There are a ton of websites giving you a list of the trading books that you must have read to be a good trader. With this list we wanted to give you a broader collection of books that will help you improve your life. 

We’ve read every single book that’s on the list and we believe these are certain they’ll help you become a better trader. The list will continue to grow over time when we’ve found more interesting books that we want to share with you. 

Understand that trading can only be learned by practice and experience. But reading the stories of other succesful traders will help you get the knowledge you need to develop yourself as a trader. These books will give you a lot of information so you can hit the ground running if you’re new to trading. Or they can help you overcome some of your weaknesses when you’re a more advanced trader.

“Keep reading books, but remember that a book is only a book, and you should learn to think for yourself.”

–Maxim Gorky

The links below are affiliated. If you decide to buy them through these links I’ll get a small commission that I’ll use to keep improving this site. Thank you for your support.

HOW TO TRADE IN STOCKS
– JESSE LIVERMORE

The one book that fully explains Livermore’s strategy. It cover his complete approach to the stock market, from reading the overall market behavior to analyzing the leading sectors and stocks. But also the timing and money management side of stock trading. It includes the famous Livermore Market Key, which is still one of the best methods for tracking market pattern

HOW TO MAKE MONEY IN STOCKS
– WILLIAM O’NEIL

Complete guide to the proven and winning William O’Neil’s CANSLIM investing system. It goes deep into all seven steps of the system and fully explains how to use it to your advantage. CANSLIM is founded through a study of the biggest market winners from 1880 to 2009. What signs did all the biggest winners have in common and how to spot stocks right before they make their big move.

HOW TO MAKE MONEY IN STOCKS GETTING STARTED
– MATTHEW GALGANI

In case you still haven’t fully grasped all from the original William O’Neil book this can be a good accomplishment to implement CANSLIM into your system. Matthew have created this easy to follow book explaining which specific actions and routines you must adopt to get started with CANSLIM.

HOW I MADE $2,000,000 IN THE STOCK MARKET
– NICOLAS DARVAS

Nicolas Darvas created his own winning market strategy while traveling the world as a dancer. By staying away from all the noise he was able to grow his account exponentially into a couple of million. He found that stocks tend to trade between specific prices for a while and created the Darvas box theory. A very easy to read and understand book that helps you understand price action of stocks much better.

TRADE LIKE A STOCK MARKET WIZARD
– MARK MINERVINI

By achieving a compounded total return of 33.500% Mark Minervini became the US Investing Champion. In this book Mark explains his own developed SEPA method. Which outperformed the stock market for almost every year. He explains how to find the best entry points and how to manage your money to stay in the game.

More Trading Classics

TRADE LIKE AN O’NEILL DISCIPLE: HOW WE MADE 18,000% IN THE STOCK MARKET
– GIL MORALES & CHRIS KACHER

Written by two disciples of William O’Neil that made incredible returns using O’Neil’s proven strategy. They’ve been trading side by side with O’Neil and learned from the best. They documented their trades and explain them so you can learn from them. Also they look at their mistakes and how they could’ve been prevented.

THE WAY OF THE TURTLE: THE SECRET METHODS THAT TURNED ORDINARY PEOPLE INTO LEGENDARY TRADERS
– CURTIS FAITH

It started as an experiment from guru RIchard Dennis and William Eckhardt, they wanted to prove that everybody can become a successful trader. As long as they’ve learned a winning strategy and most importantly follow the rules. Curtis Faith was one of the top turtles of the group. In this book he details everything about the experiment and the strategy they used to become

TREND FOLLOWING
– MICHAEL COVEL

As most stocks follow the overall trend it is important to know about the trend following strategy of Michael Covel. It is another proven strategy that works in any market condition. It has become on of the classic trading books. With easy to understand charts and instructions this book will help you adopt this strategy in your trading.

REMINISCENCES OF A STOCK OPERATOR
– EDWIN LEFEVRE

The unofficial biography of Jesse Livermore. One of the greatest speculators ever lived. This is a timeless book that will give you a lot of great insights that can improve your trading. It describes the variety of approaches that Jesse Livermore used in his life to make his millions each time. Also it covers the psychological ups and mostly downs of Livermore‘s very hectic life.

TRADING FOR A LIVING
– ALEXANDER ELDER

Every traders dreams of being able to trade for a living. This book is based around the three important M’s: Mind, Method and Money. You have to master them all to become a successful trader and be able to trade for a living. Reading this book will help you to discipline your mind in the game of trading. It shows the methods for trading stocks and how to manage your money to prevent you from killing your account.

CONFESSIONS OF A STREET ADDICT
– JIM CRAMER

Jim Cramer is widely know in the trading world. Famous for his tv shows, as a co-founder of TheStreet.com and a hedge fund manager. This is his own biography of how he became involved in the stock market and became addicted to the game of trading. Get a better look into the life behind Jim Cramer with this book.

TRADING IN THE ZONE
– MARK DOUGLAS

In the stocks market one of the most important things is to have control over your state of mind. Mark explains five specific issues that will give you more insight and understanding about yourself and will improve your trading to become a consistent winners.

MOMENTUM MASTERS
– MARK MINERVINI

The book is made of 130 real questions that Mark Minervini were asked by followers of him. Instead of answering all questions to each of them he decided to create a book and answer all the questions to share with the world. All questions are answered by Mark himself, but also by David Ryan, Dan Zanger en Mark Ritchie II.

AN AMERICAN HEDGE FUND
– TIMOTHY SYKES

The life story of Timothy Sykes, one of the guru’s in the penny stock world. He is known for turning his $12,000 Bar Mitzvah money into $1.65 million trading penny stocks. He takes advantages of pump and dump schemes. After being featured in Wall Street Warriors he’s been focusing on selling his knowledge online and teaching others to use his strategy.