Techniques of Tape Reading - Hardcover

by Vadym Graifer (Author), Chris Schumacher (Author)

How to use trading's most time-honored technique to reap profits in today's fastmoving, point-and-click markets

Tape reading is among the oldest and most successful methods of technical analysis.

Techniques of Tape Reading shows traders how to incorporate the best aspects of tape reading into a modern trading plan, by understanding the correlation between volume and price and simply trading off what a stock's price movement is telling them to do.

A practical, how-to guide for using tape reading to improve trading decisions in today's screen trading environment, Techniques of Tape Reading discusses:

• Profitable use of tape reading in both swing and day trading
• How the best traders condition their minds and mind-sets
• Tape reading techniques for up, down, and nontrending markets

Back Jacket

How Time-Proven Tape Reading Techniques Can Help You Dramatically Improve Your Trading Performance

Technical analysis is invaluable at enhancing traders' performance in today's up-one-minute, down-the-next markets. But surprisingly enough, as hyperspeed personal computers and complicated trading programs lure technical traders with their flash and hype, it is one of the oldest forms of technical analysis--tape reading--that is consistently proving its effectiveness and predictive accuracy in the heat of the trading day.

Techniques of Tape Reading shows technical traders how to incorporate the best aspects of tape reading into a modern trading plan. It explores how volume and price are impacted by seemingly random--but in fact quite predictable--aspects of traders' behavior, and how traders can use this knowledge in swing trading scenarios to:

• Improve entries and exits in up, down, and non-trending markets
• Spot--and follow in--the footsteps of the smart money
• Capitalize on emotional, irrational behavior of the trading majority

In any market environment, a select group of knowledgeable traders will drive the behavior of other traders, and influence the ups and downs of the market itself. Discover how to identify the subtle activities of those traders, and capitalize on their abilities to profit from the self-defeating moves of the unskilled and unschooled, in Techniques of Tape Reading.

"Many traders overwhelm themselves with vast amounts of studies that cloud their perception. We are not concerned with creating certainties in the market, because the market is too random to believe that we can achieve certainty. We are concerned with putting probabilities on our side. Remember that there is no Holy Grail for trading. But there is a window of truth into the market, and our tape reading principles can allow this window to be wide open for your domination of the trading arena."

--Techniques of Tape Reading

Before the Internet, onscreen trading, or even television screens, traders followed markets by watching actual trades emerge from ticker tape machines. These tapes revealed where the market had been and which direction it was moving, and allowed traders who understood market movements to concentrate on the realities of the markets, discern their own patterns, and increase their opportunities for winning trades.

Techniques of Tape Reading breaks through all of today's hype, rumors, and disinformation to concentrate on similar techniques for trading the reality of the markets. But where yesterday's tape readers could make decisions based only on static stock movements, this proactive book reveals how modern traders can integrate time-honored tape-reading techniques with modern technologies and techniques to:

• Determine how the smart money is trading, and follow their lead to profit from "the herd"
• Employ advanced yet easy-to-implement timing strategies to select more profitable entry and exit points
• Know when a price movement has been exhausted--and your position should be liquidated
• Make trading more orderly and profitable by selling partial positions into price/volume spikes
• Build and play more accurate and profitable set-ups

In a typical market, the majority of traders are generally wrong. They consistently ignore what the market is telling them, relying instead on market rumors, forum gossip, and hot tips. They trade what they think instead of what they see--and, most of the time, what they think is guided by all kinds of stock promoters who are only interested in taking their money.

Techniques of Tape Reading shows you a more intelligent way. It reveals a step-by-step process for moving into an unemotional state of trading reality, acting on the ultimate truth of stock movement, price, and volume instead of destructive and misleading rumors and gossip. Let it show you how to use the age-old rules of tape reading to follow what the top traders are doing today, and dramatically increase your ratio of trading profits tomorrow.

Author Biography

Vadym Graifer is a full time professional stock trader, teacher, and author of the online book Job-Daytrader. Graifer is the cofounder and president of RealityTrader.com, an online educational forum on trading principles, methods, and techniques.

Chris Schumacher is the cofounder and CEO of RealityTrader.com. Schumacher writes a daily column on TheStreet.com's Real Money website, is a featured speaker at trading expos, has been a guest lecturer at The Ohio State University, and is the coauthor of Trading on Momentum.