As Jesse Livermore said: “Trading is not a game for the stupid, the mentally lazy, the person of inferior emotional balance, or for the get-rich-quick adventurer.” In other words, to excel in the stock market, you have to work hard, have emotional control, and develop confidence in your strategy. I constantly get asked to recommend books that can help with these areas of trading. There are so many good ones out there, but here are a few that I suggest.
(If you click on the titles, you can get a more detailed description from Amazon.com).
How to Make Money in Stocks (4th Edition), William O’Neil
How to Trade in Stocks, Jesse Livermore
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, Edwin Lefevre
The Disciplined Trader, Mark Douglas
Trading in the Zone, Mark Douglas
Trader Vic-Methods of a Wall Street Master, Victor Sperandeo
Trader Vic II-Principles of Professional Speculation, Victor Sperandeo
How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market, Nicolas Darvas
The Battle for Investment Survival, Gerald Loeb
Confessions of a Street Addict, James Cramer
There are 3 Market Wizards books all written by Jack Schwager:
Market Wizards
The New Market Wizards
Stock Market Wizards
Confidence and emotional control are extremely important in order to become a successful trader. I believe the ideas taught in the following “self-help” books can help develop that “mental toughness” that’s needed. The concepts learned can also be applied to many areas of our lives:
Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill
You’ll See It When You Believe It, Dr. Wayne Dyer
The Power of Positive Thinking, Norman Vincent Peale
The Magic of Thinking Big, David Schwartz
Awaken the Giant Within, Anthony Robbins
Archives of “edwin lefevre” tag
rssTrading Psychology
Your biggest enemy, when trading, is within yourself. Success will only come when you learn to control your emotions. Edwin Lefevre’s
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator (1923) offers advice that still applies today.
Caution
Excitement (and fear of missing an opportunity) often persuade us to enter the market before it is safe to do so. After a down-trend a number of rallies may fail before one eventually carries through. Likewise, the emotional high of a profitable trade may blind us to signs that the trend is reversing.
Patience
Wait for the right market conditions before trading. There are times when it is wise to stay out of the market and observe from the sidelines.
Conviction
Have the courage of your convictions: Take steps to protect your profits when you see that a trend is weakening, but sit tight and don’t let fear of losing part of your profit cloud your judgment. There is a good chance that the trend will resume its upward climb.
Detachment
Concentrate on the technical aspects rather than on the money. If your trades are technically correct, the profits will follow.
Stay emotionally detached from the market. Avoid getting caught up in the short-term excitement. Screen-watching is a tell-tale sign: if you continually check prices or stare at charts for hours it is a sign that you are unsure of your strategy and are likely to suffer losses.
Focus
Focus on the longer time frames and do not try to catch every short-term fluctuation. The most profitable trades are in catching the large trends.
Expect the unexpected
Investing involves dealing with probabilities ? not certainties. No one can predict the market correctly every time. Avoid gamblers? logic.
Average up – not down
If you increase your position when price goes against you, you are liable to compound your losses. When price starts to move it is likely to continue in that direction. Rather increase your exposure when the market proves you right and moves in your favor.
Limit your losses
Use stop-losses to protect your funds. When the stop loss is triggered, act immediately – don’t hesitate.
The biggest mistake you can make is to hold on to falling stocks, hoping for a recovery. Falling stocks have a habit of declining way below what you expected them to. Eventually you are forced to sell, decimating your capital.
Human nature being what it is, most traders and investors ignore these rules when they first start out. It can be an expensive lesson.
Control your emotions and avoid being swept along with the crowd. Make consistent decisions based on sound technical analysis.
The Virtue of Patience
Waiting for the right opportunity increases the probability of success. You don’t always have to be in the market. As Edwin Lefevre put it in his classic Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, “There is the plain fool who does the wrong thing at all times anywhere, but there is the Wall Street fool who thinks he must trade all the time.”
One of the more colorful descriptions of patience in trading was offered by Jim Rogers in Market Wizards: “I just wait until there is money lying in the comer, and all I have to do is go over there and pick it up.” In other words, until he is so sure of a trade that it seems as easy as picking money off the floor, he does nothing.
Six trading lessons from speculator Jesse Livermore
Stock operator’s reminiscences useful in today’s market
If you ask traders to choose the most influential trading book, more than likely, they’ll mention Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin LeFevre. This book describes the experiences of one of the world’s greatest stock speculators, Jesse Livermore.
Many of the anecdotal lessons included in the book are well known to experienced traders. For example: the market is always right; don’t over-trade; never argue with the tape; use stop losses, and always trade with the primary trend of the market.
Almost anyone can learn the mechanics of trading. It’s the psychological pitfalls that make trading one of the most challenging activities. No matter your skill level, it’s important to remember and obey the rules of engagement — another word for discipline.
