The book is a thinly disguised biography of the great stock trader Jesse Livermore, but also documents the time of financial speculation during the early 20th century.

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator tells how Livermore started his amazing career when he was a teenager working in one of the bucket shops that were common during this time. He had a head for numbers and noticed how stocks reacted during times of heavy buying or selling.

He became smart to the fact that he was able to trade successfuly on what he had learnt and went on to create and destroy several huge fortunes.

Even though Reminiscences of a Stock Operator is an old book and tells a story of a time that is largely removed from todays computer controlled markets, there is a lot of wisdom that you can take from this book to help you with your trading.

Also, take note that this is the one book that is pretty much required reading for most of the traders that are interviewed in Jack Schwagers Market Wizards – Interviews With Top Traders.

Each chapter covers different aspects of how Livermore ran his trading affairs, and it is interesting to take specific note of how Livermore managed to lose such massive fortunes with uncharacteristic moves – and not do the same yourself!

Finaly, if you are still in any doubt that an ‘old book’ will not be of any use, then just check out the reviews that Reminiscences of a Stock Operator gets at Amazon.com.

Where to buy Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

If you are keen to buy the book, I would recommend the following websites for getting a better deal than buying at a shop:

• Reminiscences of a Stock Operator @ Ebay – You can often find a good deal on used items here, and I often pick up useful books for low prices.
• Reminiscences of a Stock Operator @ Amazon – Amazon.com allways has this book in stock and can deliver it quickly.

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If you are looking for a really good introduction to trading then Trading For Beginners would probably suit you. I know that I spent a lot of time reading books and websites when I first became interested in trading Forex, and this book covers everything that I was looking for at the time.

Trading For Beginners is written by Marc McRae, an experienced trader and author.The book itself is 103 pages long, Although a few pages are devoted to a bit of fluff such as the Risk Disclosure Statement and some reader testimonials.

It is delivered in PDF format that can be read by the freely available Adobe Acrobat reader. It also has comprehensive bookmarks embedded that is a small feature, but make skipping around chapters a breeze.

So let’s take a good look at Trading For Beginners:

What Does Trading For Beginners Cover?

It begins with what to expect from reading the book and an a description of the reality of trading. Basically, Mark dispels some of the myths about trading, such as it being fast & easy money, and provides some of the realities of getting started in the business. Here there is an emphasis on the frustrations and financial mistakes that many traders make that force them to give up.

Mark explains how about 90% of new traders lose their starting capital and what you can do to avoid being one of them.

Next, Mark explains a bit about the markets that can be traded, covering the 4 common ones – Forex, Futures, Stocks & Options. Each of these has a fairly in-depth explaination of how they function and links to some excellent external resources.

Then there is an overview on Technical and Fundamental Analysis, however, Mark states that for the purpose of Trading for Beginners that Technical Analysis is going to be covered in greater detail. Indeed, the next 32 pages cover everything from Candlesticks, to Trends and Support & Resistance.

The final ‘meat’ of the book covers what I consider to be the most important aspect of trading that a trader should learn – Money Management. In this part, Mark begins by explaining what Stop Losses are and how they should be used, How to exit losing trades and stay with winning trades. There are also some good chapters on Probability and Drawdown and how to use risk management to control them.

Following this there is a quick look at a few trading methods you can start using such as trend following, breakouts and reversals.

Finally, there is a good resource section and a glossary of common terms that are used in the industry – as well as a link to the members area where more ebooks and training material can be downloaded.

How to Buy Trading For Beginners

Trading for Beginners can be found at the Surefire Trading Website and is located about 2/3 down the page. It can be bought here for the current price of $49.

Have a good look around the Surefire Trading Website, because some of Marks book occasionally have Trading for Beginners bundled into the package as a special discount.

Alternatively, you can do what I did and buy Forex Trading Machine where it is currently bundled as a special bonus. Although, this offer is subject to change at any time. You can read my Forex Trading Machine review here.

My final judgment would be that Trading For Beginners is certainly worth the money if you were to buy it on it’s own.

But if you can get it bundled as a special bonus as explained above, you will be getting a very good effective discount on the main product you are buying. I would recommend finding a product where it is bundled as a bonus, such as Forex Trading Machine.

