The goal of Kaufman's book is "to give a you a complete understanding of the tools and techniques needed to develop or choose a trading program that has a good chance of being successful." He excludes commentary on market psychology and execution or trading skills in favor of focusing primarily on the development of a well-thought-out and tested system.
Kaufman has worked extensively in price forecasting, and he is a well-known technical expert in futures markets. He is a principal of an international investment firm and has written extensively on trading systems. Since he has an extensive background in futures trading and research, the futures markets remain the primary focus of the book. Any trader interested primarily in equity trading might find this book more advanced than necessary.
For anyone even remotely interested in learning about the complexities of trading systems, then this book does offer some interesting insights into how in depth some trading systems can become. For instance, the book explains techniques like trend and countertrend analysis, indicators, and various testing methods. Also covered are choice of data, diversification, time frames, trade selection, choosing a method of analysis, and testing.
As for the ongoing learning process that trading demands, I particularly liked the quote Kaufman uses at the beginning of the book. He quotes JRL as saying that "If you have a minute, I'll tell you how to make money in stocks. Buy low and sell high--Now if you have five or ten years, I'll tell you how to tell when stocks are low and high." Learning takes a lot of time, and if you have the time Kaufman's book is worth reading.
Kaufman is a pretty able and knowledgeable reporter on the research results of others, but I have to say that in places the transcriptions are confusing, unclear and ambiguous. Even though the book is nearly 700 pages long, some of the coverage is too sparse -- while in other areas it seems too wordy. This 3rd edition could benefit from a start-to-finish re-organization/re-write, as some ideas are explained multiple times in various places and other ideas which are introduced early and deemed important are then ignored throughout the rest of the book. I'm thinking primarily of the basics of statistics and tests for significance; much of what might work at times is superfluous. My impression is that while Kaufman is very experienced in the markets and with trading systems in general, that he's a dilettante so far as really rigorous mathematics is concerned. Pick and choose among the many clever ideas here carefully. 3 1/2 stars.
In short, the book has no value for professionals. For individual investors, be aware - the book could actually be harmful because it gives you false confidence. In the investment world half bottle may be worse than you know you have nothing in the bottle.