System Of A Down Book:

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Trend Following: How Great Traders Make Millions in Up or Down Markets, New Expanded Edition, (Paperback) Reviews:
Great Read
2008-01-23 - I bought both of this author's books on the recommendation of Amazon. The first book, the Complete TurtleTrader was the one that I read first. I wish I would have read them in reverse. Trend Following built up the story. After reading Trend Following I went back and read the Complete TurtleTrader again.

What made the book great? Well like most reading these types of books, I am a person who wants the most out of my money. I want my money to perform. The little girl in side of me still says that I can make serious money like the boys do. This book inspired me to make the most of what I can use.

Read it - but take my advice, read Trend Following first, Complete TurtleTrader second.


Impressionable, but...
2007-08-25 - If you are looking for clear cut set of rules/strategy that you, the individual investor, can follow to make money, then look elsewhere. The trend followers solely follow the movement of the price in exclusion to everything else. They identify a trend - uptrend or downtrend - and play upon it. As noted in the book, they react to and not predict the prices.

The methods, far and few, explained in the book are definitely not suitable for me - the retail investor. First of all, I don't have access to a trading system that can follow the rules outlined. Second, I am not a trader in the strict sense myself, where trades are triggered by a system without me realizing what is happening. To perfect such a system would take me ages given that investing isn't my main bread winner. This book will pass off as a great text book in the annals of the Ivy League schools, but when it comes to making money for you, the individual investor again, I think you are better off reading the likes of Jesse Livermore, Nicolas Darwas and William O' Neal. Read the Lessons from the Greatest Stock Traders of All Time' by John Boik or any of William O'Neals books. They define clear cut rules that we can all follow and make money. How else would I have made about 80K in the past three years compared to the first 8 years of my investing where I barely made any.

There are a lot of anecdotes in the book - literally, every page has 2-3 of these. All of these may impress, but in the end they are nice to feel scholarly about. If you are a beginning investor, the first chapter -Trend following, all of 22 pages - lays the foundation by explaining the different schools of thought regarding investing. Then there is 55 pages outlining the great trend followers are their performance but never in clear and precise terms or rules what their methods are. It almost feels sycophantic reading about other 'great' beings the way it is written. At last, after reading almost 210 pages, I got to see some system of trading. All these are pretty dry.

This is possibly the only one exception to the many great investing books in my library that I could have borrowed from the library. You will be better off reading 'How to make money in stocks..' by William O' Neal again and again and again.

Not bad, but not very useful
2007-06-03 - I own this book, I even recommend this book. But let me explain the 2 star rating....

While the book is a good history lesson, and shows how some of these guys make a lot of money, it's just not practical advice for the rest of us. I highly doubt that many of us have a billion dollar hedge fund to run.

Also, there are no real strategies in this book.

However, it did get me thinking in a different way. So for that, it is worth the money. (The main thing was to allow for larger swings against your position, allow the market a little more room than I did before.)

I know that this guy sells other products on his website, but to be honest, I don't see them being worth it. Most of this book is about defending trend traders, which is fine, but I wasn't attacking them in the first place.

I have begun to use the 4 hour chart more with his thinking, and I have to say it makes a little more sense. Not to get caught up in "micro-movements" as I call them. But to allow massive 300 pips swings against you on a weekly chart isn't practical for most of us.

So in conclusion, I think it's a good read, but if you get what I got out of it from my review, then it may or may not be worth the money.



It describes trend followers but does not give any sysytems
2007-05-31 - If you want to read about trend followers you can get this book. But if you want books with trend following systems do not waste your money.

Listen to the author's podcasts before you dismiss him based on negative reviews.
2007-05-24 - I discovered Michael Covel in a web search for "trading podcasts" and find his audio diatribes refreshing, inspiring, offering a real perspective on trading discipline.

A link to the podcast directory is at the turtletrader dot com web site, they are just a few minutes in length and worth your time.

At least listen to the one titled "Understand your emotions", it is worth your time and an important reminder to anyone running any amount of money.

Sometimes the author uses his audio forum to respond to negative reviews of his book, if you are listening for the first time, skip the rebuttal and sample another of his podcasts.