Best Trading Books in 2024: 50 Top Books For Mastering Trading

Today, we take a look at the best trading books that will help you grow your wealth, increase your financial acumen or just add to your knowledge base.

If you’re looking for the best trading books, then you’ve come to the right place.

You can use these trading books for growing your wealth, learning to trade, expanding your wisdom, and much more.

We’ve broken these finance books up into 2 sections:

• Best Trading Books
• Best Day Trading Books

We’ve listed the best trading books first, as we’re assuming most readers are looking primarily for books specifically on the theory and practice of trading. But we also have included books on the history of trading, the theory of money (as it relates to trading) and much more.

So, without further ado, let’s get into the list of the best trading books you can get your hands on.

Best Trading Books

Let’s start off with the best trading books.

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

“Reminiscences of a Stock Operator is a 1923 roman à clef by American author Edwin Lefèvre which is the thinly disguised biography of Jesse Lauriston Livermore. The Wall Street Journal described the book as a “classic”, it was ranked #15 on ‘Fortune’s 75 The Smartest Books We Know’, and Alan Greenspan said it is “a font of investing wisdom.”

Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets: A Comprehensive Guide to Trading Methods and Applications

“Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets expands upon and updates Murphy’s classic Technical Analysis of the Futures Markets.

Packed with some 400 real-life charts that clarify every key point, it covers:

• the fundamentals of technical analysis and chart construction,
• what you must know about trends and the building blocks of chart analysis,
• price patterns, including major reversal and continuation patterns,
• methods of analysis – moving averages, oscillators, contrary opinion, and other indicators, and
• time cycles, market interrelationships, money management, and trading tactics.

Beginners and experienced traders alike will find a wealth of immediately useful information in this authoritative, yet easy-to-follow guide.”

A Random Walk Down Wall Street

“With the prevailing wisdom changing on an almost daily basis, Burton G. Malkiel’s reassuring and vastly informative volume remains the best investment guide money can buy.

In a time of increasing inequality, when high-frequency traders and hedge-fund managers seem to tower over the average investor, Burton G. Malkiel’s classic and gimmick-free investment guide is now more necessary than ever.

Rather than tricks, what you’ll find here is a time-tested and thoroughly research-based strategy for your portfolio.

Whether you’re considering your first 401k contribution or contemplating retirement, this fully-updated edition of A Random Walk Down Wall Street should be the first book on your reading list.

In A Random Walk Down Wall Street you’ll learn the basic terminology of “the Street” and how to navigate it with the help of a user-friendly, long-range investment strategy that really works.

Drawing on his own varied experience as an economist, financial adviser, and successful investor, Malkiel shows why an individual who buys over time and holds a low-cost, internationally diversified index of securities is still likely to exceed the performance of portfolios carefully picked by professionals using sophisticated analytical techniques.

In this new edition, Malkiel provides a brand-new section on the recent bubble in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, as well as valuable new material on “tax-loss harvesting”―the crown jewel of tax management.

He also presents a critical analysis of two recently popular investment-management techniques: factor investing and risk parity.

On top of all this, the book’s classic lifecycle guide to investing, which tailors strategies to investors of any age, will help you plan confidently for the future.

You’ll learn how to analyze the potential returns, not only for basic stocks and bonds but for the full range of investment opportunities―from money market accounts and real estate investment trusts to insurance, homeownership, and tangible assets like gold and collectibles.

Individual investors of every level of experience and risk tolerance will find throughout the book the critical facts and step-by-step guidance they need to protect and grow their hard-earned dollars.”

 

 

Market Wizards

“The world’s top trader’s reveal the secrets of their phenomenal success!

How do the world’s most successful traders amass tens, hundreds of millions of dollars a year? Are they masters of an occult knowledge, lucky winners in a random market lottery, natural-born virtuosi – Mozarts of the markets?

In search of an answer, bestselling author Jack D. Schwager interviewed dozens of top traders across most financial markets.

While their responses differed in the details, all of them could be boiled down to the same essential formula: solid methodology + proper mental attitude = trading success.

In Market Wizards Schwager lets you hear, in their own words, what those super-traders had to say about their unprecedented successes, and he distils their responses down into a set of guiding principles you can use to become a trading star in your own right.

• Features interviews with superstar money-makers including Bruce Kovner, Richard Dennis, Paul Tudor Jones, Michel Steinhardt, Ed Seykota, Marty Schwartz, Tom Baldwin, and more
• Tells the true stories behind sensational trading coups, including the one about the trader who turned $30,000 into $80 million, the hedge fund manager who’s averaged 30% returns every year for the past twenty-one years, and the T-bond futures trader who parlayed $25,000 into $2 billion in a single day!”

The New Market Wizards

“Taps into the minds of today’s trading superstars to reveal the secrets of their astonishing success.

In these absorbing interviews with star performers in the financial markets, Schwager humanizes the mechanics and psychology behind the trading world in such sophisticated instruments as currencies, stock options, commodity futures, and mutual-fund accounts by individuals, investment firms and group-trading computerized “money machines.”

One trader focuses on market response to news events, another calculates mathematical probabilities–one even cocks an ear to the noise level on the exchange floor.

All rank assiduous research, self-confidence, a specific plan and the courage to cut losses among essentials to success. Few consider their work gambling, but Schwager entertainingly argues that a successful trader needs many of the qualities of a good poker player.

Though the subject matter is esoteric, there is much here to attract the general reader, and Schwager appends a “primer” of technical basics.

You may not know their names, but they are the trading elite – a select group of super-money makers whose trading prowess has become the stuff of legend.

They are speculators in everything from stocks and bonds to options and commodity futures who make millions – often in a matter of hours – and leave their peers in the dust.

In this enthralling sequel to his international bestseller, Market Wizards, Jack Schwager interviews these stars, asking the questions that everyone with an interest in the financial markets would love know the answers to and receiving the kind of frank, occasionally bewildering answers that make this book as much a page-turner as its predecessor.

