Currently I am enrolled in the CMT program, and have passed level one, taking level two this fall. My opinion of the books is biased seeing as how I am an affiliate of the MTA, but I will try and be as unbiased as possible. Level one books, Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets and Technical Analysis Explained, are essential for learning the basic concepts behind TA, i.e. what indicators are, how to use them, identifying and measuring implications of certain price patterns etc. John Murphy's book I found to be an easy read, however Martin Pring, to me, seemed more cerebral in his writing. Level Two is an entirely different test. Colleagues of mine spent five hours straight writing essays about the applications of the concepts learned in Level 1, so it is more application versus memorization. I have already read Investment Psychology Explained, and felt that this was a quick read with a number of valid points, most of which supported contrarian theories to stock investing. Currently I have submersed myself into Perry Kaufman's book Trading Systems and Methods. Much like Pring's book Kaufman is extremely cerebral, and therefore his book is a little more like reading a statistics or computer programing manual. Overall I think that if you want to invest/trade you need to invest in your knowledge first (whether or not you actually enroll into the CMT program). All of the books listed as course reading are on their for reasons only know to the members who have completed the courses already. People like John Murphy, John Bollinger, and even Ken Tower. I hope this provides you with what you were looking for. Happy reading..........................