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If you are knowledgeable about the history and background of the study of cyclical price behavior in the financial markets, you know full well the tremendous value of the pioneering research done in this area by the legendary J. M. Hurst in the early 1970s. His seminal work, “The Profit Magic of Stock Transaction Timing”, is a classic in this area and is held in the highest esteem by cycles enthusiasts.
Few, however, are aware of the fact that Hurst, in addition to this classic book, also authored a full-fledged, fully comprehensive course that taught the student everything traders need to know to select and analyze data, produce trade signals, enter, monitor and exit trades, based on the principles uncovered by Hurst’s incisive research.
A momentous publishing event took place when the venerable J.M. Hurst Cycles Course, heretofore known only to a select few, was brought back to life and its valuable material preserved for present and future generations of traders and investors by Traders Press, Inc. in Greenville, South Carolina.
 The J.M. Hurst Cycles Course exposes the student, whether veteran trader or novice, to a method of trading based on the cyclic waves that underpin market price action. The scope of the training encompasses the entire gamut of activities required to make any market trade in virtually any time frame. The fact that price charts exhibit visible price cycles only a relatively small percentage of the time does not mitigate this approach. In fact, it is for precisely this reason that Hurst’s methodology finds its greatest value.
His methodology explains that, even when price is in a hard trend and does not exhibit an obvious cyclic pattern, it is underlain by a host of waves of various lengths and amplitudes. The author shows how these can be winnowed out of the chart, revealing their interrelationship with the price action and providing a remarkable amount of information about the history of the market, its current status and probable future.
In developing this course as an educational tool, the author has pulled out all the stops. No effort has been spared in bringing to the reader a full and usable understanding of trading on the basis of a cyclic substrate. The clarity of Hurst’s writing is no small part of the course’s value, even in the face of the fact that the text is loaded with newly coined special terms and labels. The illustrations are large (many oversized fold-outs), cogent and truly necessary to the interactive style of teaching that is the heart of this course.
The student finds himself or herself repeatedly asked to perform learning tasks that clarify the material and will be used in actual trading. There are numerous reviews to help reinforce the necessary concepts. Each lesson is accompanied by a glossary, an extensive summary and a self-administered test. The course is capped off by a book-sized chapter that reviews the entire text, a full glossary, and a delineation of all the relevant formulas.
Those who have read Hurst’s book, “The Profit Magic…”, might be under the misimpression that the course is merely a complex method of picking an entry to the markets. Wrong. The most outstanding characteristic of this course is that it covers virtually every important factor to be found in price charts and explains each in the compelling terms of composite wave activity.
If you have ever wondered why price bottoms routinely look different from tops, you will find the answer in the Hurst Course. If you have ever wondered whether the cessation of a price move was likely to be a reversal or a slight retracement, Hurst shows how to know the probabilities, and, importantly, how to take advantage of them!
The main concepts of the course are summarized by the heading “Cyclic Analysis”, under which fall the categories: Complete Cyclic Analysis, Transaction Evaluation, Intra-transaction Analysis and Transaction Termination. In other words, training is given in the complete management of a trade -- from an evaluation of the wave activity that governs current price behavior through a determination of the most appropriate entry point, an ongoing judgment of market activity while in a trade position that provides a projected exit point, and culminating in an actual exit.
The course breaks down cyclic concepts into eight categories, each of which is specifically defined and is based on the well-established observations of scientifically determined fact. The details of these are described and the implications of each are detailed as they affect trading decisions.
As an example, that elusive animal, trend, is defined operationally. Like everything else in the course, the definition is based entirely on cyclic concepts. Also, like everything else, it is related directly to practical trading.
A second example is Future Lines of Demarcation (FLD), a mainstay of the approach that provides several advantages, not the least of which is projection of price.
Third, although the determination of risk is a subject that is not commonly found in discussions based on cyclic analysis, it is dealt with by Hurst in exquisite detail. Wave analysis is used to establish two risk factors separately, the maximum amount of money that might be lost in a trade and the probability of losing it.
Fourth, one of the most vexing problems that beset the trader is that of picking an exit point. Hurst’s “Guide To Transaction Termination” gives the trader a structure of exit strategy that depends entirely on a rational construct. At the very least, this beats any emotionally based exit routine.
Once you understand the concepts and are practiced in deriving them in a somewhat laborious fashion, you will encounter a section of ultra-practical training in using your fingers as tools to make the necessary measurements for rapid analysis in real-world trading, all without touching a computer keyboard.
Some of the concepts in this course will doubtless come as a surprise to many traders. An example is the fact that large waves and tiny ones in a proportional set have identical maximum rates of change. “So what?” I hear you ask. So, you are able to identify times when these waves will coincide and provide a price move that you may not want to miss!
This course represents a milestone in the compendium of trading literature. It is written by a person who already stands high among authors. From an educational standpoint, it takes its place among the best material available. Anyone, technical analyst or neophyte, who would care to know how to trade on a cyclic basis, will find the answers here.
This course is only available from one source, the publisher. More complete details, testimonials and other details of interest are available at this link:
http://www.traderspress.com/detail.asp?product_id=1400
 In Memoriam
It may be of interest to those interested in the life and work of J. M. Hurst (who recently passed away), that there is also a memorial page devoted to him, including photo gallery, available on this website: http://traderspress.com/hurst.asp
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