• Interviews with spectacular winners across the full spectrum of financial markets, revealing how they do it and what, personally, separates them from the herd.
• Superstar traders describe the financial strategies behind their phenomenal successes, as well as the painfully instructive lessons learned from their worst losses.
• Reveals that, despite their various quirks and differences, all the biggest winners rank diligent research, self-confidence, a specific plan and the courage to cut losses as the keys to winning big.
• Throughout, Schwager provides valuable insight and analysis to help put interviewees responses into perspective, and he provides a technical basics primer at the end of the book.”

The Intelligent Investor

“This classic text is annotated to update Graham’s timeless wisdom for today’s market conditions…

The greatest investment advisor of the twentieth century, Benjamin Graham, taught and inspired people worldwide. Graham’s philosophy of “value investing” — which shields investors from substantial error and teaches them to develop long-term strategies — has made The Intelligent Investor the stock market bible ever since its original publication in 1949.

Over the years, market developments have proven the wisdom of Graham’s strategies.

While preserving the integrity of Graham’s original text, this revised edition includes updated commentary by noted financial journalist Jason Zweig, whose perspective incorporates the realities of today’s market, draws parallels between Graham’s examples and today’s financial headlines, and gives readers a more thorough understanding of how to apply Graham’s principles.

Vital and indispensable, this HarperBusiness Essentials edition of The Intelligent Investor is the most important book you will ever read on how to reach your financial goals.”

One Up On Wall St

“More than one million copies have been sold of this seminal book on investing in which legendary mutual-fund manager Peter Lynch explains the advantages that average investors have over professionals and how they can use these advantages to achieve financial success.

America’s most successful money manager tells how average investors can beat the pros by using what they know.

According to Lynch, investment opportunities are everywhere. From the supermarket to the workplace, we encounter products and services all day long.

By paying attention to the best ones, we can find companies in which to invest before the professional analysts discover them.

When investors get in early, they can find the “tenbaggers,” the stocks that appreciate tenfold from the initial investment. A few tenbaggers will turn an average stock portfolio into a star performer.

Lynch offers easy-to-follow advice for sorting out the long shots from the no-shots by reviewing a company’s financial statements and knowing which numbers really count. He offers guidelines for investing in cyclical, turnaround, and fast-growing companies.

As long as you invest for the long term, Lynch says, your portfolio can reward you. This timeless advice has made One Up on Wall Street a #1 bestseller and a classic book of investment know-how.”

Trading in the Zone

“Douglas uncovers the underlying reasons for lack of consistency and helps traders overcome the ingrained mental habits that cost them money.

He takes on the myths of the market and exposes them one by one teaching traders to look beyond random outcomes, to understand the true realities of risk, and to be comfortable with the “probabilities” of market movement that governs all market speculation.”

Technical Analysis and Stock Market Profits

“Richard W Schabacker’s great work, Technical Analysis & Stock Market Profits represents one of the finest works ever produced on Technical Analysis. It is as alive, vital and instructional today, as the day it was written.”

 

 

The Little Book of Common Sense Investing

“The best-selling investing “bible” offers new information, new insights, and new perspectives.

The Little Book of Common Sense Investing is the classic guide to getting smart about the market. Legendary mutual fund  pioneer John C. Bogle reveals his key to getting more out of investing: low-cost index funds.

Bogle describes the simplest and most effective investment strategy for building wealth over the long term: buy and hold, at very low cost, a mutual fund that tracks a broad stock market Index such as the S&P 500.

While the stock market has tumbled and then soared since the first edition of Little Book of Common Sense was published in April 2007, Bogle’s investment principles have endured and served investors well.

This tenth anniversary edition includes updated data and new information but maintains the same long-term perspective as in its predecessor.

Bogle has also added two new chapters designed to provide further guidance to investors:  one on asset allocation, the other on retirement investing.

A portfolio focused on index funds is the only investment that effectively guarantees your fair share of stock market returns.

This strategy is favored by Warren Buffett, who said this about Bogle: “If a statue is ever erected to honor the person who has done the most for American investors, the hands-down choice should be Jack Bogle.

For decades, Jack has urged investors to invest in ultra-low-cost index funds. . . . Today, however, he has the satisfaction of knowing that he helped millions of investors realize far better returns on their savings than they otherwise would have earned. He is a hero to them and to me.”

Bogle shows you how to make index investing work for you and help you achieve your financial goals, and finds support from some of the world’s best financial minds: not only Warren Buffett, but Benjamin Graham, Paul Samuelson, Burton Malkiel, Yale’s David Swensen, Cliff Asness of AQR, and many others.

This new edition of The Little Book of Common Sense Investing offers you the same solid strategy as its predecessor for building your financial future.

• Build a broadly diversified, low-cost portfolio without the risks of individual stocks, manager selection, or sector rotation.
• Forget the fads and marketing hype, and focus on what works in the real world.
• Understand that stock returns are generated by three sources (dividend yield, earnings growth, and change in market valuation) in order to establish rational expectations for stock returns over the coming decade.
• Recognize that in the long run, business reality  trumps market expectations.
• Learn how to harness the magic of compounding returns while avoiding the tyranny of compounding costs.

While index investing allows you to sit back and let the market do the work for you, too many investors trade frantically, turning a winner’s game into a loser’s game. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing is a solid guidebook to your financial future.”

The Disciplined Trader

“One of the first books to address the psychological nature of how successful traders think – The Disciplined Trader is now an industry classic.

In this ground-breaking work published in 1990 – Douglas examines the causes as to why most traders cannot raise and keep their equity on a consistent basis – and brings the reader to practical and unique conclusions as to how to go about changing any limiting mindset.

The trader is taken through a step-by-step process to breakthrough those queries – and begin to understand that their very thoughts may be limiting their ability to accumulate and succeed at trading.”

How to Make Money in Stocks: A Winning System in Good Times and Bad

“Anyone can learn to invest wisely with this bestselling investment system!

Through every type of market, William J. O’Neil’s national bestseller, How to Make Money in Stocks, has shown over 2 million investors the secrets to building wealth. O’Neil’s powerful CAN SLIM Investing System―a proven 7-step process for minimizing risk and maximizing gains―has influenced generations of investors.

