Rating: 
Summary: A New Classic
Review: By clearly describing the different methods of a half-dozen top traders, Jon Markman provides a very readable, yet extremely practical and profitable set of techniques that the individual investor can try on for comfort-fit. In clear and simple language, Markman makes technical analysis usable for the novice, while also providing tips and insights that will benefit experienced traders.This book is sure to become a classic in its field, with continual demand for its profitmaking insights. I will be recommending the book often to fellow members of our local chapter of the American Association of Individual Investors.
Rating:
Summary: Great and Excellent Book for the novice trader
Review: I am new in the Stock Market and in the process of getting information to invest. I must say I really enjoyed this book. The techniques explained, were very useful to me. I wish I would have Read this book 2 years ago, before making horrendous mistake in the stock market. I personally recommended to those who are new and/or would like to find techniques to profit from the stock market. To some might be simplistic, it was not for me that way all.
Rating: 
Summary: First chapter on TA OK
Review: I came to this book with positive expectations, and I wasn't disappointed. Jon Markman is a market researcher and a professional trader, so he has the all-too-rare advantage among writers of trading texts of actually knowing his subject matter. Equally important, however, he is an accomplished financial journalist whose contributions have regularly graced the MSN Money/CNBC site. Having worked with Jon on a number of columns for the site, I can vouch for the seriousness and integrity of his commitment to financial journalism. Before reading Swing Trading, I knew that it would be refreshingly free of hype, self-promotion, and the kinds of misleading presentations so common in the trading world. The format of the book calls to mind Jack Schwager's classic Market Wizards books, as each chapter is devoted to an exemplary practitioner of swing trading. There the analogy ends, however. While the chapters do include interesting personal details about the traders, they are not transcripts of interviews. Rather, they are attempts to capture the swing trading styles of each of the subjects, describe the styles in down-to-earth terms, and illustrate them with copious examples. The result is a fascinating potpourri of approaches to trading the markets over periods ranging from days to months. The potpourri includes charting methods from Terry Bedford, trend-following techniques from Bert Dohmen, momentum-based strategies from George Fontanills, Markman's own work with the StockScouter ranking system and HiMARQ seasonality patterns, Richard Rhodes' macroeconomic approach, and the sentiment-based work of Phil Erlanger. Each chapter attempts to show readers how they can duplicate the traders' work for themselves using readily available web-based charting and screening tools. The chapters also summarize trading rules from the pros that capture useful advice for both rookie and seasoned traders. It is this practical aspect of the book that makes it stand out from its peers. The chapter on Bedford, for example, not only delineates chart patterns, but details methods for determining profit targets and setting stops to reduce losses. In the Fontanills chapter, Markman details how to zero in on high momentum stocks using MSN Money charts and Excel spreadsheets. His own chapter contains very useful hints on combining parameters in the StockScouter system, such as sector strength and market cap, to identify strong and weak stocks over short swing periods. Any of these ideas is more than you'd get from the average high-priced trading seminar. If I have one reservation about Swing Trading is that we don't hear more from Markman-the-journalist at the end of the book. A final chapter, integrating the material and drawing common themes from the book's subjects, would have be informative and useful for readers who want to adapt the material to their own trading styles. My sense is that the common threads are present: each of the traders profiled has immersed themselves in market patterns, researched these thoroughly, and found ways of framing trades as hypotheses based upon these patterns. By firmly grounding each trade in a well-defined pattern, the traders readily recognize when positions are not yielding expected results and exit without undue damage to their equity. Reading this book for the methods of entry but also the risk management and exits will yield insights even for more active, intraday traders. Swing Trading is a worthy complement to Markman's equally useful book Online Investing.
