Best Stock Market Books for Traders and Investors.

Trading is an ever learning journey and books can become our mentors and help us sail through the rough waters of stock market and it’s better to learn from other’s mistakes and experiences rather than doing that ourselves.

These books are my personal favorites and I don’t claim these to be the best out there. But yes, these should be in every trader’s library for sure.

Trade like a Monk  This is my first book. I have tried to explain the importance of Trading Psychology in it as it is the most important piece of the stock market puzzle. You would have never heard anyone saying that they lost their capital in markets because of a bad strategy. They lose it because of their mindset and bad risk management. Knowing ourselves is very important to master the game of stock market. 

If you interact with any pro trader or investor, they would tell you how much trading psychology helped them be better traders or investors. In fact, I believe that trading psychology and mind-set is 80% of the equation to being a better trader or investor because if everyone could become a better trader just by being good at technical or fundamental analysis, all the CMT’s (Chartered Market Technicians) and CFA’s (Chartered Financial Analysts) of the world would have been the ones dominating the markets. Whereas we have seen that the great investors and traders are people who have humble educational backgrounds, but have mastered their trading and investing by conquering their mind.

 

It’s “You vs. You” over here, rather than “You vs. the Markets”

 So the first book that I would like all to talk about is 212 Degree the Complete Trader by Rohan Mehta and God.

This is the book that I have always recommended to all my twitter followers and it top’s my personal favorite list. This is written in a very simple manner and anyone can read and enjoy it. This book talks about not only markets, but about our daily life as well. 
Mr. Rohan Mehta lays emphasis on discipline and patience a lot in this book. This book also has a small quiz in the beginning which helps us to understand that where we are currently standing and what we need to do to get better at trading. 
This book is bifurcated into small chapters ranging from Trading, investing, lifestyle, spirituality etc. You must be wondering that why GOD is a co-author of this book? It’s because the author believes that we should make god our partner in everything we do so that we do it with full honesty and integrity.
 This is the book which I like to go back to every now and then and whenever I read it, I get a new lesson out of it.

Next book that I like is The Disciplined Trader by Mark Douglas.

This is a great book by Mark and this was published in 1990. As the name suggests, this book lays emphasis on the psychological part of trading. The author believes that trading is 20 % technique and 80 % psychology. 
This book tells about how our brain works and why we take the decisions that we take and what to do when we are very sure of a stock or a trade and then it starts to go against our view. How do we maintain our emotions and how to remain focused and trade without any noise what so ever? This book helps a lot as we have seen that trading can be an emotional roller coaster and only the emotionally strong and disciplined can handle that. 
If we are trading for a while and we think that we have all that it takes to make great trades but we still can’t make it big in trading, books like these help a lot. We have to sooner or later realize that it’s the discipline and patience part that we are lacking and this book helps in taking care of that.

 Next book on the list is Trade and Grow Rich.

This book is by Indrazith Shantaraj. This is a very easy to understand book and is good for beginner and pro traders as well. The author of the book explains each and every concept of trading in a very simple and easy to understand language. 
This book is equally good for beginners and pros as well because most of the mistakes that traders make are almost the same. This book talks about a lot of strategies and techniques that we can use to take trades. Clear charts of indian companies are used as examples which make it even more interesting to study. 
Important quotations from world class traders on almost all the pages and at the end of the book is really icing on the cake.  
Even if you are a pro trader and have been trading all your life, you will still find a lot of things to learn from this book. It also has a few interviews which help us to stay motivated and understand the techniques of some of the world class traders.

 Next book that we will discuss is Market wizards.

This is hands down one of the best books about trading and I am pretty sure most of you guys would have already read it. This book does not needs much introduction as it is already very famous. This book is basically in an interview form that Jack Shwager takes of some of the world’s greatest traders. In all the interviews, the author gives a brief history about the trader like how he or she got into trading and what were the mistakes that they did and eventually what helped them to finally make it big in trading. 
If this book doesn’t motivates you to become a great trader, nothing can! I have read this book 3 times and still whenever I am free, I just pick up this book to pump up my motivation levels.

 Next book is Stocks to Riches by Parag Parikh.

This is a small book but it is really a great book and touches the concept of behavioral finance in an easy to understand manner. This book touches many important concepts like loss  aversion, Sunk cost fallacy, gamblers fallacy etc. 
This book will not help in picking the right stocks or anything of that sort, in fact it addresses the other important factors needed to be a better trader or investor. It is an easy read and you can probably finish it in a day or two.

 The Stockmarket Monk by Nikunj.

This is not a very famous book but it’s a really good read. I got to know about this book when I attended the author’s presentation about the book in an investing conference. 
The best part about this book is that it is a book which teaches a lot about investing and that too in a story format. If something is in a story format, it makes it much more interesting to read and the story helps to connect and relate with the characters in the book and the message stays with us for a much longer period. 
This story is about 3 investors who made a killing in stock market and then lost it all in the global meltdown of 2000. The story covers how these investors made back and much more than what they had lost and all the knowledge that they acquired in doing so.

 Next book is New Trader Rich Trader by Steve Burns.

This is a great book by Best-selling author Steve Burns. In this book, the journey of a new trader is narrated in a very simple and easy to understand language. This book clarifies the complex concepts of risk management, trading psychology and methodologies in a very easy and interesting manner. This book talks about the journey of a new trader: what mistakes he makes and how he rectifies them with the help of an experienced trader.
 When I first read this book, I was amazed as I could really relate to almost each and every sentence of the book. During my initial trading years, I committed the same mistakes and I really wish I could have read this book a few years ago. 
I believe that every person who is going to set his foot on the path of trading and investing should definitely read this book. This book is very refreshing for experienced traders as well. The author of this book is very good at using great metaphors to convey the message which eventually helps in retaining the message in the reader’s sub conscious mind. 
If I was introduced to this book during the starting of my trading career, I would have saved significant amount of my time and losses. It doesn’t matter if you are a new trader or an experienced one, you will definitely learn a lot from this book. 
The author of this book is pretty active on twitter as well and he keeps posting very informative tweets about the markets.

If you guys would like to mention some of the books that has helped you in the Trading realm, feel free to share their names in the comments section down below.