Day Trade Futures Online (Wiley Online Trading for a Living) (ISBN 0471383392) Book Reviews 1-13 Sorted By Most Recent, at VeryWellSaid.com

I can't believe that I'm writing this review

I'll not quibble between 4 and 5 stars. I agree with the reviewer below (Mr. Coffin) that I did not get the same results that Larry got when he did the studies -- and, FWIW, like Mr. Coffin, I used Trade Station.

Larry's attitude, which I choose to characterize as "test the hell out of your trading notions, then don't worry about a thing, cause nothin's gonna be all right" (with apologies to Mose Allison) is clearly correct.

The item of pre-eminent importance is that Larry said (as I recall) that Ralph Vince said (no slouch in these matters, Ralph) first profitable open works best as an exit strategy.

Or, "Get out of Dodge with the money before the Marshall figures out you've got the dough." Try to worry yourself to death during the holding period when your holding period is only long enough to eat dinner, then breakfast. My stress level has gone way down.

True enough, I'm not trading Larry's strategies. As a side note, I will say that the strategies worked pretty much as advertised up until a year or so before the book was published, more or less. I'm not nearly smart enough to know what changed. But I know that Larry follows the precept of testing, implementing, expecting the worst today with a long term outcome of winning.

So read the book, make up your own variations, test them, find those that back test well & forward test well. Trade those, make money, be happy, and devil take the hindmost.

Thanks, Larry.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2007-09-07 16:54:57 EST)

11-05-06

1\4

I can't believe that I'm writing this review

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-11-30 05:23:22 EST)

11-29-05

4\6

He really trades

Most of the books on trading are written by unsuccessful traders or technicians who are frustrated traders, Larry Williams is one of the few great traders, who keeps trading and making money which shares his methods, strategies and thoughts in a book in a comprehensible way. Larry Williams is among the best and newbies and wannabes like me have to listen to him.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2007-07-04 12:02:58 EST)

11-28-05

1\2

He really trades

(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-11-04 07:55:28 EST)

11-09-05

8\9

Shame

I do not know why he decided to recycle his "Long Term Secrets to Short Term Trading" book. He is selling the same old stuff in a new book with a different name. Even the examples and the explanations of his setups are word to word the same. Nothing new at all. No need to buy the book.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2007-07-04 12:02:58 EST)

08-26-04

7\11

Updated Long-Term Secrets...

Mr. Williams specializes in the S&P 500. You won't find a better or more proven trader than Mr. Williams. He is very generous with his techniques and trading methods, complete with well researched studies of successful trades. His ideas can also be applied to other trading vehicles. You can't lose reading any and all of Mr. William's books. Well worth the purchase price, as you are capturing over 35 years of successful and documented trading experience. This is the updated version of "Long-Term Secrets To Short-Term Trading", with some new material added.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2007-07-04 12:02:58 EST)

04-23-04

2\3

Larry's system is weak compared to Toby Crabel's

Larry gives no meat in this weak thiny book.
If you really want to learn more- read Toby Crabels articles or books - much more informative and usefull.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-07-04 08:59:44 EST)

02-07-04

12\13

Dishonest book

I've heard about LW in the specialized press and because of his indicator %W.
I have been very disappointed by this book. There is something dishonest inside and outside of it. The title says "day trade futures online", in fact LW doesn't talk about day trading but about short term swing trading lasting 2 to 3 days !
He presents lots of wining systems which show quite good performances but mentions nothing about stoplosses nor exits. As we know, exiting a position is far more difficult than entering a trade. Believe it or not, the chapter about exit lays on less than 2 pages!

Disappointing...

(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-07-04 08:59:44 EST)

05-13-03

8\9

Philosophical differences aside.

I am not a fan of day trading. I have been involved with futures for the past 11 years. In ever respect I have told my investors ... to stay away from day trading.

Now, I read Mr.Williams book and I begin to come a little more closer to understanding the idea of daytrading. Mr.Williams use personal anecdotes, clear concise language, and a very indepth analysis of what it takes to trade online.

It was a good read.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-07-04 08:59:44 EST)

03-05-03

9\9

Dejavu

Larry's books are generally fascinating and well worth a read. However this one struck me as being a rehash of Long Term Secrets to Short Term Trading. Both are good reads but if you've got one don't bother about getting the other.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-07-04 08:59:44 EST)

12-16-02

3\3

Recycled material with plenty of filler

Yikes - who edited this thing? While there are a few gems, I felt like I was reading a book with half the pages missing. Clearly, material is taken from his other books and recycled for this one, but he might have checked to make sure that all the referenced graphs and text were actually in the book! Numerous times I was flipping around to try to find a chart he was talking about, only to find that it wasn't anywhere in the book. You get the impression quickly that this was churned out to scrape in some extra dough. Larry's writing style is "conversational" - and that's a charitable way to describe it. Despite all these flaws, there is some good info, and some good trading ideas, but I can't recommend it.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-07-04 08:59:44 EST)

10-30-02

70\70

Warning: This Could Be Dangerous To Your Wealth

I enjoyed parts one and three of Mr. Williams book, which is why I give it 3 stars, but found much of the material in the center section -- the real meat of this book -- of dubious value. In the hands of an enthusiastic and overly trusting beginner, this book could lead to mass wealth destruction.

I programmed and tested many of the patterns Mr. Williams promoted but could not duplicate the results he claims to have achieved, even though I used the same time periods, same timeframes and same system parameters he indicated. Also, many of the patterns that are put forth as generating > 80% profitable trades are heavily optimized and filtered for the purpose of presentation in this book. Using TradeStation for back-testing, I could not get even one of the recommended patterns to perform above 20% efficiency.

My goal in writing this review is not to criticize Mr. Williams but rather to warn budding traders that reliance on such convincing, well-told material as this can get you into a lot of trouble. With all due respect to Mr. Williams and his heavily advertised record as a trader and systems developer, let us all understand that he has built a substantial business around training others to trade. I suspect that the bulk of his income is generated from book sales, seminars and other paid programming that he delivers each year -- and not from the full-time implementation of the trading approaches put forth in this book. Again, I'm not bashing Mr. Williams but rather am sending up the warning flag to those who read this book.

To end this on a positive note, I found Mr. Williams's advice on entry and exit strategy to be useful, especially using a percentage of the current bar's range added to the next bar as a trade entry point following a verified set-up. His thoughts on money management strategy are also sound. Thanks for letting me share my thoughts here and good trading to all!

(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-07-04 08:59:44 EST)

02-24-02

4\6

too similar to the previous one