Street Smarts: High Probability Short-Term Trading Strategies by Linda Bradford Raschke and Laurence Connors

Summary: This book is one of the best books on short term discretionary trading setups. Clear rules and actual examples provided to illustrate the points. It is not a book giving you mechanical trading systems to copy from. Should be required reading for all daytraders. Highly recommended.

Review

This book has been published for 18 years now. It became an instant classic the time it was first published. Yet, there are as many people who read the book and absolutely hate it.

This book is written for swing traders. Don’t be mistaken that it is a book written for those longer term swing traders who hold a position for months though. The swing traders referred to in the book are those traders who like to ride a prolonged move within the timeframe they trade. So it is a book suitable for both daytraders and longer term traders.

This book is organized similar to other trading books written by professional traders who actually disclose their techniques. The basic rules to the trading setups that they use are provided to you clearly. What you have to do, however, is to review your charts extensively to understand how those trading setups work within the markets you trade. It is like a math teacher who teaches you to do basic arithmetics. It will be up to you to drill on the techniques to make it your own.

So think of the trading setups (or observations) in the book as a starting point for your own investigative journey looking for profitable trading setups. As mentioned in the beginning of the book. All it takes is just one trading strategy to become a successful trader. All the information provided in the book are just pointers in the right direction on things that work for the authors. You have to find out if they will work for you.

It should be clear now why this book is hated so much by so many people. Those people are looking for exact instructions to follow so that they can profit from the markets immediately. I can understand why the book is such a disappointment to them.

Highly recommended to all daytraders. It is probably one of the best books on trading, period.

If you find the price of the book to be on the expensive side, try to borrow one from a local technical analysis society or interest group. Many business school libraries also have this book available.

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