It’s time to channel the former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who once said, “There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”
Tag Archives: Trading for a living
Trading Resources Books
Speculation in stocks will never disappear. It isn’t desirable that it should. It cannot be checked by warnings as to its dangers. You cannot prevent people from guessing wrong no matter how able or how experienced they may be. Carefully laid plans will miscarry because the unexpected and even the unexpectable will happen. Disaster may come from a convulsion of nature or from the weather, from your own greed or from some man’s vanity; from fear or from uncontrolled hope. – Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
This post is a trading resource dump on books for trading
I have some good books in the list. The ones that cover the psychological aspects of trading are worth the time to read if you have gotten past the basics of trading. It helps if you have traded a little at least to have some hands on experience with it. Best to start out with a few hundred dollars and build up the account as you get the hang of trading. Adding to the account slowly. I wish I had read these books in the beginning, just when I was trying the first half dozen trades, at the same time that I was learning about the technical aspects of trading.
Subject: Road less traveled M. Scott Peck
https://www.apnamba.com/Ebooks-pdf/The%20Road%20Less%20Traveled.pdf
The first section on discipline is a good read for the psychology of trading. Think discipline in terms of trading.
Subject: Technical Analysis (TA) of financial markets John Murphy
Classic TA book. This along with Perry J. Kaufman’s book New Trading Systems and Methods will be good references for the nuts and bolts of trading.
Subject: Another TA Book, Open Source
This book is a good reference book. It compiles a lot of information that is in the public domain, mostly via Wikipedia in one place. At the end of each chapter there are good notes, references and further reading. It is good to have this on hand when you want to look something up quick or for beginners to get an overview of technical analysis.
In the Markets: Confessions of a Samurai Trader Edward Alan Toppel
Worth a read, especially for anyone that has been exposed to Asian culture. It still makes sense if you’re not familiar with the culture but, if you are it’s going to be a deeper read.
Confessions of a Samurai Trader Ebook https://www.forexfactory.com/attachment.php/2566801?attachmentid=2566801&d=1510983772
Trading for a living by Elder Alexander
Very good, Elder Alexander is a Psychologist turned trader. He is also the inventor of the Triple Screen Trading System, which is outlined in the book.
This is in download PDF http://www.saham-indonesia.com/Ebooks/Technical%20Analysis/Elder%20Alexander%20-%20Trading%20For%20A%20Living.pdf
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator Book by Edwin Lefèvre Zen
There is nothing like losing all you have in the world for teaching you what not to do. And when you know what not to do in order not to lose money, you begin to learn what to do in order to win. Did you get that? You begin to learn!
Very good, a must read! This book is supposedly handed out to new employees at Goldman Sachs to read as a first assignment. I can see why, it really is an eyeopener. It is a book I wished that I had read right in the beginning of starting to consider trading myself.
General Economics and Investing
While not necessarily for trading, it’s helpful to have a broad selection of different types of knowledge in your latticework of the mind as Charlie Munger calls it. In case you didn’t know, Charlie Munger is Warren Buffet’s right hand man at Berkshire Hathaway.
Investing , the last liberal art by Robert G. Hagstrom
This table of contents is what got my attention with this book. I was a bit caught of guard at first with the topics and the connection they might make to investing. But, a short skim confirmed the author was right on target with all of the topics covered.
I didn
’t know what to think of this book when I first saw it. But, it’s different from most investing books in a good way. It’s more about building a mindset, a latticework in your mind to pull from to better think about investing. Clearly, knowing other subjects beyond economics and finance are helpful to have a background of general knowledge to be able to pull ideas from. For me, I agree as this has been my own experience. This book went from one that I was skeptical about to a favorite after a few chapters.Initially the chapter titles caught my attention, as they were unlike any ones that I have seen in other investing books.
Principles of Economics by Alfred Marshall
Originally from 1890, it’s a classic. It’s still used in some college curriculums today. This book can provide a background on economics. With trading, you need to be able to understand the view from above as well. Understanding how economics works provides a high altitude view from far above the landscape of fundamentals and technical analysis. It’s important to a least have some understanding of the bigger picture, a macro view of economics from the beginning when you trade.
This is the 8th edition of what is regarded to be the first “modern” economics textbook, leading in various editions from the 19th into the 20th century. The final 8th edition was Marshall’s most-used and most-cited.
http://files.libertyfund.org/files/1676/Marshall_0197_EBk_v6.0.pdf