Seven Primers

Many people want to speculate successfully in the stock market, but most of them do no know where to start. In view of this, the writer decides to share his list of top ten books which are a must-read for all inspiring growth investors or momentum traders. The list is in ascending order of beginner-friendliness so that the first few books are the least technical and easiest for people with no experience to understand.

1. How I Made Two Million in the Stock Market by Nicholas Darvas (1960)

Nicholas Darvas, a professional dancer with no investing experience, came to know about the stock market by accident. Since that moment, the market became his new passion out of which he tried to make more money. Unfortunately, it was a very tough process. He persisted and did not give up. Most of his spare time became reading sessions when he endeavoured to learn how to trade properly. It finally paid off handsomely in 1958 when he made over two million in less than two years. More stunningly, he did it when he was travelling around the world and only looked at the market once or twice a week through telegraphs. 

2. The Perfect Stock by Brad Koteshwar (2004)

Taser International (ticker: TASR) made an incredible run from 2003 to 2004. Within one year, it rose more than seven thousand percent. How was this possible? Brad Koteshwar revealed the dark side of inside operations in the stock market in a story-telling format. Even though the writing of this book is sub-standard (as a matter of fact, the author admits that he is a poor writer), but the insights in the book are not. It busts a lot of stock market myths which the professionals create to fool the public, and gives many valuable tips to teach the readers how they should operate instead. By the way, the author released a follow-up titled The Perfect Speculator (Koteshwar, 2005) which dives into the actual process of investing.

3. Lessons from the Greatest Stock Traders of All Time by John Boik (2004)

This book introduces five of the greatest momentum-style investors of all time who had demonstrated overwhelming success in their career. They foresaw and prepared for every market crash, and even managed to make fortunes out of it. They created proven trading systems for themselves so that they could make money effectively and efficiently. They became self-made millionaires for several times over. This book examines their methods and techniques and shows the readers how to make it their own.

4. The Successful Investor by William J. O’Neil (2003)

This book is an abridged version of the author’s game-changing classic, How to Make Money in Stocks (2009, 4th edition). It presents the famous CANSLIM methodology which allowed Mr O’Neil to make a fortune is his twenties, gather enough capital to start a business, and become the youngest person to ever hold a seat on the New York Stock Exchange at the time. It is also possibly the first method which combines technical and fundamental analysis and enables an investor to operate in an objective manner. If the readers like the above two books, they may also consider How to Make Money Selling Stocks Short (2008) which focuses on short-selling.

5. Trade Like a Stock Market Wizard by Mark Minervini (2013)

Mark Minervini is a modern legend in the stock market. He has accumulated a return of 36,000% in around ten years, which translates into a 220% average annual return with only one losing quarter. On the way of doing so, Mark also won the 1997 US Investing Championship with a 155% return. In addition to many practical concepts like “volatility footprint” and “tennis ball reactions,” it also goes very deep into the psychological aspects of trading, including one episode in which he came from behind to win the US Investing Championship. This book is certainly the best source to learn from this legendary trader.

6. Trade Like an O'Neil Disciple by Gil Morales and Chris Kacher (2010)

Gil Morales and Chris Kacher used to work side-by-side with William O’Neil earlier in their career and hence were able to learn first-hand how to trade like the legendary master. They understand that the reason behind the success of O’Neil because they have spent a lot of time and effort with him to refine the system again and again until everything works out. In this book, the authors decide to save you a portion of the hard work by sharing with you what have been working for them. If you like this book, you may check out the two follow-ups by the same authors: In The Trading Cockpit with the O'Neil Disciples (2012) and Short-Selling with the O'Neil Disciples (2015).

7. Momentum Masters by Mark Minervini (2015)

In this collection of one hundred and thirty questions-and-answers, the readers have the chance to learn from four greatest stock market traders of the decade: Mark Minervini, David Ryan, Dan Zanger and Mark Ritchie II. All four have them have a proven record of exceptional returns, and aspiring traders ask them tonnes of questions in the hope of gaining some wisdom of trading from them. One day it occurs to one of them that, instead of tackling these enquiries one by one, why not collecting them together and publishing the replies in the form of a book? 

The above list is by no mean complete. A significant portion of the classics is not on the list, like:

• Reminiscences of a Stock Operator (Lefèvre, 1923), 
• Studies in Tape Reading (Wyckoff, 1910),
• How to Trade in Stocks (Livermore, 1940), 
• The Battle for Investment Survival (Loeb, 1988),
• Insider Buy Superstocks (Stine, 2013)

It is too short for one post to include all the famous books, after all. However, the author is confident that the above seven books will be sufficient to give the newcomers the basics of growth/momentum investing, and it shall encourage them to look further into the literature to explore their true style.

REFERENCE:

Boik, J. (2004). Lessons from the Greatest Stock Traders of All Time: Proven strategies active traders can use today to beat the markets. Hoboken, NJ: John Wileys & Sons.
Darvas, N. (1960). How I Made Two Million Dollars in the Stock Market. Secaucus, NJ: Lyle Stuart.
Lefèvre, E. (1923). Reminiscences of a Stock Operator. New York: George H. Doran Company.
Livermore, J. L. (1940). How to Trade in Stocks: The Livermore Formula for Combining Time Element and Price. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pierce.
Koteshwar, B. (2004). The Perfect Stock: How a 7000% move was set-up, started and finished in an astonishing 52 weeks. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse.
Koteshwar, B. (2005). The Perfect Speculator: How to win big in up markets and lose nothing in down markets. Scottsdale, AZ: Great Expressions Publishing.
Loeb, G. M. (1988). The Battle for Investment Survival. Burlington, VT: Fraser Pub. Co.
Minervini, M. (2013). Trade like a Stock Market Wizards: How to achieve superperformance in stocks in any market. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Minervini, M. (2015). Momentum Masters - A Roundtable Interview with Super Traders. NN: Access Publishing Group.
Morales, J. & Kacher, C. (2010). Trade Like an O'Neil Disciple: How we made 18,000% in the stock market. Hoboken, NJ: John Wileys & Sons.
O’Neil, W. J. (2003). The Successful Investor: What 80 million people need to Kknow to invest profitably and avoid big losses. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
O’Neil, W. J. (2009). How to Make Money in Stocks: A winning system in good times and bad (4ᵗʰ edition). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Wyckoff, R. D. (1910). Studies in Tape Reading. New York, NY: Wyckoff Associates.