Anyone expecting to use this book to day-trade and get rich quick is likely to be dissappointed - no one but true experts should be day trading anyway and even many "experts" should probably find other lines of work.
What this book will do is begin to provide an understanding of markets as a function of human nature as well as to provide a very good long term perspective of all of human history. This book provides insight to explain everything from minor stock market corrections to protracted economic depressions to major world wars and even, believe it or not, the dark ages.
Many are critical of Prechter's (obviously wrong) bearish opinion through the 1990s, and rightfully so. On the other hand, if his hypothesis is correct (and I think it is) that we are approaching the end of a bull market that started in 1789, then calling the end of that bull market correctly within even ten years is a spectacular feat. (Yes, I said a bull market that started in "Seventeen Eighty-Nine". Read the book and begin to understand why the USA was born through revolution at the end of the 1700s.)
Let me also point out that Prechter was about the only voice calling for a tremendous bull market starting in 1982. At that time, the mainstream media was pronouncing equities "dead" and you could hardly give away a share of stock free with a bowl of soup. Now that everyone and their brother wants to own stock, of course anyone with a bearish opinion is treated as an outcast.
I think people who have such a low opinion of this book either have minds that are way too closed or, frankly, do not have the ability to understand it. (While I don't think the book is extremely difficult, it is not exactly a first grade reader either.)
Anyone who is in the stock market or considering being in it should consider this book obligatory reading. As unpopular as this viewpoint may be now, we are heading for a very serious bear market and anyone who removes most (or all) of their funds from the stock market will look back ten years from now and be very glad they did.
Prechter's Elliott Wave International has a web site at elliottwave.com which I highly recommend. The site provides additional information which may make a stronger case for the validity and importance of this information than I have here.
This is the first place to start, to "understand" wave theory. I ended the book with the eagerness of feeling "Wow, if I can just decipher not all of the Elliot patterns, but just one that is forming that signals a huge market reversal, and if I can do it just one time, all the reading and research will be worth it." DEFINITELY WILL REQUIRE SERIOUS STUDY TO UNDERSTAND! To understand what your options are about what to "do" with your money, buy his other book "Conquor the Crash." Better yet, get them both. Once I read his book, I was hooked on spending my remaining years searching and uncovering all I can about E.W. theory. It's addicting! -) I would love to hear from anyone who has read his book or any of the fascinating Elliot material out there. We should form a club on Elliot Wave theory!