if you're new to technical analysis, you can start here as well. Although there's more to technical analysis than candlestick charting, one has to start somewhere, and once you've mastered the concepts introduced here, the rest will make a lot more sense to you. The problem with most books that claim to be introductory works is that they're really not. You read a few pages, and then all of a sudden the author starts introducing words he or she hasn't defined, or starts talking about subjects that he or she just assumes you know about. Steve Nison doesn't do this. He takes you step by step, and each chapter concludes with review questions and answers, so that you'll be able to move to the next chapter. And you don't have to worry that the author knows what he's talking about. He's the one who introduced the subject of candlestick charting to the Western world.
After you've gone through this book, I would most highly recommend that you follow it up with Tina Logan's "Getting Started in Candlestick Charting." It will reinforce what you learned from Nison's book, and then seamlessly blend in other aspects of technical analysis as the discussion moves forward. When you've finished with both books, you should know as much about the subject as most of the experts. And you'll have a powerful tool to use in your trading. The great thing about the candlestick method is that while it presents the same "raw data" as the conventional bar graph, it also gives you so much more real information about what's going on in the market. It's almost like being able to read the minds of the market participants. Simply stated, it's as far superior to the conventional bar graph as Arabic numerals are to Roman numerals. It's the unity of form and content.

Product Details :
Paperback: 219 pages
Publisher: Wiley; 1st edition (May 23, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0471227285
ISBN-13: 978-0471227281
Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 0.6 x 9.9 inches

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