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Dirk du Toit is a successful trader who specializes in the Forex Market and imparts his knowledge in this popular 236 page book.

The fundamental message of Bird Watching in Lion Country is that you should not automatically place your trust in trading systems that are sold without a knowledge of how the system works.

Instead, Dirk lays down exactly what he has learned from experience about the Forex Market to give you a solid foundation of knowledge of how it functions so that you can take this knowledge to make informed decisions on how to go about making your profit.

To start with you need to have a professional attitude towards your forex trading. This means that you need to set out with a goal and a map of how you will achieve that goal.

Bird Watching in Lion Country also dispels some of the common misunderstandings of the Forex market and reinforces some fundamental trading ideas – one of these being the importance of information and how to act upon it.

Dirk also states that only one person is responsible for the outcome of your trading actions – and that person is you. This means that you need to make your decisions, and they had better be based on a firm bed of knowledge if they are going to be the right decisions. With what you learn from Bird Watching in Lion Country, you should have the knowledge to make these decisions profitable.

You may find that Bird Watching in Lion Country doesn’t appear to promise the immediate riches that many other Forex teachers do. However, if you take a look around and find the people who are losing in the Forex market, you will soon see that the main reason for their failure is a basic lack of knowledge. What Bird Watching in Lion Country sets out to address is to fill this knowledge void so that you can be confident and profitable in your trading decisions.

Click here to visit the Bird Watching in Lion Country website.

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I love to read first hand accounts of how traders begin by failing in the markets and then instead of just giving up, they take a step back and look at how their trading system fails to make profits and then tweak their system to go back into the markets to become a successful trader.

How To Trade The Futures Market is a great example of this type of story! Within the pages Malcolm Robinson gives an indepth account of how he went from losing £60,000 (currently about US$120,000) in his first year as a futures floor trader to turning himself into a successful and profitable professional trader.

How To Trade The Futures Market is basically split into 2 parts.

The first part explains all about Futures Trading – What it is, how it works and how to trade them. Malcolm Robinson explains exactly what the futures market is and gives a good account of the history of the futures markets. He goes on to explain the difference of being a floor trader on a futures exchange and what it is like to trade using direct access (he has experience of both).

He goes on to give an introduction to the worlds main future exchanges and explains different ways in which these exchanges are used by different types of investors to make a profit. Things then get fairly technical as he goes on to explain exactly how futures contracts work and how the trader can greatly benefit from this knowledge.

The next part of How To Trade The Futures Market takes a look at the practicalities of futures trading and covering topics such as contract size, delivery, last trading days, settlement, and the all important tick size and margins. All of this can be fairly confusing, but Malcolm explains it simply and concisely.

Malcolm then goes on to cover the mechanics of futures trading – taking a look at different order types and how to use them (and not use them) to your advantage. He also takes a very in depth look at how a direct access trading platform works (with plenty of screenshots to avoid confusion).

The second part of How To Trade The Futures Market goes into the skills and knowledge that is need to trade futures successfully.

This section begins with a chapter called Market Forces and explains about different things that affect the price of futures contracts. The aim of this is to show how to get a feel for the way the prices constantly change on the futures markets.

Then there is a fair amount of material that covers bar charts and how to read them. Malcolm goes into quite a bit of detail about this topic and explains a lot about bar charts that I was not familiar with.

The next topic is the all important issue of Volume. This again is something where I learned a lot of new tricks from reading How To Trade The Futures Market. A lot is covered about how volume interacts with its corresponding bar chart and of course how to make a good profit from it!!

How To Trade The Futures Market then covers Trends – a topic that is close to my heart. This was an interesting chapter for me, and Malcolm provides a few effective methods where the futures trader can make money from understanding how trends work.

Next, Malcolm goes onto explain how to read the current price of a futures contract. I thought this was a pretty straight forward topic, but with all his experience Malcolm is able to go into the psychology of price behavior and what affects the rising and falling price.

Reading the Depth of Market is also covered here. This was also a topic that I previously did not know enough about and was glad to be informed about.