Based on a major study of market winners from 1880 to 2009, this expanded edition gives you:

• Proven techniques for finding winning stocks before they make big price gains.
• Tips on picking the best stocks, mutual funds, and ETFs to maximize your gains.
• 100 new charts to help you spot today’s most profitable trends.”

Common Sense on Mutual Funds

“John C. Bogle shares his extensive insights on investing in mutual funds.

Since the first edition of Common Sense on Mutual Funds was published in 1999, much has changed, and no one is more aware of this than mutual fund pioneer John Bogle.

Now, in this completely updated Second Edition, Bogle returns to take another critical look at the mutual fund industry and help investors navigate their way through the staggering array of investment alternatives that are available to them.

Written in a straightforward and accessible style, this reliable resource examines the fundamentals of mutual fund investing in today’s turbulent market environment and offers timeless advice in building an investment portfolio.

Along the way, Bogle shows you how simplicity and common sense invariably trump costly complexity, and how a low cost, broadly diversified portfolio is virtually assured of outperforming the vast majority of Wall Street professionals over the long-term.

• Written by respected mutual fund industry legend John C. Bogle.
• Discusses the timeless fundamentals of investing that apply in any type of market.
• Reflects on the structural and regulatory changes in the mutual fund industry.
• Other titles by Bogle: The Little Book of Common Sense Investing and Enough.

Securing your financial future has never seemed more difficult, but you’ll be a better investor for having read the Second Edition of Common Sense on Mutual Funds.”

The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing

“The irreverent guide to investing, Boglehead style.

The Boglehead’s Guide to Investing is a DIY handbook that espouses the sage investment wisdom of John C. Bogle.

This witty and wonderful book offers contrarian advice that provides the first step on the road to investment success, illustrating how relying on typical “common sense” promoted by Wall Street is destined to leave you poorer.

This updated edition includes new information on backdoor Roth IRAs and ETFs as mainstream buy and hold investments, estate taxes and gifting, plus changes to the laws regarding Traditional and Roth IRAs, and 401k and 403b retirement plans.

With warnings and principles both precisely accurate and grandly counterintuitive, the Boglehead authors show how beating the market is a zero-sum game.

Investing can be simple, but it’s certainly not simplistic. Over the course of twenty years, the followers of John C. Bogle have evolved from a loose association of investors to a major force with the largest and most active non-commercial financial forum on the Internet.

The Boglehead’s Guide to Investing brings that communication to you with comprehensive guidance to the investment prowess on display at Bogleheads.org.

You’ll learn how to craft your own investment strategy using the Bogle-proven methods that have worked for thousands of investors, and how to:

• Choose a sound financial lifestyle and diversify your portfolio.
• Start early, invest regularly, and know what you’re buying.
• Preserve your buying power, keeping costs and taxes low.
• Throw out the “good” advice promoted by Wall Street that leads to investment failure.

Financial markets are essentially closed systems in which one’s gain garners another’s loss. Investors looking for a roadmap to successfully navigating these choppy waters long-term will find expert guidance, sound advice, and a little irreverent humor in The Boglehead’s Guide to Investing.”

The Black Swan

“A black swan is an event, positive or negative, that is deemed improbable yet causes massive consequences.

In this groundbreaking and prophetic book, Taleb shows in a playful way that Black Swan events explain almost everything about our world, and yet we—especially the experts—are blind to them.

In this second edition, Taleb has added a new essay, On Robustness and Fragility, which offers tools to navigate and exploit a Black Swan world.”

Jim Cramer’s Get Rich Carefully

“Mad Money host Jim Cramer shows you how to turn your savings into real, lasting wealth.

Tired of phony promises about getting rich quickly? How about trying something different? How about going for lasting wealth—and doing it the cautious way?

In Get Rich Carefully, Jim Cramer draws on his unparalleled knowledge of the stock market to help you navigate our recovering economy and make big money without taking big risks.

In plain English, Cramer lays it on the line. No-waffling, no on-the-one-hand-or-the-other hedging, just the straight stuff. He names names, highlights individual and sector plays, identifies the long-term investing themes—and explains how to develop the discipline you need to exploit them.

An invaluable personal finance book, Get Rich Carefully is your guide to turning your savings into real, lasting wealth in a practical, highly readable, and entertaining way.”

Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist

“Since its hardcover publication in August of 1995, Buffett has appeared on the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Seattle Times, Newsdayand Business Week bestseller lists.

Starting from scratch, simply by picking stocks and companies for investment, Warren Buffett amassed one of the epochal fortunes of the twentieth century—an astounding net worth of $10 billion, and counting.

His awesome investment record has made him a cult figure popularly known for his seeming contradictions: a billionaire who has a modest lifestyle, a phenomenally successful investor who eschews the revolving-door trading of modern Wall Street, a brilliant dealmaker who cultivates a homespun aura.

Journalist Roger Lowenstein draws on three years of unprecedented access to Buffett’s family, friends, and colleagues to provide the first definitive, inside account of the life and career of this American original.

Buffett explains Buffett’s investment strategy—a long-term philosophy grounded in buying stock in companies that are undervalued on the market and hanging on until their worth invariably surfaces—and shows how it is a reflection of his inner self.”

Trade Like a Stock Market Wizard: How to Achieve Super Performance in Stocks in Any Market

“For the first time ever, U.S. Investing Champion Mark Minervini reveals the proven, time-tested trading system he used to achieve triple-digit returns for five consecutive years, averaging 220% per year for a 33,500% compounded total return.

In Trade Like a Stock Market Wizard, Minervini unveils his trademarked stock market method SEPA, which provides outsized returns in virtually every market by combining careful risk management, self-analysis, and perseverance.

He explains in detail how to select precise entry points and preserve capital – for consistent triple digit returns.”

The Little Book That Beats the Market

“Two years in MBA school won’t teach you how to double the market’s return. Two hours with The Little Book That Beats the Market will.

