Description:
The Small Order Execution System, which gives individuals direct access to the NASDAQ stock market, has spawned a fast-growing cult of electronic day traders who look to profit from price fluctuations and momentary discrepancies in the quotes offered by market makers. Wall Street views them as a pernicious band of rogues. And Harvey Houtkin, author of Secrets of the SOES Bandit, views himself as the merry band's Robin Hood. Houtkin was one of the first SOES traders. His All-Tech order-entry firm was among the plaintiffs who won a 1993 federal appeals court case that forced the Securities and Exchange Commission to allow wider access to SOES. Much of the book chronicles Houtkin's legal struggles with the SEC and the brokerage industry on behalf of the former "gardeners, hairdressers, and even lawyers" that he says he has trained to trade successfully. While much of Houtkin's book is disorganized and repetitive, readers who stick with it will learn some of the fundamentals of day trading and how to read the "wiggles," "jiggles," and "head fakes" of NASDAQ prices. For anyone curious about day trading, Secrets of the SOES Bandit is not a bad place to begin, though it is only a beginning. --Barry Mitzman
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