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Best Books For Traders – My Full List of Recommendations


Best Books That I’ve Personally Read, Enjoyed, and Applied to My Life and Trading:

In my list of best books for traders, you might be surprised to see that many of them are not specifically related to trading. Instead, they focus on habits, perseverance, training, accountability, growth mindset, and peak performance – among many other critical topics.

But don’t get it twisted – just because some of these books don’t outwardly mention trading or investing within the text doesn’t mean they’re any less valuable. I wouldn’t be anywhere near the trader I am today without reading these so-called “non-trading” books.

Best Books For Traders - My Full List of Recommendations

So as you scan through the list below, keep in mind that durable trading success is about more than just technical analysis, for example. In my opinion, your ultimate success is dependent on acquiring the proper mindset, habits, processes, and daily routines.

For ease of understanding, I’ve broken down my list of best books into two main categories – the first are those specifically related to trading/investing and the second are those not specifically related to trading/investing (but still very much applicable).

I also tried to rank them from my most favorite to least favorite, but this became an extremely difficult (if not impossible) task to accomplish. So consider them loosely ranked with a handful of my most favorite books near the top of each respective list.

This is by no means a comprehensive list of great trading/investing books, but I’ve personally read every single one listed below.

Best Books For Traders (Specifically Related to Trading/Investing):

  1. One Good Trade by Mike Bellafiore
  2. The Disciplined Trader by Mark Douglas
  3. Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas
  4. The Playbook by Mike Bellafiore
  5. Market Wizards by Jack D. Schwager
  6. Fooled By Randomness by Nassim Taleb
  7. The Hour Between Dog and Wolf by John Coates
  8. Principles by Ray Dalio
  9. The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham
  10. The Psychology of Trading by Brett Steenbarger
  11. Unshakeable by Tony Robbins
  12. The Candlestick Course by Steve Nison

Best Books For Traders (Without Specific Trading/Investing Components):

  1. Atomic Habits by James Clear
  2. Peak by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool
  3. Mindset by Carol Dweck
  4. Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
  5. Grit by Angela Duckworth
  6. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
  7. Chop Wood Carry Water by Joshua Medcalf
  8. Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins
  9. Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz
  10. The Attributes by Rich Diviney
  11. Loving What is by Byron Katie
  12. Limitless by Jim Kwik
  13. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
  14. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
  15. Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink
  16. Make Your Bed by William McRaven
  17. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
  18. Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins
  19. The 5AM Club by Robin Sharma
  20. Essentialism by Greg McKeown
  21. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
  22. Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl
  23. Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff by Richard Carlson
  24. Inner Simplicity by Elaine St. James
  25. The Art of War by Sun Tzu
  26. Grit & Grace by Tim McGraw
  27. David & Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell
  28. The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone
  29. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
  30. Tribe by Sebastian Junger
  31. 21 Lessons For the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari

Check Out My “Best Book Quotes” Series Featuring Many of the Titles Listed Above

Please share your thoughts, feelings, and experiences with any of these books (or your own favorites) in the comments below.

Written by Matt Thomas (@MattThomasTP)

Comments

  1. Paolo says

    January 17, 2022 at 7:10 pm

    Thank you very much for providing us with this list. I think I should start by learning to control my emotions and impulses. This field of study is important in market behavior. Humans are logical beings, but we act according to our feelings practically most of the time and without realizing it.

    Reply
    • Matt Thomas says

      January 19, 2022 at 10:57 am

      No problem, Paolo – happy to provide this book list. The specific trading-related books that I’ve listed above are some of my favorites in regard to psychology and emotional control – especially The Disciplined Trader and Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas. But there are many other books on my list that cover things like habits, neuroplasticity, peak performance, and other topics that new traders might not necessarily associate with trading – but they 100% apply. I’ve found that pretty much every book I read these days has at least a few nuggets I can extract from it in order to improve myself as a trader. Maybe that’s just because I’m so deeply involved in it all through my actual trading operations and work on this website, but I see connections back to trading and improving my performance everywhere.

      Reply
  2. Nikki says

    January 5, 2022 at 11:02 pm

    Mindset is the most important by far when it comes to trading. I know because I’ve been learning to trade for the past 3 years and just got it within this past year, mostly because my mindset was not right. I like the list of books you have listed they are all some really good books. At least the ones I know of. Thanks for this, it was very interesting to read about.

    Reply
    • Matt Thomas says

      January 6, 2022 at 8:32 am

      Hi Nikki – I completely agree that mindset is the most important aspect of trading. Pretty much all of the trading-related books I’ve read are mainly about this topic, like the two classics by Mark Douglas – The Disciplined Trader and Trading in the Zone. I don’t think the average person realizes just how important trading psychology is – and not being aware of it or ignoring it are some of the main reasons why new traders fail. I personally struggled quite a bit and never really found much consistency (over the course of a few years) until I came across Trading Composure and started taking the mindset component seriously. That’s when things finally started to “click” – it was like finding a missing puzzle piece. I’m glad you found the book list interesting – take care!

      Reply

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