[DbPhoenix]

The Introduction includes a pdf of Wyckoff's Studies in Tape Reading, later reformatted to become The Day Trader's Bible, followed by excerpted chapters (sections) from his original course: The Basic Law of Supply and Demand (2), Judging the Market by its Own Action (3), Buying and Selling Waves (5), and Volume Studies (14), the application of all of which are demonstrated by Wyckoff himself in a year-long study (7) of the market from the end of 1930 through 1931 and an 18-month study of a stock, from 1934 through 1935. Additionally from his original course, there are Comparing Strength and Weakness: Group Averages (8), How a Campaign is Conducted (9), and Stop Orders (23).

Regardless of what you decide to do with regard to the entire course, though, I suggest you read and reread and rereread the first three stickies to become at least acquainted with the underlying concepts, then study the analysis of 1930-31, which acts as an illustration through application. If you're intrigued, go on into Volume Studies and Comparing Group Strengths, then How a Campaign is Conducted. You will also find posts which, for the most part, have to do with application (this post and this post in particular may provide some illumination, as well as this thread). And if you're still intrigued but would rather not read a thousand posts for one reason or another, the Most-Thanked Posts stickie will give you more to chew on without killing you.

As to books by and about Wyckoff, I was introduced to him in the late 90s and the material made so much sense to me that I knew I'd be wasting my time with anything else. So I bought everything I could find that Wyckoff had written (nearly all of which is available on Amazon), but, even though I got a relatively good idea of Wyckoff's thoughts regarding the markets and market participants and so forth, it wasn't specific enough. I didn't know how to translate all that into a trading strategy. The most valuable book in that regard, until I obtained a copy of W's course, was the Hutson book, Charting the Stock Market. Granted it may tell you much more than you really want to know, but it's very good, and remarkably cheap.

GLOSSARY

Accumulation: An area where stocks are purchased – or “accumulated” -- with the intention to mark up prices at some later time. Every traded stock is in one of four phases: Accumulation, Mark-up, Distribution, Mark-down. Absorption is a form of "re-accumulation" which occurs toward the end of the Mark-up phase as price approaches old resistance. Buyers "absorb" the offerings of bulls who bought at that old resistance and now want out, as well as the offerings of bears who bought on the way down to that old resistance and now see an opportunity to get out even (see Determining the Trend of the Market by the Daily Vertical Chart, p. 8).

Buying Climax: the opposite of a Selling Climax (see Determining the Trend of the Market by the Daily Vertical Chart, pp. 1, 2).

Composite Operator: Wyckoff’s name for the total sum of forces, including the public, that move the market.

Demand: Buying power, buying pressure.

Demand Line: that line which identifies the angle of advance of a bull swing by passing through two successive points of support (the low points of two successive reactions).

Distribution: An area where stocks are sold with the intention to mark down prices at some later time.

Mark-down: The phase of the cycle where prices decline, from the beginning of a bear campaign to its bottom.

Mark-up: The phase of the cycle where prices rise, from the beginning of a bull campaign to its top.

Price movement [price action]: the continuous tick-by-tick (transaction-by-transaction) movement of price as shown on the tape [or on a corresponding chart].

Rally: A phase in the market that experiences rising prices, that is, higher highs and higher lows.

Reaction: A phase in the market that experiences declining prices, that is, lower highs and lower lows.

Resistance: An area where selling pressure overwhelms buying pressure.

Secondary Reaction: The reaction following a Technical Rally.

Selling Climax: A major panic that occurs at the end of a steep decline in prices (see Determining the Trend of the Market by the Daily Vertical Chart, pp. 1, 2).

Shakeout: A sudden break below a support level followed by a rapid reversal.

Springboard: A stock (or group or the market as a whole) is on the springboard following a period of preparation for an advance or decline.

Stop Loss: An order to exit a trade if the market does something that proves your initial decision to enter the trade as wrong.

Supply: Selling power, selling pressure.

Supply Line: that line which identifies the angle of decline of a bear swing by passing through two successive points of resistance (tops of rallies).

Support: An area where buying pressure overwhelms selling pressure.

Tape: a thin strip of paper on which is printed a series of stock symbols, each print representing a transaction in that stock and consisting of the price at which the transaction took place and the volume of shares changing hands. Modern day equivalents are the "time-and-sales window" and the one-tick chart.

Tape Reading: the art of determining the immediate course or trend of prices from the action of the market as it appears on the tape of the stock ticker.

Technical Rally: The rally that occurs after a Selling Climax.

Thrust: A break above a resistance level followed by a rapid reversal.

Trading Range: A period of balance between supply and demand forces. Prices move within a range where the bottom represents demand and the top represents supply.

Trendlines: Straight lines drawn through the tops or bottoms of the price path established during an upward climb or downward pitch. They “serve to define the stride of the price movement, thereby frequently directing our attention either to possibilities of an approaching change of trend or to an actual reversal.”

Volume: Number of units changing hands in each transaction.