Archives of “napoleon hill” tag
rssRecommended Books for Traders
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
Inspiration
THINK IT
“What the mind of man can Conceive and Believe, it can Achieve.” – Napoleon Hill
“You become what you think about all day long” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“You are today where your thoughts have brought you, you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.” – James Allen
“Do not think of knocking out another person’s brains because he differs in opinion from you. It would be as rational to knock yourself on the head because you differ from yourself 10 years ago.” – Horace Mann, educator – How many traders feel this way?
BELIEVE IT
“You can have anything you want. There are no limits to your possibilities.” – unknown
“Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.” – Henry Ford (more…)
The Wisdom of Andrew Carnegie as told to Napoleon Hill
I find this book to have a long and weird title. This book records the interview that Napoleon Hill did with Andrew Carnegie, which talks about the 17 success principles. Let me share with you the striking philosophy that I picked up from the book. To make sure no meaning is lost, I shall quote Andrew Carnegie’s words in verbatim.
The importance of knowing your purpose in life, and how it translates to tangible benefits,
“Definiteness of Purpose involving a hundred dollars, for example, might be translated into its financial equivalent in a few days, or even a few hours, or a few minutes, whereas, desire for a million dollars might call for considerably more time, depending to some extent on what one has to give in return for the million dollars… The best way I can think of to describe the time necessary for the translation of a definite purpose into its physical or financial equivalent, can be accurately stated by determining the exact time necessary to deliver the service, or the equivalent in value one intends to give in return for the object of that purpose.”
Wealth is a process of providing valuable service to others,
“riches and material things that men get are the effect of some form of useful services they rendered. My fortune did not come to me until I had delivered to others definite values in the form of large quantities of well-made steel.”
Money has no use when in possession, money need to be used constructively,
“…men seldom profit by money except that which they earn… The good there is in money consists of the use to which it is put, and not in the mere possession of it. Generally speaking, the man who earns his own money, acquires, along with it, some of the necessary wisdom as to its constructive use.”
Embrace responsibilities and work,
“Of the thousands of men who work for me, I hazard the guess that not more than a score of them would be willing to assume my responsibilities and work the hours I work, if I gave them all the money I possess for doing so. A few of the men who work for me have been willing to assume such responsibilities, and it is significant that every one of these is as rich as he desires to be.” (more…)
Self-Discipline in Trading
Having self-discipline is having the ability to follow through on your plans and goals. Often times we get tugged in various directions and enticed by making choices that don’t help us along our path to our goals and fulfillment.
“The path of least resistance is what makes all rivers and some men crooked.”
– Napoleon Hill
Self-discipline is the ability to make the conscious choice (ultimately it becomes a habit) of doing the thing that will move you towards your goal – and sometimes it’s the hard or unnatural or unpopular thing to do. It’s foregoing instant gratification for the longer term objective. Typically, however, people operate on autopilot and this is dangerous when you have not yet developed the right ‘habits’ for success.
In the trading game, you must have self-discipline. You must look at the entire forest and not focus on one tree. If you get too caught up in each and every trade, you will lose sight of the larger goal.
The key is to care a lot about your overall trading progress, but not care too much about any individual trade.
Your Identity also plays a huge role in this because if you see yourself as someone who lacks self-discipline, then all the will power in the world will not overpower this. You are someone, in your mind, who lacks self-discipline.
So the key components to have self-discipline in Trading are: (more…)