In The Little Book, Joel Greenblatt, Founder and Managing Partner at Gotham Capital (with average annualized returns of 40% for over 20 years), does more than simply set out the basic principles for successful stock market investing.

He provides a “magic formula” that is easy to use and makes buying good companies at bargain prices automatic.

Though the formula has been extensively tested and is a breakthrough in the academic and professional world, Greenblatt explains it using 6th grade math, plain language and humor.

You’ll learn how to use this low risk method to beat the market and professional managers by a wide margin.

You’ll also learn how to view the stock market, why success eludes almost all individual and professional investors, and why the formula will continue to work even after everyone “knows” it.”

Stocks on the Move: Beating the Market with Hedge Fund Momentum Strategies

“Beating the stock market isn’t very difficult. Yet almost all mutual funds consistently fail.

Hedge fund manager Andreas F. Clenow takes you behind the scenes to show you why this is the case and how anyone can beat the mutual funds. Momentum investing has been one of very few ways of consistently beating the markets.

This book offers you a unique back stage pass, guiding you through how established hedge funds achieve their results. The stock markets are widely misunderstood.

Buying and selling stocks seems so simple. We all know what stocks are and what the companies produce. We’re told that stocks always go up in the long run and that everyone should be in the stock markets. Oversimplifications like that can end up costing you.”

The Art and Science of Technical Analysis: Market Structure, Price Action and Trading Strategies

“A breakthrough trading book that provides powerful insights on profitable technical patterns and strategies.

The Art and Science of Technical Analysis is a groundbreaking work that bridges the gaps between the academic view of markets, technical analysis, and profitable trading.

The book explores why randomness prevails in markets most, but not all, of the time and how technical analysis can be used to capture statistically validated patterns in certain types of market conditions.

The belief of the book is that buying and selling pressure causes patterns in prices, but that these technical patterns are only effective in the presence of true buying/selling imbalance.

The Art and Science of Technical Analysis is supported by extensive statistical analysis of the markets, which will debunk some tools and patterns such as Fibonacci analysis, and endorse other tools and trade setups.

In addition, this reliable resource discusses trader psychology and trader learning curves based on the author’s extensive experience as a trader and trainer of traders.

• Offers serious traders a way to think about market problems, understand their own performance, and help find a more productive path forward
• Includes extensive research to validate specific money-making patterns and strategies
• Written by an experienced market practitioner who has trained and worked with many top traders

Filled with in-depth insights and practical advice, The Art and Science of Technical Analysis will give you a realistic sense of how markets behave, when and how technical analysis works, and what it really takes to trade successfully.”

The Most Important Thing Illuminated: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor

“Howard Marks’s The Most Important Thing distilled the investing insight of his celebrated client memos into a single volume and, for the first time, made his time-tested philosophy available to general readers.

In this edition, Marks’s wisdom is joined by the comments, insights, and counterpoints of four renowned investors and investment educators: Christopher C. Davis (Davis Funds), Joel Greenblatt (Gotham Capital), Paul Johnson (Nicusa Capital), and Seth A. Klarman (Baupost Group).

These experts lend insight into such concepts as “second-level thinking,” the price/value relationship, patient opportunism, and defensive investing. Marks also adds his own annotations, expanding on his book’s original themes and issues.

A new chapter addresses the importance of reasonable expectations, and a foreword by Bruce C. Greenwald, called “a guru to Wall Street’s gurus” by the New York Times, speaks on value investing, productivity, and the economics of information.”

Trend Following: Learn to Make Millions in Up or Down Markets

“Michael Covel is the author of five books: including the international bestseller, Trend Following and his investigative narrative, The Complete TurtleTrader.

Fascinated by traders that quietly generate spectacular returns, those going against the grain of investment orthodoxy, he has uncovered astonishing insights about how they think, strategize and execute their systems.

His cutting-edge and unorthodox perspectives have garnered international acclaim and have earned him invitations with: China Asset Management Co., Ltd., GIC Private Limited (Singapore sovereign wealth fund), BM&F Bovespa, Managed Funds Association, Bank of China Investment Management, Market Technicians Association.

He also has the distinction of interviewing four Nobel Prize winners in economics, including Daniel Kahneman and Harry Markowitz and has been featured by major press, including: The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, CCTV, The Straits Times and Fox Business.

Covel’s Trend Following Podcast now has over 2.5M listens (trendfollowing.com/podcast) and has ranked as high as #2 on iTunes. He splits his time across USA and Asia and sees location independence as our future.”

The Complete Turtle Trader: How 23 Novice Investors Became Overnight Millionaires

“This is the true story behind Wall Street legend Richard Dennis, his disciples, the Turtles, and the trading techniques that made them millionaires.

What happens when ordinary people are taught a system to make extraordinary money? Richard Dennis made a fortune on Wall Street by investing according to a few simple rules.

Convinced that great trading was a skill that could be taught to anyone, he made a bet with his partner and ran a classified ad in the Wall Street Journal looking for novices to train.

His recruits, later known as the Turtles, had anything but traditional Wall Street backgrounds; they included a professional blackjack player, a pianist, and a fantasy game designer.

For two weeks, Dennis taught them his investment rules and philosophy, and set them loose to start trading, each with a million dollars of his money.

By the time the experiment ended, Dennis had made a hundred million dollars from his Turtles and created one killer Wall Street legend.

In The Complete Turtle Trader, Michael W. Covel, bestselling author of Trend Following and managing editor of TurtleTrader.com, the leading website on the Turtles, tells their riveting story with the first ever on the record interviews with individual Turtles.

He describes how Dennis interviewed and selected his students, details their education and experiences while working for him, and breaks down the Turtle system and rules in full.

He reveals how they made astounding fortunes, and follows their lives from the original experiment to the present day. Some have grown even wealthier than ever, and include some of today’s top hedge fund managers.

Equally important are those who passed along their approach to a second generation of Turtles, proving that the Turtles’ system truly is reproducible, and that anyone with the discipline and the desire to succeed can do as well as—or even better than—Wall Street’s top hedge fund wizards.

