Fibonacci Analysis

If you look at the reviews of Constance Brown's books on Amazon.com, reviewers fall into the "love it" or "hate it" categories -- no one is in the middle. I've read almost all her books (the new one on Elliott Wave isn't out for another few months and there is one that Amazon doesn't carry, but B&N does). My review covers all of her books in a way, but is meant to be specific to the text on Fibonacci Analysis Fibonacci Analysis (Bloomberg Financial).Fibonacci analysis is not a trivial process, although most charting software would make you think it is. As Constance points out beautifully, the selection of pivot points isn't as simple or mindless as "take the extreme high and low points" -- markets have an internal geometry that changes over time and you have to match that geometry to pick the proper pivots and thus create the correct confluence zones. She's very upfront about this in her Introduction and in the text itself, again and again. This analysis takes proper tools (whether computer drawn or with proportional dividers on paper) and practice ... and ideally (but not mandatory) a mentor to help guide you.Is this book a stand-alone text? Yes, it is complete to itself. However, as Constance says (my paraphrase), "WD Gann spent decades learning about the mysteries of the Sacred Ratio and how to apply it; I've spent years, building on his and my mentor's further teachings; and if you're serious, you'll spend lots of time learning the basics and then making it your own". There is no easy road and this isn't "all you need to know about Fibonacci in 8 easy lessons". This is the freshman year of college and you have the rest of college and then graduate and post-graduate work ahead of you if you want in-depth understanding.Remember that this book has a limited number of examples and pages. You have to study and repeat what Constance does on your own charts for the lessons to sink in. It would be ideal to sit with her for a week, but few of us have either the time or money to do that. Reading other dedicated Fibonacci books [e.g., Fibonacci Trading by Carol Boroden Fibonacci Trading: How to Master the Time and Price Advantage) or going to trader websites using Fibonacci techniques can show you alternate methods, or better yet, give you an opportunity to see how Constance Brown's technique improves on what is the "industry standard" for traders. All of it is learning and making this tool your own.Are there errors in the text? Yes, a few, but they are relatively minor and if you're reading and understanding the material, you'll know the corrections you need to make. I've found typos and minor corrections in most books and this has fewer that most others in the finance/trading universe.Does she answer the questions she raises in the text? Yes, she does. It may be in a later chapter or rephrased slightly, but she never leaves us wondering ...In short, this is not an easy book to read, but that's because the material isn't easy. The writing is well done, clear and the progression from basics to advanced concepts is exactly what the student needs.This book has taken a place of honor in my trading library, next to her master work on Technical Analysis. She points out the path and gives us our first lessons, but there is no "predigested spoon feeding" here; the rest is up to us as students to find, learn, master and ultimately, pass on to others.

This book is complicated and sometimes seems out of focus.However it teaches something that I haven't found anywhere else : how to correctly select the starting and ending points of a Fibonacci range.If you look at Alan Farley, Carolyn Boroden or Joe DiNapoli books, you'll see that their method is to identify the low and the high of each swing. I constantly lost money using Fibonacci retracements with their methods and Constance Brown explains why : the market may be contracting or expanding and you may start the range after a gap, at the beginning of a long bar, after the second correction, etc...I admit it can look very personal and somewhat arbitrary, but once you've done it several times, the beginning and ending points seem to jump out of the chart ; the confluence zones, hidden to most of the traders, come to life and those levels are respected within ticks... it's almost magic (and at least this trading edge won't be duplicated too soon by any computer program) ! This enables you to "predict" where the market will turn and as a consequence, place very tight stops... Very different from what can be taught by several "experts" : "the market should stop retracing between the 38% and 62% retracements" - in this book you'll learn to make very precise predictions : if wrong, you get out with a minimal loss - if right, the trend resumes and you hit jackpot because you can trade a large position, as your exit point is so near the entry !On the first reading, I didn't get everything and found that the book looses focus on several chapters (discussion on Gann or astronomy for cycle analysis for example). The last chapter, aimed at selecting which confluence zone is more significant, is unclear ... I've read it several time and can't understand how to do it right.However, all the discussions on the "internal markers" used to define the beginning and ending points of each grid are priceless.I almost can't place a trade without fib grids on a chart : 5 stars !

My fib lines are so tight on so many different random tickers it's insane. We're talking 3 or 4 pennies off at the most, and often times it's not off at all. This book is not very big, in fact it's pretty small compared to my options as a strategic investment book. However, the contents inside of this book are priceless if you know what to do with the information. I will admit there are some errors in the book, but if you use common sense and read the confusing parts over and over, you will grasp the concept. It's not for casual readers. You will need to pull up tradingview or whatever charting software you prefer, and practice the technique described in this book. If you take the time to read this book thoroughly and fully comprehend the concepts, you will see where price is going before it goes there and when the price arrives at it's destination, you will constantly be in awe of how well this works. Of course technical analysis is not so easy, and you will also need to read other books to get an idea of which direction the price is heading, but this book will help you to see things I never thought possible. Other people think prices are random walks, this book has showed me that is total BS.

Good book too bad the pictures didn't follow the explanation. Had to go back and forth a lot on the pages to understand. Paper too porous for notes imo.