Must Read Day Trading Books to Build Confidence and Avoid Mistakes 

This is a curated collection of books that both novice and experienced traders can learn from. We have selected titles that provide expert insights to refine your trading strategy and more completely understand trading psychology. Reading trading books is a great way to jumpstart or fine-tune your day trading strategy, but remember that nothing beats screen time.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, Trade Brigade will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.

Navigation (click to jump to section)

 

Best Easy To Read Technical Analysis Book

Charting And Technical Analysis by Fred McAllen Cover

Charting and Technical Analysis by Fred McAllen

Buy a copy: click here.

From The Back Cover

It’s not necessary to be an expert chartist to benefit from chart analysis. However, chart analysis will go a long way in keeping the trader on the right side of the market and in helping to pinpoint market entry and exit points, which are so vital to trading success. Trading and Investing with the market should always be your ultimate goal.

Whether the participant is a day trader or a long-term investor, buying at the wrong time is most always a recipe for loss. By implementing chart analysis as an investing and trading tool, investing with the market instead of against it can be attained. That is 90% of the battle.

Our Take

This is a very approachable book focused on the basic concepts of technical analysis. McAllen introduces the different components in a very systematic way that won’t leave newer traders confused. There are concrete examples with images that describe not only what we are looking at and what the take-aways are, but why the take-aways make sense psychologically from a market participant perspective. The best part about this book is that it focuses on price action analysis and not a reliance on indicators.

 

Best Overall Technical Analysis Book

Reading Price Action Bar by Bar by Al Brooks

Reading Price Charts Bar By Bar by Al Brooks

Buy a copy: click here.

From The Back Cover

While complex strategies and systems may work for some traders, understanding price action is all you really need to succeed in this arena. Price action analysis is an effective approach to trading today’s markets whether you’re involved in stocks, futures, or options. It allows you to focus on the process of trading without being overwhelmed by a complicated collection of trading techniques. And while this method may appear elementary, it can significantly enhance returns as well as minimize downside risk…

Written with the serious trader in mind, this reliable resource addresses the essential elements of this discipline, including the importance of understanding every bar on a price chart, why particular patterns are reliable setups for trades, and how to locate entry and exit points as markets are trading in real time. Brooks focuses on five-minute candle charts to illustrate basic principles, but discusses daily and weekly charts as well. Along the way, he also explores intraday swing trades on several stocks and details option purchases based on daily charts—revealing how using price action alone can be the basis for this type of trading.

There’s no easy way to trade, but if you learn to read price charts, find reliable patterns, and get a feel for the market and time frame that suits your situation, you can make money. While price action trading doesn’t require sophisticated software or an abundance of indicators, this straightforward approach can still put you in a better position to profit in almost any market. Reading Price Charts Bar by Bar will show you how.

Our Take

This book is a tough read for beginning traders but contains all of the must know nuanced principles of technical analysis. If you can read the story the bars are telling you, it’s likely you’ll have an edge in determining where price can go. Al Brooks breaks this down like no other.

 

Best Market Profile Book

Mind Over Markets by Jim Dalton hard cover b

Mind Over Markets by James Dalton

Buy a copy: click here.

From The Back Cover

Written with serious traders and investors in mind, this practical guide—which is organized around the five basic steps of the learning process—provides a clear path to understanding the underlying logic behind the Market Profile and applying it in real-world situations. With it, you’ll discover how to interpret market dynamics through the organization of price, time, and volume; understand its implications; and act on this information intuitively. Along the way, you’ll learn the objective basics of the Market Profile as well as the nuances that need to be mastered in order to become an expert at this difficult, yet rewarding, endeavor.

The lessons in this book go beyond technical systems—which the Market Profile is not—into areas of self-understanding. While much of the information found here may differ from the accepted models of market analysis, embracing it will allow you to transform insights into instincts and progress on the path to becoming a successful trader.

Our Take

Written by the Godfather of market profile himself, James Dalton leaves no stone unturned in this masterpiece text. Mr. Dalton will take you from not knowing anything about profiles and auction theory, to a well rounded understanding of market auctions and dynamics that can then be observed via the market profile.

 

Best Trading Psychology Book

Mental Game of Trading by Jared Tendler Book Cover

The Mental Game of Trading by Jared Tendler

Buy a copy: click here.

