The Best Day Trading Books for Aspiring Investors and Traders (Ranked and Reviewed for 2024)

Day trading is both an exciting and a challenging way to make money. It requires good knowledge of the market, proficient technical analysis, and the right mindset.  And because this blog is all about financial education, here is a list of the best day trading books out there.  The main idea here is to give you a list of resources that will help your trading.

What Makes A Book A Best Day Trading Book?

What makes a book a “best” book?  Well, these are the books most commonly identified in online communities like reddit, or mentioned in major lists of books about day trading.  The selection is also based on the author’s personal experience trading stocks.

The reason you want to build your trading knowledge a strong basis of understanding trading and markets, will help you answer some key decisions, such as:

How do I improve my entries?

What can I improve my exits?

How can I improve my overall trading success rate?

Where should I place my stops?

H0w can I better understand what the market is doing?

How can I manage my psychology so I can trade most objectively?

The books in the list below help you answer all of these questions.  And, lets face it, the reality is that trading for a living gives you financial freedom.   So if you’re good at trading stocks, you can make money no matter where you are, as long as there is an internet connection.  There are no bosses, just you and the market.  Having that life is worth the time and effort it takes to read a few books.

So, here is the list of the best day trading books to read.

How To Make Money in Stocks by William J. O’Neil

O’Neil’s How to Make Money in Stocks is a classic in stock trading.  This book is #1 in the list of best trading books, because its arguable the most famous book on stock trading every written.  The author is the late William O’Neil, the founder of the successful investing publication Investors Business Daily.  How To Make Money In Stocks is focuses primarily on how to successfully select stocks and how to evaluate market conditions.  O’Neil’s book is loaded with practical advice on how to find winning stocks, as well as how to manage risk and avoid common pitfalls when buying & selling stocks.

You can get a used copy on Amazon here.

A Beginner’s Guide to Day Trading Online by Toni Turner

A Beginner’s Guide to Day Trading Online (2nd edition) is an informative and comprehensive guide for people who are interested in getting into the world of day trading. The author, Toni Turner, is a well regarded respected professional in finance and trading world. Her expertise is evident throughout the book. A Beginner’s Guide is good for learning the basics of day trading, but the book is less helpful for advanced users, and has a less thorough discussion off charting and technical analysis.

You can find it on Amazon for under $5 here.

Best Loser Wins by Tom Hougaard

Tom Hougaard is the winner of multiple trading competitions and on one occasion traded £25,000 into more than £1 million in a year.  The major strength of Best Loser Wins is the discussion of trading psychology as well as the examples from Hougaard’s life.  Interestingly, Hougaard’s approach to trading is idiosyncratic, but effective.  He emphasizes aggressively seeking your mistakes and ironing them out, as well as embracing failure and learning from it.

Best Loser Wins is an online favorite.  Its available on Amazon for around $20, here. Pick up a copy, you won’t regret it.

How To Day Trade for a Living by Andrew Aziz

This work is a concise and practical guide for the beginner day trader. It covers everything from risk management, technical analysis to mindset and discipline, as well as overviews of common day trading strategies.  The book is written by a successful doctoral level day trader who shares his personal experiences, both the ups and downs.  This book will help you to gain an understanding of the serious reality of how day trading works and helps you be successful trading.

Amazon charges eight bucks for a used copy.  Its well worth the read if you’re serious about trading.

The Art and Science of Technical Analysis: Market Structure and Trading Strategies by  Adam Grimes,

Published by Wiley in 2012. Grimes’ book is one of the most outstanding comprehensive publication on stock market trading out there. At 480 pages, Grime’s work isn’t exactly an easy read.  However, the book offers in depth discussions for experienced traders. In particular Grimes includes a lengthy discussion of the interface between trends and ranges, and a set of practical trading templates to build your knowledge.  The work also has thorough chapters on risk management and practical discussions on intuition and psychology.  In other words, its good for traders who are serious and want an education.

Amazon is selling it for the healthy price of $56, here.

Honorable Mentions

These two books don’t come up regularly in internet lists, but they’re nonetheless part of the available literature on day trading.

Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas

Mark Douglas’ Trading in the Zone is one of the most celebrated trading psychology books, which is a critical aspect of day trading. This book helps traders to understand the psychological aspects of trading, how to manage their emotions and how to attain peak performance consistently. The book provides concrete and practical techniques to help traders develop winning attitudes and a winning mindset, which is key to successful day trading.   The hardcover is on Amazon for $16.

Unknown Market Wizards Complete Guide to Day Trading by Jack D. Schwager

Redditors like Jack Schwager’s work.  Unknown Market Wizards is a complete editing and revamp of Schwager’s classic, Getting Started in Technical Analysis. The book focuses on successful traders that aren’t nearly as well known as those featured in his original volume. It makes for a very entertaining read and is a great a source of motivation.  The paperback is available on Amazon for $10.

Bonus Online Course:

One of the wonderful things about trading today is all the free resources. Here is a nice 2 and a half hour youtube course from Jayson Greystone on the basics of trading. It might be worth

 

Wrapping It Up

Day trading is an exciting journey to financial freedom, but it can also be challenging. To get seriously started in trading, you’ll want a lighting fast computer, money to invest, a routine, and a good trading processes – including filling your head with good information.  The books we’ve discussed above provide some of the most valuable insights into day and swing trading, trading psychology, strategies, and risk management. Regardless of how far along you are on your day trading journey, these books will help you to deepen your understanding of the market and help you to make more informed and profitable trades.

Read More 

And, if you are looking to seriously day trade, most people aren’t calling their brokers these days, so you’ll probably need a fast, good quality laptop. So, read our list of the best ones here.

And if you’re thinking about day trading because you want to become a millionaire – you’ll have to work a lot to get there.