general

If this book doesn't provide the very clearest explanations of technical analysis that is out there, it certainly is a contender for the crown. Each chapter or lesson is followed by a quiz to ensure that you've picked up the key points.

Technical analysis is used by momentum investors (traders if you prefer) to increase their chances of making successful trades. Although some investors on the net would tell you that chart reading is akin to tea-leaf reading, they'd be wrong. I'm conservative enough to combine value investing with my trading, but trading alone can be very profitable to one who takes the time to learn about charts.

The book consists of nineteen lessons:

Lesson 1 - Definition of technical analysis and its basic principles.

Lesson 2 - Chart Construction -- the types of charts, charting services, personal computer software.

Lessons 3-5: Profitable Chart Patterns

Lessons 6-10: Key Analystical Tools

Lessons 11-13: Advanced Analysis. These are especially excellent chapters since they make the "advanced" topics very accessible.

Lessons 14 and 15: Alternative Charting Methods. The lesson on Japanese Candlestick Charting is outstanding.

Lessons 16 and 17: Overall market analysis.

Lessons 18 and 19: Putting It All Together.

An investment of thirty minutes a night for three weeks will repay the investor with more tools to bring to the table to improve his investing track record.

For those who scorn (i.e., do not understand) charts, let me just offer this. Technical analysis does not, of course, double as a crystal ball. But, it can provide a significant edge.

There can be no guarantees, but I believe that this book will pay you for its cost hundreds or thousands of times over. (It has certainly repaid me. But, you've got to read the book and you've got to pull the trigger on some trades.)

Good luck. Better still, read the book and use its information for your benefit instead of relying on luck, hunch, and the free advice that is worth only its price.

This book is a great place to start if you know nothing about technical analysis. It is very well organized, and the quizzes help to reinforce the lessons of the text. Meyers starts with basic chart construction and the types of charts, moves through reversal and consolidation patterns, gaps, trendlines and channels, and support and resistance before taking on any computed indicators. Next he moves through moving averages, relative strength, and volume indicators, and finally oscillators. He then digresses to cover point-and-figure charting and candlesticks before concluding the book with a discussion of market and sentiment indicators. Once this material is mastered, the more detailed discussions of Murphy or Edwards and Magee will make a lot more sense.

I'm so sorry I spent hard-earned money on this book, I wish I had read the reviews here first. I can find very little use in today's market for a collection charts on stock movements from 20 years ago. Of course, history can be a guide, but nothing in this book takes into account all of the changes in trading technology. Most of the "tips" here date from a time when there was no program trading, and no one did any trading at home via the Internet. If you attmept to do technical analysis by calling your full service broker, perhaps you will find something useful in this book (once you get past the series of errors, there are plenty of them). I learned much in the stock market from my bad trades; I just learned something about book buying from this completely regrettable purchase.