In my opinion as a beginner you would get very little out of Leon Wilson's book.
The first two I haven't heard of.
Nick Radges book the first 55 pages is a must read in my opinion.
Then a read of either Van Tharp's Trade your way to Financial Freedom OR Alexander Elder's Trading for a Living. I have both and if I had to pick the former is better, but both discuss the same topics.
Yes, you're right. I opened the book and it went straight into stuff that I have never seen before. I think it's aimed at the intermediate-advanced trader and it goes through indicators, system setups, and lots of trends. As soon as I got to Monte Carlo analysis I dropped the book because I had no idea what he was talking about
I've finished reading two books so far "The Australian Stockmarket " by ron bennet and "The Artful Stockpicker" by Peter Hegarty. I'm currently reading Radge's "Adaptive Analysis".
IMO as a complete newbie (i.e. someone who has no idea about stocks or the economy) you should read, no scrap that, YOU HAVE TO READ, "The Australian Stockmarket" first. It goes over the history of the stockmarket (really short but interesting), the different types of securities available, the different types of services available to you and their pros + cons, the different methods of trading, the difference between trader and investor, the market phases, the difference between fundamental and technical analysis and the impact of the macroeconomy on the stockmarket. It's a great book that touches on many aspects. It doesn't go into too much depth but it leaves you hungry for more knowledge.
The second book, "The Artful Stockpicker" by Hegarty is one that I found to be pretty awesome! The book begins with an introduction to the company balance sheet, the company's function and management. In fact, the book continually emphasises the importance of selecting a good company one that has trustable management. After this, you are exposed to a few ratios from Fundamental Analysis before Technical analysis and its associated charting patterns. Hegarty likes to "Use F/A to tell him which company to buy and T/A to tell him when to buy". More importantly, he also goes through how to build a portfolio and he dedicates the other half of the book to an analysis of a few stocks from his portfolio. I found this to be pretty good because you could apply what you learnt in the first half of the book and figure out why some of his stocks ran well or went sour. 10/10
As I mentioned earlier, I'm also reading Nick Radge's "Adaptive Analysis", who takes an entirely different approach to Hegarty. My understanding is that Hegarty is more of a long-term investor whilst Radge is more of a short-term trader, so if you're going to read both of these, then expect to be slightly confused at the beginning because both approach the stockmarket differently. Hegarty aims to pick a good to excellent company and stick with it for some time whilst Radge is more concerned with trading more frequently with minimal risk, without focusing too much on accuracy (I've only read 4-5 chapters so far of Radge). Radge's book is shaping out to be pretty good as well, especially the sections on market maping.
If any other newbies are reading this thread, then I recommend you go down to your local library and get the books in this thread, or similar ones. I don't think it'd be worthwhile to buy any of them just yet (although I'm considering buying Hegarty's and Radge's).
If you can't get down to a local library then the best place to start is at
www.investopedia.com . I read their tutorial before getting any books and it did help me a little bit, however, as soon as it went into analysis and ratios, I was entirely lost. Unfortunately, it doesn't have the same flow as a good book
Also, make sure that you sign up for the ASX stock market game. Registrations close on August 6!!!
Happy reading! I'll post more books as I get them!