Summary:
A decent collection of trading strategies that comes, at least in terms of trading books, at a fairly higher sticker price (close to $200 new). That does not mean that the book is necessarily overpriced. At a cost that runs less than 4 ES points, one could well use some—but not all—of the strategies here to extract far more than that from the markets. I recommend that active traders read it.
Book Information
Connors on Advanced Trading Strategies
Written by Laurence A. Connors
M. Gordon Publishing, 1998.
Rating
| Useful | |
| Original | |
| Readable | |
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Average
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Review
Before tradingmarkets.com became a high-traffic website in the mid-2000’s, Laurence Connors wrote trading books. Unlike the other two books that have already been reviewed here (Street Smarts, Investment Secrets of a Hedge Fund Manager), Connors is the sole author of this book.
The book is divided into seven sections: (1) S&P and Stock Market Timing; (2) Volatility; (3) New Patterns; (4) Equity Trading; (5) Options Strategies; (6) Day Trading; and (7) More Advanced Trading Strategies and Concepts. Some of the material here also appeared in his newsletter “Professional Traders Journal.”
As one would expect from a book almost twenty years old, there is some good material that may end up being practically timeless, as well as some material that is less relevant to today’s markets. One of the better chapters discuss [what I see as] a takeoff of an old Bruce Babcock system, the 8-Day High/Low reversal method. I also found the chapter on the “Spent Market Trading Pattern” useful as well. This is a reversal system of sorts that looks for a market that hits a new 10-day low but closes in the top 25% of the day’s. range If that day is the largest of the last ten days, one should buy on breakout above day’s high.
Some other chapters remind me of Jeff Cooper’s books. The chapter “Wide Range Exhaustion Gap Reversals” looks for large moves that immediately reverse. Chapter 8, “1-2-3-4,” also reminds me of Cooper.
The best chapter in the section on day trading is “10% Oops.” Larry Williams, long-time trader and father of a famous actor, came up with the Oops strategy years ago. Connors offers an interesting take on it.
Some strategies on VIX Reversals are backtested. Most of the other strategies are not.
