Trading Books: The Riches and the Reality
A list of trading books mixes technical manuals, speculator biographies, and essays on bubbles. A calculation circulating among traders suggests making...
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Trading Book Guide: From Carpatos to Taleb, No Miracles
Starting in trading with a reading list is almost an initiation rite. The compilation circulating through Spanish stock market forums begins with «Lions Against Gazelles», by José Luis Carpatos, and continues with about twenty titles ranging from the classic to the esoteric: «Reminiscences of a Stock Operator» by Edwin Lefèvre, «Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets» by John J. Murphy, «The Intelligent Investor» by Benjamin Graham, «Fooled by Randomness» and «The Black Swan» by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, or «Trading for a Living» by Alexander Elder.
The list is not innocent. It mixes technical manuals with speculator biographies, essays on bubbles, and some texts of dubious practical utility. And here begins the problem: reading is not trading.
How much capital is needed so commissions don't eat the profit?
A calculation circulating among traders sets the threshold at 100,000 euros in capital for daily traders. The reason is arithmetic: with a US flat-fee broker, each trade costs about 9 dollars, regardless of whether the order is for 1,000 or 100,000 dollars. In Spain, however, brokers usually charge by volume, which increases the cost of trading and makes frequent trading with small accounts unviable.
The conclusion drawn from this calculation is uncomfortable: the business is not in being right, but in ensuring costs don't devour your margin.
Can one live from trading in Spain?
The short answer is that it is not recorded. Among those participating in these discussions, no one claims to know someone who makes a living exclusively from trading. Those who write books, teach courses, or sell systems usually earn more from teaching than from the market. It is the old dilemma: if your system were so good, you wouldn't publish it.
Some distinguish between two profiles of authors: those who never made a euro trading and live from selling training, and those who amassed a fortune and write out of ego. The latter are more interesting, although their experience is rarely replicable.
Trading is not a roulette, but it resembles it
The comparison with the casino is recurrent. And it is nuanced: in roulette, you play against a house with a mathematical advantage; in the market, against other people. It is not a zero-sum game because expenses must be discounted, but if your rivals play worse than you, there is room.
That said, the reading list includes titles that promise shortcuts — Elliott waves, Fibonacci proportions, Gann cycles — and others that warn against them. Taleb, precisely, dedicates pages to explaining why chance disguises itself as skill.
The library that doesn't fit on the shelf
Beyond the classic titles, the compilation incorporates references to downloadable works in PDF, some in Spanish and others in English, and repositories with more than 800 trading books. Manuals in French, such as those by Béchu and Bertrand, also appear, along with texts on commodities, such as «Hot Commodities» by Jim Rogers, or «Commodities Rising» by Jeffrey Christian.
The practical problem is the price. A technical volume can cost 78 euros in a bookstore, which pushes many to seek digital formats, sometimes with blurry copies and broken links.
The advice no one wants to hear
The most repeated warning is that what is in the books is not enough. Neither to become a millionaire nor, in many cases, to make money. Published strategies stop working when too many people know them, and working strategies are not published.
There remains the option to train, trade in demo, and accept that learning is paid in losses. Or to accept that, for most, the best trading book is the one that convinces you not to open that account.
Forum Voices
«With what is in the books, not only will you not become a millionaire, but you won't even make money».
«If those who write these books have such good systems to make money, why do they waste time writing books?».
«In trading, you play against other people, not against a house that has a margin that doesn't allow you to win in the long run».
Starting in trading with a reading list is almost an initiation rite. The compilation circulating through Spanish stock market forums begins with «Lions Against Gazelles», by José Luis Carpatos, and continues with about twenty titles ranging from the classic to the esoteric: «Reminiscences of a Stock Operator» by Edwin Lefèvre, «Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets» by John J. Murphy, «The Intelligent Investor» by Benjamin Graham, «Fooled by Randomness» and «The Black Swan» by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, or «Trading for a Living» by Alexander Elder.
The list is not innocent. It mixes technical manuals with speculator biographies, essays on bubbles, and some texts of dubious practical utility. And here begins the problem: reading is not trading.
How much capital is needed so commissions don't eat the profit?
A calculation circulating among traders sets the threshold at 100,000 euros in capital for daily traders. The reason is arithmetic: with a US flat-fee broker, each trade costs about 9 dollars, regardless of whether the order is for 1,000 or 100,000 dollars. In Spain, however, brokers usually charge by volume, which increases the cost of trading and makes frequent trading with small accounts unviable.
The conclusion drawn from this calculation is uncomfortable: the business is not in being right, but in ensuring costs don't devour your margin.
Can one live from trading in Spain?
The short answer is that it is not recorded. Among those participating in these discussions, no one claims to know someone who makes a living exclusively from trading. Those who write books, teach courses, or sell systems usually earn more from teaching than from the market. It is the old dilemma: if your system were so good, you wouldn't publish it.
Some distinguish between two profiles of authors: those who never made a euro trading and live from selling training, and those who amassed a fortune and write out of ego. The latter are more interesting, although their experience is rarely replicable.
Trading is not a roulette, but it resembles it
The comparison with the casino is recurrent. And it is nuanced: in roulette, you play against a house with a mathematical advantage; in the market, against other people. It is not a zero-sum game because expenses must be discounted, but if your rivals play worse than you, there is room.
That said, the reading list includes titles that promise shortcuts — Elliott waves, Fibonacci proportions, Gann cycles — and others that warn against them. Taleb, precisely, dedicates pages to explaining why chance disguises itself as skill.
The library that doesn't fit on the shelf
Beyond the classic titles, the compilation incorporates references to downloadable works in PDF, some in Spanish and others in English, and repositories with more than 800 trading books. Manuals in French, such as those by Béchu and Bertrand, also appear, along with texts on commodities, such as «Hot Commodities» by Jim Rogers, or «Commodities Rising» by Jeffrey Christian.
The practical problem is the price. A technical volume can cost 78 euros in a bookstore, which pushes many to seek digital formats, sometimes with blurry copies and broken links.
The advice no one wants to hear
The most repeated warning is that what is in the books is not enough. Neither to become a millionaire nor, in many cases, to make money. Published strategies stop working when too many people know them, and working strategies are not published.
There remains the option to train, trade in demo, and accept that learning is paid in losses. Or to accept that, for most, the best trading book is the one that convinces you not to open that account.
Forum Voices
«With what is in the books, not only will you not become a millionaire, but you won't even make money».
«If those who write these books have such good systems to make money, why do they waste time writing books?».
«In trading, you play against other people, not against a house that has a margin that doesn't allow you to win in the long run».
Also available in: Deutsch
Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (134 replies).
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