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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 Playbook by Mike Bellafiore
  3. Market Wizards by Jack D. Schwager
  4. Fooled By Randomness by Nassim Taleb
  5. The Hour Between Dog and Wolf by John Coates
  6. Principles by Ray Dalio
  7. Markets in Profile By James Dalton
  8. Mind Over Markets By James Dalton
  9. The Disciplined Trader by Mark Douglas
  10. Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas
  11. The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham
  12. The Psychology of Trading by Brett Steenbarger
  13. Unshakeable by Tony Robbins
  14. 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. Start With Why By Simon Sinek
  14. The Tipping Point By Malcolm Gladwell
  15. Dare to Lead By Brent Brown
  16. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
  17. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
  18. Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink
  19. Make Your Bed by William McRaven
  20. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
  21. Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins
  22. The 5AM Club by Robin Sharma
  23. Essentialism by Greg McKeown
  24. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
  25. Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl
  26. Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff by Richard Carlson
  27. The Book of Joy By Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu & Douglas Abrams
  28. Inner Simplicity by Elaine St. James
  29. The Art of War by Sun Tzu
  30. Grit & Grace by Tim McGraw
  31. David & Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell
  32. The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone
  33. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
  34. Tribe by Sebastian Junger
  35. 21 Lessons For the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari

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

4 Comments

  • Paolo says:

    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.

    • Matt Thomas says:

      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.

  • Nikki says:

    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.

    • Matt Thomas says:

      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!

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