Books for Trading?

Hello fellow traders,
I just want to ask what is the best books to buy and read about forex trading to help my knowledge in trading. Ty. Happy Weekends!!:slight_smile:

These are the books that most helped me, and enabled me to trade profitably …

Profitability & Systematic Trading (Michael Harris)

[I]Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom[/I] (Van K. Tharp) - an outstanding starting-point

[I]Beyond Technical Analysis[/I] (Tushar S. Chande)

[I]Understanding Price Action[/I] (Bob Volman)

The Mathematics of Money Management: Risk Analysis Techniques for Traders Ralph Vince (we all need some reliable understanding of what’s in this book, although not necessarily from this specific source, before trading with real money)

[I]Naked Forex: High-Probability Techniques for Trading Without Indicators[/I] (Alex Nekritin & Walter Peters)

[I]Daytrading[/I] (Joe Ross) (this is an updated re-issue of an earlier book - “Trading by the Minute”, I think it was called)

[I]Trading The Ross Hook[/I] (Joe Ross) (I keep coming back to this one again and again, because it’s simple and logical and helpful, and the whole concept is based on one of the soundest principles of price action trading, namely “buy the dips in an uptrend and sell the rallies in a downtrend”)

[I]A Mathematician Plays The Market[/I] (John Allen Paulos)

[I]Fooled By Randomness[/I] (Nassim Nicholas Taleb - very worthwhile!)

[I]Why People Believe Weird Things[/I] (Michael Shermer) - this book and Taleb’s, just above, are hugely helpful - albeit indirectly - for “understanding what’s going on in forums”!

Trading Price Action Trends - Technical Analysis of Price Charts Bar by Bar for the Serious Trader (Al Brooks)
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Trading Price Action Trading Ranges - Technical Analysis of Price Charts Bar by Bar for the Serious Trader[/I] (Al Brooks)
[I]
Trading Price Action Reversals - Technical Analysis of Price Charts Bar by Bar for the Serious Trader[/I] (Al Brooks)

“Warning”!: Al Brooks’ set of three textbooks is kind of badly written and very badly edited (especially considering who the publisher is), and pretty difficult to plough through, but their content’s excellent, so those are a kind of “mixed recommendation”: I think his online video course is much, much better and more helpful and more approachable, but it’s also more expensive ($250, I think - but that’s still very good value, though, in my opinion, for about 37 hours of instructional videos):

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Somewhat esoteric at first but it has incredible knowledge for trading:
The art of war - Sun Tzu
33 strategies of war - Robert Greene
Mastery - Robert Greene

Trading in the zone - Mark Douglas

Good to read:
Reminiscences of a stock operator
All Market Wizards books by Jack Schwager

Remember to read the books and trade to optimize your learning.

Hi nyad55
I have the first three books you cite that I have read again, for lack of time. If this can help me become a good trader, I will read them before the end of the month. I’m a big fan of Robert green. For my part here is my book that I appreciate very much during my apprenticeship to become a trader:
[B]FOREX TRADING: The Basics Explained in Simple Terms
Trading in the Zone – Mark Douglas
Market Wizards: Interviews with Top Traders – Jack D. Schwager
Trading for a Living by Alexander Elder
Trend Following by Michael Covel[/B]

Hey George5
Glad that you’ve read them. Very good reads, it’s hard at first to see how it all fits in with trading to be honest.
Incredibly useful once you do manage to link the two, took me years to really understand the connections.
I’m still finding more and more between them all, I think those books I’ll be rereading for years to come as well.

Best 2 books that improved my trading were “Understanding Price Action: Practical Analysis of the 5-Minute Time Frame” by Bob Volman (clear and easy reading for newbie traders) and “Naked Forex: High-Probability Techniques for Trading Without Indicators” by Alex Nekritin, Walter Peters.

Trading for a living is a great book for the psychological side of trading but is getting a little old and doesn’t cover the recent digital revolution in trading.

You need to learn Price Action and fast… most of the chart “indicators” in FX are manipulated by the brokers and/or funds to take money from the beginners…

Both books improved my Price Action strategies in the FX market.

Both were very helpful to me, certainly. :cool:

I remember reading this a long time ago. It struck me as very out-of-date even then (though there might be a newer edition, now, as sometimes happens with “old classics”?), but reading that was the first understanding I really had of the actual mechanisms whereby human sentiment is translated into price movements. (The author, Alexander Elder, was a psychiatrist before becoming a trader.) I’ve kind of “gone off” the book now, to some extent, because of all the indicator-based content. :8:

Thanks to all of you for sharing your experience about the books that you read. I will take a look of the books that you name all. Happy trading :slight_smile:

Thanks all! These seem great.
It recently struck me that the few profitable traders I know all stick to PA and the basics. So, that in mind, I will certainly read/re-read most of the above.
One thing I can add is any book on Volume-price analysys (there are a few but have the same info, all students of one teacher, Tom Williams). I know tick volume in Forex is not the most precise thing, but can also be helpful as it is not too far off the real volume (tick volume closely resembles real volume in stocks).
Or, you can validate the volume of the futures market.


I’m reading this book since last week, its really a nice and good book.It helps me a lot, after I finish I’m going to buy a new book above what you advices to read.

Glad it was helpful. I remember reading the earlier edition, many years ago.

Maybe - Naked Forex: High-Probability Techniques for Trading Without Indicators (Alex Nekritin & Walter Peters), next?

Hey Lexys,

I have started reading some of the books you recommended in this post (started with “Understanding Price Action”). Just curious how much time did it take you to get through one book and, understand the content and apply it? (ofc this differs from person to person, i just wanted to get an idea), Thanks

Hi Grozny - they varied [U]enormously[/U] for me (perhaps partly because English isn’t my first language and I read some of them many years ago when my English wasn’t even as good as it is now). Nekritin and Peters, for example, I read very quickly (less than two days) because it’s easy (and I read it not all that long ago), whereas the Al Brooks books I struggled with over a period of 6 months or more and had to read each one twice - and some parts three times - to understand them. So hugely variable - and (I suspect) not a lot of help to anyone else, really; sorry. :8:

I am reading Al Brooks at the moment as well and I admit it’s going quite slowly. I understand it, but his style of writing is very dense (as in congested), there is a lot of information on a single page. I too often read and reread to make sure I comprehend it and remember it.

The book that Lexys suggested in the early posts “Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom (Van K. Tharp) - an outstanding starting-point”

Just finished reading, fantastic overview of Investing, stocks, forex, goal setting, money management and trading psychology… Great book and easy reading for someone starting out.

Your written english is perfect for a second language Lexys. :slight_smile:

the books are ony benefit the author

Hey man,

I just finished the book ‘‘reminiscences of a stock operator’’ which is a great first book to read when getting into forex trading.

Just read through Bob Volman’s 5-minute price action book… Really not impressed though…