I've never read that book pak (a good sign? ) but please yelitza, *never ever* start your trading career by DAY TRADING! that's a complete waste of time, your money and most important you'll be very disappointed with trading. I'm also not sure if the other books will be of great help for you now. sure, the books are great, but they're also big and some of the will require a basic knowledge of the market for you to understand what they mean. for your start, have a look here: http://www.investopedia.com/university/how-start-trading/ http://www.investopedia.com/active-trading/trading-strategies/ http://www.investopedia.com/active-trading/charts-and-patterns/ http://www.investopedia.com/university/charts/ http://stockcharts.com/school/doku.php?id=chart_school good luck
This thread is turning into a self parody, lol. As you can see Yelitza, everyone's got an opinion of what's more important. I think over the course of this thread you've not only gotten a huge stack of books to read, but a good insight into the often contradictory nature of trading advice. As your journey progresses you'll be faced with a lot of these contradictory opinions. For example: cut losers fast and ride your winners. Certainly true for trend trading but not for many mean reversion strategies. Same with 'never add to a loser'. Trade with the trend is definitely good advice in many cases, but not always (for example during possible over-extensions or when approaching significant technical levels). Then there's the debate between short term and long term trading. Then there's the debate between markets. And so on and so forth. The bottom line is in the end, there's definitely a way to make money that probably suits you better than another way. It will take you time to find out. Make sure you enjoy the journey What definitely won't work is not having an edge, and not having discipline. Btw, I actually like the Day Trading for Dummies book and it is often what I suggest to people as a starter to get oriented. There's also a general 'trading for dummies' book as well, but it's a bit weaker imho than the day trading book.
Best to read books from those who actually traded for a living with is few, like Tharp doesn't trade, he pedals mental harmony nonsense, only thing I did with his huge binders is they keep doors open from closing. Grimes is good with computer, he an analyst with management company, so does he trade his own money? Just remember, the entry is the generally least of concerns in trades, it is reading the market when to get out. http://www.amazon.com/Technical-Analysis-Trends-Robert-Edwards/dp/0814408648
Statistical analysis is useless. Both Grimes and Aronson are wrong. All statistical tests are as good as the data they are performed on and are not objective. Aronson's book could be summarized in 10 pages but his statistical tests are inherently limited due to a dependency on the results. The best test for your edge is when it works in many markets. Aronson does not promote this because it renders the other stuff useless. As I said in other another thread I found this interesting: http://tinyurl.com/o3b36x7 My suggestion to the OP is to learn what data-mining bias means and how it can affect his odds of success. I want to be fair to Aronson and say that he understands the source of the problem but I disagree with his solutions. Lastly, do not spend one $ to buy any books or courses. The best information you can get is there free. Some of those authors or course providers should pay you instead for having you read or listen to their nonsense. I also made the mistake some years ago to view authors as competent people. Never make this mistake, it will cost you and this is the best advice I can offer to you.
This is the reading list I provide when asked (though technically I wasn't asked ). It will very likely be of no interest whatsoever to most of the people who post to threads like this, but there it is: General Semantics of Wall Street by John Magee This is the book I would recommend to anyone interested in trying his hand at the stock market. It is not, however, exciting, by any stretch of the imagination. Nor is it a book to read over the weekend. Magee takes his time, and the reader would do well to take his time also. This is a book to think long thoughts about. It is not at all difficult. It is, in fact, very easy. But the concepts which it addresses are fundamental, in the deepest sense of the word, to an understanding of what markets are, how they work, and what one can expect to earn from them. The Nature of Risk/How to Buy/When to Sell by Justin Mamis Once you understand the basic concepts explored in Magee's book, these three will tell you most everything else you need to know to be a successful trader/investor. These are classics, which to some people means "old" or "out of date". How to Buy and When to Sell were, in fact, out of print for a while, but reader demand brought them back, which is always a nice endorsement. Following are the reviews I wrote for The Nature of Risk: It's been four years [now 15] since I first reviewed this book [next review], and I still consider it to be absolutely essential for anyone considering any sort of involvement in the financial markets. In fact, it's probably essential for anyone who is considering anything at all that entails more than minimum risk. The amateurs miss the point. This is not about the best stochastic settings or how to massage the bid and the ask. This is about facing up to the very real risks inherent in the financial markets, including the very real risk of financial ruin. Amateurs don't see the risk; therefore, they don't bother to grapple with it. Instead, they would rather blow up and disappear. If one wants to last, he must come to terms with the nature of risk, his own tolerance for risk, an understanding of how to manage risk. Without that, he's doomed. ----- The Nature of Risk is a seminal work for anyone who understands that self-knowledge is key for success in the financial markets, particularly at market extremes. Rather than babble about risk in general, Mamis takes this engine apart and examines its parts, among which are information risk and price risk. He explains that as one's tolerance for information risk increases (the need to know why the stock is doing whatever it's doing), one's price risk diminishes (one is better able to jump in and take advantage of whatever opportunities for picking up cheaper shares present themselves). On the other hand, if one has no tolerance for information risk and must know everything about a stock's movement, his price risk will be that much greater because the price will likely, by then, have risen to an over-extended level. Therefore, having identified these components of risk (time risk is another), one must then balance them out in order to approach the markets rationally and unemotionally. An extremely important work, particularly for the investor who is plagued by doubt, confusion, and anxiety. The Nature of Risk and When to Sell were "updated" in 1999 and How to Buy in "2001", largely because they hadn't been updated in years. And while most novices want whatever is hot off the presses, the concepts presented in these books are timeless and require no "updating" whatsoever. What did and does require updating were the "indicators" which Mamis used for helping him get a feel for what was going on underneath the market, and by "indicators" I don't mean mathematically-derived appliances like RSI and MACD and CCI, I mean indicators of breadth and sentiment and so on, such as those which Zweig has used for so many years, e.g., specialist short-selling, odd lot sales, new highs/new lows, etc. Unfortunately, what with the dominance of funds, hedging, arbitrage, and online short-term trading, most of these indicators are no longer of much use, leaving advancing and declining volume pretty much alone as a guide to underlying sentiment. Studying these three will enable you to obtain much of what is covered in Wyckoff's books and to skip Weinstein entirely. (cont'd)