Understanding Price Action: practical analysis of the 5-minute time frame

Bob Volman's work stands out like a diamond in the rough amidst trading literature. For half the price of the usual offerings in this category, Volman not only delivers valuable discretionary technical trading ideas, but presents them in a way that is both responsibly thorough and extremely comprehensible - a tough challenge with any discretionary method. Key points: * A handful of technical strategies are presented: breakouts (including from sloping trend lines), breakout pullbacks, classic pullbacks, and range reversals (breakouts back inside of a range). The only technical tools used are trend lines and a 25 pd moving average. * Critical technical context is given for each setup in numerous well articulated examples, separating good trades from bad, without cherry picking. * Setups are designed for 'all-in, all-out' trading: a bonus for all one contract traders out there. * Plenty of helpful notes are given to describe the psychological issues of dealing with particular setups and their management. Key improvements that weren't in the prior book, Forex Price Action Scalping: * The key time frame is 5 minute candles as opposed to the 70 tick chart, the former of which is much more popular (a number of tick chart examples are nonetheless included). * There are extensive examples of sloping trend line breakouts as opposed to the classic horizontal line approach. * A consecutive day by day analysis is given over the course of six months - something I have yet to see in any trading book. * Volman discusses more extensive exit strategies including modifying profit taking positions, providing numerous examples thereof. * An entire section is devoted to adjusting to low volatility conditions - another thing I have yet to see properly addressed in a trading book. * The influence of different sessions is discussed (Asian vs Europe vs US). * While the bulk of the focus is the EUR/USD currency pair, several other currency pairs are also presented in the low volatility section, as well as six examples from stock index futures (YM, NQ, ES). Regardless of how good this book is on a first pass, it's critical to understand that it's not made for reading, but for re-reading. You're going to have to go out there and do your own research to make the approach yours, but that is necessary with any trading approach you read about - unless you're copying the code of an automated strategy. Even if you don't follow all of Volman's technical ideas (for example I tend to be more of a counter-trend, failed breakout trader while Volman is more trend and breakout oriented), the most valuable thing this book and its predecessor can teach is the skill of reading into technical details properly and asking yourself the right questions as you design your own approach. This alone makes this book considerably more valuable than its numerous overpriced competitors. This is a book that is as much about concept as it is about content. If you're a fan of Volman's work, you may also want to check out Forex Price Action Scalping. However, I suggest this book first, as it is a bit more rounded and provides an easier point of departure. Also, at the time of this writing there is an active group of Volman followers on the trade2win forum where one of the users posts Bob's annotated 70 tick charts every Sunday evening.

Just ordered this Book. If its as good as Bob's other one, Its worth its weight in gold. I'll add to my review in a week. After reading review: My first impression of Bob's new book was"wow what an intense read" just like the first book it will require several complete reading to absorb all the information. It's like the first book on steroids. I think most people would be better served reading and understanding all the information in the first book before moving on to the second. The concepts and the first book are very basic and straightforward. The concepts and the second book require much more subjectivity, this will make it more difficult to learn. The book however is loaded with tons of great information and a year's worth of charts which alone is worth the price of the book. I really feel this book was meant to be a companion to the first book. However, since price action is universal I think it was modified to a five minute chart to appeal to a larger audience. This is in no way faulting the book or Bob. If anything it's allowing his work to reach out and help more traders. I think applying the additional learning material from this book to the concepts already used on the 70 tick chart will increase the when rate of the scalper. This book is not as complete of a trading methodology as the first one, therefore I do feel you should read and understand Forex price action scalping first. Then once you're getting decent results and wanting to improve upon them take on the task of the second book. One thing I would like to note is he does a much better job at describing buying and selling pressures in this book which is very important.Also I like the way this book mirrors more of my trade management of exiting based on fading buying and selling pressure versus a hard fast target. In closing my final comments is Forex price action scalping is still my number one must-read book. This new book understanding price action is now moved to number two must-read book where it's taking over the spot from Mark Douglas's book trading in the zone. Allen, http://www.wallstreet2easystreet.com/

