%% Easy for you to say; sounds like you kept the best ones for yourself LOL I knew i had to give away some of my books or build another book shelf-did both.[Edit; kept the Jack Schwager books........................................]
Forgot "New Concepts in Technical trading" by Welles wilder. Old book but if you want to understand indicators start here. Launched my trading in 1999 with this book. Several booms and busts later I now scalp for the most part. target 4 points a day on ES. Not to say there has not been many trades that went on for minutes over the years but target remains 4 little points that at times feel like 40. Wish you well.
Looking over that list. I would omit a bunch of them: The Art and Science of Technical Analysis by Adam Grimes - just another vendor who webinar advertised on futures.io Candlestick Course by Steve Nison - there are simpler summaries of commonly effective candlestick patterns Understanding Price Action by Bob Volman - I remembered someone who tried out this guy's forex book and did a whole bunch of analysis and trials. No edge to the setups, waste of time and just another book author. Elliot Wave Principle by Frost and Prechter - far simpler summaries out there. Also "wave" 4 and 5 rarely pan out in today's market imo. Optionetics & "Advanced Get" software supposedly signaled wave 5 moves. Waste of time today, imo. Peruse basic fibs and harmonic trading ideas instead. Mastering the Trade by John F. Carter - options education vendor. I had this book. Just verbiage and waste of time. His room was also an upsell of courses and dvd's and affiliate host vendors would stand in often. (Borodin) Secrets for Profiting in Bull and Bear Markets by Stan Weinstein - I tried this book. All it basically is "5 phases" of a stock's rise to plateau, then fall using a 50 wma. No edge. Could have been a 1 page summary of the idea, so waste of time. Complete Guide to Volume Price Analysis by Anna Coulling - Contradictory as it goes along. Not convinced author even really trades. so waste of time imo. Street Smarts by Linda Raschke - I noticed this wasn't on the first post, but mentioned later on. I tried the ideas on it years ago which were a bunch of stochastic, rsi , adr ideas she and Conners don't even use anymore or anyone else for that matter. Waste of time and simple indicator focus trap to newbs. I think she got famous during the earlier trading eras, before vendors and gurus were more scrutinized or exposed. (see www.tradingschools.org) Good books mentioned in the list which could be prioritized: Trading for a Living by Alexander Elder - Not a strategy book mainly, but good intro to trading in general Encyclopedia of Chart Patterns by Thomas Bulkowski - I think this is a better intro to beginning chart reading than most other books I've seen. Most of the other books I hadn't heard of or the titles sound too generic and fishy. Like, I've heard of that Darvos book, but it sounds like one of those old gimmick book authors like Kevin Trudeau or pop psych. Anthony Robbins.
Thanks for the awesome write up. Seems like you are speaking from experience. I would disagree with omitting Adam Grimes book. It's the only book you should read on technical analysis and maybe Aronson (if nothing else to learn stats for trading). Hint for new traders: Only doing TA won't give you an edge, look into order flow and fundamentals. Agree with the rest. Don't know how much reading Thomas Bulkowski would help since its more of a reference book. If you are trading a pattern, then might be a good idea to see what Bulkowski says about it rather than reading about every pattern he describes (that in itself would take a lifetime).
Your welcome. My experience maybe on average has the usual wasted time and funds spent on useless courses, books, software & indicators, and some trading "gurus". The wasted time and effort sometimes sets me off to the point of feelings of animosity for the majority of vendors who are scamming and selling dreams imo, and couldn't trade out of a paper bag for a living if their life depended on it. www.tradingschools.org and their hundreds of exposing reviews helped me confirm long standing suspicions in my mind of the buffoonery of most of these trading educational vendors. Only in recent years I've finally had periods of profitability so it's regretful to me of my extensive time wasted in a bit over ten years of searching peppered with long intermittent periods of having given up. I would agree Grimes' book could be a decent low cost intro TA material as it seems he does a decent effort of research and summary. I guess beyond that I wouldn't go for extra courses and upselling. As for Bulkowski, I guess I like how he gives thought to the patterns in the book which add some variants of the basic ones which imo can help with getting experienced with chart reading of PA structure for screen time and also as ingredients to be part of one's own developed trading strategies. As for order flow, I never could get it going instinctively to work as an edge for me, maybe someday.
You mean what books or courses or sites I would recommend? Well, it's just my personal opinion and as I've mentioned I've no real idea on orderflow. At this point, I wouldn't recommend any expensive "courses" from sites. At best, there could be a few "trading rooms" and "gurus" you could trial on the cheap just to see someone take some supposed live trades which probably aren't live for the most part because most all of them just fake or sim it. But if you have had some decent screen time already even on sim, then you probably don't need to trial any rooms by now. If not, you could be better off simming on a platform trying out ideas. For books I'd recommend, I'd already mentioned Bulkowski's books. For options, I liked Paul Forchione's "Trade Options Visually" but I don't know if it's available anymore. Dalton's "Mind over Markets" for a decent intro to intraday market structure and market profile, although I don't really use market profile now. There are various books on Gartley patterns and fib retracements if you're interested in fibs. (but stay away from Robert Miner. overbloated, contradictory, and waste of time) There's also a bunch of free info out there such as the link Handle123 mentioned above. Mainly I'd suggest making up your own method from ideas learned from the cheapest or free sources you've come across that may be useful to your overall strategy but of course you can do whatever you'd like and www.tradingschools.org 's reviews and comments covers a lot of ground from more scrutinizing perspectives. Good luck.