I thought I would share our best trading strategies books (we have about 75 trading books). Perhaps it’s a bit strange to have 6 and not 5 but we found 6 books that deserve to be mentioned, not 5. Bear in mind we have not bought a trading book for about 5 years. Simply because we haven’t found any worthwhile to buy.
- The Education Of A Speculator – Victor Niederhoffer: A very tough read, but very educational. He uses a lot of metaphors from other fields and relates it to trading. Very good to learn to think outside the box. However, only readable if you have some years of experience trading. Niederhoffer’s Practical Speculation is also a very good book. Together these two books give you plenty of trading lessons.
- The Way Of The Turtle – Curtis Faith: A relatively short book, but describes in a very easy way the main components about trading. Trading does not need to be complicated!
- How I Trade For A Living – Gary Smith: This book is now rather old, from 1998, but I still find this book worthwhile. We just reread it. The reason is simple: he explains his way from a novice until he becomes a rational trader. Smith spent about 20 years dreaming about trading and trying to make it out – unsuccessfully. He explains his 33 years of trading, most of them unprofitable. I believe Smith explains a typical trading career and a lot can be learned. His methods are discretionary but it’s his evolution as a trader that is interesting. Smith is an “Average Joe” from Kentucky and a retail trader.
- Market Wizards by Jack Schwager: In our opinion not much to be learned, but instead a lot of motivation.
- Fooled By Randomness – Nassim Taleb. This guy is in bitter rivalry with Niederhoffer. Still, this book is very good. Why? Because we can guarantee you that you are not as good as you think you are. This book deals with the element of randomness, cyclical randomness and luck. Obviously, Taleb thinks highly of himself and the whole book has a sense of “upper stiff lip”, but it’s still a good read. It opposes much of Niederhoffer’s viewpoint, but that’s exactly the value of the book.
- Pit Bull – Marty Schwartz: You don’t get any strategies from this book, but more motivation. This is a really good and funny read.
One classic that didn’t make it to the list is The Reminiscences of a Stock Operator. It’s a good book, but we find those above more valuable.
We have written many articles about famous traders and trading books.
