This article lists some trading books that I have personally read and found useful and provides a brief summary of each book and a link so that you can read other reviews.

Market Wizards – Interviews With Top Traders

This is the book that provided me with an introduction to trading.  It takes the form of a series of interviews with legendary traders who trade forex, stocks, futures and options, and highlights their thought processes, risk management attitudes and views of the structure of the markets.  It also provides a brief overview of how the market works and concludes with an interview with a market psychologist who discusses the mindset required to be a successful trader.

Pairs Trading – Quantitative Methods and Analysis

This book is provides an excellent, though technical overview of pairs trading or statistical arbitrage.  You should understand statistical concepts quite well before starting this book.  It covers identification of pairs, and development of trading rules.  This book is perfect for someone who is serious about pairs trading.

Trader Vic – Methods of a Wall Street Master

Victor Sperandeo is a real, down to earth person, but he also has a strong practical sense of what it is to be a trader, and has developed some very useful approaches.  One example of this is how he identifies trends and changes in trends.  One other example is his statistical approach to finding likely reversal points.  He also has profound insight into trading psychology.  I believe that his book is severely underrated and worth a read.

How I Made $2,000,000 In The Stock Market

This is the classic book by Nicolas Darvas, who was the highest paid dancer in the world in the late 1950′s and then managed to develop his own stock trading approach. For more details on Darvas, check out the Trading Bio section.

Darvas developed fundamental and technical filters to find stocks, and also developed a unique “Darvas Box” approach to filter out price noise. Based on his approaches, he turned $10,000 into $2,000,000 in a few years.

His book is very readable and interesting, and I recommend that you buy your own copy.

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator Illustrated (A Marketplace Book)

This is a semi-biographical overview of the life and methods of Jesse Livermore, perhaps the greatest trader of all time.  It gives a unique insight into his evolution as a trader from “bucket shop” operator to master of Wall Street who reportedly made $200 million in one day in the 1929 stock market crash.

The information in this book is timeless and this is the book that many leading traders cite as their inspiration.

Tags: book reviews, Trading Books

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