Rules of the Trade: Indispensable Insights for Online Profits - Ebook Detail

Reviews
I have read lots, and lots, and lots, of trading books. Most of them are not that great but contain a few valuable nuggets here and there, so they are all worth reading to me.

This book is nothing BUT valuable nuggets. It is well thought-out and well written by a widely recognized successful trader/trainer/manager. It really captures the essence of what short-term trading is all about, of which daytrading is a major component. It's a trading book for traders by a trader. Those just wanting to swing-trade, well, ...good luck. Professional traders trade, period. Good swing trades are found by actively trading, from a daytrading perspective.

Yes, the trading landscape has changed when we went to decimals - for the better! What is discussed in this work transcends the eras. Therefore I consider it to be a 5-star classic. It is not for beginners, it is for stock traders who are constantly wanting to improve. It does not give specific trading set-up tactics that become outdated.

Not much has fundamentally changed in the markets since the tech bubble. Those mastering the concepts in this book will be ready to get rich from the next wave of irrationality in the market, whichever way it goes, and in the meantime can still make a nice living. It belongs on your shelf if you are serious.

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Reviews
Before all I want to say that many topics are given for granted and I find the book not really easy for a beginner. Markets have changed a lot since this book was written and many chapters need revision having in mind that many readers are non native speakers of english and have no idea of many topics given for granted
Reviews
if you read these books and follow his fluff then you will be robbed of your money by professionals like me. trading takes advanced and sophisticated methods not capable of being properly expressed in a book targeted to the masses. people spend years educating themselves to be able to pick money from the inexperianced, like those who buy this book. best of luck and you can find good use for the book proping up a table of starting a fire after your done reading it
Reviews
I bought the book based on excellent reviews here and very attractive description.

However, I have been very disappointed because the content does not reflect the attractive title and description. The book is almost 100% for daytraders trading with level II screen. This is not said anywhere. "Online" does not mean exclusively daytrading to my opinion. It keeps on repeating "be disciplined" to fill space. One of the example of trade record given does not fit the explanation given in the text. For example, the trader made most of his profit in a single swing trade lasting several days whereas Nassar wants to show us that the guy is a good daytrader...

Another interesting thing: This book is not for beginners but it describes in fact very general basic rules... in a tough style that assumes that the reader already knows almost eveything.

When you read the table of contents, it looks great: how to enter, to exit, etc... but none of this is given in the book. No techniques are given.

Conclusion: This book could be fine if the description was fitting the content. It is for daytrader watching level II screen and who trade instinctively.
Reviews
Although this book has a copyright date of 2001, it apparently was written in early 2000, just at the start of the NASDAQ crash that ultimately resulted in a loss of over 75 percent of its value. Consequently, the author refers to a period of time when stocks traded in fractions, and high-flying tech stocks trading in the triple digits were "momentum" traded by daytraders. After the crash, many of those tech stocks trade in the single digits, all stocks now trade in decimals, and the "momentum" daytraders and their daytrading brokerage firms are now history. The author makes numerous references to "shadowing the axe" using Level II quotes to determine who is on the inside ask or bid. Nowadays, ECNs virtually always sit on the inside ask and bid, making it impossible to utilize that strategy. Even if a market maker had a large enough position to sit in front of the ECNs, he most likely would route much of his order to an ECN where it would appear anonymously in order to disguise his intentions.

The problem with writing a book about trading strategies or systems is that the markets are constantly changing, and trading systems become obsolete and must evolve over time. What doesn't change is the emotions and psychology of the people who compose the markets. The author states numerous times that trading is about 90 percent mental. While this is in fact correct, he then only briefly touches on the mental and psychological barriers that must be overcome in order to trade successfully. The best books on trading understand this, and are devoted almost totally to this subject.

There are also numerous inaccuracies. At one point, he details a month of trades from an "anonymous" daytrader who allegedly made 731 trades during the month, of which 377 were winners, with those trades averaging $93.03 profit. He then claims the trader netted $68,001.35 for the month. If you think about it for a minute, this is a mathematical impossibility. Also, he makes the typical mistake in believing a broadband connection is necessary to receive timely streaming quotations. Broadband speeds up downloads only with large size files. Streaming quotes do not fall into this category. I have timed my quotations against a T1 connection using an atomic clock accurate to 1 millionth of a second and have detected no difference. I do not use broadband, as it is not available in my area.

If in fact the author is a successful trader, it would have been much more productive for him to detail his own evolution as a trader, as well as the evolution of other specific successful traders he has known. This is the information that would be most useful to new traders. Unfortunately, the author only briefly discusses a few of his own trades, and gives no information whatsoever on the path he traveled to reach competence, assuming he has reached that level. It would also be interesting to see how he is trading in the post-bubble market, if in fact he is still trading successfully.

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