In an era full of slapdash investing advice and promises of hot stock tips for “the next big thing,” as popularized by pundits like Jim Cramer of Mad Money, the easy-to-follow objective rules of the TurtleTrader stand out as a sound guide for truly making the most out of your money.

These rules worked – and still work today – for the Turtles, and any other investor with the desire and commitment to learn from one of the greatest investing stories of all time.”

Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques

“A form of technical analysis, Japanese candlestick charts are a versatile tool that can be fused with any other technical tool, and will help improve any technician’s market analysis.

They can be used for speculation and hedging, for futures, equities or anywhere technical analysis is applied. Seasoned technicians will discover how joining Japanese candlesticks with other technical tools can create a powerful synergy of techniques; amateurs will find out how effective candlestick charts are as a stand-alone charting method.

In easy-to-understand language, this title delivers to the reader the author’s years of study, research and practical experience in this increasingly popular and dynamic approach to market analysis.

The comprehensive coverage includes everything from the basics, with hundreds of examples showing how candlestick charting techniques can be used in almost any market.”

Liar’s Poker

“The time was the 1980s. The place was Wall Street. The game was called Liar’s Poker.

Michael Lewis was fresh out of Princeton and the London School of Economics when he landed a job at Salomon Brothers, one of Wall Street’s premier investment firms.

During the next three years, Lewis rose from callow trainee to bond salesman, raking in millions for the firm and cashing in on a modern-day gold rush.

Liar’s Poker is the culmination of those heady, frenzied years—a behind-the-scenes look at a unique and turbulent time in American business.

From the frat-boy camaraderie of the forty-first-floor trading room to the killer instinct that made ambitious young men gamble everything on a high-stakes game of bluffing and deception, here is Michael Lewis’s knowing and hilarious insider’s account of an unprecedented era of greed, gluttony, and outrageous fortune.”

Fooled by Randomness

“Fooled by Randomness is a standalone book in Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s landmark Incerto series, an investigation of opacity, luck, uncertainty, probability, human error, risk, and decision-making in a world we don’t understand.

The other books in the series are The Black Swan, Antifragile, Skin in the Game, and The Bed of Procrustes.

Fooled by Randomness is the word-of-mouth sensation that will change the way you think about business and the world.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb – veteran trader, renowned risk expert, polymathic scholar, erudite raconteur, and New York Times bestselling author of The Black Swan – has written a modern classic that turns on its head what we believe about luck and skill.

This book is about luck–or more precisely, about how we perceive and deal with luck in life and business.

Set against the backdrop of the most conspicuous forum in which luck is mistaken for skill – the world of trading – Fooled by Randomness provides captivating insight into one of the least understood factors in all our lives.

Writing in an entertaining narrative style, the author tackles major intellectual issues related to the underestimation of the influence of happenstance on our lives.

The book is populated with an array of characters, some of whom have grasped, in their own way, the significance of chance: the baseball legend Yogi Berra; the philosopher of knowledge Karl Popper; the ancient world’s wisest man, Solon; the modern financier George Soros; and the Greek voyager Odysseus.

We also meet the fictional Nero, who seems to understand the role of randomness in his professional life but falls victim to his own superstitious foolishness.

However, the most recognizable character of all remains unnamed–the lucky fool who happens to be in the right place at the right time–he embodies the “survival of the least fit.”

Such individuals attract devoted followers who believe in their guru’s insights and methods. But no one can replicate what is obtained by chance.

Are we capable of distinguishing the fortunate charlatan from the genuine visionary? Must we always try to uncover nonexistent messages in random events?

It may be impossible to guard ourselves against the vagaries of the goddess Fortuna, but after reading Fooled by Randomness we can be a little better prepared.”

Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom

“This trading masterpiece has been fully updated to address all the concerns of today’s market environment.

With substantial new material, this second edition features Tharp’s new 17-step trading model.

Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom also addresses reward to risk multiples, as well as insightful new interviews with top traders, and features updated examples and charts.”

Mind over Markets: Power Trading with Market Generated Information

“A timely update to the book on using the Market Profile method to trade.

Emerging over twenty years ago, Market Profile analysis continues to realize a strong following among active traders.

The approach explains the underlying dynamics and structure of markets, identifies value areas, price rejection points, and measures the strength of buyers and sellers.

Unlike more conventional forms of technical analysis, Market Profile is an all-encompassing approach, and Mind Over Markets, Updated Edition provides traders with a solid understanding of it.

Since the first edition of Mind Over Markets – considered the best book on applying Market Profile analysis to trading – was published over a decade ago, much has changed in the worlds of finance and investing.

That’s why James Dalton, a pioneer in the popularization of Market Profile, has returned with a new edition of this essential guide.

Written to reflect today’s dynamic market conditions, Mind Over Markets, Updated Edition clearly puts this unique method of interpreting market behavior and identifying trading/investment opportunities in perspective.

• Includes new chapters on Market Profile-based trading strategies, using Market Profile in connection with other market indicators, and much more.
• Explains how the Market Profile approach has evolved over the past twenty-five years and how it is used by contemporary traders.
• Written by a leading educator and authority on the Market Profile.

One of the key elements that has long separated successful traders from the rest is their intuitive understanding that time regulates all financial opportunities.

The ability to record price information according to time has unleashed huge amounts of useful market information. Mind Over Markets, Updated Edition will show you how to profitably put this information to work for you.”

Way of the Turtle: The Secret Methods that Turned Ordinary People into Legendary Traders

“So trading guru Richard Dennis reportedly said to his long-time friend William Eckhardt nearly 25 years ago. What started as a bet about whether great traders were born or made became a legendary trading experiment that, until now, has never been told in its entirety.

Way of the Turtle reveals, for the first time, the reasons for the success of the secretive trading system used by the group known as the “Turtles.”

Top-earning Turtle Curtis Faith lays bare the entire experiment, explaining how it was possible for Dennis and Eckhardt to recruit 23 ordinary people from all walks of life and train them to be extraordinary traders in just two weeks.

Only nineteen years old at the time-the youngest Turtle by far-Faith traded the largest account, making more than $30 million in just over four years.

He takes you behind the scenes of the Turtle selection process and behind closed doors where the Turtles learned the lucrative trading strategies that enabled them to earn an average return of over 80 percent per year and profits of more than $100 million. You’ll discover

• How the Turtles made money-the principles that guided their trading and the step-by-step methods they followed.
• Why, even though they used the same approach, some Turtles were more successful than others.
• How to look beyond the rules as the Turtles implemented them to find core strategies that work for any tradable market.
• How to apply the Turtle Way to your own trades-and in your own life.
• Ways to diversify your trading and limit your exposure to risk.

Offering his unique perspective on the experience, Faith explains why the Turtle Way works in modern markets, and shares hard-earned wisdom on taking risks, choosing your own path, and learning from your mistakes.”

Alchemy of Finance

“George Soros is unquestionably one of the most powerful and profitable investors in the world today. Dubbed by BusinessWeek as “the Man who Moves Markets,” Soros made a fortune competing with the British pound and remains active today in the global financial community.

Now, in this special edition of the classic investment book, The Alchemy of Finance, Soros presents a theoretical and practical account of current financial trends and a new paradigm by which to understand the financial market today.

This edition’s expanded and revised Introduction details Soros’s innovative investment practices along with his views of the world and world order. He also describes a new paradigm for the “theory of reflexivity” which underlies his unique investment strategies.

Filled with expert advice and valuable business lessons, The Alchemy of Finance reveals the timeless principles of an investing legend.”

The Big Short

“The real story of the crash began in bizarre feeder markets where the sun doesn’t shine and the SEC doesn’t dare, or bother, to tread: the bond and real estate derivative markets where geeks invent impenetrable securities to profit from the misery of lower – and middle-class Americans who can’t pay their debts.

The smart people who understood what was or might be happening were paralyzed by hope and fear; in any case, they weren’t talking.

Michael Lewis creates a fresh, character-driven narrative brimming with indignation and dark humor, a fitting sequel to his #1 bestseller Liar’s Poker.

Out of a handful of unlikely-really unlikely-heroes, Lewis fashions a story as compelling and unusual as any of his earlier bestsellers, proving yet again that he is the finest and funniest chronicler of our time.”

When Super Traders Meet Kryptonite

“A trader decides at the last minute that he can wait until Monday to liquidate his huge grain position. Torrential rains follow – the decision costs him two million dollars.

A company head conducts business in Europe, unaware that back home, an underling has gone crazy with his money in the bond pit. The official’s loss – $1.25 million.

Three traders in different parts of the country get blindsided in the same stock takeover. They all lose despite the fact that one of them is positioned opposite the other two.

When Supertraders Meet Kryptonite recounts it all – the ups, the downs – the rebounds. Learning from the losses of others is, perhaps, the most instructive learning experience. Until this book, there was no work dealing exclusively with losses and how to cope with them.

Thirty-five brave, forthright and articulate traders address this subject headon. The result is a must-read for anyone who has ever put on a position and wondered, “My God, what do I do now?””

The Playbook: An Inside Look at How to Think Like a Professional Trader

“Want to become a truly great trader – either for yourself or for a proprietary trading firm? This book will help you get there.

This unique approach is the closest thing to signing up for a “trader boot camp” yourself! You’ll learn by watching new traders walk through actual trades, explain what they’ve tried to do, and try to survive brutally tough expert critiques.

One trade at a time, The Playbook reveals how professional traders must think in order to succeed “under fire,” how they assess their own performance, and how they work relentlessly to improve.

Using concrete, actionable setups drawn from his extensive trading and training experience, Bellafiore walks through an extraordinary array of trades, showing readers how to maximize profits and avoid disastrous hidden pitfalls.

He covers support plays, bull-and-bear flags, opening drives, important intraday levels, bounce and fade trades, pullbacks, scalps, technical opportunities, consolidation, relative strength, market trades, and more.

He also presents indispensable insights on psychology and trader development, based on his work with hundreds of traders on a major commodity exchange and an elite prop firm’s trading desk. Packed with color, personality, and realism, this is an exciting guide to real-world trading.”

Stan Weinstein’s Secrets for Profiting in Bull and Bear Markets

“Stan Weinstein’s Secrets For Profiting in Bull and Bear Markets reveals his successful methods for timing investments to produce consistently profitable results.

Topics include:

• Stan Weinstein’s personal philosophy on investing
• The ideal time to buy
• Refining the buying process
• Knowing when to sell
• Selling Short
• Using the best long-term indicators to spot Bull and Bear markets

Odds, ends, and profits.”

When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management

“In this business classic – now with a new Afterword in which the author draws parallels to the recent financial crisis – Roger Lowenstein captures the gripping roller-coaster ride of Long-Term Capital Management.

Drawing on confidential internal memos and interviews with dozens of key players, Lowenstein explains not just how the fund made and lost its money but also how the personalities of Long-Term’s partners, the arrogance of their mathematical certainties, and the culture of Wall Street itself contributed to both their rise and their fall.

When it was founded in 1993, Long-Term was hailed as the most impressive hedge fund in history. But after four years in which the firm dazzled Wall Street as a $100 billion moneymaking juggernaut, it suddenly suffered catastrophic losses that jeopardized not only the biggest banks on Wall Street but the stability of the financial system itself.

The dramatic story of Long-Term’s fall is now a chilling harbinger of the crisis that would strike all of Wall Street, from Lehman Brothers to AIG, a decade later.

In his new Afterword, Lowenstein shows that LTCM’s implosion should be seen not as a one-off drama but as a template for market meltdowns in an age of instability—and as a wake-up call that Wall Street and government alike tragically ignored.”

Irrational Exuberance

“In this revised, updated, and expanded edition of his New York Times bestseller, Nobel Prize – winning economist Robert Shiller, who warned of both the tech and housing bubbles, cautions that signs of irrational exuberance among investors have only increased since the 2008–9 financial crisis.

