My 3 Favorite Trading Books

Investing books are commonly overlooked by traders because not every aspect aligns with the readers investing style. Even though you may not agree with every single word, literature is an important tool for any and all traders. I want to share with you all 3 trading books that were very helpful to me throughout my trading career.

1) Trend Trading for a Living - Dr. Thomas K. Carr

Trend Trading for a Living was written back in '07 and consists of over 300 pages of trading experiences and technical strategies. Most of these strategies are easy for newbies to understand and can improve your trading style instead of just throwing everything away and starting from scratch. I think this book is vastly underrated because the most difficult part for me in the trading process was forgetting all the junk that I had learned before I became consistent.

The book covers standard trend analysis, bull/bear strategies, chart drawings, and more. It's an easy read with plenty of visuals. I'm personally a visual learner, so this went a long way for me. This is not an advanced book but is truly a hidden gem for new traders or traders who are new to trend trading.

2. Market Wizards - Jack D. Schwager

Market Wizards is an all-time favorite of mine because I was always a nonbeliever. I always thought that trading was just a hobby, not a job. The book talks about successful investors of all kinds and how they built a system opposed and maintained consistency. This is a pretty popular book in the trading community because it also explores the psychological barriers of trading regularly. Even just the section at the end of the book called "What I Believe 22 Years Later" is extremely helpful and highlights position sizing, risk management, winning/losing streaks, and how to cope with emotional trading. My biggest takeaways from Market Wizards are that risk management is vital, trading is a job, you need a competitive edge, and that losing is part of the game.

3. The Options Playbook - Brian Overby

The Options Playbook covers everything you need to know as an options trader. I know that most people don't trade options because they can be complicated, but the book thoroughly explains every aspect of it. It's also a great resource for hedging with options or evaluating risk/reward with different types of spreads. As I mentioned earlier, I'm big on visual learning. This book gives a visual representation of every single aspect of stock options. I refer back to this book almost on daily basis for guidance with my options trades.

Honorable Mentions

Two more books that I'd recommend are Making Dollars with Pennies and Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques. Making Dollars with Pennies is a book written by Max Bowser of The Bowser Report, which covers fundamental analysis. Although I'm mainly an active day and swing trader, this is still useful for anyone unfamiliar with SEC filings, financial health, etc. Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques covers, well, you get the idea. Overall, all of these books are cheap, to the point, and helpful to any trader regardless of your style. Enjoy!

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