================== Derek742; Excellant. Old but gold book -Wall Street Wisdom, by Samson Coslow; a rule from that book,1933 ,''do not short stocks with limited shares'' Also excellant-Stock Market Wizards by Schwager, re-reading it; Bulls Bears , Millionaires, by Robert Koppel
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius Enhancing Trader Performance by Brett N Steenbarger The Art of the Trade by R.E. MacMaster Come to My Trading Room by Alexander Elder The Zurich Axioms by Max Gunther Trade With Passion and Purpose by Mark Whistler A Demon of Our Own Design by Richard Bookstaber Trading Risk by Kenneth Grant The Logical Trader by Mark Fisher ---- the secret sauce for me was that he didn't tell you everything about his method. So you have to do your own investigation. In doing so you will probably come up with something better which will suit you or lead you to find other interesting things. Books on evolutionary and cognitive psychology. Many of these books are published very recently and I must say I wish they came out earlier because I wouldn't spend so much time reading other books which these were able to sum up what I needed to be and do in one book.
Buyer beware. The majority of popular trading literature probably would make a person dumber than when he started. If one had to choose between reading all of it or none of it, one would be better off reading none of it. Having said that, here is a distilled book list for your consideration. I would probably start with Rand, Hazlitt, Harris and then Douglas -- starting with general principles, then economics, market structure and individual mind set. Books on trading, in alpha order: Bogle on Mutual Funds: New Perspectives for the Intelligent Investor by John Bogle Dynamic Hedging: Managing Vanilla and Exotic Options by Nassim Nicholas Taleb Economics in One Lesson: 50th Anniversary Edition by Henry Hazlitt Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles MacKay Granville's New Strategy of Daily Stock Market Timing for Maximum Profit by Joseph E. Granville How I Made $2,000,000 In The Stock Market by Nicolas Darvas How To Make Money In Stocks: A Winning System in Good Times or Bad, 3rd Edition by William J. O'Neil Market Wizards: Interviews with Top Traders by Jack D. Schwager The New Market Wizards: Conversations with America's Top Traders by Jack D. Schwager Option Volatility & Pricing: Advanced Trading Strategies and Techniques by Sheldon Natenberg Paul Wilmott Introduces Quantitative Finance by Paul Wilmott Technical Analysis from A to Z, 2nd Edition by Steven B. Achelis Technical Analysis of Stock Trends by Robert D. Edwards, John Magee Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets: A Comprehensive Guide to Trading Methods and Applications by John J. Murphy Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom by Van K. Tharp Trading and Exchanges: Market Microstructure for Practitioners by Larry Harris Trading for a Living: Psychology, Trading Tactics, Money Management by Alexander Elder Trading in the Zone: Master the Market with Confidence, Discipline and a Winning Attitude by Mark Douglas Trading related novels and non-fiction: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco by Bryan Burrough, John Helyar The Bonfire of the Vanities: A Novel by Tom Wolfe Den of Thieves by James B. Stewart The Education of a Speculator by Victor Niederhoffer Goldman Sachs: The Culture of Success by Lisa Endlich Hedgehogging by Barton Biggs Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefèvre Rigged: The True Story of an Ivy League Kid Who Changed the World of Oil, from Wall Street to Dubai by Ben Mezrich Ugly Americans: The True Story of the Ivy League Cowboys Who Raided the Asian Markets for Millions by Ben Mezrich Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron by Bethany McLean, Peter Elkind When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management by Roger Lowenstein
In addition, there is an excellent article by Brett Steenbarger: "Learning to Trade: The Psychology of Expertise". http://www.brettsteenbarger.com/Learning to Trade.doc
I love the old books from the old guys on the street, like in the 1930s or before. There is so much wisdom in the words, and I believe that markets fundamentally never change(per se)-but great knowledge cannot always be obtained from what happened 2 months ago or even 20 years ago, because it is too fresh in history and too many people still remember it. But by looking back further one gains information that not everybody knows about or understands. Stock Market Wizards is also on my list of must-reads, since I have finished the first two.
The Logical Trader by Mark Fisher sounds like my cup of tea. I'm not really into other people's systems anyways, even if I learned one I would probably never follow it! It may be off topic because I have not looked at the Logical Trader but that is what I like about the Market Profile studies-the ultimate simplicity in the words but the ultimate relation to any market really-like the writing says, whether you are trading "beans or bonds." Steenbarger seems to be a favorite for many people.
I actually got "Enhancing Trader Performace" by Brett Steenbarger as a christmas gift, I read it while on vacation in Cozumel 2 weeks ago. I actually really liked it, there are few trading books I find worth reading these days (that I havent read already) but this was one of them.