With that in mind, this book contains dozens of important lessons. Here are a few of my favorites:
1. Learn how to lose
Livermore (speaking through the fictional character of Larry Livingston) complains how he’s made a series of trading mistakes that cost him a lot of money, although he wasn’t completely wiped out. The losses, he admits, were painful but educational:
“There is nothing like losing all you have in the world for teaching you what not to do,” he says. “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.”
After going broke three times in less than two years, Livermore has this advice: “Being broke is a very efficient educational agency.” He says that you learn little from your winners because they often take care of themselves. It’s the losers that will teach you lessons to last a lifetime. And as long as you don’t make the same mistake twice, you always have the opportunity to trade another day. (more…)
Ten Anecdotal/Historical Book Ideas for Investors
About a month or so ago, I finally got around to reading Marty Schwartz’s classic, Pit Bull, which I can best describe as a colorful autobiography that uses the 1980s options world as a palette for many amusing anecdotes that are expertly conveyed. The book was such a fun read that I went through the whole thing in no more than 2-3 days, cobbling together bits and pieces of ‘free time’ in order to do so.
Schwartz’s book is pure entertainment and touches only briefly on methodologies and techniques, yet I was able to pull quite a few investment-related nuggets from it in a short period of time, with the added benefit that the learning process was all fun and no pain. The process got me thinking that perhaps the fastest way to effortlessly bombard the brain with useful investment ideas are those easy reads that provide a personal historical window into the markets.
I am contrasting this process with the process I went through in trying to read and digest the ideas in Alan Farley’s The Master Swing Trader, which, despite the many interesting ideas, is about as fun to trudge through as Hegel.
With this in mind, I offer the following ten books as relatively effortless ways to cross-pollinate your investment thinking with that of some of the better minds in the field, both past and present.
Roughly in order of how quick and easy they are to read:
- How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market (Nicolas Darvas) – You can probably read this book in a little over an hour. There are only a few salient ideas, but these are destined to stick with you long after you have read the book. I also found that the path Darvas took along the way to developing his system bears a strong resemblance to my own.
- Pit Bull (Marty Schwartz) – A fast-moving and superbly written account of a champion options trader. A great companion for a cross-country plane trip.
- Reminiscences of a Stock Operator (Edwin Lefevre) – This is on almost everyone’s reading list, so I will say little about it, other than to point out that it is chock full of insight, yet still reads like a novel.
- A Journey Through Economic Time (John Kenneth Galbraith) – A very different book from the others on this list, this is certainly one of the easiest economics reads out there, yet the survey of the economic landscape from WWI to after the fall of the Berlin Wall will give the reader a lot to think about.
- My Life as a Quant (Emanuel Derman) – Another physicist who writes extremely well, Derman provides a thoughtful accounting of his personal journey through the (then) unlikely intersection of theoretical physics, finance and risk.
- Investment Biker (Jim Rogers) and Adventure Capitalist (Jim Rogers) – These two books are probably best read back to back, in chronological order, starting with the Investment Biker’s 1990-1992 world tour, then using the 1999-2001 Adventure Capitalist jaunt to see how the world had changed over the course of a decade. This is first-person global macro analysis at its best, though you may not have the stamina to do your own world tour in one sitting…
- Market Wizards (Jack Schwager), The New Market Wizards (Jack Schwager), and Stock Market Wizards (Jack Schwager) – I never thought I’d willingly place the Schwager wizards trilogy at the bottom of any list, but they end up here because they are more densely packed than the other books. Like the Jim Rogers duo, these are best consumed in small bites, on an empty stomach, leaving ample time for proper chewing and digestion. Schwager’s interview style and editing is such that he is able to deliver an astonishing amount of information in an easy to read fashion. The best news of all is that while the books are a great place for beginners to start, they somehow manage to improve with repeated reading.
The Virtue of Patience
Waiting for the right opportunity increases the probability of success. You don’t always have to be in the market. As Edwin Lefevre put it in his classic Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, “There is the plain fool who does the wrong thing at all times anywhere, but there is the Wall Street fool who thinks he must trade all the time.”
One of the more colorful descriptions of patience in trading was offered by Jim Rogers in Market Wizards: “I just wait until there is money lying in the comer, and all I have to do is go over there and pick it up.” In other words, until he is so sure of a trade that it seems as easy as picking money off the floor, he does nothing.
