Trade Stocks and Commodities with the Insiders: Secrets of the COT Report Hardcover – September 12, 2005

Another gem from Larry, book teaches you what moves the market and when it is ready to move and which in direction, Larry teaches how to read the professionals and how they are positioning in any chosen market. Unless you have worked on a trading floor then as a retail trader this knowledge and information can help you trade with what's happening on a trading floor with the professionals. Larry is one of a few fortunately I found Larry and his website, there are not many traders out there teaching that have traded longer than Larry. Larry teaches why its no different today as it was when he first started, other than the advancement of technology.

The info in this book is the best of your life. Following along and using it in real trading decisions requires work upfront, but a fast and easy weekly update process is possible. You'll need to download and import the data to a charting program. I've used python to split the data into different files for each market and column from the COT report. I made indicators to display the data on my charts in Amibroker. You have to really pay attention to Larry's charts in the book. You might think he's still using the Open Interest Stochastic (which you'll have to write, it took me about 15 minutes) but he may have changed to the regular OI. Halfway through the book, every few pages my mind was blown and I had to stop and go update my python scripts to create more files and/or update indicators. But the changes are permanent and awesome. I'm programming and following every example, and that's what you need to do. Study and program this stuff like your future depends on it. If you read just one Larry Williams book, read this one and implement it. It is a lot of work in the beginning, but my weekly data update process takes 5 minutes. By the way, this was written 20 years ago and it does not matter one bit. The price of this book should be like 10 million dollars.

I enjoyed the read, it took some thought and re-reading for me to catch some of the intricacies of Larry's explanations. However,I am in the process of trying to use this info on my trading.I am a longer term trader, so I am looking forward to testing what Larry showed....I hope to use this info in the forex market as well.

Nice information

I have read the other reviews and found them to be inaccurate. The COT report is unique to futures however Larry has developed another indicator that provides a similar indicator that is applicable to stocks and futures markets that do not have COT reports available. Exit criteria are discussed on numerous occasions. While entrances are subjective Larry mentions this repeatedly, saying that trading involves 2 steps: 1) setup, which the COT reports can help provide and 2) entry trigger, which he provides some simple techniques he has used over the years.While there are references to his advisory and educational services as well as the data/charting company that he uses they are not simply marketing gimmicks. When I study analysts, advisors and the like I prefer to be able to exactly duplicate their studies and verify them for myself and Larry's references are very beneficial in that regard.Larry is truly one of the good guys in this oft misunderstood industry. He has been around for a long time and hopefully will be around for a long time to come.

My title says it all, if you are a small speculator looking to make money in the markets then this is the best place to start. It is a must that you need to know what the biggest players in the markets are doing, and the best part is it is free to access, and the fact that the information is a week(?) old makes no difference if you are a trader who is looking to trade on a daily or weekly chart. I found it most helpful to use barchart.com. They have all the COT data already linked to a chart so there is no need to type in the numbers with microsoft excel or anything like that. I use the Commitment of Traders Line Chart. Once you apply this information a whole new world of futures trading will open up to you

This book is a must read, period. Totally a game changer. This is a classic you want on the shelf, read it 2x, reference it often. You will learn about the **Smart Money** in the futures markets, the pros (commercial hedgers) that trade huge positions and deal in the cash markets such as energy, interest rates, currencies, agriculture and grains, AND WHY THEY MATTER. When you trace the charts and follow the "Commercials" net long/net short positions on the liquid markets, its almost scary. Excellent work by Larry here. Chapter on the large, reportable level (non-commercial) traders somewhat eye opening.

Good insight into commodities.