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Best trading book

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No stab at Van Tharp intended, just that the book by Gary Smith is written by someone who has actually succeeded in becoming a consistently profitable trader.
 
Its going to be hard to find one better than:
Peter Lynch's One up on Wall Street.
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Thanks Nizar. I've read that one actually. Makes good sense, the gist of the book for me is, "buy what you know".


Thanks Julia. I've got a copy of it and will start on it and provide feedback.

I just finished Louise Bedford's Trading Secrets. Was thinking I should toss back and forth between a technical book and a fundamental analysis book. Chris Tate's book is next in line after "Top Stocks". And, "Top Stocks" is after "Real Estate Mistakes" by Neil Janman. Starting to look for our own property, sick of renting (and I've only been renting for 3 years since I migrated to Sydney).

Thanks.
 
I am no trader, but if Amazon reviews are anything to go by.... on fundamental analysis books they are not entirely useless ... then one of the supposed trading classics is:

"Trading for a Living" by Alexander Elder.

This one has been around for a few decades. More recently he released the slightly creepy sounding

"Come Into My Trading Room" (Alexander Elder)

basically the same book, but updated and improved. Both books have a big focus on investor psychology, the author started out as a shrink and still practises. The updated book has nearly 100 Amazon reviews, with some very credible sounding ones and an average 4.5 out of 5 star rating, that's unusually high.

Anyone found either of these useful?
 
No idea where to post this. Don't want to start another thread.

I've read so many posts about recommended trading books. I'm interested to get people's thoughts on any newish (maybe 2012 and 2013) books worth having a look at (that may not have got the attention on the forum). A couple I've had a look at:

Trades About To Happen - David Weiss
Al Brooks - 3 part series. Trends, Ranges, Reversals.
 

Pav

I've read a lot of books.
I've seen and tested 100s of Ideas.

2 things.

There must be a Macro Economic reason for a longer term move. Positive or Negative.
Shorter term moves must be traded in the context of the trend in that timeframe.

Anything written will work in the correct circumstances.
In fact in a screaming bull market anything works.
There is NO magic way of trading something profitably AGAINST a trend.

Personally I think you need to know "When and where a major turning point is likely to occur or where it has occurred" So books on How to. Or books on Why--If----then this may happen.

AND
How to trade short term moves long and short. Anything is good as they all work in the right situation.

Lastly if your only trading / investing stocks then your right up against it.
You should know how to trade futures and if long term investing---using them as a hedge.

20 yrs in a nut shell.
 
I have a free PDF from the CME on Market Profile Pav.

Here is the link...

I really think you would relate so well to this, it is volume analysis after all....

Steidlmayer's comments that it doesn't work anymore were directed at the concept of Initial Balance or opening range. He only meant that because the markets are mostly 24 hours now, the IB does not have the emphasis it used to...Learning to interpret MP IMO will help you determine what Tech has mentioned, key areas where the market could turn...areas where you can determine the risk easily. It won't teach you how to trade, but it will give you some solid areas for trade location.

Enjoy!
 

Al Brooks - I'm no expert, but one of the things I have learnt [read often enough] is that you need to decide on an approach, and refine/make that approach work of you.

That's a Radgism as well I think, one he uses to explain why his 2nd hand 'for sale' book collection is so large - throw all your books away, there is no holy grail, find something, stick with it , make it work.

Al Brook's is stuff is based on Edwards and Magee's material, pre-computers, paper charts and a ruler - no volumes, no indicators, no fibs, no Elliot wave, no VWAP's. no ladders, nothing except candlestick analysis, context, trendlines/channels, support/resistance, traps and maybe a 20 period ema - but it still works, on any timeframe on any liquid instrument.

BUT - its not for the faint hearted, his style is his style and it's not an easy ride.

The good news is there is another site priceactiontrading.com - which is Brooks simplified - offers a daily ES analysis video which is very useful.

Brook's own site also has a daily video of the ES, but man it's heavy, to heavy for me.

Brooks also does a ppt training course, well worth $250 if you want to get into his stuff - this covers everything you would probably ever need to know.
 
Thanks guys. Much appreciated.

