I agree completely. This does depend, however, on having the experience and judgment to be able to tell information from misinformation, value from bullshit, and to be able to identify reasonably accurately what's actually going to be helpful to you ... and that's far from a certainty, to put it mildly, when beginners are asking for book recommendations ... and it does tend to be beginners who ask for them. I think Nison's original candlestick book is probably the very worst example I've ever seen, among commercial/mainstream published trading books, for cherry-picked, anecdotal "evidence" in the example charts: some of them are apparently even so carelessly selected that they also show a variety of (undiscussed, of course) counter-examples to the very points he's allegedly "illustrating"!
There aren't all that many "great concepts" to the markets. A large part of learning to cope and trade effectively is the ability to "separate the wheat from the chaff", so to speak....difficult to do until your knowledge base is up to speed. Which is why I advocate K.I.S.S*. Good trading plays are easily understood, easily explained, and almost axiomatic. No easy task in teasing-out all of the false ideas/hopes from that. *What is a K.I.S.S. trade? It's one you've researched, you understand its correlation to prior maket behavior and why it should therefore work, and you could explain it to a market novice in 10 words or less.
I can tell in about 30 seconds whether something is worth another 30 seconds of my time. And so on. You can’t?
One the most helpful books on market structure is Trading and Exchanges by L.Harris. It's essential reading for any looking to master the craft.
I’ll have to buy it. I’ve noticed it on amazon, with its good reviews and all, but I held back because it seems like it’s a textbook?? I was wondering if I’d learn anything new. You tipped me over. My first book was John Murphy’s TA book. I thocan got it was garbage. Everything was idealized. I left thinking someone is going to get mugged trading this way. It’s also considered he bible on TA. It’s a shame because he’s actually a very good chartist, but the book could have used a major dose of reality. The books that I feel are worth every penny: Bollinger on Bollinger Bands, the Adam grimes book, jack sweeny’s Second book (goes into more than just mae stuff and is phenomenal imo), Bulkowski stuff though it’s really dense I am constantly referencing it, marcel link’s book, John carter’s book. If you can get through these, I feel everything you learn afterwards would be considered advanced. You should be able to get comfortably profitable with these books, IMO. Oh, and one of the most important ones.. trading in the zone. Do it on audiobook 2x speed. I listen to it periodically to reset. For intraday, I like volman. Solid principles. Great gems. I’ve got the a j Frost wave book, just have to get up the courage to read it (I really don’t think I’ll ever label my charts with numbers and letters everywhere). When I open my mind a bit, I’ll tackle it. I’m also working though some old timey stuff, things printed in the 30’s and 40’s. It’s gotten me to strongly consider doing charts by hand.