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Sniper Trading Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Master Sniper Trading

by George Angell (2002)

Quick summary -- an in-depth PhD-level extended summary (10-30 pages) for this book is coming soon.

Sniper Trading Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Master Sniper Trading

By George Angell

Quick Summary

A companion workbook to George Angell's Sniper Trading, providing step-by-step exercises covering the LSS 3-Day Cycle Method, Taylor's Book Method, buy and sell envelopes, pivot numbers, gap trades, chart pattern symmetry, and practical trade execution strategies for short-term futures and stock index trading.

Executive Summary

"Sniper Trading Workbook" by George Angell is designed to be used alongside the main Sniper Trading textbook. It presents a question-and-answer format covering the full range of short-term trading techniques developed by Angell, building heavily upon George Douglas Taylor's original "Book Method" of measuring market rallies and declines. The workbook walks traders through calculating rally numbers, decline numbers, buying high numbers, and buying under numbers, then synthesizes these into the LSS Pivotal Buy and Sell Numbers (Trend Reaction Numbers). Each chapter presents realistic trading scenarios and asks the reader to apply the formulas before providing detailed solutions.

Core Thesis

Angell's core thesis is that short-term market movements follow measurable, repeating patterns that can be quantified through specific calculations derived from Taylor's work. By averaging recent rallies, declines, and buying high/under numbers, traders can construct buy and sell "envelopes" that define expected support and resistance zones for the next trading day. The workbook format reinforces the idea that these calculations must become second nature through practice, not just theoretical understanding.

Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis

Chapter 1: Taylor's Contribution to Technical Analysis -- The Book Method

Introduces George Douglas Taylor's four key numbers: the rally number (measuring how far the market rallies from one day to another), the decline number (how far it declines from a prior day's high to the current day's low), the buying high number (how far today's high exceeds yesterday's high), and the buying under number (how far today's low trades under yesterday's low). These form the building blocks of all subsequent calculations.

Chapter 2: The Buy and Sell Envelopes -- Measuring Support and Resistance

Explains how Taylor's numbers are combined into buy envelopes (composed of the average of the last three decline numbers subtracted from the last high, the average buying under numbers subtracted from the last low, the last low, and the LSS Pivotal Day Sell Number) and sell envelopes (rally numbers added to the last low, buying high numbers added to the last high, the last high, and the LSS Pivotal Day Buy Number).

Chapter 3: The LSS Pivotal Buy and Sell Numbers -- The Trend Reaction Numbers

Derives the formula: (High + Low + Close) / 3 = Pivot Number, from which trend reaction buy and sell numbers are calculated. These pivots serve as the most important intraday reference points for short-term traders.

Chapters 4-7: Putting Numbers on Support and Resistance, Early Range, Bond Calculations, and the Five-Day LSS Oscillator

Walks through hypothetical 5-day trading periods, demonstrating how to construct and update the numbers in real time. The Five-Day LSS Oscillator measures market strength by tracking cumulative deviations from expected values.

Chapters 8-11: The 3-Day Difference, Chart Patterns, Price Reversals, and Thursdays

Covers momentum measurement via the 3-Day Difference calculation, finding symmetry in chart patterns (especially triangles and channels), identifying "failure" signals when symmetry breaks, and the statistical tendency for Thursdays to be the weakest day of the week.

Chapters 12-18: Stops, Mondays, Time and Price Trading, Confirming Indicators, Yesterday's Close, Gap Trades, Self-Assessment

Practical chapters on stop placement (including the concept of the "risk number"), the tendency for Mondays to be ideal buying days, targeting exit levels through time and price projections, using divergence tools to confirm reversals, the 1-Day Strength Indicator based on yesterday's close, and when to fade opening gaps.

Chapters 19-35: Daily Trends, Pit Traders, Volatility, Seasonality, Psychology, and More

Later chapters cover finding the two major daily trends and optimal trading windows, understanding pit trader behavior, measuring volatility via the Five-Day Average Range, stock market seasonal tendencies, managing psychological pitfalls, market engineering and sentiment, weekly patterns, order types, and slow stochastics as a divergence tool.

Key Concepts and Frameworks

  1. Taylor's Four Numbers -- Rally, decline, buying high, buying under as the atomic units of short-term price analysis.
  2. LSS Pivot Buy/Sell Numbers -- The (H+L+C)/3 formula extended to create daily trend reaction levels.
  3. Buy and Sell Envelopes -- Multi-component support and resistance zones built from averaged historical data.
  4. Five-Day LSS Oscillator -- A cumulative momentum indicator for measuring underlying market strength.
  5. 3-Day Difference -- A momentum gauge comparing current price movement to the expected three-day cycle.
  6. Day-of-Week Tendencies -- Statistical biases in intraday and daily patterns (Monday buying, Thursday weakness).

Practical Applications for Traders

  1. Daily Preparation -- Calculate buy and sell envelopes and pivot numbers before each trading session to define expected support and resistance.
  2. Intraday Execution -- Use the early range and anticipated range to set realistic profit targets and stop levels during live trading.
  3. Momentum Assessment -- Apply the 3-Day Difference and 5-Day Oscillator to determine whether to lean bullish or bearish.
  4. Pattern Recognition -- Identify symmetry in chart patterns and watch for "failure" signals as high-probability reversal setups.
  5. Risk Management -- Place stops at calculated support/resistance levels rather than arbitrary distances from entry.

Critical Assessment

Strengths

  • Highly practical question-and-answer format forces active engagement with the material
  • Builds systematically from simple concepts to complex multi-factor analysis
  • Grounded in the well-tested Taylor Book Method with Angell's own enhancements
  • Realistic examples using actual market scenarios

Limitations

  • Requires the companion Sniper Trading textbook for full context
  • Focused primarily on futures markets (bonds, S&P 500); stock traders may need to adapt
  • Some OCR-related formatting issues in the digital version make certain formulas difficult to parse
  • The Taylor Method is inherently manual and labor-intensive in an era of electronic tools
  • Does not address modern algorithmic or high-frequency trading dynamics

Conclusion

George Angell's Sniper Trading Workbook serves as a rigorous training manual for mastering the quantitative framework of short-term trading derived from Taylor's Book Method. Its value lies not in theoretical novelty but in the disciplined practice of calculating and applying daily support, resistance, and momentum numbers. For traders willing to invest the time in working through each exercise, the workbook provides a solid foundation in a time-tested approach to intraday and swing trading.