Winning the Day Trading Game

This book started with the horrible October 19, 1987... the famous "Black Monday" where Dow Jones dropped more than 500 points or lost approximately 22% of its total value in a single day... It is basically a story on how the author makes a comeback after the disaster "Black Monday"... In fact, I love this kind of story. In my humble opinion, ultimate success is not about a straight and smooth line towards the path of successes. It is more like a trading chart where big waves moves up or down follow by the small waves along the way. End up, success for me is more about how a person rebounds after falling into the abyss of disappointment. 

Well, the introduction and first chapter are really attractive. It is all about how Thomas L. Busby rebounds.... However, I started to felt uneasy when I arrived at chapter 2: "Time is Central". This statement alone did enough to irritate me in the first place: "Remember the yearly opening price of the markets that you plan to trade and use that number as a major pivot throughout the year." This was followed by chapter 3 on "Trading is a numbers game". In my humble opinion, those so called magic numbers (as well as so called significant numbers as a pivot) are just numbers. Remember what David Leinweber said about past data? "Market has only one past. Constantly revisiting it until you find a formula for untold wealth will produce something that looks great, in the past." 

Then, we got this supposed nice chapter on "There's No Crying in Trading"... At the end, the very earlier statement did enough to piss me off ~~~ "Do not get greedy". Aaron Brown already pointed out the same issue in his splendid Red Blooded Risk book: "Everyone is greedy and finance would be a strange career choice for someone without and above average interest in money. The sin is to be interested only in money." The remaining chapters more or less present the usual stuff for trading student. With due respect to the author, I really found nothing special and nothing great....

Anyhow, I found two quotes that I like:

At the end of everyday, after you have done the best that you can do, reset yourself. Take everything positive from it that you can, and move on.

For that many years, just thinking about October 19 made me ill. Little did I know that after 20 years later, I would consider it the best thing that ever happened to me.

The reset button is a nice concept and I think all traders must equip himself / herself with the said button... The second statement was a real review and I believe that is how the author found his ultimate way in trading thereafter.

In summary; although this is not the book I am looking for, but the author did provide his own opinion and a full set of system plus the mentality built up stuff for trading student. However, having traded for more than 10 years, I found myself no more a student of the trading (Still a student of the market though, LOL). As such, this book does not attract me at all. Rating wise, from a full point of 10, I am rating it at 2. Not my cup of tea and perhaps the author does not target readers like me too....