Any recommendations on some books out there? More general type of info, ie, basic anaylsis, charts, strategies, etc Something to start and build a good foundation of knowledge around trading strategies and the markets in general. thanks folks
This site has a trading book review area: http://www.elitetrader.com/bo/ But caution whether on ET or on Amazon - make sure, and try to read all the reviews; sometimes authors shill their own work and some people give good/bad comments when it is obvious they don't know much about the book or about trading.
Jiler : How Charts Can Help you in the stock market. Deporre, Trade Like a Shark O'Neil, How to Make Money in the Stock Market van Tharp, Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom Cramer, Jim Cramer's Real Money Those are good books to start with, esp. for stock investing/trading.
"All" Pretty strong word, and one helluva laundry detergent. An encylopedia of chart patterns, eh? Flags, pennants, head & shoulders (also one helluva shampoo) double bottoms, triple tops, etc etc, etc. Do, eh, chart patterns resolve with predictabilty? Apparently they do for Zanger. And Magee. Instead, I'm going to suggest : The Taylor Trading Technique written by George Douglass (yessss that's TWO S's) Taylor circa 1950. Taylor was a floor trader. You can tell by how difficult the book is to read. In essence he didn't "major" in journalism. Traded in US Steel over and over and over from 1933 to 1950. Eh, there were no PC's then. Pencil and paper. Waiting intra-day for your mark. It will take at least two readings and probably more. Mine is quite marked up with notes. As such, a text book rather than entertainment. Some "get it" some don't. Basically measuring price moves from High day 1 to low day 2 and vice versa. Low made first or high made first. A buy day, a sell day, and a short sell day, with a possible extra day in the cycle. Rinse and repeat. Yes, Virginia, there is an element of predictability but...........it's not infallible, there are head fakes from the specialist and occasionally external events such as 9-11. If you trade the same issue rather than flitting from flower to flower, you'll get to know the "personality" Book's about 20 bucks. To trade over and over in the same issue, you'll probably need a 475 to circumvent wash sale rules. As for patterns, the breakout (or breakdown) of a basic triangle (declining resistance and rising support) well..... BEFORE.... the apex is a pattern I've found reliable. Ditto for a broken neckline with a long term perspective and waiting for a failed retest of the break. Nevertheless, I prefer quantifying things. Incidently, I own at least 150 books dating back to 1910. Good old Rollo Tape; and paleeze spare me on Livermore.
I meant the term "irrelevant" towards other sentiment books, physchology books, biography / autobiography books, etc. I read Taylor's work some time ago, which would be around 2002 ~ 2003. I found it pretty dense to read, but the gist of it is days have rather distinct patterns of behavior and I find that to be true. I read the point & figure books and found them valuable. Basically, price action = patterns = behavior. Not fundamentals, sentiment or feel-good stuff. There may be places for that somewhere, but the OP specifically asked where to begin. Where to begin (imo) is with price, and then delve from there. Hence the initial reply posted in response to his specific request. No offense meant
check out Brian Shannon's book Techmical Analysis_ Using multiple timefames kinda pricey but worth it if your serious about trading. you can get it at his site Alphatrends.net a saying from his book that i sometimes have to tell myself "your better off being on the sidelines wishing you were in than being in wishing you were out". soothes the mind, right?