Why am I passionate about this?

I have produced twenty books/DVDs and three academic papers on finance and social-mood theory. I also write a monthly publication on markets titled The Elliott Wave Theorist. For a bio, visit robertprechter.com. My recommended titles convey financial markets’ nonrational nature in a visceral way. If you understand that feature, if you feel it, you will have a fighting chance to succeed at investing.


I wrote

The Socionomic Theory of Finance

By Robert R. Prechter Jr.,

Book cover of The Socionomic Theory of Finance

What is my book about?

This book replaces economic theories of financial market behavior, with their core reliance upon the mechanistic stimulus-and-response model borrowed from…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Wiped Out. How I Lost a Fortune in the Stock Market While the Averages Were Making New Highs

Robert R. Prechter Jr. Why did I love this book?

This is one of my favorite books because rather than observing the follies of others, this author details his own. Reading it is like watching a tragedy when you already know the well-meaning protagonist is going to die.

The author chose to remain anonymous for obvious reasons: He thought he was a rare fool. But getting wiped out happens all the time, to many people. If you want to experience vicariously a dangerous thrill ride that you may or may not already have taken, this is your ticket. The book is out of print and hard to find.

By Anonymous,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Wiped Out. How I Lost a Fortune in the Stock Market While the Averages Were Making New Highs as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This is the totally galvanizing confession of an amateur investor who at first made money in the stock market and then tried to make money faster.... With a directness that startles, with specific references to specific stock transactions, with an abundance of detail unique in investment literature, the author takes the reader on a devastating roller-coaster ride through the market. From the "hot" tip and the impulsive phone-order to buy or sell, to the verdict in next morning's financial pages; from the chase after people who "know their way around," to the frantic switching of brokers and systems; from the…


Book cover of One-Way Pockets: The Book of Books on Wall Street Speculation

Robert R. Prechter Jr. Why did I love this book?

Over 100 years ago, a stockbroker wondered why his clients lost money over a full cycle in the stock market. After all, if stocks were back to where they started, shouldn’t they have broken even? He found that at bottoms, investors were cautious short-term traders, whereas at tops, they were confident long-term owners.

This little booklet is available inexpensively on Amazon.

By Don Guyon,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked One-Way Pockets as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The circulation of a mere rumor that the Morgan interests are accumulating Steel or that the Standard Oil crowd is getting out of St. Paul is sure at any time to create a market following. Most of the tips that are hawked about the Street are based on the supposition that somebody-or-other of consequence is buying or selling certain stocks. I do not know of a single case where anyone has been able to make money consistently by following information of this character, even when the information comes to him first hand. -from "A Speculative Decision" In 1917, an insider…


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Book cover of Defection in Prague

Defection in Prague By Ray C Doyle,

Pete West, a political columnist, travels to Prague to find a missing diplomat, later found murdered. He attempts to discover more about a cryptic note received from the diplomat and is immediately entangled in the secret Bilderberg Club’s strategy to form a world federation.

Pete meets a Czechian agent who…

Book cover of The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind

Robert R. Prechter Jr. Why did I love this book?

Some academics dismiss this book because it lacks statistical support. They have a point, but it’s still a great book. It’s also over a hundred years old, so what do you expect?

Gustave Le Bon was a medical doctor who became Professor of Psychology and Allied Sciences at the University of Paris. Le Bon’s key proposal is that crowd thinking is not the sum of individuals’ minds but an interdependent psychological entity. The Crowd is a short book and perennially in print.

By Gustave Le Bon,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Crowd as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

One of the most influential works of social psychology in history, The Crowd was highly instrumental in creating this field of study by analyzing, in detail, mass behavior. The book had a profound impact not only on Freud but also on such twentieth-century masters of crowd control as Hitler and Mussolini — both of whom may have used its observations as a guide to stirring up popular passions. In the author's words, "The masses have never thirsted after the truth. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim."…


Book cover of Victims of Groupthink: A Psychological Study of Foreign-Policy Decisions and Fiascoes

Robert R. Prechter Jr. Why did I love this book?

When I was at Yale, Professor Irving Janis became aware of my interest in mass psychology and asked if I would be interested in seeing a manuscript he was working on. I jumped at the chance and soon was reading Victims of Groupthink.

The book relates histories of bureaucratic decision-making that went wrong. Janis postulated that in a group setting, people defer the hard work of reasoning to others, whom they assume must be working on the problem. As a result, no one works on the problem, and whatever decision emerges derives from the dynamics of group psychology. This book is out of print and hard to find.

By Irving Lester Janis,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Victims of Groupthink as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

talk harmoniously even when in disagreement


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Book cover of The Model Spy: Based on the True Story of Toto Koopman’s World War II Ventures

The Model Spy By Maryka Biaggio,

The Model Spy is based on the true story of Toto Koopman, who spied for the Allies and Italian Resistance during World War II.

Largely unknown today, Toto was arguably the first woman to spy for the British Intelligence Service. Operating in the hotbed of Mussolini's Italy, she courted danger…

Explore my book 😀

The Socionomic Theory of Finance

By Robert R. Prechter Jr.,

Book cover of The Socionomic Theory of Finance

What is my book about?

This book replaces economic theories of financial market behavior, with their core reliance upon the mechanistic stimulus-and-response model borrowed from physics, and replaces them with the hypothesis that financial markets reflect changes in optimism and pessimism deriving from naturally occurring waves of social mood.

Book cover of Wiped Out. How I Lost a Fortune in the Stock Market While the Averages Were Making New Highs
Book cover of One-Way Pockets: The Book of Books on Wall Street Speculation
Book cover of The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind

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