Trade Like a Stock Market Wizard: How to Achieve Super Performance in Stocks in Any Market

As most other traders on the globe, I myself have read numerous books on finance and trading in particular. Most of the reputable books written by well known authors in the trading realm. I came across Mark's book because I have subscribed to his tweeter feed. At first I wasn't sure if he was just always promoting his book to compensate from the sales. But I did more research on him and his background. On his website he mentions his annual event that he hosts, and last year he had David Ryan as guest speaker at that event. If you haven't heard of David Ryan, please read Market wizard by Jack Schwager. I said to myself if David Ryan had written a foreword to this book I should at least read it and evaluate it's content. I must say I was very impressed. Literally, this book may become a classic, he really explains what is vitally important to look for when searching for good companies to trade in. I found that the last two chapters in the book are the most important and he emphasizes on the importance of risk management. He brings clarity on the stop loss rule and the mathematical results if your stock is 10% below your purchase price and you haven't sold it. Mark mentioned in a podcast on @don'ttalkaboutyourstocks, that he had wanted to add chapters based on when to sell to keep most of your gains,but his publisher said it would be too much content. I realized after many of my trades, that the selling part is actually more important than the buying part. Well, he pointed out that if he were to write another book he'll add that in. For those of you contemplating on purchasing this book, at the price that it sells for it is worth the investment. It will save you the cost of the book and more if you apply his concepts. I would imagine that this book could be good for beginners, but only after you have read William O'Neil's book: How to make money in stocks, first. Basically Mark brings clarity to many of the questions in that book. Congratulations Mark on a well written book.

After exploring numerous books on swing trading, I can confidently say that this one stands out as the best I've encountered. The chapters dedicated to risk management are particularly exceptional, offering insights that have truly transformed my understanding. If you're serious about improving your trading skills, this book is a must-read!

This was a good read for sound advice on a particular trading strategy. I took 7 pages of hand-written notes and I have been trading for 3 years with some serious professional education. Some points: specialize in a particular trading style; buy on the uptrend, not hoping for a bounce off the bottom; 5-point Specific Entry Point Analysis, which mixes fundamentals (earnings, revenue, new products/services, relative strength) with chart analysis (technicals; cup and handle, high tight flag), good description of the 4 stages of a stock cycle (always trade in stage 2); the fallacy of P/E (quality stocks cost more to buy so have higher P/E); some risk management, but read Think and Trade Like a Champion for that and position sizing. "Think and Trade" will be a very quick read if you read them back-to-back as 80% is a review/copy of the first book but not as much fundamentals background (both worth reading). I like and agree with most of the content. I don't agree with the trailing stop loss placement advice as there is scant mention of support/resistance technical analysis. I also don't agree with who he thinks are the market participants for a a certain given volume, which is important to know who you are trading with. For example, a 500% spike in volume is not buy-side institutions (BlackRock, Fidelity, Vanguard) as is taught in this book. But I like the discussion about retail trying to get back to break even and how volume drops off before a breakout (shakeout and supply/demand). Also, MACD might be overused by retail and laggy to be of use anymore for entry/exit signals.

In this work author Mark Minervini lays open his hitherto proprietary trading method called SEPA (specific entry point analysis). I was not only impressed by the efficacy of the authors approach but by how thoroughly his winning system is laid open for the reader. Every conceivable facet of the stock trading profession is examined through the prism of Minervini's 30 year journey from initial failure to massive success on Wall Street. Chapters are logically structured and very easy to read. Generally, an overview of each topic is followed by a discussion on the finer points. Finally the reader is given detailed steps in the practical application of the topic under discussion. Charts, graphs and even the authors hand written research notes are included in the explanations and case studies. Tightly edited, there is no superfluous content and the book succeeds in efficiently imparting an abundance of wisdom and actionable information. Topics covered include, but are not limited to; psychology, risk management, stock screening, identifying incipient leadership, technical and fundamental analysis, stage analysis, common errors in conventional wisdom, creating a trend template, earnings maturation cycles, estimate revisions and guidance, inventory analysis, identifying pivot points, probabilities and position sizing. As the author explains, experience cannot be force fed. Nevertheless, diligent study of this book, and application of its principles, will certainly reduce the learning curve and help the reader to dramatically improve his or her results. Inveterate readers of trading books can be forgiven for getting the distinct impression that some of these authors have never actually traded real money successfully, let alone achieved spectacular results. So how can their publications really help the people who buy them? Readers will have no such concerns with this book. Author Mark Minervini is widely respected and acknowledged as a champion trader with a performance record that is legendary, hence his inclusion in the venerable "Market Wizards" series of books by Jack Schwager. Moreover, this book was written well after the author had already made his fortune. If you are looking to improve your trading and feel that priceless insights from a genuine trading champion would help then this is the book for you - 5 STARS A magnificent effort Mark, well done

