My opinion would be to skip the books and go straight to paper trading and live trading, start out super small, work your way up, learn it yourself, it's the quickest way to sift through all the BS - because anyone can sell anything, and it's no different in the financial sector! Good Luck.
Agreed, except I recommend paper trading until a strategy is found. It may sound funny to a lot of people, but I believe that reading trading books is one of the worst things a beginner can do to himself.
As if starting to sim-trade in a vacuum was better ?! I am quite on the opposite end of the spectrum ... I believe that reading a minimum of 30 trading books (I can provide a list of the books I consider "must-read") is a necessary step before ever loading a charting package on a PC. I would add to that a mandatory 200h of browsing ET forums. Lack of market/trading education & lack of preparation are the 2 main reasons why "90% of small traders lose - they just lose" (emg). Lack of capitalization would come next, I include in that insufficient financial resources to get through the education & preparation phases.
all 8 patterns are here http://www.amazon.com/Stikky-Stock-Charts-professionals-smart/dp/1932974008#reader_1932974008
Guess we will have to agree to disagree. I wish I had spent more time analyzing price than reading the many books I read. Maybe a person should read one book just for the very basics then read nothing but charts. I do agree with you on studying ET forums. In spite of all the entertainment, gems do appear every now and then. I would say that trading education and preparation are achieved by learning price action; not by reading a book. Real trading really isn't that hard, once one learns a few key elements. However, it can take years to grasp those key elements of what works and when to trade.
I never read a single book or magazine on trading. All of my trading comes from pure experience. When price is about to bust a move I know it based on the chart and it's action. I have been asked how did I know the move because everyone else was jumping on the other side per say their knowledge of written and common understanding of technical analysis. I dug right into paper trading 8 years ago when google went IPO trading options, went live about a year later, and never looked back. Trading is my life now, I don't work. I am not indoctrinated with common knowledge. My mind if free to see the markets as they are.
By far the best book on technical analysis for beginners IMO is "The 1-Day Technical Analysis Expert Guide" from the Amazon website or from the author's website: Kindle Edition here: