This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com
As anyone who has read my posts on Move the Markets or Wallstreak knows, I’m hitting a wall in my trading lately. I’m specifically looking for something that will help me break through my profitability barrier, either by gaining better entry / exit skills to push up my Reward:Risk ratio, or by defining higher reliability setups. However, if you see a different flaw in me that I don’t, please let me know.
I need help, and help has arrived, in the form of an Amazon gift card from some relatives. So, I’m going to buy a trading book, but I need some advice about which one to buy. That’s where all y’all come in–Tell me what to buy that will help me the most!
Right now I’m deciding between two, but I’m also open to write-in votes. Here they are:
Mastering the Trade by John Carter
Techniques of Tape Reading by Vadym Graifer and Christopher Schumacher
Write me a note in the comments and tell me what you think. Thanks!
This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com
May 26th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
What books have you already read?
May 26th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
Do you want to learn about trend trading, position trading, swing trading, day trading or scalping? What do you think fits your personality and time frame?
May 26th, 2007 at 8:00 pm
@Richard: I’ve read a lot of dumb books from the library, but the only good trading books I can remember reading are “The New Market Wizards”, “Reminiscences of a Stock Operator” and Van Tharp’s “Trade Your Way To Financial Freedom”. I’m looking for a good trading textbook, really.
@Tyro: My personality–Day Trading. My time available to trade and capitalization: Swing Trading or Position Trading.
May 26th, 2007 at 9:15 pm
way of the turtle — curtis faith.
trend following — michael covel.
you’ll stop day-trading, your “account balance” will thank you and your “blood pressure” will thank u.
May 26th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
William O’Neal’s “How to Make Money in Stocks” and SpyderTrader’s “Hershey Equity Journal” (pt 1-3) on Elitetrader are both great starts for swing trading. B2C’s recommendations for trend trading are excellent, but since may of the commodities they traded require a 100k account, minimum, you may have to do some work to adapt it to your circumstances.
I’ve never seen a good book on day trading. Most books aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on, but maybe you just need to hear what you already know and these books will do that for you. I’ve never read either, so if you do read them, post a review for the rest of us :)
May 26th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
actually i was not thinking of commodities. though that’s what the books profile most.
I was thinking of trend following for stocks. I’ve been tinkering with couple of mechanical trading systems for about a year and then was amused when i read the books and saw the exact systems discussed. it is not a great discovery, anybody looking at long term charts would come up with the same ideas.
Howard has a post on his website about couple of guys at the BlackStar fund. They have a white-paper discussing trend following using stocks. They also have a fund that invests that way.
Another fund that does the same goes by the name SuperFund. I guess most successful market-neutral hedge-funds use a form of trend-following.
May 27th, 2007 at 12:52 am
I have Mastering the Trade. It’s a good book, but I don’t think it’s what you’re looking for, in terms of tuning your entries and exits.
I haven’t read the other one. Make sure they mean the same thing by the phrase “tape reading” as you think they do. If so, it may be what you’re after.
May 27th, 2007 at 10:41 am
I have read both these books. Both are pretty basic books and you would be better off without buying them.
The Hedge Fund Edge: Maximum Profit/Minimum Risk Global Trend Trading Strategies by Mark Boucher.
This Mark Boucher book has two parts to it. The first part discusses the Austrian School of economic thought and how it leads to boom and burst.
The second part of the book discusses a stock trading strategy based on earnings and price momentum.
The book has a complete strategy to trade stocks and it details it in microscopic detail with every single element, entry, exit,risk management spelled out. It also offers a very profitable strategy for short term traders(day traders and swing traders).Again every single rule, entry, exit, risk management is completely detailed.
May 27th, 2007 at 11:16 am
prospectus: take a trip down to the local barnes and noble, and browse through a few books to see what it is your looking for
i’ve read the book on tape reading, and although its basic, they offer an interesting take on volume…however, there are better books out there
The Master Swing Trader, by Alan Farley, is probably one of the best out there.
May 27th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
I read the Tape Reading book, and at the time I thought it was really great because it actually shows you a bit about how to start figuring out what the right side of the market is, especially if you have done some losing trades already. Over time, I have to warn it seems that the total number of truly useful pages is maybe no more than 30, most of which are some scalping and daytrade examples that one might find irrelevant. That other few pages is still interesting though.
May 27th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
@B2C: I actually have read “Trend Following” by Covel; I had forgotten. I have also read the original Turtle rules, so I imagine that Curtis Faith’s book is similar. Longer term trend following is not for me at this point in my life.
@Pradeep: I’ll check it out.
@Tyro: I’ll check out that ET journal. I’ve “read through” O’Neil’s book, and it seemed like a much longer term approach. Did I miss info for swing trading (1-5 days)?
@John: I’ve picked over the bookstore shelves, and I passed on “The Master Swing Trader”. I’ll have another look at it.
@Chris: I’m often on the wrong side of the market, so that information seems like one thing I need. Also, I actually prefer if a book becomes obsolete to me over time. That means I’m learning and growing.
June 13th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Update: I got the Tape Reading book by Graifer. I read on Jamie’s blog that it helped him in his daytrading, and that clinched it for me. Thanks to everybody who gave me ideas!