Long-Term Secrets to Short-Term Trading

by Larry Williams

• ISBN13: 9780471297222
• ISBN10: 0471297224
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-03-01
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

Sharing his years of experience as a seasoned and successful trader, Williams offers his market wisdom on a wide range of topics, from chaos and speculation to volatility breakouts and profit patterns. With his expert guidance, you'll learn about such fundamentals as how the market moves, what are the three most dominant cycles, when to exit a trade, and how to hold on to winners until the end of your chosen time frame. Along with in-depth analysis of the most effective short-term trading strategies and details on the best theory and implementation of money management, Long-Term Secrets to Short-Term Trading features Williams's winning technical indicators, as well as his thoughts on a broad range of topics. Here is a sampling: * "A short-term trader has one objective; to catch the current trend of the market. That's it. That's all you should try to do!" * "The shorter your time frame of trading the less money you'll make." * "You will never make big money until you learn to hold on to your winners, and the longer you hold the more potential you have for profiteering. . . . It takes time to make money regardless of the activity." * "Wealth is not amassed with just good market calls. It also requires correct money management." * "I think you need to fear the market and fear yourself. . . . Without fear there is no respect, if you do not respect the markets and fear yourself you will become one more dead body on the long trail of commodity market casualties scattered across the land." Filled with invaluable insight, precise rules and formulas, and helpful advice from one of today's most respected market players, this comprehensive and practical resource will serve as the basis for, if not indeed become, your short-term trading "gospel."

Author Biography

LARRY WILLIAMS is a well-known trader, author, newsletter editor, and money manager. He is the all-time top winner of the Robbins World Cup Championship in Futures Trading, taking $10,000 to $1,100,000 in less than twelve months. He has served on the Board of the National Futures Association and twice ran for the U.S. Senate in Montana. Featured in such publications as Barron's, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Fortune, Mr. Williams has been one of the most widely quoted and followed advisors over the past twenty-five years. "Larry is the only person I know who can mix systems and rules with confessions of his soul. This book should have universal appeal to not only the trading world but to all who apply themselves to the laws of the universe. This is a study of the self, the markets, and the interfacing of the two."-Linda Raschke, President, LBR Group, Inc., CTA<br> <br> WILLIAMS'S contributions to the study of technical analysis are well documented and indisputable. I have learned more from Larry than all other traders combined. His techniques are original, clever, and fresh. The depth and breadth of his knowledge is mind-boggling. I highly recommend it."-Tom DeMark, President, Market Studies, Inc. Consultants;author, New Market Timing Techniques and The New Science of Technical Analysis.

Table of Contents

Introduction You Are Already a Commodity Trader	1	(8)
Chapter 1 Making Order Out of Short-Term Chaos	9	(14)
How I Learned about the Market	9	(2)
Charting the Market	11	(3)
The Nonrandom Market	14	(1)
Understanding Market Structure	15	(8)
Chapter 2 It's a Question of Price and Time	23	(22)
All You Will Ever Need to Know about Cycles	23	(4)
The Natural Cycle of Range Change	27	(9)
Where the Trend Is with You-The Second Power Play Price Pattern	36	(9)
Chapter 3 The Real Secret to Short-Term Trading	45	(12)
It Is All about Time	46	(11)
Chapter 4 Volatility Breakouts--The Momentum Breakthrough	57	(18)
Simple Daily Range Breakouts	61	(5)
A Look at Volatility in the S&P 500	66	(5)
Separating Buyers from Sellers to Find Volatility Using Market Swings to Follow Volatility	71	(1)
Results	72	(1)
One Step Further	73	(2)
Chapter 5 The Theory of Short-Term Trading	75	(6)
What Is Wrong about the Information Age	78	(1)
E.H. Harriman's Rule of Making Millions	79	(2)
Chapter 6 Getting Closer to the Truth	81	(12)
The Market Is Not a Coin Flip	82	(7)
Monthly Road Maps	89	(4)
Chapter 7 Patterns to Profit	93	(28)
The Common Element	94	(5)
The Questions to Ask	99	(2)
My Smash Day Patterns	101	(3)
How to Use Smash Day Patterns	104	(4)
Specialists' Trap	108	(5)
A Vital Note-This Works on Shorter Time Frames as Well	113	(1)
Oops! This Is Not a Mistake	113	(6)
S&P Oops! Trading	119	(2)
Chapter 8 Separating the Buyers from the Sellers	121	(10)
Greatest Swing Value	123	(1)
Stock Index Trading with Greatest Swing Value	124	(4)
Some Pointers	128	(3)
Chapter 9 Short-Term Trading from a Quote Screen	131	(16)
How a Quote-Screen Trader Makes Money	132	(2)
Swing Points as Trend Change Indication	134	(2)
The Three-Bar High/Low System	136	(2)
A New Indicator for Short-Term Traders...Will-Tell	138	(3)
Will-Spread and the S&P 500 Stock Index	141	(6)
Chapter 10 Special Short-Term Situations	147	(10)
Month-End Trading in Stock Indexes	147	(1)
Target Months	148	(1)
Making It Better	149	(1)
Month-End Trading in the Bond Market	149	(3)
Getting Specific	152	(1)
Better and Better	153	(1)
A Time to Sell as Well	154	(3)
Chapter 11 When to Get Out of Your Trades	157	(2)
Chapter 12 Thoughts on the Business of Speculation	159	(12)
What Speculation Is All About	160	(1)
It's about Time	161	(1)
Trade Management	161	(1)
Essential Points about Speculation	162	(9)
Chapter 13 Money Management--The Keys to the Kingdom	171	(14)
Most Traders Use a Hit-and-Miss Approach	172	(1)
Approaches to Money Management--One Is Right for You	173	(2)
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Money Management	175	(3)
Looking in New Directions, Drawdown as an Asset	178	(5)
Back to Ryan and Ralph	183	(2)
Chapter 14 Thoughts from the Past	185	(48)
Chapter 15 Just What Does Make the Stock Market Rally?	233	(12)
Logic 101	234	(1)
These Words Are My Bond	234	(1)
A Look at Data A and Data B	235	(2)
Let's Break Some Bad Habits	237	(1)
How to Break Bad Habits	238	(2)
Comments on Setting Stops--Dollar Loss and Unpredictability	240	(5)
Chapter 16 Closing Comments	245	(4)
It Is Just Like Life	245	(4)
Index	249