I wanted to share a post on books that I recommend. There are many terrific books on markets and trading. However, I recommend these books because I still remember their profound impact on my development as a student of the market–being a student of the market is always the base from which I write. These books provide the context in which everything else I read gets processed.
Long term Slopers have seen me recommend and/or quote from these over the years. My hope, too, is that this post will engender some discussion from the Slope community to proffer their own suggestions for books that have shaped their development as a market participant.
Importantly, books are like people: some settle better with our personalities than others. Accordingly, your mileage (enjoyment) might vary from mine.
- Psychology of the Stock Market,
G. C. Selden: A 1914 copyright date reminds you as you reading it that
the more things change, the more they stay the same. Though I recommend
your buying this slim volume, it can be downloaded from Google books here. While many recommend Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, all of the pith of that book can be found in this slim volume.
- Secrets to Profiting in Bull and Bear Markets,
Stan Weinstein. The charts in the book are not of the quality that our
contemporary eye would hold them to. I wished the book would get
updated. But this book is the best "must read" for new
investors/traders. The book does a great job codifying do's and don'ts–basically it helps you to minimize 'stupid stuff'. My only regret is that I didn't read this book in my first year of trading.
- The Nature of Risk,
Justin Mamis. This book will inform your thinking about risk in the
market and cultivate an understanding of time risk, price risk and
information risk. I realized from this book that my expectations of risk are counter-intuitive to what I thought.
(Side note: I read Weinstein long before
I discovered Mamis. And in reading Mamis, I was struck that Weinstein's
book spoke about similar principles. I later learned that Weinstein
became the editor of Mamis's The Professional Tape Reader. For fans of
Helen Meisler, she was mentioned in the forward to one of Mamis's
books. He was her mentor–"the very best mentor one could have.")
I'm now going to add a fourth book to the the trio above:
- Beating the Stock Market,
R. W. McNeel. Another oldie–1924. It's a slim volume that reminds us
that while the market seems complicated, it really isn't. I will
forgive his chapter on Women, Poor Losers.
I particularly
recommend these older books to people prone to thinking about the
market as something rigged against them by ranting against the
proverbial "They". Both McNeel and Selden's books address this sinister
"They". Both authors opine, and I paraphrase, that it is the hobgoblin
of minds that do not understand the speculative process. I believe them
to be correct.
Best to free our minds of such shadows. The greatest force that prevents our being successful in the market is ourselves.
I'll leave you with a fitting phrase from Selden:
(The photo is of Minnah.)