Recommended Strategy - Street Smarts

I've had a few questions over recent weeks regarding when I'm releasing full details about my trading strategy (ie. enough detail for someone else to be able to trade it).

Well, the fact is that I don't believe that a quick e-book can do justice to my trading strategy. I think to explain it properly it really needs to be seen either live, or via video. And for me to produce a complete series of videos, is frankly going to take quite a while. I'll aim for something later this year, but in the meantime I thought I should pass on a recommendation for other strategies that I like.

Firstly, if you're happy to just work from a book rather than attend a course or watch a DVD, I believe you can't go past my number one favourite trading book of all time:

"Street Smarts" by Laurence A. Connors and Linda Bradford Raschke

(check it out at my book site here - it's the first book at the top left - click on the picture for more information).

While it's more expensive than most trading books I've bought, it is easily worth every cent and more. The book provides two key features:

1. A number of pattern based setups that can be used as a foundation for your trading strategy. You can't go past something like the Grail setup for simplicity.

2. If you read between the lines, you'll discover some real gems regarding trade and risk management.

This book actually gets very mixed reviews on Amazon.com. People either love it or hate it. I suspect those that don't like it are disappointed because it didn't provide a plug-in profit making setup, that works without any thought or skill on the part of the trader. The fact is that these setups are not meant to be taken as mechanical entry signals. That's not how trading works, despite the number of marketers trying to convince you otherwise. Filter the setup based on where it's occurring within the context of larger market action (see my earlier videos if you're not sure what I mean here). And expect to have to develop an intuitive ability to read price movement, and assess the most probable future action, based on years of experience.

I personally found great value in this book. The real value for me was the insights into trade management, and risk control (priceless!). Although I don't relate to all setups, there are some I absolutely love, and have traded (Turtle Soup, Grail, Anti). Mostly though they've required a little modification to suit my trading personality and risk tolerance. But that's the key with all setups - select one that you can relate to, play with it on a demo platform, and develop your own strategy around that setup. That's the way trading works. It's not about just blindly buying when indicator A crosses indicator B.

For those wanting further help after learning the Street Smarts setups, Linda Rashcke does have a number of live trading rooms at www.lbrgroup.com . I haven't used them so cannot comment on them at all. However most of the feedback I've seen about these rooms is positive.

Anyway, just check it out. Here's the link again.

And if you get the book, I'd love to get your feedback.

Coming up in the near future (in other articles) are my thoughts on the only two trading strategy online services or products that I would currently recommend. I'm sure there's other great one's, but unless I've got personal experience with it, I won't recommend it.