Truth About MACD: What Worked, What Didn't Work, And How to Avoid Mistakes Even Experts Make (Beat The Crash) Paperback – June 13, 2014

Very good research into MACD, i have used this indicator for +- 15years and enjoyed the thinking behind her research. and as with doc Elder, macd divergence most probably the best signal, but jackie's take on macd more of a reversal indicator than a trending indicator is key to anyone trying to use this indicator. KG

Here is my quick review:PROS1. The author has thoughtfully put the most promising results early in the book, and has saved the mediocre results for later in the book, with the explanation that you can read about mediocre results if you want, but you don't have to. This is surprisingly helpful and I wish more authors would do this.2. The author takes a lot of time explaining the MACD, its history and the variations in it. Clearly, she is very well-versed in using this indicator and she goes out of her way to make you aware of some of the problems and challenges in using it.3. In the printed version, at least, the charts and tables are rendered very well in full-color, which is very helpful when analyzing different aspects of the MACD on a chart.CONS1. The author uses a lot of words to try to describe quantitative results; the end result (for me, at least) is that you find yourself wading through a lot of unnecessary verbiage to get to the results. Reading the book, in many ways, was very frustrating because of this.2. In the results tables, the strategies are labeled using labels like "MACDL Div Sym" and "MACDL DIV 2APwr Sym". Given the complicated nature of these labels, it becomes challenging to figure out what they are actually describing.3. When presenting back-tested results using bar charts, the author does not use the same y-axis range across charts, making comparisons across charts difficult to do. In some charts, the y-axis may go up to 50% whereas, for other charts, the y-axis goes up to 70%.4. The author does not provide the algorithms that she uses to calculate her divergence results, but instead again and again directs the reader to subscribe to her online service. In many ways, the book feels like an extended marketing piece for her service.5. It would be great if the author could have extended her analysis to markets other than equities, such as foreign currencies or commodity futures.6. This book was published in 2014 but most of the back-test results only go through 2008.* * *I applaud the author's efforts to deliver a thorough and quantitative exploration of the MACD's efficacy. It takes real skill to be able to do so and to render the results in a way that is easy to understand. It's this latter part that I think the author really needs to work on.

I like that she provides quantitative data behind this book. Not many others offer a backrest log of indicator based systems. This gets into all sorts of details about the MACD indicator.

I am a trader in the futures market. I trade every day and have for about a decade. I use the MACD as one of my primary indicators to both enter and exit trades. I purchased this book in hopes that I might discover some unknown nugget of insight into my trusty indicator, the MACD. I found no useful or actionable information at all. The book is filled with a poorly organized mishmash of back tested results. Most of the included charts are too small and fuzzy to read precisely. I personally do not believe the author is an actual trader in the markets as none of her back-testing seemed to yield any useful information for entering, exiting, or managing a trade using the MACD. In the trading world the old adage rings truer than ever : "Those who can, do and those who can't, teach." Any trader knows the scene is filled with coaches and authors and seminar speakers who have one system or another or who can spend days talking ABOUT trading, but can never actually demonstrate that their ideas translate into anything profitable. The profit for them is in selling their junk, not trading the markets. After purchasing and reading this book, I did find what I was looking for--an excellent book on the MACD. It is: Technical Analysis: Power Tools for Active Investors by Gerald Appel the legendary inventor of the MACD himself.

The performance of most strategies with MACD revealed by back testing, in good time and bad time. Worth reading. The book shows MACD still gives good entry timing, but exit timing is not so fair.

Great book for experienced traders!

Great overview of macd

Patterson provides much needed, detailed insight into the use of this indicator. A lot of detail for the serious stock trader.