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All information current as of 01:16:20 Pacific Time, Friday, 15 April 2005. How I Trade for a Living (Wiley Online Trading for a Living)    by Gary Smith   Hardcover:     Wiley     26 October, 1999    US$26.40     Usually ships in 24 hours Click the button below to . . .      (which will add the book to your Amazon U.S.A. "Shopping Cart") . . . or use your browser's Back button to return to the search-list page.

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Editorial description(s):

From the Inside Flap
Gary Smith was bitten by the trading bug at the age of fourteen, and ever since he';s thought of little else other than how to make a fortune as a home-based trader. He bought his first stock in 1966, when he was just a college sophomore, and then spent the next two decades unsuccessfully chasing his childhood dream. Finally, in 1985, nearly bankrupt and ready to quit, Gary Smith had an epiphany that changed everything--and since then he hasn';t had a losing year and rarely even a losing month. His trading account has mushroomed from $2,200 to nearly $1 million. What did Gary discover on that fateful day in 1985? How did he achieve his phenomenal fifteen-year winning streak and earn an international reputation as one of the most successful home-based traders ever? Find out in How I Trade for a Living. What you won';t find in How I Trade for a Living are knotty mathematical formulas, complex technical indicators, heavy charts, or elaborate software demands. What you will find is a simple, straightforward approach to home-based trading that can be used by virtually anyone, anywhere. Unlike most "experts" writing today, Gary Smith has actually made it as a home-based trader. Step by step, Smith outlines his low-risk trading strategies and explains how to use them to trade stock index futures and mutual funds--his preferred vehicles--as well as individual stocks, options, futures, and junk bonds. He acquaints you with his favorite indicators and tells you how to get the most out of them. He offers a wealth of tips on recognizing market trends and riding them for all they';re worth. You';ve heard what the "experts" have to say about trading the markets. Now find out how it';s really done from a consummate pro in How I Trade for a Living.


Back Cover Copy
Master the Markets by Trading from Home! how I trade for a living "Gary Smith deals in reality. If you want to really learn to trade for real profits, not hypothetical, mumbo-back-tested programs, this book is a must. I seldom read market books anymore, but I read every word of this important book. Get it." --Larry Williams, author of Long-Term Secrets to Short-Term Trading "How I Trade for a Living is a remarkable book; truly a treasure trove of market information.... Highly recommended." --Humphrey E. D. Lloyd, MD, author of Trading S&P Futures & Options: A Survival Manual and Study Guide "Straight talk from an accomplished veteran on how to succeed as a full-time trader. Gary Smith recounts the obstacles he overcame on the road to trading mastery and describes the strategies, indicators, and insights he used to reach his goals." --Nelson Freeburg, Editor, Formula Research "It is always valuable to get inside the mind of a successful trader. Gary Smith does a good job taking you there in a book loaded with useful tips and helpful hints. A worthy addition to any trader';s library!" --Gary B. Smith, Contributing Editor, The Street.com "In How I Trade for a Living Gary Smith dispenses a healthy dose of that rarest of all commodities, vicarious experience from a consistently winning trader. New traders will find great benefit from looking over Smith';s shoulder as he generously shares with the reader the valuable knowledge he has gained over three decades of trading." --Edward D. Dobson, President, Traders Press, Inc.


About the Author
GARY SMITH is a full-time home-based trader and the author of Live the Dream by Profitably Day Trading, which has been hailed as the best day trading book ever written. Gary has been profiled in Futures and Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities and is a frequent speaker at trading seminars.


Book Description
Master the Markets by Trading from Home! how I trade for a living "Gary Smith deals in reality. If you want to really learn to trade for real profits, not hypothetical, mumbo-back-tested programs, this book is a must. I seldom read market books anymore, but I read every word of this important book. Get it." -Larry Williams, author of Long-Term Secrets to Short-Term Trading "How I Trade for a Living is a remarkable book; truly a treasure trove of market information.. Highly recommended." -Humphrey E. D. Lloyd, MD, author of Trading S&P Futures & Options: A Survival Manual and Study Guide "Straight talk from an accomplished veteran on how to succeed as a full-time trader. Gary Smith recounts the obstacles he overcame on the road to trading mastery and describes the strategies, indicators, and insights he used to reach his goals." -Nelson Freeburg, Editor, Formula Research "It is always valuable to get inside the mind of a successful trader. Gary Smith does a good job taking you there in a book loaded with useful tips and helpful hints. A worthy addition to any trader's library!" -Gary B. Smith, Contributing Editor, The Street.com "In How I Trade for a Living Gary Smith dispenses a healthy dose of that rarest of all commodities, vicarious experience from a consistently winning trader. New traders will find great benefit from looking over Smith's shoulder as he generously shares with the reader the valuable knowledge he has gained over three decades of trading." -Edward D. Dobson, President, Traders Press, Inc.




