Wanting to learn how to become a successful trader? There’s no magic book that will instantly make you a master trader. But reading about others’ success or mistakes in the industry can help to steer you in the right direction. It can also give you an insight into trading styles and hopefully inspire you and help you discover yours along the way.
We look at three books you can find from an expert list of the 10 top trading books which will give you an insight into the world of trading and help you take the all-important steps to establish your strategy.
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
Written by Edwin Lefèvre almost 100 years ago, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator is a classic which should be on all traders’ bookshelves. Described as a thinly veiled biography of Jesse Livermore – one of the most famous traders of the 20th century – it gives an honest reflection on the protagonist’s successes and failures and highlights the lessons he learnt on his journey. Some of those lessons are still relevant today, which is one of the reasons it remains such a must-read almost a century on.
“Whatever happens in the stock market to-day has happened before and will happen again. I’ve never forgotten that. I suppose I really manage to remember when and how it happened. The fact that I remember that way is my way of capitalizing experience” – Reminiscences of a Stock Operator.
Trading in the Zone
Mark Douglas’ Trading in the Zone looks at trading psychology and explains why traders are inconsistent and how individuals can overcome the behaviours that cause losses. Delve into the pages and unearth misconceptions and discover the common dangers of trading and myths about how markets move.
“Suppose the trader seizes the opportunity to take advantage of his edge and puts on a trade. What factors will determine whether the market unfolds in the direction of his edge or against it? The answer is the behaviour of other traders” – Trading in the Zone.
The Intelligent Investor
This book by Benjamin Graham is so revered that Warren Buffett said it was ‘by far the best book on investing ever written’. Graham writes about the importance of always having a margin of safety, explaining that the idea is to find stocks that have prices below their ‘intrinsic value’, giving them a ‘margin of safety’ in terms of the likelihood of a future rise, then holding them for the long term.
A strong-minded approach to investment, firmly based on the margin-of-safety principle, can yield handsome rewards. But a decision to try for these emoluments rather than for the assured fruits of defensive investment should not be able without much self-examination” – The Intelligent Investor.
Books can help give you an insight into how the market has changed and are one of the best ways to understand the dynamics of trading – supporting you on a journey to becoming a successful trader.