Rating  - Should you buy this book or not?
$53.55 plus shipping. So is this book worth the price? I will hopefully be able to give you an objective answer through this review. I would like to preface this review by saying that I have not read Elder's "Come Into my Trading Room" for a couple years (so my memory might be sketchy). I remember reading it at the time and coming away with a profound respect for Elder and how well he outlined the steps to becoming a professional trader.
This book is a bit of a paradox to me. On one hand, it is a very good representation of what it takes to become a great trader. If you follow the things Elder says, and have the discipline to stick to them, then it is improbable that you will not eventually become a successful trader.
With those things said, I felt that this book was much lighter in some ways then his most famous book. "Trading Room" is a tough act to follow as one reviewer on here said. That book has everything you need, and a lot more in depth knowledge then "Sell and Sell Short" offers. While reading this book, I was constantly a bit disappointed at how much it was angled towards the beginner. That's fine if that is what the book is aimed for, but with this price tag, I felt that it was a bit of a contradiction.
If you are going to price your book at an 80$ tag price, it should have some very in depth, and advanced materials. I know some of the expensive books I have purchased are the kind that you can keep coming back to over and over again to gain new insight into what the author was communicating (Mark Douglas comes to mind, not to mention Elder's previous bestseller). So while I thought this material was all relevant, I felt a bit like I was reading a high priced update to "Trading Room."
To show a bit of what I am talking about, let's take the example of keeping records. Elder goes to great lengths to convince his reader that keeping good records is the most important part of being a good trader. I happen to agree with him, but I was disappointed that he did not elaborate more on WHY it is so good.
I understand that it lets you correct past mistakes, but he did not really go farther then that. Good records are important because it keeps you focused in the NOW. If you take good records, it makes you focus on how you did on each trade. Most people who are new to the markets tend to focus immediately on the P/L of their account; they think its all about making money.
They should be focusing on how well they perform on each trade, the level of emotion they are letting make their decisions for them, how losses feel, etc. If you focus on the money and whether you're winning or not, you are not focused on a long term winning attitude that will make you a professional trader in the long run. A professional knows that any trade is pretty much a toss up; there are too many unknown variables that can take you out of a trade. If you beat yourself up about it, then essentially you are attached to the trade, and will, in the long run, be a loser.
So because he did not explain why it was so essential to keep records, the reader does not know how to replicate that needed element in something that may not be concurrent with what the author advised. For example, before charts were electronic, one could get the exact SAME psychological benefit of focusing on the now moment and improving attitude by taking records of what the market does, and updating charts manually.
Jesse Livermore's 1940 book "How to Trade Stocks" displays this perfectly. Livermore advocated keeping strict records of what the MARKET did, not essentially what his trade did. If Elder showed why a certain aspect of his book was important, he would leave the door open for traders to creatively find other ways to achieve the same effect as taking good records. (I have heard of market makers keeping great records of delta exposure daily that were great for them when they could not keep track of every trade they did.)
I was hoping that Elder would go a bit more in depth into why psychologically, he had his methods, but I have one more complaint. The way he constantly tells the reader how a professional trader compares to an amateur is a bit annoying after awhile. Professionals share one thing in common, and that is a winning attitude, but they DO NOT share methods in common. There are tons of ways to skin a cat, Elder may think that buying options is for amateurs, but he should talk to a lot of hedgies that were long volatility into some of the events that rocketed the markets in the 90s. They were glad they were long options, and they are still around today to tell the tale, unlike LTCM and other firms that thought selling volatility was the only way to go.
My final verdict? I respect Elder immensely for what he has done, and like the fact that he released this book to help people when he easily could have been trading and making more money. But this book's value is really not worth it over "Trading Room." If you then add in all the other great trading books out there, buying books like this for this price really cannot be justified unless you are like me, and just want the experience of Elder's latest. Great book Elder, bad price, hats off and congratulations.
Rating  - A single chapter worth the price
I think a book means different things to different people depending on where we are in our education. I bought this book because another reviewer mentioned the method the author described for keeping track of investments--why I bought stocks, why I sold them, what I could have done differently, and so on. I have serious problems keeping a trading journal that is helpful. I wanted to see what Elder recommended.
I was not disappointed. I would have bought this book for that section alone.
Rating - Glistering Candles
As an experienced trader, what I liked best about Dr Elder's latest book is that (1) he goes into detail on different possible selling methods and (2) when advising shorting methods Dr Elder does not try to convince the reader about his own method, but he gently presents different ideas which are very nicely illustrated. I found many ideas that I can readily apply even though I use different tools than those presented in the book.
After reading this book, beginners will want to go back to Dr Elder's two masterpieces: "Trading for a Living" and "Come into my Trading Room", which offer more explanations and examples on Dr Elder's systematic approach to trading. I remember that, after closing "Come into my Trading Room", I had the feeling of a trading method that was completely disclosed under the bright light. "Sell and Sell Short" felt like a gift made of glistering candles: each candle brings some light on the market, but it is up to us to test and integrate them into our own trading method. I think that this book is meant that way: not to "teach", but to "show some different trading techniques" that are especially useful in bear markets.
In the interest of full disclosure I should mention that Dr Elder wrote the foreword to my book "Value in Time" and I have always been a great fan of his work.
Rating  - A pratical guide for selling
I found it is helpful on applying selling techniques, though the examples on selling were mostly short term focused.
It lacks of what I expected on medium/long term selling, or short selling.
Rating - One of several books a new trader should read
This reasonably sized book outlines what a trader needs to know about selling (rather than holding) stocks. It also provides a good guide on how to approach short-term buying and selling, of which I am a fan. (I am not interested in selling short, but the information provided on the subject is useful for both directions.)
It is not an exhaustive work on trading as it touches upon chart patterns, but does not dwell upon them. Instead, it helps provide the framework in which to organize one's thinking. I took notes on the book and used these notes for further research. Based on curiosity, I created, for example, a Microsoft Word document listing 150 chart studies. I continuously update this document with my own SnagIt-based observations on selected studies, making it a slick, inter-active guide.
My friends, who are "investors," rather than traders, have been losing money left and right. I think that this book is the perfect gift for anyone who lets money slip through their fingers - either in retirement accounts or by their own active investing - without being preachy.
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