Timing the Market: How to Profit in Bull and Bear Markets with Technical Analysis

Curtis Arnold

Investing in stock and commodities is a blend of good technical knowledge to understand complex market relationships and the ability to exercise an unemotional balanced view of when to invest, in essence: good timing. Exploring the issues of Bull and Bear markets using a host of analysis tools, Arnold reinforces his standing as one of the greatest analytical minds in the investment world.

Bull markets, where confidence is strong, lead to market price and index rises of around 20%. Bear markets, by comparison, are periods of a lack of market confidence with a corresponding fall in prices of around 20%. These two end-members provide the basis for the cyclical nature of markets, which Arnold attributes as the causes of rises and falls over time. Since writing the first edition of Timing the Market in 1984, Curtis has been busy developing various tools. Noteable examples include the 'Commitment of Traders Index', to analyse imbalances in futures markets and the 'Pattern Probability Strategy' or PPS. In 1992, the PPS was chosen by Supertraders Almanac as ‘Trading Methodology of the Year’ and has since remained one of the most successful and popular trading systems used.

In this latest edition, Arnold looks in great detail at the investments process and clearly guides the reader through the mysteries of trading in stocks, bonds and commodity markets. The book demonstrates how investments can be made to work, with complex technical analysis of forecasting made simple and manageable. The technical analysis takes the reader through every essential tool available for reading the markets: how to identify support, resistance, momentum and sentiment. A step-by-step guide allows the reader to construct their own system and interpret the results. The contents cover five main areas:
 

• How to profit from technical analysis
• The basics of technical analysis
• The stock market
• Cycles
• Commodity markets

This book is useful to anyone wanting to understand the global markets to invest directly, or understand how their company fits into the grand turbulent scheme. Using his vast, proven insights to market behavior over the last 25 years, Curtis Arnold has released this update to his classic 1984 text, interestingly timed as the many stocks and commodities around the world enter Bear market conditions in 2008.