Technical Analysis for Beginners: Take $1k to $10k Using Charting and Stock Trends of the Financial Markets with Zero Trading Experience Required Paperback – July 16, 2021

An introduction to the possibly lucrative, definitely risky activity of trading on the stock market. Thankfully this book lacks the ‘get-rich-quick’ hype that sometimes marks – and mars – books on the topic. In contrast, this is an impressively reasoned, entertainingly witty, as well as cautiously systematic introduction to the art of reading stock market charts. You can certainly make money from trading, the author writes, ‘if you are disciplined and work hard.’One of Penn’s free downloadable supplementary documents mentions that the author holds a Master’s degree in international finance from Birmingham, which is one of the leading British universities. After graduating and embarking on a career in trading, he found that success required just as much, if not more, real-world experience. This book contains the fruit of both worlds, allowing the potential investor to avoid the pitfalls that confronted Penn in the beginning.Doing technical analysis requires the ability to understand various kinds of stock charts. Simple share price charts are based on daily closing prices. Others show more information, such as OHLC charts (open, high, low as well as closing prices), and Japanese candlestick and ichimoku cloud charts. You need to be able to evaluate how a stock is ‘trending’ or whether a ‘breakout’ from a current trend is likely – in which case it may be a prime time to buy or sell shares.So-called Candlestick charts are among the most intriguing, representing open and closing prices, along with a ‘wick’ or ‘shadow’ – lines that poke out from the top and bottom, representing the intra-day high and low prices. The color of the candle will be either red or green, depending on whether the stock rose or fell on the day.So, Penn writes:“a great tall green-bodied candlestick with no top shadow and a short bottom shadow means the stock rose nearly all day, only dipped a really tiny amount below the open in trading, and then closed at a high. A short stubby red candlestick with a long bottom shadow and a short top shadow shows that the price closed the day not far from where it started, but after some big selling action pushed the price down – and that it never traded very far above the opening price.”To the informed and attentive analyst, candlesticks may combine in various patterns that indicate what the stock is likely to do in future. Penn describes and explains the dynamics behind ‘bullish’ patterns like The Hammer, Morning Star, Three White Soldiers, and ‘bearish’ ones – Three Black Crows, The Spinning Top, and the dreaded Red Marubozu.But don’t be put off, this is not the I Ching. Extremely pragmatic processes are at work beneath such esoteric symbolism. Penn’s explanations are well-reasoned and engaging.The book is definitely to be recommended to anyone tempted to start out in investing. If you have $1k you wouldn’t feel too bad about the possibility of losing, you might be inclined to turn it into $10k, along these relatively conservative guidelines. But first, as he suggests, why not try out your developing chart-reading skills by doing some ‘paper trading’ (simulation trading) offered by sites such as Marketwatch or BigCharts?Penn’s is a comprehensive and responsible introduction to an extensive field. Further to its coverage of trading techniques, the book has chapters on trading psychology and strategy design. In addition to the budding speculator, I recommend it to anyone who might want to know some of the ins, outs, and what-have-yous of stock trading in general. It is stimulating reading.

A. Z Penn has written a down-to-earth, easy-to-understand guide to market investing for the beginner, complete with a free online companion masterclass and additional online resources. Even if, like me, you aren't going to be investing at this time in your life, this book makes many arcane investing terms, theories, and practices of investing clear. Not only does Penn explain things very simply but he includes a full glossary of terms and many simple-to-understand diagrams of stock-market patterns. His syntax is good and breezy, with lots of humor and great analogies thrown in. He is not pushing any kind of get-rich-quick scheme but, on the contrary, continually urges caution and watching for the pitfalls many investors fall into. Particularly important are practicing your understanding and pretend earnings & losses first by keeping a paper tally for months before you invest any real money. And always, always, always setting automatic "stop-losses" at the same time you make a purchase. His chapter on investing psychology is excellent, and he warns against getting too greedy or succumbing to FOMO (fear of missing out).Penn's book is particularly appropriate for those who feel they'd like to pick stocks and try short- or medium-term trading. As he makes clear, this requires plenty of time and attention, as well as a little money to invest. ($1,000 is ideal for a beginner, but $500 is fine too.) He uses market charts as "a way of looking at securities' price data and using it to predict the probable future performance of that security" based on many probability indicators and patterns you can learn to recognize in the data. He teaches you how to draw on and analyze many different types of charts, to "do the work yourself and understand what you're doing." Multiple choice quizzes at the end of each short chapter, while often humorous, show you whether you've grasped the salient points of the chapter. If you commit to following his method and advice, you should make a profit, he says, on 70 percent of all your trades, which is a pretty good percentage as these things go, and you can prevent losses from ever becoming more than your gains. And again, even if you don't dip your toe in the market, you will at least understand it better and understand why other people in your life might enjoy trading.

The book itself was informative and data-dense. However, this genre is not my typical reading go-to. But, if I were interested in becoming a stock market trader, then I would find appreciative value in the information in this publication. That being said, I did enjoy some of the cleverly placed humorous nuances in the reading material, and it does speak to the analytical side of me.Other than that, it's a solidly good book for first-time stock market venturers.Nice work!