The irony of trading books is that once you become a successful trader, you really don't need them anymore, but they are a necessary part of the learning curve. I was scanning the bookshelves and thinking about which ones were truly useful along the way.
First, a word about the Cooper/Connors/Raschke books - overpriced, large-print books with simplistic patterns with names such as "Holy Grail". The patterns described in the book simply don't stand up to backtesting, except for one pattern known as the "1-2-3-4", basically buy/sell strongly trending stocks on retracements.
Three to consider:
1. Day Trading with Short Term Price Patterns, Crabel, 1990
2. Method in Dealing in Stocks, Kerr, 1931
3. Taylor Trading Technique, 1950
All three are technical, descriptive, and there are some good examples of practical trading situations. Stay away from the current crop of Level II bs. I'll nominate "Secrets of the SOES Bandits" for Worst Book Ever Written (if you really have to read it, just grab a chair in the Barnes & Noble for 10 minutes). Second place goes to all the Chicago futures guys who emerged from the muck to stick "day trade" in hasty rewrites of their futures systems.
Looking forward to Trader's Alan book - the samples have been great.
WS |