Rating:
Summary: Home Run Swing
Review: I came to this book with positive expectations, and I wasn't disappointed. Jon Markman is a market researcher and a professional trader, so he has the all-too-rare advantage among writers of trading texts of actually knowing his subject matter. Equally important, however, he is an accomplished financial journalist whose contributions have regularly graced the MSN Money/CNBC site. Having worked with Jon on a number of columns for the site, I can vouch for the seriousness and integrity of his commitment to financial journalism. Before reading Swing Trading, I knew that it would be refreshingly free of hype, self-promotion, and the kinds of misleading presentations so common in the trading world. The format of the book calls to mind Jack Schwager's classic Market Wizards books, as each chapter is devoted to an exemplary practitioner of swing trading. There the analogy ends, however. While the chapters do include interesting personal details about the traders, they are not transcripts of interviews. Rather, they are attempts to capture the swing trading styles of each of the subjects, describe the styles in down-to-earth terms, and illustrate them with copious examples. The result is a fascinating potpourri of approaches to trading the markets over periods ranging from days to months. The potpourri includes charting methods from Terry Bedford, trend-following techniques from Bert Dohmen, momentum-based strategies from George Fontanills, Markman's own work with the StockScouter ranking system and HiMARQ seasonality patterns, Richard Rhodes' macroeconomic approach, and the sentiment-based work of Phil Erlanger. Each chapter attempts to show readers how they can duplicate the traders' work for themselves using readily available web-based charting and screening tools. The chapters also summarize trading rules from the pros that capture useful advice for both rookie and seasoned traders. It is this practical aspect of the book that makes it stand out from its peers. The chapter on Bedford, for example, not only delineates chart patterns, but details methods for determining profit targets and setting stops to reduce losses. In the Fontanills chapter, Markman details how to zero in on high momentum stocks using MSN Money charts and Excel spreadsheets. His own chapter contains very useful hints on combining parameters in the StockScouter system, such as sector strength and market cap, to identify strong and weak stocks over short swing periods. Any of these ideas is more than you'd get from the average high-priced trading seminar. If I have one reservation about Swing Trading is that we don't hear more from Markman-the-journalist at the end of the book. A final chapter, integrating the material and drawing common themes from the book's subjects, would have be informative and useful for readers who want to adapt the material to their own trading styles. My sense is that the common threads are present: each of the traders profiled has immersed themselves in market patterns, researched these thoroughly, and found ways of framing trades as hypotheses based upon these patterns. By firmly grounding each trade in a well-defined pattern, the traders readily recognize when positions are not yielding expected results and exit without undue damage to their equity. Reading this book for the methods of entry but also the risk management and exits will yield insights even for more active, intraday traders. Swing Trading is a worthy complement to Markman's equally useful book Online Investing.
Rating:
Summary: Great and Excellent Book for the novice trader
Review: Laugh out loud at Home Run Swing review. If you think this book is good, then you're already in WAY over your head. Try to distinguish between someone who writes for a living versus trades for a living. I skimmed this at a book store, ugh, so simplistic. Go to Farley, Cooper, or Connors. If you already bought it, then just go for the Sacrifice Fly.
Rating:
Summary: Very helpful!
Review: Markman gets major kudos for writing a clear and understandable book on swing trading. Other titles may be good but tough for beginner to understand. Chapter on Erlanger Squeeze Play seems especially valuable.
Rating: 
Summary: Swing trading - really?
Review: This book claims to be about swing-trading, that place in-between day-trading and long-term investing. What you get is a dysfunctional book with literally no value to a swing trader. Of the few traders highlighted, one is almost a day-trader, several are newsletter writers, one is a long-term fundamentalist. Where are the true swing traders? If you want to get in the heads of traders, a much better place to start is the Market Wizards series. The reviewers who liked this book undoubtedly are friends of the author or the publisher.
Rating:
Summary: Title is misleading!
Review: This book will not teach to how to become a swing trader or improve your swing trading skills. Of all the books on trading that I have seen, there is only one that truly addresses swing trading from a market professional's viewpoint - "W. D. Gann - A treasure rediscovered [WDGATR]," by Robert Krause. Although the price of "WDGATR" appears to be a high $170, the methodology is sound. In my opinion, "WDGATR" is priced substantially under its true value. Markman's work is overpriced at a penny!
Rating:
Summary: Awesome book -- learned a lot
Review: This was exactly the book on swing trading that I was looking for. I had previously read the book on swing tradingy by Alan Farley but it was way too complicated and hard to follow. This book lays out the basic concepts -- chart patterns, indicators, sentiment ratios etc -- in a really easy to read fashion that I learned a lot from. It's done in a format similar to Market Wizards, where you learn about the techniques not just from the author but from old pros. So you're sort of invested in the personalities of these traders -- people like Terry Bedford, Phil Erlanger and George Fontanills -- before you find out about the techniques they use. If you only have time to read one chapter, read the last one, about Erlanger and his sentiment work. It is fascinating and very useful. It's worth the price of the book alone.
Rating:
Summary: S.O.S.
Review: To the previous reviews regarding the work of Alan Farley, it is much like this book; Complete and utter tripe. Beginners will enjoy the chapters by Bradford and Eherlinger. They seem to be the only chapters of any worth. Jon Markman's slick presentation seems to be another advertisement for msn money's web site and their "screener". Gimme a break, there's a myriad of books on Technical Analysis saying all the same things....moving averages, oscillators, neural nets, support and resistance, and whatever other topics they decide to drudge up. Books like this are much like the field of economics; filled with information, yet have no consistent predictive value. If you want a solid book on TA or swing trading, read Edwards and Magee or Conway and Behle. Other than that, you can skim this book at your local Borders.
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