On the topic of psychology, How To Trade The Futures Market then covers a bit about executing your trades and common problem traders have with this seemingly simple task, and simple steps that can be taken to overcome them.

The final chapter of How To Trade The Futures Market covers another very important topic – Money Management. In my opinion this is the 1 issue that can really make or break a successful trader, and I don’t think that I can ever learn enough about this topic.

If you are thinking of buying How To Trade The Futures Market, then please bear in mind that there are some great extra freebies that come with it. The first of which is a piece of software called Market Master – a trading simulator that you can use with historical or live data to practice your trading. Malcolm makes good use of this software in explaining some of his trading techniques.

You also get the following eBooks for free:

• Day Trading Mind – Covering the psychology of Day Trading.
• The 123 System – A simple trading system that can be applied to any market.
• The E-Book Of Technical Market Indicators – A guide to just about every technical indicator that exists.
• Introduction To Forex – a beginners guide to Forex.
• A Practical Guide to Swing Trading – A how, what, when, why guide to Swing Trading.
• The Pocket Book of Economic Indicators – A handy little book to enhance your knowledge of indicators that effect your investments.

I will review these books in the future. You can sign up for the Trader Knowledge Newsletter if you would like to be notified of these reviews.

Also, you can Click Here to visit the How To Trade The Futures Market website.

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Now, in the latest volume in the Schwager on Futures series, Technical Analysis, Schwager has created the most comprehensive guide ever for using technical analysis for futures trading.

What makes Technical Analysis unique, besides its in-depth coverage, is that it is written from a trader’s perspective. Schwager doesn’t merely cover the subject, he explores what works and doesn’t work in the real world of trading.

Contains a comprehensive guide to chart analysis written with a particular focus on trading applications

• Includes a separate 200+ page section illustrating the use of chart analysis in the real world
• Details and illustrates several original trading systems
• Includes a self-contained primer on cyclical analysis
• Describes popular oscillators, the pitfalls in their common use, and guidelines to their successful application in trading
• Explains the concept and use of “continuous futures” and compares 10-year continuous futures charts with conventional nearest futures charts for all major U.S. futures markets
• Contains a section on trading strategy and philosophy, including over 100 trading tips

Hundreds of charts, tables, and examples illustrate key points throughout, while the text is written in the informative, insightful, and nontechnical style that has made Jack Schwager one of the most highly regarded and bestselling investment authors ever.

This invaluable book by one of the world’s foremost authorities is destined to become the premier industry guide on technical analysis for many years to come.

Where to buy Technical Analysis

If you are keen to buy the book, I would recommend the following websites for getting a better deal than buying at a shop:

• Technical Analysis @ Ebay – You can often find a good deal on used items here, and I often pick up useful books for low prices.
• Technical Analysis @ Amazon – Amazon.com allways has this book in stock and can deliver it quickly.

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Often, it is tempting to read a little on the subject, fund an account and then promptly lose your trading capital. If this is done to the extreme you could find yourself at best feeling a little embarassed. Otherwise feeling quite poor, or at worse even in debt.

Continue Reading…

Technorati Tags: forex, forex+trading, finance, forex+books

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Schwartz gives an account of how he grew up to become an analyst for several Wall Street companies before deciding to go it alone as a full time independant trader.

He had been trading from the start of his Wall Street career, but had never managed to turn an overall profit. After talking to a friend, he realized that he had to formulate a plan for success. From here he started trading during the working hours of his last job using his unique trading plan – and after several months of consitant success, bought a seat on the AMEX to trade stock options on the trading floor.

After a while as a floor trader, Schwartz found that he was getting good at trading the market off the floor from a quote machine. He moved off the floor permanently and into an office at his brokers – All the time continuing to rack up massive winnings from the options and futures markets. During this time he also entered some trading contest and officially becoming Wall Street’s Champion Trader.

Schwarz then took an untimely move into money management which caused much stress in his life and he documents his journey through massive heart surgery and finaly folding this brief mis-adventure.

Overall, Schwartz tells an informative and funny story of his trading experiences – and much can be taken away by anyone wanting to be, or already involved in, this industry. Hear about the mayhem of trading on the floor of the AMEX, retrieving brief cases full of gold during the panic of market crashes, and how formulating a solid trading plan is the sure way to success in the financial markets.