With high stock and bond prices and the rising cost of housing, the post-subprime boom may well turn out to be another illustration of Shiller’s influential argument that psychologically driven volatility is an inherent characteristic of all asset markets.

In other words, Irrational Exuberance is as relevant as ever. Previous editions covered the stock and housing markets – and famously predicted their crashes.

This edition expands its coverage to include the bond market, so that the book now addresses all of the major investment markets.

It also includes updated data throughout, as well as Shiller’s 2013 Nobel Prize lecture, which places the book in broader context.

In addition to diagnosing the causes of asset bubbles, Irrational Exuberance recommends urgent policy changes to lessen their likelihood and severity – and suggests ways that individuals can decrease their risk before the next bubble bursts.

No one whose future depends on a retirement account, a house, or other investments can afford not to read this book.”

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

“Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds is a work by Charles MacKay now brought to you in this new edition of the timeless classic.”

Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits

“Widely respected and admired, Philip Fisher is among the most influential investors of all time.

His investment philosophies, introduced almost forty years ago, are not only studied and applied by today’s financiers and investors, but are also regarded by many as gospel. This book is invaluable reading and has been since it was first published in 1958.

The updated paperback retains the investment wisdom of the original edition and includes the perspectives of the author’s son Ken Fisher, an investment guru in his own right in an expanded preface and introduction.”

Amazing Life of Jesse Livermore: World’s Greatest Stock Trader

“Jesse Livermore is considered by many of today’s top Wall Street traders as the greatest trader who ever lived. For the first time, in one book: his trading secrets, techniques and stock market methods are revealed.

Livermore broke new ground in trading the market. His timing techniques, money management systems, and high-momentum approach to trading in stocks and commodities were revolutionary, and remains valid today.

Livermore ran away from home in 1891 at 14 years of age, with five dollars in his pocket, and immediately started as a board boy in the offices of Paine Weber.

He made so much money he was banned from the “Bucket Shops” of Boston and New York. He made a fortune in the crash of 1907, and later lost it, only to make it and lose it several more times.

In the panic of 1907, J. P. Morgan personally implored Livermore to stop selling-short, stop pounding the market into oblivion. He made 3 million dollars in one day during the panic.

He married a beautiful Ziegfield Follies showgirl. They lived in a magnificent mansion on Long Island with 14 servants and a three hundred foot yacht, anchored off the back yard, that ferried him to Wall Street every morning.

He sold the market short before the crash of 1929, and entered the depression with 100 million in cash.

A mysterious and secret trader, he worked out of a palatial penthouse, a highly secure office-fortress on Fifth Avenue where he traded in absolute secrecy. Once the market was open, no one in the office was allowed to speak until the market closed.

In 1935, Dorothy, his beautiful wife, shot their son, Jesse Livermore, Jr., in a heated, drunken argument in Santa Barbara. It was one of the great scandals of the era.

Jesse Livermore ended his own life with a self-inflected bullet to the brain, ending one of the most dynamic careers in Wall Street history. A complex genius whose life ambition was to win on Wall Street and he did.”

Trade with Passion and Purpose

“Successful trader Mark Whistler draws from the fields of psychology, spirituality, and philosophy to emphasize how self-honesty, self-esteem, emotional balance, and confidence form the foundation of successful trading.

He demonstrates how adherence to a small number of core principles vastly improves chances of success, and shares interviews from top traders to exemplify his point that even the most successful traders have had to overcome setbacks.”

Naked Forex: High-Probability Techniques for Trading Without Indicators

“A streamlined and highly effective approach to trading without indicators.

Most forex traders rely on technical analysis books written for stock, futures, and option traders. However, long before computers and calculators, traders were trading naked. Naked trading is the simplest (and oldest) trading method. It’s simply trading without technical indicators, and that is exactly what this book is about.

Traders who use standard technical indicators focus on the indicators. Traders using naked trading techniques focus on the price chart. Naked trading is a simple and superior way to trade and is suited to those traders looking to quickly achieve expertise with a trading method.

• Offers a simpler way for traders to make effective decisions using the price chart
• Based on coauthor Walter Peters method of trading and managing money almost exclusively without indicators
• Coauthor Alexander Nekritin is the CEO and President of TradersChoiceFX, one of the largest Forex introducing brokers in the world

Naked Forex teaches traders how to profit the simple naked way!”

Trading, Sex and Dying

“”Game theory is hot,” says the Wall Street Journal, and many of today’s most successful traders are using it to make crucial – more profitable – buying and selling decisions.

Virtually every trader profiled in The New Market Wizards uses poker or blackjack strategies in their own trading. And game theory came of age in 1994, when three economists received the Nobel Prize in economics for applying techniques from games like poker as a tool for economic analysis.

What makes these Super Traders and financial experts market winners? They know there’s little difference between strategies used to win in poker – and those needed to win in the markets.

Now, one of the most influential books on game theory has been updated and adapted exclusively for traders, with an in-depth new foreword by options pro, Dave Caplan.”

Encyclopedia of Chart Patterns

“In this revised and expanded second edition of the bestselling Encyclopedia of Chart Patterns, Thomas Bulkowski updates the classic with new performance statistics for both bull and bear markets and 23 new patterns, including a second section devoted to ten event patterns.

Bulkowski tells you how to trade the significant events – such as quarterly earnings announcements, retail sales, stock upgrades and downgrades – that shape today?s trading and uses statistics to back up his approach.

This comprehensive new edition is a must-have reference if you’re a technical investor or trader. Place your order today.”

Best Day Trading Books

How to Day Trade for a Living

“Very few careers can offer you the freedom, flexibility and income that day trading does. As a day trader, you can live and work anywhere in the world.

You can decide when to work and when not to work. You only answer to yourself. That is the life of the successful day trader. Many people aspire to it, but very few succeed.

In the book, I describe the fundamentals of day trading, explain how day trading is different from other styles of trading and investment, and elaborate on important trading strategies that many traders use every day.

I’ve kept the book short so you can actually finish reading it and not get bored by the middle.

For beginner traders, this book gives you an understanding of where to start, how to start, what to expect from day trading, and how to develop your strategy. Simply reading this book, however, will not make you a profitable trader.

