The Stock Trader’s Almanac Book Review

Stock Traders Almanac 2012

by Jeffrey Hirsch & Yale Hirsch

Synopsis:

The Almanac is a practical investment tool designed to make you aware of little-known market tendencies and patterns in which you can enhance your profit potential.

This book will update your investment knowledge, informing you of new techniques and tools.

It is a monthly reminder and refresher course alerting you to many seasonal investment opportunities and dangers.

Authors Credentials:

• Editor-in-chief of the Stock Traders Almanac and Almanac Investor newsletter.
• Market analyst and stock market historian.
• Regular commentator on major news networks such as CNBC, CNN and Bloomberg.

Top Section Take-Aways:

1. Helps you understand how political cycles affect the economy and the stock market.
2. Shows you why there is a significant market bias at certain times of the day, week, month and year.
3. Organizes a wealth of information into a calendar format.
4. Provides daily stats on the chance of the market rising on any trading day of the year.
5. Outlines important meeting dates on the weekly planner pages.
6. Lists the 10 best and worst historical trading days, weeks, months and quarters.
7. Gives you insight into the impact of sector seasonalitys and how to better time entry and exit points in the varioussectors.
8. Describes how monthly cash flows into the S&P 500 and NASDAQ stocks have evolved over the past 40 years.
9. Provides a list of 17 of this years top investment books to consider reading.

Possible Shortcomings:

• A more complete listing of government agency report release dates would be beneficial.
• Geared towards the active investor or trader looking at trying to better time market plays.

Reviewers Opinion:

This guide provides the investor with a wealth of information about historical patterns and stats that are contained on the weekly planner pages.

This years expanded 192-page version follows the original pattern set out in 1967 but contains the results of 40 more years of market research.

The layout and organization lend to making this guide easy-to-follow. What I like about the Almanac is that it can serve as a stock investment daily planner since each week of the year fits nicely on a page.

Of note is the effect of presidential election years on stock market growth. Having an idea as to what historically has transpired can give you some additional insight into how things could play out in the short term.

The monthly stats provide the investor with a better idea as to what to possibly expect based on the historical data. The actively-engaged investor can use some of this information to develop their edge in the market.

The back of the almanac contains a section devoted to trading patterns and a databank of interesting stats to better inform you of certain market tendencies.

This guide continues to serve as the ultimate desktop market data bank, showing the markets likely direction every hour, day, week and month based on historical precedent, allowing shrewd investors to maximize profit potential.

For someone who would like to keep track of when to better time moving into and out of the market this planner provides that guidance.