Reading List and Courses

The following includes books that may be of interest in furthering your trading education. We welcome your recommendations so that we may add to the list.

Trading for a Living by Dr. Alexander Elder. An excellent beginning book that covers trading methods, psychological aspects of trading and money management techniques. The section on trading methods is a good basic primer for topics such as momentum indicators, moving averages, oscillators and divergence.

Dynamic Trading by Robert C. Miner. Highly technical but a great book for an explanation of Elliott Wave analysis. Subjects such as Fibonacci extensions and objective-setting, and how to use time in your analysis of the markets, are particularly important.

Fibonacci Ratios with Pattern Recognition by Larry Pesavento. A very good book on the subject of Fibonacci support and resistance levels. Several potential reversal patterns, such as "butterflies" and Gartley patterns, are well explained.

The Harmonic Trader by Scott Carney. The author takes the topic of Fibonacci to another level in explaining when some areas are more important than others. He follows it up with additional research in the book listed next. These books are extremely valuable in understanding Fibonacci levels and their uses in setting objectives and as reversal areas.

Harmonic Trading of the Financial Markets: Volume One by Scott M. Carney.

Technical Analysis of the Futures Market by John Murphy. A good basic primer on charting techniques.

The New Science of Technical Analysis by Thomas DeMark. An extremely detailed book and, quite frankly, must be reread several times to fully grasp his methodology. But several chapters are very valuable, including the one on trend line breakouts and objectives (he calls them supply and demand lines).

Steidlmayer on Markets: Trading with Market Profile by J. Peter Steidlmayer and Steven B. Hawkins. I use market profile analysis in a limited manner but found this book very useful in analyzing the concepts of volume and auction points.

Elliott Wave Principle by Frost and Prechter. Highly detailed analysis of the subject and certainly not for beginning technicians. But Prechter did call the bull markets of the 90’s.

Candlestick Charting Explained by Gregory L. Morris. A very good book on this Japanese charting method.

Point and Figure Charting by Thomas J. Dorsey. Although the book is largely written for using this charting technique on the stock market, it can easily be applied to futures markets as well.

Dave Landry’s 10 Best Swing Trading Strategies by Dave Landry. There are several good momentum techniques that are discussed in this book, particularly as it relates to the resumption of trends. Again, written for stock analysis but can easily be applied to futures.

The RSI Course by Andrew E. Cardwell, Jr., Cardwell Financial Group, Inc. A self-instructional course on the use of the RSI indicator. Cardwell demonstrates how this indicator can be used as a momentum indicator as well as an oscillator; and to help determine the direction of the market. His methods often fly in the face of classical charting techniques. This is a highly detailed course and will take time to complete.

TradersBrain.com. A web site that serves as a library. Once you become a member for an initial minimal fee, you can check out books for the cost of shipping. I find it very useful as I can rent the books that may sound interesting and determine if I really want to make them a part of my permanent library. You can always choose to purchase the book.