Profit in trading does not come with reading a book or two or browsing online. It comes with practice, the right tools and software and appropriate ongoing education.”

Pit Bull: Lessons from Wall Street’s Champion Day Trader

“Welcome to the world of Martin “Buzzy” Schwartz, Champion Trader-the man whose nerves of steel and killer instinct in the canyons of Wall Street earned him the well-deserved name “Pit Bull.”

This is the true story of how Schwartz became the best of the best, of the people and places he discovered along the way and of the trader’s tricks and techniques he used to make his millions.”

Day Trading and Swing Trading the Currency Market

“Play the forex markets to win with this invaluable guide to strategy and analysis.

Day Trading and Swing Trading the Currency Market gives forex traders the strategies and skills they need to approach this highly competitive arena on an equal footing with major institutions.

Now in its third edition, this invaluable guide provides the latest statistics, data, and analysis of recent events, giving you the most up-to-date picture of the state of the fast-moving foreign exchange markets.

You’ll learn how the interbank currency markets work, and how to borrow strategy from the biggest players to profit from trends.

Clear and comprehensive, this book describes the technical and fundamental strategies that allow individual traders to compete with bank traders, and gives you comprehensive explanations of strategies involving intermarket relationships, interest rate differentials, option volatilities, news events, and more.

The companion website gives you access to video seminars on how to be a better trader, providing another leg up in this competitive market.

The multi-billion-dollar foreign exchange market is the most actively traded market in the world. With online trading platforms now offering retail traders direct access to the interbank foreign exchange market, there’s never been a better time for individuals to learn the ropes of this somewhat secretive area.

This book is your complete guide to forex trading, equipping you to play with the big guys and win—on your own terms.

• Understand how the foreign currency markets work, and the forces that move them
• Analyze the market to profit from short-term swings using time-tested strategies
• Learn a variety of technical trades for navigating overbought or oversold markets
• Examine the unique characteristics of various currency pairs

Many of the world’s most successful traders have made the bulk of their winnings in the currency market, and now it’s your turn. Day Trading and Swing Trading the Currency Market is the must-have guide for all foreign exchange traders.”

Building Winning Algorithmic Trading Systems

“Develop your own trading system with practical guidance and expert advice.

In Building Algorithmic Trading Systems: A Trader’s Journey From Data Mining to Monte Carlo Simulation to Live Training, award-winning trader Kevin Davey shares his secrets for developing trading systems that generate triple-digit returns.

With both explanation and demonstration, Davey guides you step-by-step through the entire process of generating and validating an idea, setting entry and exit points, testing systems, and implementing them in live trading.

You’ll find concrete rules for increasing or decreasing allocation to a system, and rules for when to abandon one. The companion website includes Davey’s own Monte Carlo simulator and other tools that will enable you to automate and test your own trading ideas.

A purely discretionary approach to trading generally breaks down over the long haul. With market data and statistics easily available, traders are increasingly opting to employ an automated or algorithmic trading system – enough that algorithmic trades now account for the bulk of stock trading volume.

Building Algorithmic Trading Systems teaches you how to develop your own systems with an eye toward market fluctuations and the impermanence of even the most effective algorithm.

• Learn the systems that generated triple-digit returns in the World Cup Trading Championship
• Develop an algorithmic approach for any trading idea using off-the-shelf software or popular platforms
• Test your new system using historical and current market data
• Mine market data for statistical tendencies that may form the basis of a new system

Market patterns change, and so do system results. Past performance isn’t a guarantee of future success, so the key is to continually develop new systems and adjust established systems in response to evolving statistical tendencies.

For individual traders looking for the next leap forward, Building Algorithmic Trading Systems provides expert guidance and practical advice.”

A Beginner’s Guide to Day Trading Online

“Day trading is highly profitable – and highly tumultuous. Moreover, the financial markets have changed considerably in recent years. Expert author Toni Turner gives you the latest information for mastering the markets, including:

• Decimalization of stock prices
• New trading products such as E-minis and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)
• Precision entries and exits
• The new breed of trader

Written in an accessible, step-by-step manner, A Beginner’s Guide to Day Trading Online, 2nd Editionshows how to day-trade stocks in today’s market.”

One Good Trade: Inside the Highly Competitive World of Proprietary Trading

“An inside look at what it really takes to become a better trader.

A proprietary trading firm consists of a group of professionals who trade the capital of the firm. Their income and livelihood is generated solely from their ability to take profits consistently out of the markets. The world of prop trading is mentally and emotionally challenging, but offers substantial rewards to the select few who can master this craft called trading.

In One Good Trade: Inside the Highly Competitive World of Proprietary Trading, author Mike Bellafiore shares the principles and techniques that have enabled him to navigate the most challenging of markets over the past twelve years. He explains how he has imparted those techniques to an elite desk of traders at the proprietary trading firm he co-founded. In doing so, he lifts the veil on the inner workings of his firm, shedding light on the challenges of prop trading and insight on why traders succeed or fail.

An important contribution to trading literature, the book will help all traders by:

• Emphasizing the development of skills that are critical to success, such as the fundamentals of One Good Trade, Reading the Tape, and finding Stocks In Play
• Outlining the factors that really make the difference between a consistently profitable trader and one who underperforms
• Sharing entertaining, hysterical, and page turning stories of traders who have excelled or failed and why, many trained by the author, with an essential trading principle wrapped inside

Becoming a better trader takes discipline, skill development, and statistically profitable trading strategies, and this book will show you how to develop all three.”

Best Trading Books – Summary

We really hope this list of the best trading books has been useful to you. We’ve given you a range of different books here. As ever, it really depends on what you’re looking to learn and what your goals are.

These books will give you glimpses into worlds that you maybe haven’t considered yet and reading just a few of these will put you ahead of 99% of other people. Because most people aren’t trying to advance their knowledge and wisdom.

So whether you’re a trader, a business owner, or anything else, these trading books will help you out.

What did we miss? If we missed out your favorite trading book, let us know in the comments below.