Books that have significantly influenced your trading perspective

Books on productivity have provided me with some insights..

Getting Things Done... good one to start with.

Also:

A lot of times you get more from a single article than an entire book, because books are rarely prescient, but articles and interviews tend to be. I spent too much chasing down the holy grail of books, when books don't usually suit the dynamic of trading, aside from a few good ones like Drobny's books or those by Schwager...

If you build up a memory of the various Market pundits over time you can see the blind spots in their minds and with that you start generating your own trade ideas around the ideas in the public domain. So you become more of a tactical trader than an investor... But this process takes a few years, sometimes one business cycle of 4-5 years..
 
Quote from J-Law:

Trading books that are a narrative like Market Wizards serve the purpose
as a good inspirational read. They were great tales of how (guys & gal LBR excuse me) knocked the cover off the ball. But when you get down to it, will they help bring your trading to the next level? Or help you to fix what's in your way to make you profitable if you're currently not? No.

Books don't do things like that, only people do.

Motivating & an enjoyable read & that's where it begins & ends.
Is what it is.
More...

I disagree... to a certain extent one can look at trading books as a compendium of ideas and shared experiences, both of which can be very powerful.

Of course, as with any powerful tool, the effectiveness of its use depends on the user...

The trading books that have impacted me greatly have typically done so on the second or third reading, sometimes even the fourth or fifth reading over the years, because it takes time to build up a roster of relevant personal experiences. Those experiences act as a backdrop against which new subtleties can be brought to life.

Progressing forward as a trader is a matter of filling in knowledge gaps and connecting abstract concepts with vivid memories of real world application. The absolute beginner is so void of experience he has no idea where his gaps even are. At the point of starting out, all trading knowledge is a swirl of hypotheticals.

The trick of advancement, then, is to go back and forth between theory and experience, theory and experience, in a regular intertwined dance.

You develop some ideas, go forth into the market and try some things. Over time, you build up experience this way. (Profitable or unprofitable, it's still experience.)

Then, having accumulated that experience, you step back to examine and theorize. You analyze what happened and why. You think about the strengths and weaknesses of what you just tried. You start to develop a new round of ideas. You get a sense of where the holes are in your capability, where the most profitable areas of exploration might be.

That's where great trading books can really come in handy. Perhaps the first time you read such and such a trading interview for inspiration only. But when you go back to that interview of a trader with a style that relates to yours, AFTER having accumulated some useful experience, you are further primed to have some "a-ha!" moments as you bootstrap yourself to a higher level of capability and understanding.

Having gotten the trading ball rolling, you are then in a position to say "Wow, I know EXACTLY what so-and-so is saying here" because you have had enough real world experience to intuit the truth of the observation in a manner your mind could not process before. Or else a comment, an idea or a line of thought gives you clarity on what to pursue next in improving your process.

It's about reading old books with new eyes. If you can take care of the new eyes part, hidden treasures will be revealed to you.
 
DarkHorse, your point is a good one.

The completely reflective nature of re-reading books like Market Wizards or others with "new eyes" is true. Perspectives become adjusted and reinforced with one's trading experiences. The 2nd take reads deeper into their stories. I was quick to discount. But, I almost forgot the 2nd & 3rd reads and how I saw Marcus & Jone's stories more enlightening b/c I understood more of the nuance.

They def serve their purpose. Valid point.
In this game & in life, one should use everything.
 
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