Rating: - The book that changed me (as a trader)
I think the title says it all. This is a great book not because of any single sentence or in some great secret formula explained within. Instead it's a great book because after reading it, and absorbing it all, it changed me as a trader. I now ride the market long as it trends up, ride the market short while it trends down, and quietly sit on the sidelines if the market is not trending.

There are some sample programs as an appendix that have actual how-to info on developing mechanical trading systems based on these ideas. I found them to be invaluable in understanding and as further insight into perhaps how the highly successful trend traders profiled in the book actually trade.

If you are willing to leave the 95% of unsuccessful retail traders who sadly spend all of their energy trying to predict the market, and instead want to become part of the 5% that consistently beat the market then perhaps this book is for you. Happy trading.

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Rating: - Repetitive Generalisms With Little 'How To'
This author repeats generalisms interspersed with many quotations (presumably to add authenticity) but rarely not get specific about 'how to's'.

For example in the section 'How Much of a Market do you Buy or Sell at Any Time', the author tells us numerous trite stories (e.g., money mgmt is like sex) but never lays out a specific money management strategy nor compares different approaches. Unfortunately, this pattern is repeated for about 246 pages.

Also, way too much time is spent describing and then defending Trend Following - I got the point after the first few pages and decided to jump ahead after torcherous repetition.

Good story book but not a practical guide to trading.

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Rating: - Trend Following - essential textbook for traders
This book covers in detail the philosophy and merits of trend following to establish reliable systems for trading profitably in the markets. It is an excellent tool to gain an insight into the core of a good trading system, and probably meant more to me as the successful traders I know are using these techniques.

One of the essential reads for technical traders.

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Rating: - Great Read
I bought both of this author's books on the recommendation of Amazon. The first book, the Complete TurtleTrader was the one that I read first. I wish I would have read them in reverse. Trend Following built up the story. After reading Trend Following I went back and read the Complete TurtleTrader again.

What made the book great? Well like most reading these types of books, I am a person who wants the most out of my money. I want my money to perform. The little girl in side of me still says that I can make serious money like the boys do. This book inspired me to make the most of what I can use.

Read it - but take my advice, read Trend Following first, Complete TurtleTrader second.

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Rating: - Impressionable, but...
If you are looking for clear cut set of rules/strategy that you, the individual investor, can follow to make money, then look elsewhere. The trend followers solely follow the movement of the price in exclusion to everything else. They identify a trend - uptrend or downtrend - and play upon it. As noted in the book, they react to and not predict the prices.

The methods, far and few, explained in the book are definitely not suitable for me - the retail investor. First of all, I don't have access to a trading system that can follow the rules outlined. Second, I am not a trader in the strict sense myself, where trades are triggered by a system without me realizing what is happening. To perfect such a system would take me ages given that investing isn't my main bread winner. This book will pass off as a great text book in the annals of the Ivy League schools, but when it comes to making money for you, the individual investor again, I think you are better off reading the likes of Jesse Livermore, Nicolas Darwas and William O' Neal. Read the Lessons from the Greatest Stock Traders of All Time' by John Boik or any of William O'Neals books. They define clear cut rules that we can all follow and make money. How else would I have made about 80K in the past three years compared to the first 8 years of my investing where I barely made any.

There are a lot of anecdotes in the book - literally, every page has 2-3 of these. All of these may impress, but in the end they are nice to feel scholarly about. If you are a beginning investor, the first chapter -Trend following, all of 22 pages - lays the foundation by explaining the different schools of thought regarding investing. Then there is 55 pages outlining the great trend followers are their performance but never in clear and precise terms or rules what their methods are. It almost feels sycophantic reading about other 'great' beings the way it is written. At last, after reading almost 210 pages, I got to see some system of trading. All these are pretty dry.

This is possibly the only one exception to the many great investing books in my library that I could have borrowed from the library. You will be better off reading 'How to make money in stocks..' by William O' Neal again and again and again.