Which books should you read if you want to learn trading?
- Thread starter andy_p
- Start date
About the same as books, LOL!
I have yet to meet a successful trader whose path was: books, trade what you learned from books, achieve profitability.
I was a futures floor trader. No one taught you anything. Why should they?
You learned to trade (if you didn't blow out first, and most did) by standing there every single day, and trying, through observation, to figure it out. Not by reading books, not by backtesting, and not by anonymous fora (which mostly didn't exist then).
Being around winners and gaining experience indeed has great value. Absolutely!
However:
Since there are wealthy traders, investors and gamblers who credit things like reading and backtesting as having helped them, I will disagree with your blanket statement in these areas.
Renaissance Technologies has made billions and they backtest continually as do some mom and pop winners.
Since one very successful trader learned to make money with NYSE Opening Orders by reading an old thread in this area, I will disagree with your forum mention as a blanket statement. His edge lasted many years. Others have credited forums as having helped them.
But yes... absolutely.. there have been winning traders who did not backtest, read books or read forums.
Though I suspect that totally lone wolves sitting alone with a computer and a trading account will find things extra-rough, or rougher than need be.
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Yes, yes, yes... if one can be the Sorcerer's Apprentice, go for it!
Being around winners and obtaining lots of experience has great value.
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lovethetrade
Read common trading books if you want to be very good at being average and then later on in life take up a career as a primary school teacher. If you want to be the best you need to adopt an Einstein approach and develop your thinking and theoretical abilities, none of which any books will teach you.
Trading in the pits and trading technically behind a computer are different things. Many guys came out of the pits are were lost behind a computer. I've been trading technically for 18 years and I guarantee you if you put me in a commodity pit, I would be lost. Can one learn how to trade by reading a few books or attending some seminars, of course not but they can help along the way. Most of my education came from observing price discovery over many many hours and then getting my nose bloodied by taking trades and learning from mistakes in either observation or execution. It takes more than a little common sense to trade for a living, the kind of common sense it takes to sniff out a charlatan with a book or a get rich quick scheme.
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I notice the quote on your profile information page is a quote from the author of a well regarded book on traders and trading.
Do you suppliment your learning with reading?
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lovethetrade
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited; imagination encircles the world.”~Albert Einstein