Mark Weinstein (also interviewed in Market Wizards) provided the following apt analogy: “Although the cheetah is the fastest animal in the world and can catch any animal on the plains, it will wait until it is absolutely sure it can catch its prey. It may hide in the bush for a week, waiting for Just the right moment. It will wait for a baby antelope, and not Just any baby antelope, but preferably one that is also sick or lame. Only then, when there is no chance it can lose its prey, does it attack. That, to me, is the epitome of professional trading.” (more…)
Right Time
People don’t seem to grasp easily the fundamentals of stock trading. I have often said that to buy on a rising market is the most comfortable way of buying stocks. Now, the point is not so much to buy as cheap as possible or go short at top prices, but to buy or sell at the right time. When I am bearish and I sell a stock, each sale must be at a lower level than the previous sale. When I am buying, the reverse is true. I must buy on a rising scale. I don’t buy long stock on a scale down, I buy on a scale up.—-REMINISCENCES OF A STOCK OPERATOR by Edwin LeFevre
Recommended Reading
1. How to Make Money in Stocks (by William J O’Neil)
This is the best stock market trading book ever written. It gives you an excellent blend of technical and fundamental analysis lessons based on what really works in the market. The strategies, methods and principles taught in this book are proven historically. This book covers a lot of ground and provides an excellent foundation to build your successful trading plan and begin your investment career.
2. Reminiscences of a Stock Operator (by Edwin Lefevre) 1923
An all time classic. This is the most widely read, highly recommended market trading book ever. Its certainly a must read for all investors, novice or experienced. Packed full of great trading knowledge. This book is full of market gems.
3. The Battle For Investment Survival (by Gerald Loeb) 1935
Another all time classic. Great trading wisdom can be extracted from this book. Learn to trade stocks from one of the best. Loeb is truly a market genius. Reading this book would be a great investment in your future as a trader or investor.
4. Market Wizards (3 books by Jack D. Schwager)
Three excellent books that feature interviews of the world’s greatest traders and investors. The books ask questions that traders and investors would love to ask these superstars of trading. The answers given are a fantastic wealth of knowledge. Covers the stock market, futures, options and most other trading venues in the investment world.
5. Lessons From the Greatest Stock Traders of All Time (by John Boik)
Five great stock market traders from various eras give you superb lessons on how to be a consistent winner. William J O’Neil, Gerald Loeb, Bernard Baruch, Jesse Livermore and Nicolas Darvis turn this book into a trading bible. Learn from the best and become a market superstar in the investment world. (more…)
Jesse Livermore :The Legend
The legend and romance surrounding the famed stock plunger Jessie Livermore has long held a fascination among traders. Livermore has become somewhat of a cult in recent years and there are several books that purport to reveal his secrets for making a fortune in the stock market. None of them can hold a candle to the book which Livermore himself commissioned (written by journalist Edwin LeFevre) entitled Reminiscences of a Stock Operator.
This book is essentially an autobiographical account of Livermore’s trading career as told to LeFevre. It chronicles his meteoric career starting with his early days as a small time operator in “bucket shops” and culminating with his heyday as a big Wall Street mover and shaker. Market students have for years combed this book hoping to find the “hidden secret” to Mr. Livermore’s successful career as a speculator but their efforts have largely been in vain. Livermore left no abiding set of rules for consistently beating the stock market. In fact, he himself fell victim to Mr. Market as he won and lost a fortune on more than one occasion. His life and career came to an inglorious end when he killed himself in the cloakroom of a Manhattan hotel at the age of 63.
The fact that Livermore was never able to crack the secret code of the stock market hasn’t stopped his legions of fans from their endless pursuit of the market’s “Holy Grail.” Had they listened to Mr. Livermore himself, however, they would realize that there is no Holy Grail when it comes to forecasting the stock market with consistent accuracy. (Tragically, Livermore himself seems to have forgotten his own advice on occasion). (more…)
Trading Books -Every Trader Should Read
The Market Wizards Series – Jack Schwager: Chances are you will find these books on the shelf of any serious trader. They are without a doubt the most comprehensive collection of interviews with superstar traders ever published. However, their dirty little secret is that although they capture perfectly a moment in time, they are extremely dated and will give you almost no insight into today’s markets or how to trade them. Their value now is in showing how even the greatest traders initially struggled and often blew up (repeatedly) before becoming successful.
Stan Weinstein’s Secrets For Profiting in Bull and Bear Markets – Stan Weinstein: This book was the first to quantify one of the most important concepts in trading; the four stages in which stocks move, which are the basing, advancing, topping, and declining stages. Despite the fact that the cover of this book has not been updated since it was published in 1988, stage analysis is still relevant today.
How to Make Money In Stocks – O’Neil: As an unnamed trader friend of mine recently said, all you need to do is review the charts in the first 150 pages of this book and you will be good to go. These charts along with O’Neil’s annotations, give you a great foundation to understand the patterns stocks form before they go on massive runs.
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator – Edwin Lefevre: Tough call on this book, only because I don’t think it is the Rosetta Stone of trading books like it is often described as. The language is dated and colloquial, which though strange, is actually part of its charm. There are definitely some foundational lessons for trading in this book, but you as the reader have to do the historical conversion in your head from venue’s like “bucket shops,” to today’s market. (more…)