Hi,
I am a newbie to forex and In need of some advice on a few good books for beginners, I am going away and need some reading material to help my progression any advice much appreciated
Sam
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I need books because where I’m going away I won’t have Internet access
But thank anyway
If you want something lighter to read while travelling I find Jack Schwager’s Market Wizard books great - the first two are Market Wizards and New Market Wizards, I think that there’s a third book, now, but I have not read it. They’re basically interviews with successful traders, I found them very inspirational and good on a number of levels, including psychology. If you want something altogether drier and weightier (guess it depends on whether you are away working or holidaying!) then one of the best TA books I have ever read is Al Brooks’ ’ Reading Price Charts Bar By Bar’. It’s pretty dry stuff, not that easy to read, and I wondered whether it was helping me at all as I went through it. Then by the halfway point I realised that my overall feel was improving. So for TA I’d recommend that (and other stuff by Brooks). He talks about very low TF stuff in this one, but I find the principles applicable across any TF.
Hope that helps.
ST
Hi,
here are a couple of my favorites (and must-read classics):
[B]Alexander Elder - Trading for a living
Mark Douglas - The Disciplined Trader
Mark Douglas - Trading in the Zone[/B]
These books are all pretty much focused on trading psychology and offer sincere insights from a life’s journey and personal experience as a trader, and in my opinion they are actually not that dry to read either. At least for me, a lot of lightbulbs went off inside my head and I got very inspired when I read these, because, in their structured presentation, they helped me straighten out my own thoughts and basically pushed me in the direction to reflect on my social upbringing and other conditioned behavior-patterns that form the rules of “the playground” in our society, but which actually hold us back as traders in the somewhat different environment of the markets.
I think it’s extremely important to acknowledge and start processing these emotional and psychological aspects of trading as early on as possible to avoid running in circles and eventually finding out the importance of them the hard way through trial and error and a lot of pain, for that’s only where the journey begins.
Some other reads I’ve enjoyed:
Augustin Silvani - Beat the Forex Dealer
Nassim Nicholas Taleb - Fooled by Randomness, The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
The first one is especially worthwhile if you’re new in FX because it may help you widen those blue-eyed and narrow views of the market a bit, even though it might tell the tale somewhat simplistically. It’s definately an entertaining read and I enjoyed it a lot! The pages just ran out too soon…
The second one is a book you either hate or love, IMO. Taleb’s condescending writing style may not get some people past the first two paragraphs, but if you want to take a step back from the absolute core of Forex and read something that’ll make your brainjuices flow, then this is it.
Also, as Simon said, Al Brooks’ ‘Reading Price Charts Bar by Bar - The Technical Analysis of Price Action’ is a good one if you’re up for some TA, but reading it feels a bit like compulsory studying, I have to admit. Still, the insights you might gain makes it worth the effort, and nobody reads a TA book for the sake of reading the book, right?.. Right…?
Well, hope you enjoy these as much as I did!
-H
I would recommend Jack Schwager’s Market Wizard books and Reminiscence of a stock operator by Edwin Lefevre, high quality books
If you want a book exclusively dedicated to forex market I would recommend: Beat the forex dealer by Augustin Silvani
Begin with Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas.
Lol yes, I have to admit it’s a little on the dry side. It took me a while to get through and I had to reread some sections. It was quite expensive, too - around £35 on Amazon, IIRC.
Worth the effort, though, if you want to improve your TA.
You can still use the school of pipsology. Just copy and save the articles, so that when you get to your no-network area, you can just put on your computer and read. There are many articles you can save like this.
from where can I get this book?
I think I have the book on PDF format saved on my computer. But I’m not sure if I’m allowed to upload it here, don’t want to break any rules.
I would second Mark Douglas’s book as well…
Mark Douglas’s book is overrated I didn’t find any of it too ground breaking as it is all obvious stuff, but that’s just me
Market Wizards (all), Trade With Passion and Purpose, Trading in the Zone, When Supertraders Meet Kryponite, The Amazing Life of Jesse Livermore, Trading Sex and Dying, Think and Grow Rich, How to be Rich, Flow, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.
That should get you started 
I would suggest this. I found most trading books to be vague or irrelevant to forex trading, with perhaps the exception of Market Wizards and Trading in the zone (good exploration of psychology and mind-set of successful traders).
Market Wizards series are just the best. The new book from the series: Hedge Fund Market Wizards just prove it, lots of valuable lessons that one can learn
It’s just one of the few I would suggest, granted some of the content does not deliver much by way of “whoa” but overall, quite good…
The most important read for forex traders is a forex chart. Understand what the chart is telling you and you will head down the right path.
Well yes, but as OP says s/he is going away and just wants something to read on their travels, I think it was a fair question and that books are a more helpful suggestion than Confucius-esque exhortations to study the charts!