Esteban Thilliez

What the book is about
Have you ever heard of design patterns? These are essential elements of object-oriented programming, and every programmer should know them.
The book will introduce you to this notion of design patterns. You will discover what they are, why every programmer should know them, how they can improve your programming, etc...
Then, the book will cover in a structured way and in detail each of the design patterns.

My thoughts
I think this book is good. But, there is too much information about each of the design patterns. It's impossible to remember everything or to take note of everything.
That's why I see this book more as a cheatsheet, or something you open only when you have a specific need and you want detailed information about something. In this case, if I want information about the Visitor pattern, I just open the book and I will find everything I need.
Also, this book is a lot theoretical. It includes some code examples, but not a lot. This is neither good nor bad because it meets different needs.

Who should read it
I think every programmer who has never heard about design patterns should read it. If you have ever heard of design patterns, it's not so useful to read this book, but it's useful to own it so that if you need information about one design pattern one day you can just find all the information you need in the book.

A great book to practice the theory behind Elliott Waves

Have you read Elliott Waves Principles? If you do, perhaps a lot of things are not clear to you. That was my case. Indeed, Elliott Waves theory is hard to understand, making it nearly impossible to apply directly after learning the theory. As with everything, you must practice to become good in one field. Elliott Waves are no exception.

Gratefully, Visual Guide to Elliott Waves trading helps you to understand how to use Elliott Waves in the market with a lot of examples. For each pattern, there are a few examples explaining all the analysis before taking a position. There is even a part talking about how to combine Elliott Waves analysis with more classical indicators such as RSI or MACD to maximize your edge.

It also talks about an important market concept which is that anything in the market follows probability and not certitude. Elliott Waves are not an exception. You can't forecast the market, you can just maximize your chances to get the market going towards the side you expect it.

I also liked the end of the book, more precisely appendix 1. It was a quick summary of the whole Elliott Waves theory. It was very clear and understandable (much more than Elliott Waves Principle). I was sad to discover this appendix only at the end as it explained nearly everything you need to understand the book (perhaps it was referenced a bit earlier in the book, but I probably read too fast to see it).

For now, everything seems good about this book. But I found it a little bit hard to read, as some examples are very complex and use tons of things for the analysis. I don't think it's such a bad thing because it explains the whole process of the Elliott Waves analysis, but you will probably have to read some examples several times to understand them.

Another thing to know is that it isn't a book for notes. You can't really extract knowledge from it as it is just a compilation of examples. That's another form of learning, not learning from the theory but learning from the application, the “real world”. I liked it but it forces you to keep the book open while practicing your trading with Elliott Waves as you can't have the whole book in your mind and I don't think it's worth taking notes for examples.

Final Thought
Overall, this book is very good. I think it's not necessary to read Elliott Waves Principles to understand it thanks to appendix 1 at the end (even if there are a lot of references to Elliott Waves Principles). Sometimes it was a bit hard to read, but I would definitely recommend it to everyone wanting to implement Elliott Waves analysis to his trading.

What's in the book?
Basics
Obviously, this book starts by setting out the basics of the theory. You will discover that according to Elliott, financial markets are governed by a simple principle: stock prices always consist of an impulsive phase followed by a corrective phase. The impulsive phase consists of 5 waves: 3 impulsive waves and 2 corrective waves. The corrective phase consists of 3 waves: 2 corrective waves and 1 impulsive wave.

You will also learn that each wave has particular characteristics and is very recognizable. Each wave also has a name to identify it. For example, there is wave 1, wave 2, wave A, wave E...

Patterns
This book presents all the patterns associated with the theory. You will discover zigzags, triangles, and flats. You will see their characteristics, how to distinguish them, and also how to predict them.

Principles
The principle of alternation, the principle of scale and cyclic... All the principles of the theory are presented and explained. You will be surprised to find out that according to these principles, Elliott Waves have been present for hundreds of years.

Fibonacci
About halfway through the book, there is a small aside to introduce you to the golden ratio and explain how it applies to Elliott Wave Theory. You will read that in fact the golden ratio is found absolutely everywhere and that stock prices are no exception to the rule.

Practical application
You will also learn that in practice, Elliott Wave Theory is not really used to forecast the market (because no one can predict the market), but it is used to give context to your investment and trading decisions. It can also give you a significant edge if you wish to implement Elliott Waves in your trading.

My thoughts
I think it's a good book. It is sometimes a bit technical but overall everything is understandable if you put some effort into reading. A small drawback: examples are given to understand the theory explained in the book, but they are not always very clear and are not current since the book is at least 30 years old.

However, there is a lot of information in this book. Once you finish it, you feel like you haven't retained anything because of the mass of information. That's why I would have liked to have a quick summary of the characteristics of each wave and pattern at the end. I strongly recommend taking notes while reading so that you can make your own summary of the theory at the end of the book, as the information is scattered all over the place so it is difficult to understand if you don't summarise the book properly.

Who should read it?
I think every investor or trader should read it as it presents some very interesting ideas that are still relevant today. Even if you are not a technical analysis specialist and do not want to push Elliott Wave analysis very far, having some knowledge about it can always be useful to improve your decisions.