Reader review(s):

Great book for anyone serious about trading., November 13, 1999
I've traded stocks and futures for over ten years, and have spent thousands of dollars on books, courses and software on trading. Most of it is junk written by vendors who couldn't trade their way out of a paper bag. HOW I TRADE FOR A LIVING is one of the few books written by an actual trader who trades for a living.

Gary's story is like that of many traders (including myself:) Years of struggle and frustration in a seemingly futile attempt at beating the markets. Gary recounts his failures and his spectacular success: Since 1985 his account has grown from a paltry $2200 into over $650,000 (this amount does not include withdrawals for living expensese, so profits are even greater.)

Gary also tells us how he trades, what indicators he uses, and details exactly how he trades. In perhaps the best and must useful chapter "The Nitty-Gritty of Trading," Gary takes the reader through actual trades, which explain his methodology in great detail, which can be applied to stocks, mutual funds and stock index futures.

Though this book has my highest recommendation, I should warn the reader that this book is written for the serious trader. There are no magic formulas, just wisdom from a great trader. I plan on reading it many times.

Terrific Book! On my third reading!, January 27, 2000
One of the more enjoyable and enlightening trading books I've read. This book is part biographical and part nuts-and-bolts trading strategy. Many will identify with the author's early struggles as a trader. It was an inspiration to me how Mr. Smith never gave up on his dream to trade for a living. He is now cranking out $10,000 plus monthly returns and all from an original bankroll of only $2000. Very impressive! Although Mr. Smith only trades stock index futures and mutual funds, his strategies work just as well for stocks and stock options. That's because his techniques are geared towards detecting momentum and divergence tops, bottoms, and continuation trends in the stock market. A must read book for both on-line and off-line traders alike and at a most reasonable price.

tedious and expired, December 7, 2000
read several times. at first was very excited as here is someone who has walked the walked, however, if your looking for answers, you won't find here. I've read over and over trying to bring sense to how author trades or insights to use. First, he ONLY trades Funds at this point(present), so those who say he trades futures, options, etc., haven't fully digested the book.

Author goes to length to explain an Indicator then several pages later will tell you he finds the indictor doesn't perform any more! Well what does? he spends a lot of time discussing his evolvement as a trader over 19 years!!

Lots of talk of momentum and late day reversals, which are suppose to be strong bullish indicators. These don't seem to work as evidenced by 12/6's strong momentum and no follow thru the next day! Also for intra-day trading which I've found to be brutal, unless you enjoy staring at your monitor for 8 hours a day! I've also heard over and over that the Big money is in trading short term (3-10 days) or long term, not intra-day.

He does spend time discussing how he USE to trade index futures and some of the patterns he used. However, these too were confusing and contradictory. Ex. "My original price patterns continue to work for me, but only because I filter my trades with the action of the tape."

What does that mean?

I found books by William O'Neil much more clear and consise.

good luck

Of value only for its discussion of sentiment indicators, April 4, 2002
The biggest bull market in history that ended in 2000 spawned many "traders" who essentially rode tech stocks all the way up and then wrote trading books about their "expertise". Mr. Smith is one of those people. The author admits to trading for an unbelievable 19 years without making any money (talk about your slow learners!). During half this time, trader Richard Dennis took $400 and traded it into 200 million. The author also admits that during this period, he never reviewed any of his trades to see what was going wrong, and never set any goals as a trader.

The book is somewhat schizophrenic in that the author contradicts himself throughout. For example, he slams charts and technical analysis, but then states that one of his best buy signals is a "V-bottom reversal pattern". If this is not technical analysis, what is? He also discusses many sentiment indicators he uses, and then mentions some of them no longer appear to work.

I was particularly amused at his antiquated trading technique, whereby he uses a telephone to enter his trades, often times being put on hold. A technophobe, he admits that he cannot use an automatic teller machine, and can barely function on a computer. At one point he gives a phone number he calls to get put/call ratios from the CBOE. Sorry Gary, but this number is no longer in service, and if you want to get CBOE put/call ratios, you must now get them online (which of course is much easier). He now trades only mutual funds, which have several major drawbacks. For example, he must wait until after the market close to enter or exit a position, which can be very costly. Also, most funds now charge a redemption fee if the fund is not held a minimum period of time in order to discourage people "trading" their funds.

This book is of value mostly because of its discussion of sentiment indicators, that are essential to understand if one is to become a successful trader. However, all of the sentiment indicators he discusses were mentioned in Norman Fosback's "Stock Market Logic", which was published 25 years ago.

