Trading Chaos: Applying Expert Techniques to Maximize Your Profits

by Bill M. Williams

Book Overview

A practical guide for making sense of chaos theory and applying it to today's financial markets. Enables traders and analysts to uncover hidden determinism in seemingly random market events and make accurate investment decisions with high probabilities for profit.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471119296
• ISBN13: 9780471119296
• Release Date: June 1995
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

As Simple as it is Powerful

I am a BIG believer in Bill Williams and his body of work. I will admit, this book is the most confusing of his three. It is also the FIRST book of his three. If you buy this now, buy it to "fill in the blanks" but use his later works as the backbone of your trading. I have personally met with Bill, taken his home study course and even attended a private tutorial. Bill is the real deal. He is a *highly* profitable trader and Bill trades EXACTLY like he describes in his books (simplified over time, so Trading Chaos, 2nd Ed. is the LATEST and most refined method). READ THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THIS BOOK (it's free online here, just click on excerpts). This chapter alone is worth the entire book. If you just want to trade with no other background information, Buy Trading Chaos, 2nd Edition (not this book) and start with chapter seven. When you get to the end of the book, you'll say, "That's it?!?! Than can't be it!" That's what I said. I then went on to take his home study course (13 weeks) and then went to a private tutorial. 95% of the methodology is IN THE BOOK! The more advanced stuff is for those who are scaling into positions and want more aggressive money management techniques. Who am I to say this works? I started trading Bill's techniques from scratch. In LESS than 6 months I was up 95% in a medium sized account. I found some like-minded investors and we started our own Hedge Fund (more specifically, a commodity pool). I called Bill personally and he spoke with me at length about how I should flow into and out of my positions, etc. He went far above and beyond the call of duty. I cannot speak to how well my Pool is doing (not legal to disclose - considered solicitation of investors), so I cannot give figures of returns for the Pool. Buy Trading Chaos 2nd Edition (not this book) and then buy "New Trading Dim mentions" (his second book) and read chapters 9 - 11. Those chapters will give you more ideas of the SCOPE of just what is possible when you simplify your trading and align it with natural market tendencies (chaos principles). Good luck and Good Trading! -- Q

Joke

The five stars is only for the cover. However, the content of the book is pathetic. I have read many trading books and several chaos books and I can honestly say this book is neither. I fell for the enlightened self-similar structure cover and wasted my money. Don't repeat my mistake.If you are interested in chaos and trading, start with Edgar Peters books such as Chaos and the Capital Markets.The publisher, Wiley, should be ashamed to put out this sort of drivel. Bill Williams is a joke. If you think your trading style is based on your body type, then maybe this book will help you feel better about losing; otherwise skip it and Bill Williams, PhD.'s other lobotomized treatises on trading.

New Insights In Trading

The Chapter on how he uses elliot waves to trade, plus his use of his MFI indicator, along with chapters on the behavioural aspects on trading makes this book a worthwhile buy.I can definitely say this book has definitely brought my trading to a higher level.

This is the first book I have ever read in one night

It is different and telling what I have experienced. Chaos is the main structure of the market and without understandig that structure you will not be the true winners.

Elliott Wave for futures traders

Trading Chaos has as much to do with the Elliott Wave Theory as it does encouraging traders to approach the markets with both discipline and a view to developing (or trading within) your personal style. The section for the Novice Trader, showing what could be gleaned from a simple OHLC and volume chart, was eye-opening, even though it was strikingly obvious and logical once Williams stated it.However, as he penetrates the mysteries of the Elliott Wave and offers his technical indicators for it, he faces the problem of explaining things with terms that aren't (and can't conveniently be) introduced till later in the chapter: to understand Wave 1, you need to know about Wave 5 and fractals (because of the chaotic nature of the Elliott Wave), but Wave 5 isn't discussed in detail until waves 2 to 4 are covered, and fractals are covered in the following chapter. His definition for a "fractal stop" took me a long time to figure out--in fact, the chapter on fractal! s was the weak link in the chain: hard for me to grasp, and written in an almost point-form style. Nonetheless, I'm not too bright, so I imagine others will apprehend it faster than I did. But, if you can get through those middle chapters, the closing chapters are an easy read. Ultimately, Williams boils the psychology of the Elliott Wave down to a set of rather simple, purely technical indicators, which, according to Williams, will permit you to analyse any market within 10 seconds of viewing the chart.Despite Williams's claims that his indicators work well for all time frames (he does suggest it is a bit cumbersome for intraday trading), it seems to me that you'd want a data service and charting software to at least look at intraday data to make the right calls.More than the system, though, Trading Chaos is motivational. When discussing the failure of traders, Williams, like Jake Bernstein, underscored a lot of my own mistakes. Although I was initially frustrated by th! e introductory chapters on the Elliott Wave and fractals, I! did unravel them to my satisfaction. Trading Chaos was ultimately a good book for me to read.