First, if you buy the hard cover from Amazon do not be surprised if they send you a spiral bound poorly bound book. I sent it back.

With that out of the way. This book can lead to clouded thinking on the markets "oh, do not buy on Tuesdays in July" well okay, maybe two weeks in July last year that was the case. If you always look at the previous year investing the same in the current year, there is bound to be trouble, missed opportunities, and confusion.

Start your own diary of the markets, then next year you can read it and save yourself some money from buying someone else's "insights" , and maybe from your own notes you will pick up something of value.

Great info! Everyone should have 2 copies, 1 for the bedroom & 1 for the bathroom. Constant review is what will make you a strong trader. Bob L.

It is very confusing to read the daily statistics if you are a Long term investors. Of course, you have to distinguish trading and investing are two distinctive things. Trading need market volatility, investing need a long term perspective, not day in and day out. So position yourself to be either a trader or an investor, if your are a day-trader, probably it is not harmful to get one of this book. However, if you are an investor, don't even bother to read it. Of course, I don't deny there are seasonality, presidential cycle, etc, in stock market statistics, however, look at these in day-by-day level is plainly stupid!

it's ok. i have looked at it very little. i don't like the format. it's kind of like a calendar book with tips or facts on the adjoining page.

The Stock Traders Almanac is great. Invaluable tool to look at market trends and to give great tools to help one make decisions on the Stock Market. Great Resource.

Stock Trader's Almanac 2009 (Almanac Investor Series)

The almanacs don't attempt to teach you how to assess valuation or secular shifts, these books are historical trends of broader markets and indexes and they are often more accurate than wrong.

Interestingly, it seems when they're wrong it is a "duh, no brainer" such as when the trend for an up January often means an up year for the DOW, S&P except for times of war / duh !

Another gem, "Down Friday, Down Monday warning" that says market tops and bottoms are often denoted with a down Friday followed by the next Monday also down. This is a great tool in volatile markets like we've been experiencing for the last 13 months.

From November of 2004 - June 2006 this indicator was spotted 17 times and every time it was either the very bottom or top of the market OR within 1% of either.

If you need the other stuff I mentioned about how to assess valuation and secular trends then spend time at Vectorvest and even by reading Cramer's Real Jim Cramer's Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World to gain some fundamentals on these topics.

For index trading, the ST Almanac is required.