Smith states in the book that although he has never successfully traded a significant bear market, he welcomes the opportunity. Although he might be successful if such a market was trending strongly over time to the downside, his trading techniques would not work in the current market, which is essentially sideways and choppy. The current stagnant market could continue in this pattern for years. What would Smith do then, sit on the sidelines for years at a time?

how i trade for a living, November 28, 1999
It seems that every once in a while a real trader comes along and writes a book that gives true insight into the difficult world of profitable trading. With this new book, Gary Smith has written a classic that is an absolute must read by all serious students of the markets. The author specifically describes all of his own trading methods. These methods are completely revealed; nothing is held back for future purchases or future seminars. Mr. Smith is not just another vendor trying to separate you from your capital, but rather a profitable trader who has attempted to assist other traders in mastering this profession. In addition to revealing his own style of trading, Mr. Smith's observations on filters, technical indicators, and seasonal trading are easily adaptable to any style of trading. While I have never traded junk bonds or mutual funds on a short term basis, his methods on these topics is so compelling that I am certainly looking into these topics now. The bottom line is that this rare book is ideal for both the experienced trader and the novice looking for just the right edge. All traders will profit from studying this manual. It is just pure gold!

Misleading, August 23, 2001
This was the first book I ever read on trading. After about 8 months and reading a dozen more books, I decided to re-read 'How I trade for a living'.

A couple of things stand out. For one Gary says he does not place much value on charts and indicators, yet using these methods, he determines when he will increase his exposure to his mutual fund positions. The second (now being August 2001) he explains that most of his money was made by investing in technology funds with his various chosen fund families, funds that often mirrored the NASDAQ.

Looking back at the times when he was most active and making money, so were most people. I mean he was trading at the time of tech hype and crazy stock prices for basically any tech related company. My point is just about anyone could have made money trading at this period in time, you could have thrown a dart at the telco or internet sectors and bought whatever you hit and made money. How many stories have been told of amatuer investors running small capital to vast profits by just playing tech stocks.

Things are not the same anymore, and may never be in this relatively flat market, I would like to know how he is fairing now. I think a lot of contradictions come out of his book. The fact that he also trades primarily mutual funds and not individual stocks, options, futures etc, also makes me wonder how much of a trader he really is, Mutual funds are good for the grandma and grandpa investors, with empahasis on investors and not TRADERS.

I always get weary of succesful traders who suddenly become authors, it may yet be the best sentiment indicator of tough times ahead in the markets.

Not for technical traders, February 10, 2000
Gary did a great job in describing what his life as a private trader is like. He has also gave a brief review of his road to trading success. This is the interesting part.

What I could not really agree is his disbelieve in technical analysis (didn't he just shown some charts in his book). Being a technical trader myself, I trade on price action, and price action is best shown in the chart!

Very practical, July 16, 2000
This is an excellent book. It is simple and practical, and written by someone who has successfully traded for many years. His methodology is is elegant in its simplicity. He uses little in the way of indicators, which I think is great, as I have never been a big fan of them, and studies consistently show most indicators not to be useful. The book will be controversial in this regard because many traders want to kid themselves in to thinking that these indicators help them trade better. Maybe a few traders get some benefit from indicators, if they have some better way of looking at them but most traders will find them useless, or actually harmful. Many of the most successful traders out there don't use them them for much. He spends little time looking at charts for the same reason. They really add little to your ability to trade. He essentially watches the market and trades the momentum. He's somewhat of a modern day tape reader. All traders leave things out when they describe their methods, though not intentionally. They do this because there are things that they do unconsciously, and so they can't describe them. But, I trade successfully with a methodology very similar to Smiths and I can attest to the fact that this a good no nonsense way to trade. I would also read Van Tharps book as it discusses position sizing and stops better than anything, and those are absolutely the most critical issues in trading, much more important than how to enter trades. Between Smith and Tharps books I don't think you need anything else.

Simply THE WORST!, December 6, 1999
In regards to the techniques discussed in the book, these divergence techniques NEVER work. They seem to catch the big movements, but they never do. They do an extremely poor job at timing the market. By the way, I LOST MONEY USING THESE TYPE OF STRATEGIES. The book is filled of pure basic techniques. I would definitely go with Trading For A Living by Alexander Elder. P.S. I did throw the book away.

Loved the book. Highly recommend it!, March 31, 2000
Before I begin, I just want to reflect on what the other comments stated about Gary Smith and chart reading. Gary Smith stated that chart reading did not work for him and for many people in his observation. He did not say it does not work at all for all people. There's a big difference. As a matter of fact he insinuated in the chapter on perceptual filters that they may actually work for some traders.

Concerning the book, I really enjoyed it because it explained one very important element to successful trading that is often overlooked - that is being in sync with the market. Your not going to find alot of stringent rules on what to do and what not to do as you would expect to see in other books. Instead, the author will go through the methods he uses in understanding market dynamics in hopes that such will inspire the reader to develop ideas of his/her own. The bottom line of the book is to stress the understanding of the underlying possible reasons of strength and weakness in the markets based on price action and sentiment readings. In short, to feel out the market and act accordingly. The problem with most traders that fail is that they get too focused on chart pattern set ups and trading strategies that they overlook the most important thing - the over all current environment that they will trade in. This book reminds the reader of the importance of this simple but too often overlooked fact.

Lastly, I liked the book because it opened my mind to another angle of trading and inspired ideas of my own.

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