Your top five daytrading books

TheStudent · May 5, 2005

Burton Makiel's "Random Walk Down Wall Street" should scare the living daylights out of most traders to be .... it offers a lot of compelling evidence that you are not going to succeed. And he's almost right.

I'm surprised no one mentioned "Education of a Speculator" by Victor Niederhoffer. There is a lot of wisdom in that book that's not readily appreciated at first glance.

BSAM · May 5, 2005

Quote from Grob109:

.....If I am illogical to you, that's fine. I am to most people......

Well, nobody can ever say I haven't agreed with Jack on SOMETHING!

BlackMonday · May 5, 2005

Quote from TheStudent:

I'm surprised no one mentioned "Education of a Speculator" by Victor Niederhoffer. There is a lot of wisdom in that book that's not readily appreciated at first glance.

Thats your problem. You read worthless garbage peddled by everyone else. The real wisdom is in spending your time wisely rather than reading 459 pages of drivel.

Newatthis · May 5, 2005

Thunderdog,

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you before this thread got too far along, but...a man has to try to earn a living.

I was as serious as a heart attack when I picked Atlas Shrugged and the Inner game of tennis. First, besides technique, a new trader needs motivation and mental discipline. Without those she is lost. I think those two books had a big influence on my trading career. I read them both about 10 years ago. They came recommended by a floor trader friend who had started his career in the late 70's.

If you read too many technique books as a newbie, you will get conflicting ideas and conflicting styles. I say pick the classic great ones and do some reading that will help build mental discipline then after a year or so start adding other pure trading books.

Worked for me and those I taught.

TheStudent · May 5, 2005

Quote from BlackMonday:

Thats your problem. You read worthless garbage peddled by everyone else. The real wisdom is in spending your time wisely rather than reading 459 pages of drivel.

man, someone not making money today or what ...

Cutten · May 5, 2005

Quote from Daal:

What top five daytrading books would you recommend to someone?

None. Daytrading is least amenable to learning through reading.

John47 · May 5, 2005

Quote from BlackMonday:

Thats your problem. You read worthless garbage peddled by everyone else. The real wisdom is in spending your time wisely rather than reading 459 pages of drivel.

Whoa, did niederhoffer run away with your wife or something.

John Merchant · May 5, 2005

Jack. Thanks for responding. I would not focus on you personally if you weren't so endlessly fascinating. Don't you know that it is impossible to divorce YOU from what you teach? Your character is inseparable from what you do. IMO what you do is so idiosyncratic that it is no wonder no one can learn your intraday system. And I am only "glib" here because I have to be so serious in my business life. IMO when you teach people here to be deadly serious about trading it is off the mark. All that scanning of so many variables and relationships! I think it obscures perception of unusual events. You even tell people not to "invent". I discover more potential "edges" as you call them (I call them "anomalies") when I am utterly frivolous and in a "what the fuck is going on here?" frame of mind. Good French champagne helps. And I am not alone in this. Many of the B Team have similarly light-hearted attitudes toward trading. "If it ain't fun, don't do it!" Of course, you are twelve years closer to death than I am, haha! Mike.

nononsense · May 6, 2005

Quote from Grob109:

Think he could handle the footnotes like those in Cybernetics?

One of my late friends did the poetry thing when he really got down to business. Poetry is more essential.

He could always leave them footnotes to nononsense.
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Trend Finding is Edge Finding and Edge Finding is Trend Finding
nononsense's axiom

nononsense · May 6, 2005

Quote from Holmes:

Your trading diary
Your trading diary
Your trading diary
Your trading diary
Your trading diary

[...]

Sherlock

ET etiquette prohibits asking such obscene questions repeatedly!
________________

Trend Finding is Edge Finding and Edge Finding is Trend Finding
nononsense's axiom