If you are looking for a technical tool reference book for your investing/trading library this is the one. This book covers (in alphabetical order) every trading tool I am aware of including the O' Neal CAN SLIM method, trend lines, volume, stochastics, Williams %R, every kind of moving average, candlestick charting, decline/advance, oscillators and just about everything else you will run across in trading stocks. The author gives an overview of the indicator, the interpretation, an example, then shows how to calculate it with the mathematical formulas used and a table for reference. I read this book from cover to cover and learned a great deal. I believe it is a must have for beginners if you are serious about using technical tools to time your trades correctly at proper buy points.

Steven Achelis does a pretty decent job of showing what the stock market really is: just a big jumble of numbers completely determined by human emotion. And because pretty much anything involving human emotion is cyclical, it also becomes somewhat predictable.

This book presents an excellent selection of technical indicators that do a number of different things. It also presents formulas for most of the indicators.

... but also a well written understanding of the mathematical models that make them work. If you trade with indicators, you need this book along with "Pring".

As the title says, this covers technical analysis (the analysis of securities based on price patterns) from A to Z, that is to say all the various approaches are covered alphabetically. Everything is covered but not in extensive detail. Each approach is covered in terms of an overview of the approach, an interpretation of the approach, and an example (generally with suitable graphs). No attempt is made to inject the author's preferences or any statistical analysis of the effectiveness of the approach. As such, this is more of a dictionary than a book on investment advice. This is not to say that dictionaries are useless, they are very useful, but they are not the same as a book on how to write. This book will tell you what the particular system is, not whether it is any good. Also, there are many variations of most of the systems and many different values for the parameters used by the systems, so other references will be required if you actually want to apply any of these approaches. The reader should be forewarned, however, that Technical Analysis is only one approach to the market. Many believe that this approach is little more than tealeaf reading and they rely on the analysis of the fundamentals of the balance sheet of the company and its prospects for future growth.

As the title says, this covers technical analysis (the analysis of securities based on price patterns) from A to Z, that is to say all the various approaches are covered alphabetically. Everything is covered but not in extensive detail. Each approach is covered in terms of an overview of the approach, an interpretation of the approach, and an example (generally with suitable graphs). No attempt is made to inject the author's preferences or any statistical analysis of the effectiveness of the approach. As such, this is more of a dictionary than a book on investment advice. This is not to say that dictionaries are useless, they are very useful, but they are not the same as a book on how to write. This book will tell you what the particular system is, not whether it is any good. Also, there are many variations of most of the systems and many different values for the parameters used by the systems, so other references will be required if you actually want to apply any of these approaches. The reader should be forewarned, however, that Technical Analysis is only one approach to the market. Many believe that this approach is little more than tealeaf reading and they rely on the analysis of the fundamentals of the balance sheet of the company and its prospects for future growth.

Extremely pleased with the purchase and reading experience. The book covers everything I know about and much more that I didn't. I was able to make oscillators, from the explanations given, on excel and was able to make the charts. The Chande Momentum Oscillator is an added, and needed, tool for my analysis for investment. I bought this book because it was the one called out in the Yahoo charts trying to explain the Stoch Oscillator; which, I wanted to understand, and now do.

Extremely pleased with the purchase and reading experience. The book covers everything I know about and much more that I didn't. I was able to make oscillators, from the explanations given, on excel and was able to make the charts. The Chande Momentum Oscillator is an added, and needed, tool for my analysis for investment. I bought this book because it was the one called out in the Yahoo charts trying to explain the Stoch Oscillator; which, I wanted to understand, and now do.

The book provides essential backgroud information. The mathematical backgroud could go a litle further and this is also true for how the models could be used in dayly live but then it should all fit in one book. Good work.

Ever wonder what those people on CNBC or Bloomberg are talking about? Here's the answer, in a concise format, from A to Z!

The book provides limited descriptions of most techncial indicators used in trading. There is very little about how they might be used or how they are calculated - here is a typical comment: "The Accumulation Swing Index is a cumulative total of the Swing Index. The Swing Index and the Accumulation Swing Index require opening prices.

Step-by-step instructions on calculating the Swing Index are provided in Wilder's book, New Concepts In Technical Trading Systems.".

As the book is available for free at Metastock's web site and as most of the indicators are covered much better for free around the web, its not really worth buying the book.

I am a beginner in technical analysis and with an engineering degree and MBA I was interested in the details. I have used this book extensively to determine what the different indicators mean and how to calculate them. A very useful reference for anyone studying technical analysis.

Just click on
http://www.equis.com/Education/TAAZ

Enjoy!

TA from A-Z is an excellent desk reference that describes in great detail a hundred or so different technical indicators, how they are used and also how to calculate them.

I'm not alone in liking this book. Steven Nison, Walter Bressert, John J. Murphy, William O'Neil , Martin Pring and John Bollinger all wrote glowing reviews for this book.

