If you’re looking for some good books to add to your knowledge of Day Trading or Trading Stocks, we have a couple that we give two thumbs up in review: Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefévre, and Market Wizards, Updated – Interviews with Top Traders by Jack Schwager.
Basic age-old philosophies still have merit and we would love to share with you some of the best educational material for day traders from timeless classics to compelling documentaries set in today’s fragmented market structure. The following two day trading books are sure to enrich and enlighten a trader new to the business and even the experienced quantitative trader.
- Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
This classic trading book was written by American author Edwin Lefévre, and published in 1923. Claiming to be fictional, it clearly depicts the investing trials and tribulations in the life of Jesse Lauriston Livermore, a well-known securities analyst and day trader who began his trading career at the young age of 14.
Jesse Livermore was born in 1877 into a farming family of Massachusetts. He left the life planned for him on the family farm to put his superb mathematical and analytical skills to use trading stocks. He is famous for making several multi-million dollar fortunes during the 1920’s, (over one billion dollars by today’s currencies), and then losing them several times over. Throughout his illustrious career, he amassed a wealth of knowledge that has been shared for decades through the writing of Edwin Lefévre, including the following quotation, one of many, that is shared in this book:
“It was the change in my own attitude that was of supreme importance to me. It taught me little by little, the essential difference between betting on fluctuations and anticipating inevitable advances and declines, between gambling and speculating.”
It may appear that some of these factors have been removed from the decision making process with the onslaught of computerized algorithms driving the stock market today. Edwin Lefèvre reminds us that in spite of the changes with technology, these human factors still drive the tools we use for trading today.
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator has offered wisdom to investors and traders for generations, even Alan Greenspan is quoted as saying that it is “a font of investing wisdom”. An updated version was published in 2009 with insights into the life of Jesse Lauriston Livermore.
We highly recommend this book, it is sure to please while adding to your understanding of stock trading.
- Market Wizards, Updated. Interviews with Top Traders
In Jack Schwager’s original book, Market Wizards, published in 1989, he dives into the attitudes of some of the most successful traders on Wall Street. In this new version, Market Wizards, Updated – Interviews with Top Traders, Schwager highlights new interviews with some of the most successful traders in the markets.
Schwager showcases interviews with some well known money-makers like Paul Tudor Jones, founder of Tudor Investment Corporation, philanthropist and hedge fund manager. He also features and interview with Ed Seykota, a commodities trader with degrees in both Management and Electrical Engineering from MIT. Ed was an original pioneer of computerized systems trading.
Bruce Kovner declined an interview to Fortune Magazine when they wanted to run a story called “The 11 Billion Dollar Man”, as he rarely gives interviews. Bruce graduated from Harvard College in 1966, then started trading commodities. He founded Caxton Associates in 1983, a well-known hedge fund.
Jack Schwager reveals these industry leaders’ trading philosophies, thought processes and skills deemed necessary to be a successful trader on Wall Street. Schwager summarizes what he believes to be the biggest lessons learned from his interviews.
Shwager offers a variety with different market outlooks, and each success story differing from the last. One thing stands out as a constant, however, that solid methodology combined with the right mental attitude are fundamental characteristics for trading success.
Give Market Wizards a read, we’re sure you will find it as enjoyable as we do.
Contact Great Point Capital, LLC today, in either our Chicago Office, or our Austin Office, to learn more about how we can successfully trade together with high performance results. Great Point Capital, LLC offers buying power, access to Takion software platform with excellent IT support, and the benefits of working with an experienced team.
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