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The Visual Investor: How to Spot Market Trends (Second Edition)
By John J. Murphy
Wiley, 2009, 336 pages
$26.37 hardcover
Written for “the average CNBC viewer,” this book helps investors understand and interpret the ups and downs of stock, bond, and fund prices by studying the charts. Murphy covers the fundamentals, including chart types (trendlines, moving averages, price gaps, reversal patterns, interest spreads, etc.), market indicators, sector analysis, and global investing. He also introduces readers to intermarket analysis, an analytical approach that he pioneered based on understanding the impact that all the different markets have on each other. The author is the former host of CNBC’s “Tech Talk.”
Technical Analysis: The Complete Resource for Financial Market Technicians
By Charles D. Kirkpatrick and Julie R. Dahlquist
FT Press, 2006, 704 pages
$53.30 hardcover
Using over 200 illustrations, the authors explain the theory of technical analysis, presenting academic evidence both for and against it. They reveal which chart patterns and indicators have been reliable, show how to test new systems, and demonstrate how technical analysis can be used to mitigate risk. They also present a complete investment system and portfolio management plan, using tools such as tested sentiment, momentum indicators, seasonal affects, and flow of funds. Kirkpatrick has used technical analysis for decades to advise major investing institutions, and he currently teaches the subject to MBA candidates. Dahlquist is a university finance instructor and chartered market technician.
How Technical Analysis Works
By Bruce M. Kamich (N.Y. Institute of Finance)
Prentice Hall, 2002, 320 pages
$26.40 hardcover
The author, a chartered market technician and journalist, explains how to read charts and use them to identify trends, in the pursuit of buying low and selling high. His approach, which works best in a volatile market, “can be used as a timing tool, a selection tool, and, most important, a risk management tool.” Kamich explains technical analysis’s drawbacks as well as advantages. He has over 30 years of experience as a technical analyst, trader, and broker, and served on the board of the International Federation of Technical Analysts.
Getting Started in Chart Patterns
By Thomas N. Bulkowski
Wiley, 2005, 320 pages
$13.57 paperback, $9.99 Kindle
Bulkowski opens with a basic discussion of chart pattern formation and how bad habits can hurt trading. He then moves on to introduce over 40 key chart formations and numerous trading tactics that can be used in conjunction with them. He is the author of Encyclopedia of Chart Patterns (Wiley, 2005).
Yes, You Can Time the Market!
By Ben Stein and Phil Demuth
Marketplace Books, 2003, 208 pages
$16.95 paperback
The common wisdom on Wall Street says market timing doesn’t work. But Stein and Demuth sifted through a hundred years of stock market data and discovered that fundamental valuation metrics clearly reveal when the market is over- or under-priced. In fact, timing the market is just a matter of patience, which many Wall Street traders don’t have.
The authors demonstrate that basic criteria like dividend yield and price-to-earnings ratio can tell you when it’s a good time to jump into an index fund, the stock market, or when you’d be better off putting your money in bonds, real estate, or cash. They claim that an investor using their system would have bought stocks in 15 out of 15 of the best investing years for long-term investors since 1926, while staying out of the market during the worst 15 years. Economist, fiction writer, and TV personality Stein has written for The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, The Washington Post, and E! Online. DeMuth, an “investment psychologist,” has also written for WSJ and Barron’s, as well as Human Behavior and Psychology Today.
