Best forex and/or trading book you have ever read?

Lars Tvede "The Psychology of Finance" is another outstanding book I highly recommend to anyone involved in trading.

I've read too many trading books because until even quite recently, I wasn't even aware of internet trading forums
Plenty of books are an entertaining and enjoyable read although I think that very few of them will actually get you far with trading compared to a good forum.

The better news is that the best threads on these forums contain info and help that will take you way further than any book.

If you have made it here already you don't need too much of what is below so Cherry Pick.
You really just need to find the best forum thread to learn from to suit you. And stick with it for a long time.

The Best Books IMHO
Reminiscences Of Stock Operator - interesting read. If you can read between the lines to define his system / methods from the book you will be very succesful. But very few can. Neverthless full of good trading wisdom.

Pring On Patterns - some of the later chapters that many might not reach or may ignore have some golden nuggets in them.

The Spread Betting Handbook (Malcom Prior)- Good Value.

Market Wizards - mostly for entertainment & anecdote value only.

Trading In The Zone - Very good.

Trader Vic I & II My memory can't distinguish between the two but while there are some economic sections that are 'of their time' they are on the whole a good read and by a real trader who had 'made it big'.

Best book I haven't yet bought or read (!?) - Steve Nison Candlesticks. All the reviews and wise people say this is the 1 candlestick book to have.


Undecided -
Al Brooks Price Bar by Bar - It may well be good, but its badly written / printed makes it a huge effort to follow.
Hold out till the next edition & hope the quality improves.

Mastering The Trade by John Carter - interesting because it is thorough and gives several actual systems of trading in part 2. I don't think they are much good on the whole. To me the whole book comes across too much as a sales pitch for their signal services and seminars

Worst
Van Tharp Books. What on earth is he all about?
Aaah yes - Selling courses of course.

Welcome To My Trading Room and any books by Alexander Elder.
OK not totally 100% bad but really not going to get you trading.
Best parts are those comparing overtraders to alcoholics.
Worst is his method of spotting a successful trader - " has a rising equity curve" - - - You don't say !!!!

Way Of The Turtle - Utter waste of time. In my unhumble opinion.

The Naked Trader, Robbie Burns, well he trades for himself, so he is good and makes money trading (his trades are put on his website) but this book whilst presenting the author as a down to earth good bloke and inspiring confidence, doesn't put any technique across well. I think his methods are individual to himself.

Come Into My Trading Room: A Complete Guide to Trading by Dr. Alexander Elder

I'm only about half way though 'Option Trading' by Sinclair, in the first chapter he neatly demolishes all the horse-shit that underlies most of what people are recommending here (psycho-babble & irrelevant history lessons). It looks like it could turn out to be the book I would recommend. BTW, Sinclair is the stud at BlueFin (http://www.bluefintrading.com/) so he probably knows what he's talking about.

Just read Campaign Trading by John Sweeney, editor of Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities magazine:

http://www.amazon.com/Campaign-Tradi...0370738&sr=1-1

Great book - good to read with a glass of campaign

How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer.

Not a trading book per se, but it provides insight into how we make decisions. Trading is all about making decisions so it's only sensible that we should understand that process. It explains why we suffer from "Analysis Paralysis" and how to avoid it.

Once you get past the mechanics of trading, the next step in your education should be you.

Hello! Are there any books that deal exclusively with trend analysis, (higher highs lower lows) or have a really great chapter on those. I need to understand the markets a lot better. Thank you!

"High Probability Trading Strategies: Entry to Exit Tactics for the Forex, Futures, and Stock Markets" by Robert Miner

http://www.amazon.com/High-Probabili...0572266&sr=8-1

This book portrays some awesome technical methods to trade the market. A must read for all serious traders.

The best book that gave me a "A-ha" is Stan Weinsteins "Secrets for profiting in bull and bear markets". Unfortunately this book is more applicable in stock markets that in forex. You see, in stock market when things get bullish all the stocks rise and he advises to go only for longs and the opposite when things get bearish. That is fine for stocks but not as good for Forex. Maybe the equal in forex would be when USD rises look to pick only longs in USD/XXX. It has nothing to do with swing trading, it teaches how to identify a trend, pick a good horse and ride it.