I bought this book together with it's counterpart, Forex Price Action Scalping but despite having gone through UPA several times (the pages have started coming off!) I am yet to read more than 2 chapters in FPAS. The reason for this is just that I am not suited for anything below 5-mins time-frame besides I don't want to purchase a monthly subscription to a chart provider in order to trade using accurate ticks data. This book is definitely not for a once-over read but several reads before the principles can be deeply ingrained in your trading mindset. Bob opens the door of your mind to the 'why' and a bit of the 'what', concepts can be explained but if you don't get the idea behind the concept you would easily become confused when you come across a variant of such a concept hence why it is better understanding the reason behind an idea rather than the idea itself. I found out that I was always coming back to re-read the book after making some mistakes applying it's ideas to my trading and boy! each time do I discover something new like if I was coming across it for the first time! I had been breaking even in my trading before I came across this book but presently I am making considerable profit on a micro-account by applying Bob's ideas in my trading. I hope to upgrade to a standard account once I can maintain my profitability and hopefully pay Bob a visit soon. And for those complaining about the book being too wordy or too archaic...it's a trading book for crying out loud and not a comic book.

I like it. I think anyone looking to start a business trading forex should make this the first book they read. It has given me an understanding of how price moves in a market session and some of the underlying psychology behind price movement. There are plenty of charts used for the purposes of teaching with each one being thoroughly explained. It's not a particularly heavy read, anyone with just basic forex knowledge should be able to pick up this book, read it, understand it and start applying it. I only wish I had run across this book a little earlier in my forex education

The book is difficult, and you and you have to read it slowly, but it is quite good actually. You must have prior knowledge and be interested in FOREX because all the examples are for EUR/USD- the most traded pair. You can gain some experience from real examples. I recommend the book. Also, I have read some comments from the people who gave only one star to the book. This literature is difficult because Trading is a serious business. If you want something easy, then TRADING is not for you.

I'm an experienced and active trader. Over the years I've read a mountain of books from some of the best traders in the world. Works from Minervini, O'Neill, Sperandeo, Schwartz, Brandt and many more have all been invaluable in helping me evolve as a trader. These show you trading methods in the bigger scheme of things as well as critical risk management. But whatever time frame you trade, in my case mostly the daily charts (swing trader), it all comes down to price action. This book covers what most others don't, and it does it in a very practical and well written way. I was very surprised at the quality of this book. And it's had one of the biggest impacts to my trading. I apply it on swing trading, when entering and exiting positions on the hourly or 5 min time frames or the occasional day trades. I suggest all traders better their understanding of price action. And this is the book to get. Highly recommended! Big thanks to the author for sharing his experience, it saves us years of having to learn the hard way.

This is one of the best trading books I have ever read. Although not an easy read, It goes into price action detail that is both concise and logical. This book has to be read in a certain way....You must absorb each chapter thoroughly and if you don't understand something, go back and read it again until you do and I promise you won't regret it. The information in this book is priceless and it falls in line with the same style of the Al Brooks series of books. I have been trading for over 25 years and have invested thousands of dollars in trading books.... I can throw most of the other trading books away after reading this one. Bob Volman has taught me to look at price action like I've never seen before. Do yourself a favor and BUY THIS BOOK !.....P.S. .... I do not know this author and I rarely review any books that I purchase, but I have made a couple of reviews on other books and I'm sure you can view them.....

This is the first book I've read that does EXACTLY what the title says. It makes you UNDERSTAND price action. I'm going to be trading the mini S&P futures and this book has helped me see and understand the small movements in the market. I went through Al Brooks price action trading course and it gave me the foundation that I needed to build onto. Al Brooks was very detailed...if it wasn't for his course, it would be difficult for me to understand the contents of this book. I like that Bob Volman helps you to understand the smallest movements of the market through psychology. This book combined with Al Brooks course is a must! Even though this is geared towards Forex, the price action all works the same, just different volatility for different markets. I've been studying and practicing trading for about 5 months now, that being said, I think this book is great for those who already have an understanding of basic concepts: Candle sticks, patterns, market structure, support and resistance, supply and demand. This books adds a lot of value to the learning process. Price Action Breakdown was another great book that helped me speed up the learning process.