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Trading and Investing Books

Complete list of the best trading and investing books, with reviews and recommendations, and best-price avenues for adding to your trading library.

Tech Equipment Vendor List and Daily Deals

I maintain a vendor list for tech equipment, books, and accessories used in trading environments, and post regular deals from these vendors for particular items to benefit your trading environment.

Recaps of Daily Trades

Follow my performance as I trade the equities market. I’ll post a recap of trades the day after I make them, along with the premise for making the trade, accompanying charts that illustrate how the trade played out, and concluding thoughts on the relative success or failure of each trade.

Trading Full Circle: The Complete UndergroundTrader System for Timing and Profiting in All Financial Markets

I recently had the privilege of writing a chapter in my friend Jea Yu’s new trading book entitled Trading Full Circle: The Complete UndergroundTrader System for Timing and Profiting in All Financial Markets. I guide the reader through one of my trade sequences that draws upon Jea’s trading methodology, tailored to my particular trading style [...]

Trades – 6/14/10

June 14th, 2010

MadDog

Trade #1 (6/14/10)
Stock Traded: AAPL (Apple Inc.)
Buy/Short: Buy
Shares: 175
Buy Price: $256.39
Sell Price: $256.92
Gross Profit (Loss): $92.75
Commissions-Expenses: ($2.87)
Net Profit (Loss): $89.88

Premise: An attempt to catch a coil reversal long after a significant range pullback. Up until this point, the overall market’s (and AAPL’s) move was primarily bullish, and this was an attempt to ride a reversal as long as possible into the close, assuming the bullish trend resumed.

Buy

Sell

Conclusion: Unfortunately, the bullish trend did not resume except for a couple of small coil attempts. Negative news related to the euro continued to weaken the overall market, and AAPL had a difficult time maintaining any coil reversal attempts. Once again, because I’m in a situation of normally not having the luxury of being able to make even a few trades per day right now, I have to really try to pick the one intraday spot where I think I can get a relatively long ride out of one trade. If the premise fails, I have to either take the scalp as best as I can, or stop out if the premise completely fails, and wait for the following day or later. This trade actually went a bit negative before having a good second surge, but there was never any real danger beyond a minor negative stop. In this case, the scalp was handled pretty well. In “normal” scalp mode (where I would be paring out with profit cushions and possibly exiting out completely with relatively small scalps and looking for re-entry points), I would have been pleased with this trade. In my current environment, I was displeased that the overall premise failed since any intraday swing possibility was squashed and my one allocated trade was done, I was still pleased with how I managed it.

Trading Full Circle: The Complete UndergroundTrader System for Timing and Profiting in All Financial Markets

May 1st, 2010

MadDog

Trading Full Circle Author: Jea Yu
Publisher: Marketplace Books (March 17, 2010)
Format: Hardback – 320 pages
ISBN-10: 1592803903
ISBN-13: 978-1592803903
List Price: $199.99

Have you ever felt that could make more in the markets? Has the success you know you are capable of been just within your grasp, only to slip away before you can lock in the profit? Profitable trading is a combination of strategy, analysis, psychology, and determination and until now, it took years to find the perfect balance of each. Never before has a master outlined how to put the pieces together in a guide that is so easy to understand and interesting to read. The key to gaining control of your trading and collecting the payouts you know the market holds is finally available.

In this rare, revealing insight into the mind of a top trader, Jea Yu, founder of UndergroundTrader.com, brings his own trading journey Full Circle and hands you his first-hand knowledge of the markets, revealed from thousands of hours of market participation. With his trademark charisma, Jea Yu gives you the key to gaining control of your trading and collecting the profit you deserve.

Literally packed from cover to cover with actionable trading tips, the appendices alone give you more than most entire books. From Harmonic Trading Methods to Triggers and Filters for Profitable E-mini Trading, the bonus material you will get will push your trading to new levels. Flatten the trading learning curve, tap the battle-earned wisdom of a veteran trader and maximize your market potential inside this groundbreaking handbook.

The Guts and Glory of Day Trading : True Stories of Day Traders Who Made (or Lost) $1,000,000

April 30th, 2010

MadDog

The Guts and Glory of Day Trading Author: Mark Ingebretsen
Publisher: Harriman House (May 20, 2010)
Format: Paperback – 304 pages
ISBN-10: 1906659710
ISBN-13: 978-1906659714
List Price: $24.99

