The 6 key books for starting up as a trader

Whether you’re a Popular Investor or a new trader who has chosen to brave the market on your own, it’s always a good idea to enter financial markets with a knowledge of when to wait and of how to manage risk.

This is a list of texts which are highly recommended for both beginners and expert investors who are keen to broaden their knowledge of financial markets. Even if you’re just copying other investors, these books can provide you with the tools to analyse and manage copy trading in a more precise and sophisticated way.

So choose the right one for you – and happy trading!

Currency Trading for Dummies – by Mark Galant and Brian Dolan

This is probably the best book for beginners on currency trading. This book essentially offers a detailed overview of how the currency market works, based on a firm foundation of technical analysis and some valuable advice on practical questions about trading in a number of markets, including forex, raw materials, indexes and shares.

Day Trading and Swing Trading the Currency Market: Technical and Fundamental Strategies to Profit from Market Moves – by Kathy Lien

This is an excellent educational book on the fundamentals of day trading and swing trading on the currency markets. The book offers a very concise explanation of how to prepare for day trading and outlines the fundamental principles of technical analysis in terms simple enough for the layman.

The Complete TurtleTrader – by Michael Covel

In this fascinating book, the author Michael W. Covel tells the story of a group of beginner traders who follow the teachings and guidance of an extraordinary man, Richard Dennis, and go on to make remarkable gains. Dennis bet a colleague that it was possible to teach anyone how to become a successful trader. This incredible book follows the story of the 23 “Turtles” and explains a number of important strategies for making money on the financial markets.

New Trader, Rich Trader: How to Make Money in the Stock Market – by Steve Burns

This is a seminal book for both beginner investors and those who already have some knowledge of trading, as it covers all the basic techniques of trading and lists the various hidden dangers that beginner traders must avoid. The difference between Burns’ book and many other texts on similar topics is that here the vital knowledge on tactics is transmitted in the form of an imaginary tale that is simple to follow and to remember, featuring the characters New Trader and Rich Trader.

Monster Stocks: How They Set Up, Run Up, Top and Make You Money – by John Boik

This book focuses on trading shares, and in particular on predicting the next stock that will conquer the market (the “Monster Stock” of the title), like Google or Apple. According to Boik, to make a fortune within a year it is enough to pick out just one of these stocks that break down resistance (the so-called “breakout”). This book should provide the tools needed to identify these stocks before their value rockets.

A Trader’s First Book on Commodities: An Introduction to the World’s Fastest Growing Market – by Carley Garner

As you can probably guess from the title, this book is an introduction to trading in raw materials. Raw materials markets have their own set of rules, and they are the markets most affected by the laws of supply and demand. Garner’s book offers valuable lessons to investors coming to the raw materials market for the first time that the author herself had to learn in her many years as a trader.

All the recommended books are bestsellers and so they should be easily available from local bookshops or online.