by Lewis Borsellino
|
| List Price: | $39.95 |
| Amazon Price: | $33.96 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. |
| You Save: | $5.99 (15%) |
| Average Rating: |  |
| Lowest New Price: | $2.60 |
| Availablitiy: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
|
 |
|
Product Description The S&P futures pit is the ultimate arena for traders. It is a place where trading titans make split-second decisions on huge amounts of money, and fortunes appear and vanish with the blink of an eye. Successful day traders are brilliant, aggressive-and lucky. Lewis J. Borsellino is all three. And now he is telling his story. The nation's top S&P futures trader, Borsellino takes you inside the world of the day trader. Chronicling Borsellino's incredible run on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, The Day Trader offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at his everyday strategies and tactics. Raised to be a fierce and fearless competitor, Borsellino felt at home the first day he walked into the chaos and excitement of the Merc. In The Day Trader, he offers both a compelling story as well as an inside look at day trading and the S&P market. Borsellino outlines exactly what contributed to his unparalleled success-a rare blend of discipline, drive, intelligence, and an uncanny ability to read and interpret the market. The Day Trader is also a candid memoir of a second generation Italian American who learned tough life lessons from his father. The senior statesman of the S&P pit, Borsellino offers vivid firsthand accounts of the unique dynamics of the trading floor, the fortunes won and lost in the crash of 1987, the FBI investigation that rocked the futures trading industry, and the tense political battles between Merc titans Leo Melamed and Jack Sandner. He also shares war stories from the floor, many involving top traders such as Richard Dennis and George Soros. Finally, Borsellino chronicles the latest phase of his career, as he moves beyond the beloved trading pit to the challenges and opportunities of the electronic trading arena. More than the success story of one the nation's most respected traders, The Day Trader offers practical insights into the futures markets, pit trading, market psychology, fundamental and technical analysis, and risk. It is a rare opportunity to see inside the mind of one of today's most brilliant traders. LEWIS J. BORSELLINO is the top S&P futures trader in the United States with a career that has spanned an unprecedented 18 years. His long-term success puts him into the trading pantheon that features such luminaries as Paul Tudor Jones, Victor Niederhoffer, and bond trader Tom Baldwin. Borsellino is a frequent contributing commentator on CNN and CNBC where he is regarded as the "biggest and best trader" in S&Ps. PATRICIA CRISAFULLI COMMINS is a freelance business writer and former correspondent for Reuters America Inc. She has also written for The Christian Science Monitor and the Wall Street Journal.
Amazon.com The subtitle of The Day Trader, From the Pit to the PC, indicates the evolution of the trader from floor jockey to computer cowboy. But this is less an account of the trader's changing arena than the story of Lewis Borsellino, a fist-shaking Italian American from Chicago's West Side whose grit and determination helped him become one of the top traders in the Standard & Poor futures pit. "When the world around me goes nuts, I become more sane. The wilder the market gets, the more disciplined I become." He credits this focus to his tough but compassionate Italian American father, a truck driver with a penchant for lightening the loads of his deliveries. "I do what I do so you don't have to," says the elder Borsellino, prior to getting busted by the feds for hijacking a million-dollar shipment of silver. Shedding his father's mobster ties, Borsellino quickly moves up the trading ranks, establishing a position--literally--on the second step of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. For 18 years, he doesn't budge, sometimes using his fists to ward off aggressive traders, and gaining a "sixth sense" that helps him determine which way the market is headed. Although Borsellino provides a good deal of technical reasoning behind his many successes and failures, he repeatedly returns to this intangible quality, stressing its importance and describing how it's made him millions. The Day Trader concludes with some thoughts on the pit's computerized future. Since writing the book, Borsellino has left the S&P to become a fund manager. He relies on computers now more than ever, but wonders how digital day traders without floor experience will get their sense of market flow, timing, and price patterns. Borsellino's The Day Trader is a good place to start. --Rob McDonald
Customers who bought this item also bought
Average Customer Review:
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Not a book for people looking for trading education, 2004-01-23 I guess I'm spoiled by Martin Schwartz's excellent book Pit Bull. I was expecting a trader's autobiography something along the same line with The Day Trader, but what I got was the first 130 pages of Borsellino talking about what a tough guy he is and about his mafioso father. After that he dips into a high-level discussion of the changes to the commodities and NASDAQ exchanges over the years. There is virtually no mention of trading technique or psychology, outside of the constant tough guy braggadocio, which is pretty sad to hear from a 40-year-old guy. And definitely don't buy it if you're looking for trading advice or techniques. There is none to be found. If you want a nice biographical read about a trader, read Pit Bull or Reminiscences of a Stock Operator instead. Borsellino simply doesn't write well enough to keep this one interesting. The story wanders around too much and is too repetitious.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent Book, 2003-05-13 The book is not a tech how to book but in all fairness the auther doesn't claim it as one. This book is more of an autobiography and in that category it is a 5. The auther brags about himself at times but anyone who is that successful has a right too. Excellent read well worth the time!
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Not a trading book, but not too boring a story, 2002-07-25 Dont know whether I had not expected much from this book or what,(I had read through many negative reviews here on Amazon that I know this is not the type of tool book nor sheer biography that one might expect), it is not so boring to me. However, in a trader reader perspective, it is at least 2,000 pips (in yen/$ term, the range in 2002) below the quality level of "Reminiscences of a stock operator" and "Pit Bull". So unless you had no other book in your mind that you wanna read or you are a contrarian, I strongly recommend you to spend your valuable time on other ones, like those I mentioned above, or scan through the Amazon database for better alternatives.
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Has nothing for a Day-trader, 2001-07-08 It is auto-biographical and has not improved my knowledge about day-trading one bit. It is more egotistical that knowledgeable. I consider it a waste of my money.
4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Don't waste your time or money, 2001-06-30 First of all, this book is not about trading, and is virtually devoid of any trading information. As a former floor trader on Wall Street who now trades through a computer, I could give you more trading tips in one paragraph than he gives in the entire book. A significant portion of the book deals with his apparent obsession with his criminal father, who was in prison most of the time Mr. Borsellino was growing up, and who was ultimately murdered by the mob. In spite of these facts, the author repeatedly refers to the excellent advice his father gave him growing up (yeah, right). He also appears proud of his numerous instances where he punched out fellow traders in the pit, something that would have gotten him banned for life at my venerable New York exchange (this is apparently a commentary on the Chicago markets and the people behind them). Also, an attack he was involved with in his immigrant neighborhood lead to him becoming a convicted felon.Since the book does not deal with trading, and the author is not a celebrity whose biography might have merit on its own, it begs the question of why the book was even written. This question is apparently answered at the end, when the reader discovers Mr. Borsellino is attempting to start his own fund, and therefore needs all the publicity he can muster. Ultimately, the book is a statement about how a poor Italian immigrant family is unable to rise above their background, and how money does not materially change a person.

Price is accurate as of the date/time indicated. Prices and product availability are subject to change. Any price displayed on the Amazon website at the time of purchase will govern the sale of this product.
|
Store Categories
|