As I am quite fond of using chart patterns in trading, I have chosen to read Suri Duddella's Trade Chart Patterns Like the Pros, which had a rather promising title and table of contents. To say that I was disappointed is almost not to say anything at all. It can barely be called a book — more like a set of slides with pattern descriptions and examples.
The way the book starts off is already quite suspicious. I will allow myself a quote from the source:
To a trader, statistics must be practically useful, but too often they are not... Does the trader's decision change if the throwback rate is 32% instead of 33%? No, he trades what he sees, what he knows and what he has confidence in.
Yeah, statistics might not be useful everywhere, but with the chart patterns it is important. No, traders don't remember whether some pattern has 32% or 33% throwback rate, but they do remember that some patterns are more successful than others. Traders also use accurate statistics on the stage of the strategy development and especially in the process of trading automation. So, telling us that statistics is useless isn't a good point, really.
Despite a praising foreword and a review in the beginning of the book, I still didn't like it because it has some serious disadvantages, in my opinion:
- The
above-mentioned lack of any statistical analysis of the presented patterns. - Except for a few cases, no pattern failure examples are given.
- Some patterns are described quite poorly, lacking the clear entry or exit conditions description.
- The style of the book isn't very good — sometimes it looked like it was written by an unprofessional writer (like me).
- Almost no candlestick chart patterns.
But it isn't all that bad. Fortunately, even here, some positive moments are present and if you don't have anything else to do, this book may be somewhat useful:
- A lot of different chart patterns are shown, including some very exotic ones (Dragon, Scallops, etc.).
- You still can learn to trade many patterns successfully from this book.
- Because of the lack of any substantial "book text", you can use it as a handbook for quick pattern reference.
To sum it up, I would recommend going for some other chart pattern book (like Bulkowski's Encyclopedia of Chart Patterns). But if you have read everything else on the topic and you seek more, you can give Trade Chart Patterns Like the Pros a try, of course. Just don't expect too much out of it, especially if you prefer to see the statistical reports on every pattern.
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