Mr Mark Minervini really does not require a certificate from the likes of me. His track record is goood! This book is worth your time and money and is a good second book to read. I have read this book a few times and have been trading successfully for over 10 years. So I feel I am a bit qualified to write a book review and give my opinions. This book is mostly a rehash of the learnings of Mr Mark Minervini from the various masters before himself as he himself admits in the book. To begin with I recommend O'Neil's "How to make money in stocks- 4th edition" as a complete book. That book has set such high standards that it is very difficult to break that standard. I would rank that book a final five. Mr Minervini has given credit to various traders from whom he has learnt a lot. So his obvious difficulty is how to write ALL his secrets for free to get it up to a new high standard. That he can not and will not do, so it is not possible to rate this book higher than four. But he will be satisfied knowing that. His personal credentials are a perfect five ! I learnt only his VCP method as a new tool in my trading arsenal. The rest was known to me over years of reading books written over the past 80-90 years. But other readers might find something interesting / new. Mr Minervini has written a very readable book with interesting quotes. He has been as honest as realistically expected. What did you expect for 10 princely bucks ? I agree with the other reviewers about his lack of detailing of his personal trading diary for any period. To be more specific, he could have selected a particular stock where he made a lot and explained how he mis/ handled the stock through its life. On several occasions, he has written that the stock moved up 80% or whatever but he infact may have made only 15% to 25% before selling it due to some volatility. My only worry is that people think this is a holy grail and rate this a five for that reason. These techniques work over seasons and years. I do not think I can use this for day trading. But truly Mr Minervini's genuine constraint is that he cannot repeat anything already in IBD. The meat is already been written for a long time by O' Neil ! Overall a very well written book worth a trader's time. Another word of caution- a lot of beginners will suffer "death by a thousand cuts" if they read only this book and trade. In other words you will suffer too many stop losses. You need to pay up for his website. He has not been able to cover every aspect of trading without the risk of repeating contents of other well known traders. So he was forced to leave a few gaps. Read O' Neil as well. That book is far far more detailed. I am surprised people have written the opposite.

I'll start this off by saying that I'm in no way affiliated with Mr. Minervini. I'm just a Soldier and small-time individual stock trader trying to get my trading on the right track. I preordered this book as soon as it was available to do so. I mean...this is Mark Minervini, a trader of Market Wizards legend. After reading everything I could find on the internet about him, I jumped at the chance to hear what he had to say in a book, especially given the fact that I don't have the time or money to attend his live seminars or subscribe to his website. In Market Wizards, it was like pulling teeth to get Mr. Minervini to reveal any specifics of his trading, so I obviously was ecstatic that he was revealing the SEPA methodology in this book. As soon as the book arrived, I read it from cover to cover in a few hours. After one read, I could tell this was a work that I would reference again and again. The sections on following the leaders, chart reading and risk management are among the best lessons on trading I've ever read. In the last 10+ years of trading, I've literally read hundreds of books on trading and I've spend thousands of hours researching and studying charts. I have shelves and shelves of trading books, not to mention all the courses, DVDs, PDFs, and Kindle books I've collected on trading. While most of these things I've read aren't worth a second look, I would put Trade Like A Stock Market Wizard in the top five books on the market. I read this book no less than once a month in its entirety and specific sections several times a week. I have two hard copies so I can highlight and I have a Kindle edition of the book. Mark covers so many critical aspects of trading that I'm constantly cross-checking what I'm doing against what he's saying. To say that his methods have turned my trading around is an understatement. I went from blowing my account out three times and spending thousands of dollars and countless hours looking for the mythical Holy Grail to doubling my account in the six months since I received this book. Some might say that it's dumb luck, but this is the first time I've ever felt in control of my trading. Mark put his methodology out there in such a clear and concise manner that it instantly clicked and I was immediately able to implement the methods into my own trading. It was like I was finally able to put all the pieces together and string a bunch of good trades together while controlling my risk. I'm becoming more and more a master of hitting singles and doubles, instead of my normal tendency to swing for the homerun. My main objective is to gain a multiple of my risk and do it over and over again, just like Mark teaches. While this book might not be for everyone, I think that anyone reading this book can come away with a solid understanding of a method that has stood the test of many bull and bear markets. It has certainly made a significant impact on my trading and given me a feeling of control over the last 6 months and 30+ trades that I've never felt before. Thanks, Mark. I'm eagerly awaiting book number 2!!

I cannot say enough good things about this book. I love investing/stock market books and this is pretty much all I read. I finished this in a month, a new record, because it was easy to read, easy to understand, and full of great information. I could not put it down. By saying it was easy to read, I don't mean that it was simplistic in any way because every page had a lot of great information, which included some things that I haven't read in any other books. He explained the terms in easy to understand language, because I hate having to look up technical terms that some authors think everyone should know. I thought his method may be a bit risky, but he gave the information that I needed to see that it wasn't. I've read books on valuation and books on technical analysis, but this was the first one that I read on momentum investing (he does use technical analysis, too). I was surprised when he didn't give much credence to P/E valuation, which goes against everything I've read to date, but his reasoning made sense in that you don't find the best stocks in the bargain bin. He gave guidance as to when to know when the P/E is too high, and I was surprised that he stressed to have an exit point (not buy and hold mentality) when the stock shows a topping pattern and goes into a Stage 4 decline. He did repeat things a bit, but I appreciated that. I need that to have some of the ideas stick in my brain. I'm reading it a second time and find that I'm absorbing some things that I missed the first time around. I think this guy is a great author, I appreciate that he is sharing his wisdom with us, and I plan on buying another of his books.

I enjoyed Mark’s suggestions about the rules one should make regarding trading and how to be a trader instead of a gambler. I find for me, creating rules I consistently apply really helps me take the emotion out of trading. I’ve always held onto losers too long. Personally, I could not stay engaged with Wm. O’Neil’s book How To Make Money In Stocks, although I agree with his thinking had have held a subscription to Investors Business Daily. That book made everything appear to complicated for me to grasp. (I am a novice at trading.) Minervini is often on IBD, and the IBD.com subscription itself is well worth the money. I really appreciate Mark’s willingness to allow us to see behind the curtain and detail the work that goes into trading effectively.