Very few day traders make money – let alone $1 million or more – in the daily stock-trading battle. “The Guts and Glory of Day Trading” tells the true stories of twelve otherwise ordinary people who have made or lost at least $1 million trading stocks. Their triumphant and tragic tales pull back the curtain from the gritty world of day trading to give a rare glimpse of the human emotion, the lives transformed, and the lessons learned, aside from the hype. Day traders aren’t only market gurus and stock brokers, but regular people – classical pianists, burned-out photographer, moonlighting business consultants – who decided to pursue an exciting and treacherous phenomenon to achieve independent success and wealth beyond their wildest dreams. Their stories will inspire you, and – more importantly – show how you can improve your own trading strategies by learning from their successes and avoiding their mistakes. Every battle has its winners and losers. Every day, thousands of day traders take their battle positions in front of their computers to go head to head against the world’s best, and most powerful, trading institutions. There are casualties, many casualties. But there are also victories – moments when an individual trader reaches the pinnacle of our capitalist system to take a profit from the market. Making money isn’t easy – with a 75 to 90 percent failure rate, only the strong survive, and only the most savvy live to trade another day. But despite the negative press, a wildly unpredictable market, and the possibility of losing their shirts on any given trading day, these market mercenaries continue to trade, and day trading continues to grow as a profession. What drives them? In “The Guts and Glory of Day Trading”, you’ll read the astounding stories of those traders who have been skilled enough to make significant money, and the gut-wrenching dramas of those who were unfortunate to lose vast fortunes. Whether you’re a trader yourself or just a casual investor, their stories and strategies will keep you on the edge of your seat. These valuable lessons from this trading dozen tell more than just the pits and peaks of stock trading. They teach the survival skills and tactics necessary to live to trade another day. You can learn how to improve your own trading or investing techniques by learning what most of them did right – and what some of them did wrong.

Trading from Your Gut: How to Use Right Brain Instinct & Left Brain Smarts to Become a Master Trader

April 29th, 2010

MadDog

Trading from your Gut Author: Curtis M. Faith
Publisher: FT Press; 1 edition (December 12, 2009)
Format: Hardcover – 224 pages
ISBN-10: 0137047681
ISBN-13: 9780137047680
List Price: $24.99

Legendary traders like Jesse Livermore, George Soros, Richard Dennis, and Steven Cohen use their full range of powers that encompass both instinct and analysis. That’s how they made their fortunes–and that’s how you can, too. In Trading from Your Gut, Curtis Faith, renowned trader and author of the global bestseller Way of the Turtle, reveals why human intuition is an amazingly powerful trading tool, capable of processing thousands of inputs almost instantaneously. Faith teaches you how to harness, sharpen, train, and trust your instincts and to trade smarter with your whole mind.

Just as important, you’ll learn when not to trust your gut–and how to complement your intuition with systematic analysis.

You’ve got a left brain: analytical and rational. You’ve got a right brain: intuitive and holistic. Use them both to make better trades, and more money!

Inside the Mind of the Turtles : How the World’s Best Traders Master Risk

April 28th, 2010

MadDog

Inside the Mind of the Turtles Author: Curtis M. Faith
Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (March 25, 2009)
Format: Hardcover – 240 pages
ISBN-10: 0071602437
ISBN-13: 978-0071602433
List Price: $27.95

In Way of the Turtle, Curtis Faith revealed the extraordinarily successful trading system of the now-famous group of investors known as the Turtles. Now, in this highly anticipated follow up to that bestseller, Faith delves deeply into the risk-mastery strategies that made the Turtles the envy of the investing world.

Inside the Mind of the Turtles provides expert insight into how great traders combat the natural but counterproductive response to risk. Faith begins by examining the nature of risk and the human being’s natural response to it. Then he outlines proven techniques for seizing control of it. You will learn how to:

Set your main focus on acquiring gains–not avoiding losses
Place equal importance on assets already spent and those still on hand
Judge the quality of decisions based on their inception rather than their outcome
Avoid drawing conclusions using too little information

You’ll find valuable advice not only from Faith, but from some of the greatest financial minds on the scene today, including fellow Turtle Jerry Parker, venture capitalist Simon Olson, and Howard Lindzon, founder of the popular Web site, “WallStrip.” Use their collective advice, and you’ll find yourself approaching risk in ways you never dreamed possible.

In today’s economy, controlling your aversion to risk is not just prudent–it’s an absolute necessity. Economic turbulence more often than not leads to poor investment decisions. Inside the Mind of the Turtles will help you conquer the fears that can cripple even the most experienced investors out there.

Way of the Turtle: The Secret Methods that Turned Ordinary People into Legendary Traders

April 27th, 2010

MadDog

Way of the Turtle Author: Curtis M. Faith
Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (March 9, 2007)
Format: Hardcover – 288 pages
ISBN-10: 007148664X
ISBN-13: 978-0071486644
List Price: $27.95

“We’re going to raise traders just like they raise turtles in Singapore.”

So trading guru Richard Dennis reportedly said to his long-time friend William Eckhardt nearly 25 years ago. What started as a bet about whether great traders were born or made became a legendary trading experiment that, until now, has never been told in its entirety.

Way of the Turtle reveals, for the first time, the reasons for the success of the secretive trading system used by the group known as the “Turtles.” Top-earning Turtle Curtis Faith lays bare the entire experiment, explaining how it was possible for Dennis and Eckhardt to recruit 23 ordinary people from all walks of life and train them to be extraordinary traders in just two weeks.