From The Back Cover

Think about your most costly and recurring trading mistakes. Chances are that they’re related to common errors, such as chasing price, cutting winners short, forcing mediocre trades, and overtrading. You’ve likely tried to fix these errors by improving your technical skills, and yet they persist. That’s because the real source of these mistakes is not technical—they actually stem from greed, fear, anger, or problems with confidence and discipline.

This book is different from anything else on the market. You’ll get a step-by-step system for discovering the cause of your problems and eliminating them once and for all. And through real stories of traders from around the world who have successfully used Tendler’s system, you’ll learn how to tackle your problems and increase your profits.

Our Take

Think of this book like an independent sit down with a therapist. Jared will explore all of the emotions that emerge in the game of trading. From fear and greed to confidence and tilt, Jared will walk you through how to map those emotions, and create an actionable plan of what to do when you can recognize them. Over time you’ll build a better grasp on the emotional side of trading which will undoubtedly improve your decision making capacity.

 

All Time Classic Trading Books

Trading In The Zone by Mark Douglas Book Cover

Trading In The Zone by Mark Douglas

Buy a copy: click here.

From The Back Cover

Even the most astute, highly motivated, well-grounded traders can be crippled by counter-productive thinking that leads to poor decisions and trading errors.  They suffer from an inability to stay objective focused or lack the necessary confidence to execute their trades properly.  Or they let mental contradictions and misconceptions about trading or the nature of the market rule their trades.

In this book the reader will learn that maximizing the trader’s state of mind is the key to successful results.  Douglas teaches traders to think in terms of probabilities and to adopt the core beliefs necessary to assuming the “winner’s mindset.”  Traders in the “zone” don’t need to know ~ and don’t care ~ what the market is going to do next.  They know what they are going to do next.  And that makes all the difference.

Our Take

Unlike Jareds book The Mental Game of Trading, Mark focuses on the overall belief system you must have to be successful in trading. Newer traders often need to reinvent their beliefs on what the market is and is not, and how we do and do not interact with the market before they can find consistent success. Less actionable, but will change the way you see markets.

 

Reminiscences Of A Stock Operator by Edwin Lefevre book cover

Reminiscences Of A Stock Operator by Edwin Lefèvre

Buy a copy: click here.

From The Back Cover

First published in 1923, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator is the fictionalized biography of Jesse Livermore, one of the greatest speculators who ever lived. Now, more than 70 years later, Reminiscences remains the most widely read, highly recommended investment book ever written.

Generations of investors have found that it has more to teach them about themselves and other investors than years of experience in the market. They have also discovered that its trading advice and keen analyses of market price movements ring as true today as in 1923. Jesse Livermore won and lost tens of millions of dollars playing the stock and commodities markets during the early 1900s―at one point making an astronomical amount of ten million dollars in just one month of trading. So potent a market force was he in his day that, in 1929, he was widely believed to be the man responsible for causing the Crash. He was forced into seclusion and had to hire a bodyguard.

Always good at figures, he learns, early on, that he can predict which way the numbers will go. Starting out with an investment of five dollars, he amasses a fortune by his early twenties and establishes himself as a major player on the Street. He makes his first killing in 1906, selling short on Union Pacific. He goes on to corner the cotton market, and has a million-dollar day Bullish in bear markets and bearish among bulls, he claims that only suckers gamble on the market. The trick, he advises, is to protect yourself by balancing your investments, and selling big on the way down.

Livermore goes broke three times, but he comes back each time feeling richer for the learning experience. Offering profound insights into the motivations, attitudes, and feelings shared by every investor, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator is a timeless instructional tale that will enrich the lives―and portfolios―of today’s traders as it has those of generations past.

Our Take

There’s nothing to say other than this is a must read. Almost like a right of passage, this book will show you where many of the common market sayings come from. “Bulls and bears make money; pigs get slaughtered” comes from this legendary work of art.

 

Conclusion

Immersing yourself in the knowledge and experiences shared in these top day trading books can significantly accelerate your learning curve. From refining your strategies to mastering your own psychology, each book offers a unique perspective and valuable insights. Remember that no book will ever be a replacement for screen time, but they will accelerate your understanding of market concepts and day trading strategies.