Super Trader - Make Consistent Profits in Good and Bad Markets
By Van Tharp
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Number Of Pages: 240
Publication Date: 2009-07-30
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0071632514
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780071632515
How do you transform yourself from mild-mannered investor to Super Trader? Think clearly. Plan accordingly. Commit completely. In other words, become a trader. And no one is better suited to help you make the transformation than legendary trading educator and author Van K. Tharp.
Combining the sharp insight and technical brilliance that has drawn legions of investors to his books and seminars, Tharp provides a holistic approach for becoming a successful full-time trader. His system—a meld of investing psychology and sound trading practice—is the secret to achieving optimum conditions that produce results in both bull and bear markets.
Using the lessons of Super Trader, you will approach trading as you would a small business—realistically, systematically, and enthusiastically. Drawing on his decades of experience, Tharp has created a simple plan designed to help anyone master the market. You can put this plan to use immediately in order to:
Master the psychology of trading
Craft a “business plan”—a working document to guide your trading
Develop a trading system tailored for your personal needs and skills
Create position-sizing strategies to meet your objectives
Monitor yourself constantly to minimize mistakes
Throughout the book, Tharp asks the pertinent questions you must ask yourself about becoming a trader, being a trader, and succeeding as a trader.
The rewards that come with being a Super Trader—both financial and personal—make you feel as if you can leap small buildings in a single bound. Whatever your skill level, Tharp provides the formula for succeeding in a field where most people fail.
Summary: You've Got to be Kidding
Rating: 1
Where did Van Tharp go?
Wow, this is for elementary school children. Maybe I've been trading for too many years to understand the mind set of the newbie's, but I'll pass on this, thanks.
Van Tharp's other book, "Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom," was at least somewhat interesting. In this book he purees the carrots. The question then is who is invited to dinner.
Van Tharp doesn't trade. He just sells mostly BS to people who want to be traders. It's decent niche market for those who can't make enough money to live on from trading. Seminars are big business. Books mostly sell the seminars, DVD courses or website subscriptions. Trading books don't make much money because the market is small, and it gets even smaller when the newbie's follow the advice in the books and lose all their money. At least Van Tharp discloses that he doesn't trade, so the people buying the books aren't under the illusion he's made a fortune in the trading business, just from the want-to-be's.
Steve Nison is another guy who sells Candlechart baloney and doesn't trade. Explain the logic to me! If he's the world's leading expert on Candlecharts, and he won't trade with his superior knowledge because the risk of ruin is too high, what does that say about either his knowledge or the futility of using his knowledge to trade?
If Van Tharp simply applied all of his advice on soul searching, fitting trading systems to one's personality and money management as the ultimate money making tool, to himself, he would never have to do a seminar again because he would be swimming in his 200% plus annual returns made from his trading.
I noticed none of the other reviewers so far (6) have reviewed more than this book or perhaps maybe two total. I always get flamed whenever I point out that a particular trading book won't help anyone to make any money. Well, how did I figure that out. I've read well over 100 trading books over the last 30 years. I've been trading a long time, and not one of the books ever gave me a system that I use today to make money. If any of the books had strategies or systems that worked, just imagine how many people would be wealthy today as the result of reading the book. That book would sell millions of copies.
Call me a skeptic, but pureed carrots ain't gonna get it done.
Summary: A very practical investing/trading guide.
Rating: 5
This is a book to reveal the secrets of getting the holy grail of investing/trading.
Tharp put the most important emphasis on psychology which is normally ignored by most of the people. Tharp suggests some way to deal with our trading psychology problem of which anyone helps a lot.
And then the guide to write a trading plan to guide trading so that we don't trade blindly which dramatically increase our trading performance.
Finally the author's position sizing concepts is surely the secrets of the holy grail.
I can say this book is a very practical book to read and follow if you want to be a winner in the markets.
Summary: Practical
Rating: 5
I constantly read about finance, and therefore, I am constantly disappointed by books that promise extensive lessons of practical knowledge but are really water-downed books with basics I learned a long time ago. Van Tharp in his book Super Trader does anything but this. He is probably the best on trading psychology that I've read, but he captures the crucial factors for success in other areas like analyzing performance, testing systems, and developing a plan for success. I love how he does not cosign people's BS - he tells it how it is. Also, I found this book a lot easier read than his Trader Your Way to Financial Freedom, and it has a lot more exercises one can do at home. However, for someone really new to trading, I would recommend they buy both books and start with Trade Your Way. No matter what though, one could not go wrong with Tharp.
Cheers,
Patrick
Denver, Colorado
Summary: Syllabus for trading excellence
Rating: 5
Definitely one of the best books on trading I have read in last couple of years. I doubt that you are going to make money reading this book, if you are not already making it. However, if you are already making money, chances are you can improve a lot. It covers all the components of trading excellence. In order to implement everything in the book, you would probably end up buying Tharp's other products. This book can be seen as a marketing tool for a lot of other IITM products. It is a win-win situation though, as the information in the book is easily worth the money. I would have easily paid $50 for this book without any complain.
Summary: Recommended for all traders and investors
Rating: 5
Supertrader is a book everybody who trades, invests or plans to do so should read.
Covers an extensive list of issues each successful trader has to master: Psychology and self work, traders business plan, systems development and position sizing. It won't give you setups and entries, but those make up probably only 10% of the success of a trader.
It is well written, easy and fast to read but once you've finished you have an enormous work list to improve your trading business.
I have started to work on it
Download link:
http://rapidshare.com/files/287144988/0071632514_Super_Trader.rar