Only nineteen years old at the time-the youngest Turtle by far-Faith traded the largest account, making more than $30 million in just over four years. He takes you behind the scenes of the Turtle selection process and behind closed doors where the Turtles learned the lucrative trading strategies that enabled them to earn an average return of over 80 percent per year and profits of more than $100 million. You’ll discover:

How the Turtles made money-the principles that guided their trading and the step-by-step methods they followed
Why, even though they used the same approach, some Turtles were more successful than others
How to look beyond the rules as the Turtles implemented them to find core strategies that work for any tradable market
How to apply the Turtle Way to your own trades-and in your own life
Ways to diversify your trading and limit your exposure to risk

Offering his unique perspective on the experience, Faith explains why the Turtle Way works in modern markets, and shares hard-earned wisdom on taking risks, choosing your own path, and learning from your mistakes.

The Complete TurtleTrader: The Legend, the Lessons, the Results

April 26th, 2010

MadDog

The Complete TurtleTrader : The Legend, The Lessons, The Results Author: Michael W. Covel
Publisher: HarperBusiness (October 9, 2007)
Format: Hardcover – 272 pages
ISBN-10: 0061241709
ISBN-13: 978-0061241703
List Price: $25.99

We read constantly about the men and women who make nine- and ten-figure fortunes in the markets-the Warren Buffetts, Paul Tudor Joneses, and Michael Milkens of the world. Do they have some incredible gift the rest of us lack, an ability to make cool decisions under fire when we let emotion get in the way, to coolly assess the impact of each trade as though millions — or billions — of dollars aren’t riding on the next click of their mouse?

Richard Dennis, “the Prince of the Pits,” a man who’d already made a fortune on the Street, was convinced that great trading wasn’t a gift from God, but something that could be taught to anyone. So one day he made a bet with his partner, and ran a classified ad in the Wall Street Journal looking for trainees. And he didn’t just hire finance professionals: his trainees — who became known as the “Turtles”– included an actor, a security guard, two professional blackjack players, a pianist, a fantasy game designer, and others. After two weeks of training, he set them loose, with a $1 million bankroll each to invest as they chose, and the right to keep a share of their trading gains for themselves, as long they adhered to the Turtle system. By the time the program ended, Dennis and his partner had made over $120 million — from trades made by complete novices. Many of these Turtles then went on to trade for themselves, and some are among the top investors operating today.

As fascinating as Dannis and the Turtles’ story is, Covel doesn’t stop there. He lays out, in detail, the exact system the Turtles used to reap their millions. And because the Turtle system is a form of so-called technical investing, meaning the Turtles weren’t concerned about the fundamentals of the investments they made, it is an investing strategy where a Wall Street operator, plugged into the second-by-second madness of finance, has NO advantage over an ordinary investor. And Covel takes us step-by-step through all the details needed to apply this at home.

The Complete TurtleTrader: How 23 Novice Investors Became Overnight Millionaires

April 25th, 2010

MadDog

The Complete TurtleTrader Author: Michael W. Covel
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks (February 24, 2009)
Format: Paperback – 288 pages
ISBN-10: 0061241717
ISBN-13: 978-0061241710
List Price: $16.99

Richard Dennis made a fortune on Wall Street by investing according to a few simple rules. Convinced that great trading was a skill that could be taught to anyone, he made a bet with his partner and ran a classified ad in the Wall Street Journal looking for novices to train. His recruits, later known as the Turtles, had anything but traditional Wall Street backgrounds; they included a professional blackjack player, a pianist, and a fantasy game designer. By the time the experiment ended, Dennis had made a hundred million dollars from his Turtles and created one killer Wall Street legend.

In The Complete TurtleTrader, Michael W. Covel tells their riveting story with the first ever on-the-record interviews with individual Turtles. He shows how Dennis’s rules worked—and can still work today—for any investor with the desire and commitment to learn from one of the greatest investing stories of all time.

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

April 24th, 2010

MadDog

The Black Swan Author: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks; 2 edition (May 11, 2010)
Format: Paperback – 480 pages
ISBN-10: 081297381X
ISBN-13: 978-0812973815
List Price: $17.00

A black swan is an event, positive or negative, that is deemed improbable yet causes massive consequences. In this groundbreaking and prophetic book, Taleb shows in a playful way that Black Swan events explain almost everything about our world, and yet we—especially the experts—are blind to them. In this second edition, Taleb has added a new essay, On Robustness and Fragility, which offers tools to navigate and exploit a Black Swan world.

Enhancing Trader Performance: Proven Strategies From the Cutting Edge of Trading Psychology

April 24th, 2010

MadDog

Enhancing Trader Performance Author: Brett N. Steenbarger
Publisher: Wiley (November 3, 2006)
Format: Hardcover – 304 pages
ISBN-10: 0470038667
ISBN-13: 978-0470038666
List Price: $60.00

Through his own trading experiences and those of individuals he has mentored, Dr. Brett Steenbarger is familiar with the challenges that traders face and the performance and psychological strategies that can meet those challenges. In Enhancing Trader Performance, Steenbarger shows you how to transform talent into trading skill through a structured process of expertise development and reveals how this approach can help you achieve market mastery.