Trend Trading for a Living by Thomas Carr

 Trend Trading for a Living: Learn the Skills and Gain the Confidence to Trade for a Living by Thomas Carr

The title of this book is misleading, this book is not about trend trading. This book is about swing trading. This is a book about specific trading setups for swing trading using technical analysis. It gives you criteria for generating long and short trading ideas using any simple trading software. 

This is a very basic book and goes in to very basic information like how to set up broker account, which broker to look for, what computer you need, what kind of Internet connectivity and so on. The first few chapters take beginner readers through these basic things and basic introduction to chart reading and technical analysis..

The second part of the book deals with determining overall market direction. Thomas Carr describes trend trading as he practices as a way to capture bulk of major moves in a trending stocks. For this one must enter after a new trend has started and exit before the trend ends. The author recommends setting up a watchlist of possible trend trading candidates using three criteria:

1. Price: between 10 and 100
2. Average Daily Volume: 500000 plus
3. Beta: greater than 2

Once you set up a list like that the author suggest using technical analysis to enter or exit. How to play these setups is determined by the trend of overall market. Thomas Carr describes five different kinds of market conditions:

1. Bullish Strongly trending
2. Bullish Weakly Trending
3. Bearish Strongly Trending
4. Bearish Weakly Trending
5. Range Bound

He suggests focusing on long plays in first two types of market , short plays in the next two types of market, and a long and short approach in last type of market. He uses 20 and 50 day moving average to determine above 5 kinds of market conditions. 

Part three of the book talks about specific setups. Specific setups are set of conditions a stock must meet to qualify for a bullish or bearish entry. Thomas Carr describes five bullish and five bearish setups. He provides detailed guidelines for scanning for these set ups and narrowing stocks from these scans. He also provides alternative scans for same set ups. 

Five Bullish Setups

1. The pullback
2. The coiled spring
3. The bullish divergence
4. The blue sky breakout
5. The bullish base breakout

Five Bearish Setups

1. The relief rally
2. The bearish divergence
3. The gap down
4. The blue sky breakdown
5. The rising wedge breakdown

This section has many good ideas and while the specific setups mentioned in the book may  or may not be profitable, this book will give you lot of ideas to create your own setups.  All these setups can be easily scanned in Telechart. The author discusses various approach to entries and exits post trend identification. Last part of the book deals with options and how to trade the above setups using option. 

Overall this is a very simple book on swing trading with some good ideas for trading setups for beginners. One major negative in this book is blatant self promotion by the author of his own prowess and website. It is excessive and irritating. 

Are you serious about your trading?

If you are serious about your trading and want to build an enduring edge the Stockbee Member site might help you. Members tell me they have tried lot of things before coming to my site and it has offered them the most extensive and detailed methods to swing and position trade.

It is only for those who want to develop their own self sufficient trading method. It is not a stock picking service. It is service for you to build your own scans and trading method to have your own daily pick based on your method.

Be warned it will take you time to learn to trade. Learning to trade is difficult art and unless you are willing to spend months or years to perfect your strategy and also develop your mental edge you are unlikely to succeed in this game. Unless you understand that no site, no service, and no mentoring is going to work.

Why traders come to stockbee?

The member site is one of the most recommended site for learning to trade by other traders and bloggers. You will see no advertising, no hard marketing, no promotions, no free offers, no affiliate marketing, no incentive to other bloggers to promote the site, no constant twits self promoting the site, no free trial  and no tall claims of making you instantly wealthy, and yet the site attracts new  members everyday. Members come from all walks of life and all kinds of trading size and trading styles.

You will see that many trading bloggers have been using my market timing methods, scans , stock ranking lists and chart templates. They have developed their own methods based on my methods. Many paid newsletter site recommend my site to their subscriber for learning about trading and market.

Over the years thousands of traders have been members and those who benefitted from the learning talk about the site to others or talk about the methods used and that is how new members learn about the site.

What will I learn in the members site?

The members site will give you in depth understanding to develop your own trading method. The emphasis is on making you self sufficient and confident of your own trading method and style.

As a member you will learn the basics of swing trading, momentum investing, growth investing and risk management.

You will learn about Stockbee Trend Intensity Breakouts method that uses momentum based swing trading to find 3 to 5 day swing trades for 8 to 40% profit.

You will learn about Stockbee Episodic Pivots Breakout method which uses Post Earnings Announcement Drift (PEAD) to find stocks that had a game changing earnings and that are likely to rally for 3 months to 12 months.

You will learn about  Stockbee Dollar Breakout method that uses momentum, range expansion and swing trading approach to find 5 to 40 dollar moves in high priced stocks.

You will learn about  Stockbee Lemonade Strategy for 401k which uses market timing and momentum to invest in 401k. You will get weekly update on how I am using the strategy on our 401k to do allocation decision.

You will learn about Stockbee Market Monitor method for market timing using breadth. It allows you to avoid risky periods in market and allows you to identify market turns. It is used for 401k allocation decisions.

You will learn about Stockbee Double Trouble method to find stock with confirmed upside momentum using anchored momentum and that are likely to continue their up move.

You will learn about Stockbee Night Time is Right Time method to find news catalyst based trade ideas for short term day trade and swing trade.

You will learn about Investor's Business Daily’s IBD 200 list and how it can be used to find swing trading candidates for explosive moves.

You will learn about Telechart 2000 and how to use it effectively to scan for swing and position trade ideas and to set up your 401k strategy.

You will learn about Jesse Livermore Range Breakout, Darvas Box setup, and many other member shared methods.

You will learn how to setup your own scans, select right kind of stocks, how to setup stops, when to enter , when to exit, how much to risk, how to track your trades and all other details about trading. You will learn about developing your own methods and not relying on others for trade ideas.

The site has hundreds of videos and trading methods and variation of methods. Members help each other in developing the methods and share actively their research and finding. A collaborative spirit allows you to get input from others on your trading ideas or problems.

The site gives you opportunity to interact with some of the most successful traders and learn from them about their trading methods. It is a vibrant community with members from different background and experience willing to help each other. The emphasis is on continuous learning and up gradation of market knowledge and setup knowledge. The members range from hedge fund employees, financial advisers, active swing traders, investors and new traders.

If you are looking to develop your own trading strategy the membership site might be for you. You have to be willing to put in the effort to build your own method. There are no silver bullets offered on members site. Every method, every scan, every nuance is detailed and all possible help is offered to design your own method.

Do you have a trial?

If you are just looking for trial you are better off trying thousands of other trading site that offer free trail or one month trial and offer you promise of riches.

It is for those who are ready beyond the trial phase and ready to put serious months or years  of efforts to learn to trade on their own. It is for those who want to learn to find their own fish.

The free blog has all the details about the methods I trade and if you go through the posts highlighted in the sidebar you will learn about them.

How can I become a member?

To sign up go to www.stockbee.biz and follow the sign up process. The site uses Paypal for payment processing.