Tech, do you see any value in my flicking through the Too Stocks 2014 book and using my technical analysis skills to see if any are good? Or not much point?

I only asked because I got the email from the educated investor today.

Not placing too much weight on this. Just an idea.
 
I don't have one "best" trading book as I've found a variety of books which cover an individual topic really well... bit like trading in the sense there is no single best/magic formula. Below however are what i feel are some great titles/authors to consider (for varying reasons).

Nicolas Darvas – “How I Made $2,000,000 In The Stock Market”
Don’t let the title fool you... this is not a technical “how to” book, or detailed manual/plan (and is not even a detailed lesson on the Darvas Box System), and I’m not recommending it for the specific TA strategies or anything like that, however it offers some excellent “bigger picture” lessons.

Easy quick reading, entertaining and I believe it is a really insightful book PROVIDED you’re seeing the “bigger picture” lessons it has to offer, to become a consistently profitable trader over the long term such as:
  • Must develop a personalised plan and find what works for YOU;
  • This plan MUST have a proven positive expectancy (a positive edge), as no-one knows what will happen next after their trade is placed.... trading is an odds based endeavour and we are constantly forced to make decisions in the face of uncertainty, therefore a tested proven plan that has positive expectancy over a large number of trades is imperative (and a too often overlooked aspect by many traders I believe);
  • Trading without a proven plan that has positive expectancy (a positive edge) will almost always lead, in the long term, to loss of capital;
  • Execute your plan with discipline, consistency and patience;
  • Listening to market noise, rather than following your tested system, generally will lead to poor or ad hoc decision making which invariably leads to inconsistent and/or poor/negative returns;
  • The importance of recording/journal all your trades, then review and analyse the results.
Even though the book is certainly old now, there really are some valuable lessons to learn about the bigger picture of trading.
If reading this book helps to reinforce how important the above points are to become a consistently profitable trader over the long run, then you will have spent your time very well by reading it.

Other good titles I believe worth considering include:
  • Richard L. Weissman – “Trade Like a Casino: Find Your Edge, Manage Risk, and Win Like the House” (reinforcing the utmost importance of finding, understanding & having confidence that you do have a tested positive edge system over a large number of trades along with managing risk)
  • Mark Douglas – “Trading in the Zone”
  • Denise Shull – “Market Mind Games: A Radical Psychology of Investing, Trading and Risk”
  • Stan Weinstein – “Secrets For Profiting in Bull and Bear Markets” (mainly for his explanation of Market Structure and the 4 key market phases)
  • Brett Steenbarger
Cheers
Stuart
 
weird said:
Gary Smith, "How I Trade for a Living" is one of the better books I have read.

Doesn't seem to get an often mention as much as the other books in these similar type of threads .

Written by someone who actually trades ...
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I would have Gary Smith in my short list (which would actually be reasonably long).

If you are not a totally mechanical position trader in equities this book is worth a read.

Anyone who has done the day to day in equity markets for long enough knows you need to be heavy market leaders around turning points to trade the swings. This book gets that home and this guy only traded long. Really shows if you have setups and you know them and you commit money to the market you can run up a track record you can retire on.

Plenty of others out there that are good but this guy is open about his own trading. Not a bible like Van Tharp or Options as a strategic investment but worth a read once and doesn't often get a mention.
 

I get the impression Gary Smith was the beneficiary of the 90's bull market more than anything else.

Marty Schwartz Pitbull book is very good.
 
banco said:
I get the impression Gary Smith was the beneficiary of the 90's bull market more than anything else.

Marty Schwartz Pitbull book is very good.
Click to expand...

There have been a few equities bull markets since the 90's...

There a plenty of organized books with decent ideas. In my opinion there are only so many that leave you with some insight into the construction of the traders processes or provide an insight to their record.

Trader Vic does give this. Trading Chaos is one that you can see how the trader has constructed their ideas. While I'm not big on DeMark he certainly spent time thinking about gauging the market. Elder provides readers clear ideas how he built his methodology.

Everyone knows Van Tharp but he could expand his quote to be 'one can only be successful if he trades his own methods'.
 
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