What books will you recommend to a starting trader?
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There are only three books I reread each year Technical Analysis of Stock Trends by Edwards and Magee originally written in 1940's and two books by John Hill written in late 70's, Stock & Commodity Market Trend Trading by Advanced Technical Analysis
and Scientific Interpretation of Barcharts.
And these are the only three books I ever recommend especially the Hill's books.
and Scientific Interpretation of Barcharts.
And these are the only three books I ever recommend especially the Hill's books.
I'm caught in 2 minds here about books. as a newbie you need to start somewhere. but as a trader, I can tell you that alot of books that I read (and I mean serious trading books).. are concepts I will never use in my trading now.
In a way.. I went down the rabbit hole to find Alice. for years. to finally find out that Alice isnt even in that hole in the first place.
You gotta go down that road.. only to find out it doesnt lead where you think it does. This is why it takes so damn long to make a successful trader. an average of 7 years.
If I had to recommend one. I would say Al Brooks. His stuff is too heavy for a newbie though. You wouldnt understand what is a trapped trader until you've been the trapped loser so many times.
In a way.. I went down the rabbit hole to find Alice. for years. to finally find out that Alice isnt even in that hole in the first place.
You gotta go down that road.. only to find out it doesnt lead where you think it does. This is why it takes so damn long to make a successful trader. an average of 7 years.
If I had to recommend one. I would say Al Brooks. His stuff is too heavy for a newbie though. You wouldnt understand what is a trapped trader until you've been the trapped loser so many times.
I went through the same thing,read every book and later I even burned out and took a year off and something pushed me to come back and try again.
Only then I started to think individually and try random ideas or what suggestion i came up with in my spare time,because away from work all I did was thinking about it
All this took around 10 years
From almost day one I was looking for robust algorithm.People will say they do not exist,I know of one.
I sure will not attempt to look for another one as this thing is too damn difficult and took a lot of years.
Different approaches can help different people with different outlooks and backgrounds, but in case it might actually help/interest you, here's a list of the dozen books that have really helped me to become a successful trader (the last three on the list, in particular, are not "easy reading" and all the benefits I found from them came from very slow, attentive, second and third readings) ...
Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom (Van K. Tharp) - an outstanding starting-point (not so much his other books)
Beyond Technical Analysis (Tushar S. Chande)
Understanding Price Action (Bob Volman)
Naked Forex: High-Probability Techniques for Trading Without Indicators (Alex Nekritin & Walter Peters)
Profitability and Systematic Trading (Michael Harris - not so much his other books)
Trading The Ross Hook (Joe Ross) (I keep coming back to this book again and again, because it's an "old classic" based on one of the soundest principles in trading: buying the dips in an uptrend and selling the rallies in a downtrend)
A Mathematician Plays The Market (John Allen Paulos)
Fooled By Randomness (Nassim Nicholas Taleb)
Why People Believe Weird Things (Michael Shermer) - this book and Taleb's, just above, are hugely helpful - albeit indirectly - for "understanding what's going on in forums"!
Trading Price Action Trends - Technical Analysis of Price Charts Bar by Bar for the Serious Trader (Al Brooks)
Trading Price Action Trading Ranges - Technical Analysis of Price Charts Bar by Bar for the Serious Trader (Al Brooks)
Trading Price Action Reversals - Technical Analysis of Price Charts Bar by Bar for the Serious Trader (Al Brooks)
The 12 books listed above should probably, in my opinion, be the compulsory "first year's reading list" for an aspiring forex trader.
I think most beginning traders are probably much, much better off with some beginners' textbooks than with online "information", overall.
This is why: there's no "informational quality control", online: anyone can publish anything offering advice, especially when (as is the case with many online tutorials) they have some additional services/products to promote. There's some good information among it, doubtless, but when you don't yourself have the experience and judgement to identify it confidently, it's a real lottery, depending on advice from online "information". In contrast, longstanding, recognised, accredited textbooks published by mainstream, orthodox publishers have (a) stood the test of time and (b) undergone extensive and authoritative peer-review before ever seeing the light of day in the first place.
Trading is about "getting the odds in your favour", and so is learning to trade. Choosing to learn from well-established textbooks rather than from tutorials is doing exactly that.
Be aware that very few beginning traders ever really become successful, and people's failure to do this is one of the reasons why. There's a huge amount of misguided "information" about online, but far less of it in authoritative, established textbooks.
Be careful by whom you choose to be guided. This is an activity in which the great majority of people fail, so perhaps it stands to reason that a high proportion of online "information" might be misguided.
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agree, great book!!
Agree, those are mostly excellent books, but how do you justify the inherent contradictions between them?
thanks
surf
I don't really "justify" them - they're just all books that (in their different ways) helped me toward making a living, as I mentioned.
(I don't think exposure to some "contradictions" is a bad thing anyway, though, for aspiring traders? If nothing else, it shows that there are differences of opinion, and sometimes even conflicting perspectives, among widely accredited experts. For example, in Tharp's book listed above, he takes a page or so to quote something from Chande's book listed above, and comments on why - although he likes and recommends the book - he disagrees on the particular point discussed.)
Thanks! Makes sense. Do you make your living as a full time trader?
I do. After about 5 years of first failing to do so and then struggling to do so, I eventually made my living by trading forex for just over three years, but then switched completely (and long overdue!) to futures in late 2015, which actually suit me better (mostly because I can directly use "volume" as well).