But still you may find good gems in there as to what trend cycles are, what is relative strength (not RSI), the value of using longer tome frames and zooming out the chart etc.
http://www.amazon.com/Stan-Weinstein...0572363&sr=8-1

Another book that may get you interested is Suri Duddella's "Trade chart patterns like the pros". This book is more like the Wikipedia of chart patterns. The author doesn't use any indicators but pure price action. It has some good stuff about bar analysis, classic patterns like wedges, head and shoulders, Adam and Eve, triangles etc, with specific rules how to trade them. He doesn't go much deep. It is more like a practical how-to. It also has some exotic patterns like the dragon, the bat, the sea horse which I find a little too stretched. Since I haven't read any other book for pure price action I can't comment where it stands related to others like i.e. Pring. I think it is more like someone was taking really good notes in the class and publishing them in a book. The more I learn about price action, the more I get back to that book. If I was to choose between Carter's book and this I will certainly choose this.
http://www.surinotes.com/

Another good one...Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely.

http://www.forex-book.org/trade-your...free-download/

I had a little free time and I thought it would be good if i write down all the books that were mentioned here. Hope this helps someone.

-"Trading in the Zone" by Mark Douglas
-"Fibbonaci Analysis" by Constance Brown
-"Reading price charts Bar" by Bar Al Brooks
-"Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom" by Van Tharp
-"Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" by Edwin Lefevre
-"A Beginner's Guide to Short Term Trading" by Toni Turner
-"How to make money in stocks" by William J. O'Neill
-"Ugly Americans" by Ben Mezrich ?? (not sure about this, cause the person who posted this book didnt post the writer)
-"Option Theory and Trading: A Step-by-Step Guide To Control Risk and Generate Profits" (Wiley Trading) by Ron Ianieri
-"Trading and Exchanges" by Larry Harris
-"Market Wizards book" by Jack Schwager
* Market Wizards: Interviews with top Traders
* The New Market Wizards
* Stock Market Wizards
-"The Winner's Bible: Rewire Your Brain for Permanent Change" by Kerry Spackman
-"On Price Patterns" by Martin Pring
-"Encyclopedia of Chart Patterns" by Bulkowski
-"Technical Analysis" by John Murphy
-"Candlestick Charting" by Greg Morris
-"The Daily Trading Coach - 101 Lessions for becoming your own Trading Psychologist" by Brett Steenbarger
-"The Zurich Axioms" by Max Gunther
-"Bird Watching in Lion Country" by Dirk du Toit
-"Pit Bull" by Martin Schwartz
-"Forex and Probabilities" by ED Ponsi
-"Liar's Poker" by Michael Lewis
-"The big short" by Michael Lewis
-"The Psychology of Finance" by Lars Tvede
-"The Spread Betting Handbook" by Malcom Prior
-"Trading In The Zone" by by Mark Douglas
-"Trader Vic I & II" by Victor Sperandeo
-"Candlesticks" by Steve Nison
-"Price Bar by Bar" by Al Brooks
-"Mastering The Trade" by John Carter
-"Come Into My Trading Room: A Complete Guide to Trading" by Dr. Alexander Elder
-"Option Trading" by Sinclair
-"Campaign Trading" by John Sweeney
-"How We Decide" by Jonah Lehrer
-"High Probability Trading Strategies: Entry to Exit Tactics for the Forex, Futures, and Stock Markets" by Robert Miner
-"Secrets for profiting in bull and bear markets" by Stan Weinsteins
-"Trade chart patterns like the pros" by Suri Duddella
-"Predictably Irrational" by Dan Ariely



NOTE: i didnt post some of the authors cause the persons who posted their names didnt write the name of the books they had in mind

Ppfx, you are an absolute champion!!

Thanks so much for your contribution, and thanks again to every one donating a little of their time.

Cheers,

4x

I have read several books on trading from fibonacci to candle sticks. I have found that a mentor is the best way to go. I have learned so much more from my mentor because of the live trading and support that no book can teach me. I learned the basics from books so don't get me wrong. There are several good books out there. But the hands on experience is what really changed my life as a trader and is still changing my life everyday as I learn more and more from my mentor.

Interesting...by mentor you mean courses or...? Are there good mentors out there? Which might they be?

The best book I read was: "Das grosse Buch der Markttechnik" by Michael Voigt.

Unfortunately it's only available in german. So you should all write to the publisher/author and suggest they create an english translation.

This thread is great as well as the list of books.

I have been able to get most of the books in the thread, except for "Trading and Exchanges: Market Microstructure for Practitioners" by Larry Harris. A friend at USC said this book is very comprehensive on the subject of markets and trading.

If you have this book in digital format, I would be interested in it. If you need some of the books mentioned, I might have them.

Tools and Tactics for the Master Day Trader, Valez, O., Capra, G.

A book about the stock market but provides some great insight into both trading, and markets in general, especially part one. One I go back and re-read quite often and always seem to pick something different up.

Livermore is a classic, some absolute gems in that. Disciplined Trader by M. Douglas also has some great stuff in it.

Great thread guys!

Not a trading book, but I would say that Rich Dad Poor Dad is what got me started into investing/trading and getting ahead in life. It is no doubt the most influential.

As for trading, I just checked out Market Wizards and Trading in The Zone from the library. Should keep me busy for the next week or two.

EG