Reed Floren

Ever wonder what all those proper names and strange looking acronyms mean when you look at the choices of technical indicators available on most web sites today?
Steven B. Achelis, founder of EQUIS and creator of MetaStock has compiled the quintessential reference book for technical analysis covering practically every indicator known to mankind. But if there is one thing to imprint onto your brain from this book, it is contained in pages covering the subject "Support and Resistance." In all my years of floor trading, I have never seen anything more valid in price trend analysis than this horizontal (support) line connecting previous tops which once surmounted becomes the floor for the next move up. Achelis calls the pullback after breakout "trader's remorse" and it is the ideal place to buy into a strong stock in a strong industry. His several graphs depicting this pattern couldn't be more precise. The pictures are worth a thousand words. Armed with only this bit of technical knowledge, an investor would improve the odds of profitability many times over by merely subjecting every potential purchase to this test pattern. I take it that because Achelis spent about 5 times as much material on this one concept as he did the other indicators, he agrees that this is truly one of the most important theories in technical analysis.
The rest of the book is devoted to short descriptions of what various indicators mean, how they area calculated, and how they are used. This is especially useful when subscribing to any of the numerous web sites that now carry dozens of indicators. Keep the book close to the computer to have it as a ready reference. I doubt if you will find more detailed information in any other source.

This makes a great reference if you want to know what x indicator is, and how it is typically interpreted. The book is often good on giving you general information on how it's calculated, but not always. I'd certainly recommend it as a reference, but don't expect to get a lot of useful actionable items from the book, it's just a reference.

I found this to be a very well researched collection of indicators, various trading techniques and explanations. If there a single handbook to cover just about everything (if only briefly) , this would be it.

This is a good quick reference to many tech. indicators. It is possibily THE book that covers the most indicators. However, it does not have in-depth coverage to most of the indicators in the book. It only discusses one or at best a couple of the ways to use a particular indicator. I'd rather see thorough discussions of fewer indicators that are most popular. To that end, many online sources are better than this book. /

I must give the book credit for a very well-written and concise introduction to technical analysis--as part I in the book. It is pretty innovative to use "trader's remorse" to explain the psychological aspects of stock movement and the reason why technical analysis has merits.

Lastly, you don't really need to buy the book if you have online access. It is available online with its entirety and more--the spreadsheet formulas etc.--for free, but of course you would rarely need to understand or even take a look at the formulas behind those indicators unless you're writing software using those indicators. Do a little search on the web and you'll see what I mean.

A securities price represents the fair market value as agreed between buyers (bulls) and sellers (bears)

Changes in price are the result of changes in investor expectations

Support levels occur when there is consensus the price will not move lower

Resistence levels occur when there is consensus the price will not move higher

The penetration of a support or resistence level indicate an change in investor expectation

Volume is useful in determining how strong the change in investor expectations

Traders remorse often follows the peneration of support or resistence levels

Don't compound your losses by averaging down

Anytime you own a security, ask yourself if you would buy it today

Wise investments use logical approaches that minimize risks and maximize opportunities

Master the basics of supply and demand.

Absolute Breath Index: Shows activity, volatility, and change on the NYSE

Accumulation/Distribution: Associates changes in price and volume

Average True Range: Measure of volatility. ATR values often occur at market bottoms following a panic sell off.

Bollinger Bands: Similar to moving average envelopes, upper limit is equal to the mean plus the standard deviation, lower limit is equal to the mean minus the standard deviation

Breadth Thrust: A breadth thrust occurs when during a 10-day period, the breadth thrust indicator rises from 40 percent to 61.5 percent. A thrust indicates that the stock has rapidly changed from an oversold condition to one of strength.

Chalkin Oscillator: The chalkin oscillator is an excellent tool for generating buy and sell signals when its action is compared to price movement. CO fails to reach a new high and reverses direction indicating a buy or sell. Look for divergence between the indicator and the price action. If price trends higher and the indicator lower then a reversal my be imminent.

Commodity Channel Index: CCI measures variation of a securities price. High values show the prices are unusually high compared to the average prices. Divergence occurs when security prices are making new highs while CCI is failing to surpass its previous highs.

Commodity Selection Index: A high CSI rating indicates that the commodity has strong trending and volatility characteristics. Trade commodities with high CSI values.

Cumulative Volume Index: CVI shows if money is flowing into or out of the stock market.

Demand Index: DI combines price and volume in such a way that it is often a leading indicator of price change. DI divergence with price indicates price weakness, DI extreme peaks indicate price rally, tops occur with higher prices and lower DI values, DI penetrating zero indicates change in trend, when DI stays near the zero for any length of time - a weak price movement will not last, large long term divergence between price and demand indicate a major top or bottom

Directional Movement: 14 day cycle, Buy when the DM+ rises above the DM-, Sell when DM+ falls below the DM-

Ease of Movement: High ease of movement occurs when prices are moving upward on light volume. If heavy volume is required to move prices then the indicator will be near zero.

Fibonaci: A sequence of numbers in which each successive number is the sum of the previous two numbers added together.

Fundamental Analysis: Profitability (net), Price (P/E), Liquidity (Current ratio), Leverage (Debt Ratio), and Efficiency (Inventory Ratio)