Book Review: Trade Chart Patterns Like the Pros (Suri Duddella)

As I wanted to find out more about different trading chart patterns (lately, I’m quite fond of using them), I’ve chosen to read Suri Duddella‘s Trade Chart Patterns Like the Pros, which had a rather promising title and tables of contents. To say that I was disappointed is almost not to say anything at all. It can barely be called a book — more like a set of slides with pattern descriptions and examples.
The way the book starts off is already quite suspicious. I’ll allow myself a quote from the source:

To a trader, statistics must be practically useful, but too often they are not… Does the trader’s decision change if the throwback rate is 32% instead of 33%? No, he trades what he sees, what he knows and what he has confidence in.

Yeah, statistics might not be useful everywhere, but with the chart patterns it is important. No, traders don’t remember whether some pattern has 32% or 33% throwback rate, but they do remember that one pattern is more successful than others and another is less successful. Traders also use accurate statistics on the stage of the strategy development and especially in the process of trading automation. So telling us that statistics is useless isn’t a good point, really.
Despite a praising foreword and a review in the beginning of the book, I still don’t like it because it has some serious disadvantages, in my opinion:

  • The above-mentioned lack of any statistical analysis of the presented patterns.
  • Except few cases, no pattern failure examples are given.
  • Some patterns are described quite poorly, lacking the clear entry or exit conditions description.
  • The style of the book isn’t very good — sometimes it looked like it was written by some unprofessional (like me).
  • Almost no candlestick chart patterns.
  • But it’s not all that bad. Fortunately, even here some positive moments are present and if you don’t have anything else to do, this book may be somewhat useful:

  • A lot of different chart patterns are shown, including some very exotic ones (Dragon, Scallops, etc.).
  • You can still learn to trade many patterns successfully from this book.
  • Because of the lack of real “book text”, you can use it as a handbook for quick pattern reference.
  • To sum it up, I’d recommend going for some other chart pattern book (like Bulkowski’s Encyclopedia of Chart Patterns). But if you’ve read everything else on the topic and seek more, you can give Trade Chart Patterns Like the Pros a try, of course. Just don’t expect too much from it, especially if you prefer to see the statistical reports on every pattern.

    If you have any questions, comments or opinions regarding Trade Chart Patterns Like the Pros by Suri Duddella, please feel free to reply in the comments below.

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