Where to buy Pit Bull – Lessons from Wall Street’s Champion Trader

If you are keen to buy the book, I would recommend the following websites for getting a better deal than buying at a shop:

• Pit Bull @ Ebay – You can often find a good deal on used items here, and I often pick up useful books for low prices.
• Pit Bull @ Amazon – Amazon.com allways has this book in stock and can deliver it quickly.

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These interviews are split into five sections:

1. Futures and Currencies – Traders interviewed include Michael Marcus, Bruce Kovner, and Richard Dennis.
2. Mostly Stocks – Traders interviewed include William O’Neil and Marty Schwartz.
3. A Little Bit of Everything – Traders interviewed include James Rogers and Mark Weinstein.
4. The View From the Floor – Traders interviewed include Brian Gelber and Tony Saliba.
5. The Psychology of Trading – Containing and in-depth interview with Dr Van K Tharp

An amazing thing about the book is that it covers so many different aspects and styles of trading.

Even though each trader has made a considerable fortune, this fortune has been made in a very unique way – indeed reflecting the individual trait of the trader. For instance Ed Seykota was successful by employing a strictly mechanical and technical approach, James Rogers is almost strictly fundamental, whereas Larry Hite employs a high respect of risk in his methods.

With it’s focus on the many different methods that are used for successfuly trading the financial markes, Market Wizards – Interviews With Top Traders is a must not only for the new trader to gain insight into this fascinating area, but also for the seasoned investor to reinforce their trading methodology.

Where to buy Market Wizards

• Market Wizards @ Ebay – You can often find a good deal on used items here, and I often pick up useful books for low prices.
• Market Wizards @ Amazon – Amazon.com allways has this book in stock and can deliver it quickly.

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The core of Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom’s message is that there is no sure and faultless trading system out there that will just clock up win after win to set you up for a life of leisure. Instead Van Tharp puts forward a series of reasons why and how it is possible to create your own individual Holy Grail that can indeed deliver you great profits with little risk.

Van Tharp’s methods state that there is a completely different system that is suitable for every trader – and that with a little thought, research, and an understanding of your own motivation to trade and trading goals – then forming this system can be surprisingly easy.

Withing the pages of Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom, Van Tharp covers the following topics:

• The psychological biases against good system development
• Conseptualizing your Trading System
• Understanding the key parts of your system
• A selection of examples of trading systems used by Trading Professionals

One of the key aspects which many people seem to take from this book (read the reviews at Amazon.com) are Van Tharps’s ideas on the importance of Expectancy and Position Sizing. Reading the chapters on these two aspects alone could change the way you think about your trading – not too mention the affect it could have on your profit and loss statement!

Where to buy Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom

• Ebay – You can often find a good deal on used items here, and I often pick up useful books for low prices.
• Amazon – Amazon.com allways has this book in stock and can deliver it quickly.

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Darvas tells how he patiently stalked the stock market for stocks that triggered his buying conditions. And, how once a stock was bought it would be sold automatically by a stop loss or kept no matter what until it changed direction or stabalized for some time.

Probably the most valuble lesson the trader can take from this book is the importance of a Trading Plan. The reader is told how Darvas formulated his theories, observations and lessons from his losses into a concrete Trading Plan and how he carried it out – sometimes waiting weeks for the right trade. Also, using the plan to resist the temptation of profit taking early and missing out on large winnings.

Another lesson the trader can learn from Darvas is how crucial it is to learn from mistakes and to use these lessons to shape your goals to achieve success.

How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market is an extremely easy read. Don’t be put of by the somewhat cheesy title either. Even if you do not trade the book would be entertaining, and if you do, it would possibly be the cheapest $10 of advice you could receive about this business.

Where to buy How I Made Two Million Dollars in the Stock Market

If you are keen to buy the book, I would recommend the following websites for getting a better deal than buying at a shop:

• Ebay – You can often find a good deal on used items here, and I often pick up useful books for low prices.
• Amazon – Amazon.com allways has this book in stock and can deliver it quickly.

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