Fans pick 100 books like Super Trader

By Van Tharp,

Here are 100 books that Super Trader fans have personally recommended if you like Super Trader. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

Brad Schaeffer Author Of Life in the Pits: My Time as a Trader on the Rough-and-Tumble Exchange Floors

From my list on what makes commodities traders tick.

Why am I passionate about this?

After graduating from the University of Illinois in 1989 with an LAS degree in communications and a knack for artwork, I had no idea what I wanted to do. That was until my brother pulled me from my low-paid art job in Chicago to work as a clerk on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. I eventually became a trader on that same floor, as well as an oil and gas dealer in New York. Screaming and yelling in the trading pits while money moved back and forth with a shout and a hand signal I learned more about investing, trading, and human nature through osmosis than I ever could in an MBA course.

Brad's book list on what makes commodities traders tick

Brad Schaeffer Why did Brad love this book?

Of all the books about trading written over the decades, perhaps none is still so beloved, revered, and followed as this 1923 classic by journalist Edwin Lefèvre. Although technically a work of fiction, the book really is about the life and trading style of one of the greatest speculators of all time, Jesse Livermore (told under the guise of “Larry Livingston”).

What makes this book such a treasure is not just its fun prose, and interesting glimpse into what the process of investing in old exchanges and “bucket shops” was over a century ago, when ticker-tape and board boys with chalk and ladders were one’s only information about market prices, but also how the mind of one of the world’s greatest traders worked.

This book offers many gems of knowledge about trading—based upon the general principle that, although methods and technologies change, human nature does not and therefore “there is…

By Edwin Lefèvre,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked Reminiscences of a Stock Operator as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator is a fictionalized story based on the trading career of Jesse Livermore. It follows his journey from the age of 15 when he made his first $1,000 to becoming a Wall Street legend.


Book cover of How to Make Money in Stocks: A Winning System in Good Times and Bad

Michael Lamothe Author Of The Trading Mindwheel: Eight Essential Skills for Trading Mastery

From my list on trading stocks part-time.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up poor. At 6 years old, I was homeless. My parents had a messy divorce, and I was bounced around a lot as a child. As a result, I grew up with many limiting beliefs; about myself and about money. By age 13, I heard about the stock market and the ability to turn a little into a lot. By the time I graduated high school, I had saved up some money and placed my first trade… I then struggled for more than a decade. After learning the hard way, I finally turned the corner in 2011. My dream is to help others do the same.

Michael's book list on trading stocks part-time

Michael Lamothe Why did Michael love this book?

William O’Neil’s How To Make Money In Stocks is great for anyone looking to learn how to trade stocks part-time.

It gives you a framework of what actually causes stocks to make the big moves of 300%, 500%, 1,000% or more over the span of a few months to a few years along with a historical perspective of why they move the way they move and a strategy of how to take advantage of it that doesn’t require tuning into the news or being glued to a PC all day.

One of the big things you’ll learn in O’Neil’s book is that modeling success is key. The book starts out with over 100 pages of annotated charts of the biggest winning stocks in history. What you’ll quickly notice is that history repeats itself, over and over again.

By William O'Neil,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked How to Make Money in Stocks as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER!

Anyone can learn to invest wisely with this bestselling investment system!

Through every type of market, William J. O'Neil's national bestseller, How to MakeMoney in Stocks, has shown over 2 million investors the secrets to building wealth.O'Neil's powerful CAN SLIM (R) Investing System-a proven 7-step process for minimizingrisk and maximizing gains-has influenced generations of investors.

Based on a major study of market winners from 1880 to 2009, this expandededition gives you:

Proven techniques for finding winning stocks before they make big price gains Tips on picking the best stocks, mutual funds, and ETFs to maximize your gains…


Book cover of How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market

Darius Foroux Author Of The Stoic Path to Wealth: Ancient Wisdom for Enduring Prosperity

From my list on investing for beginner and intermediate investors.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m Darius Foroux (pronounced Dare-eus For-oe), and thanks for exploring my recommendations. As a former mutual funds advisor, I understand the complexity of finance, a lesson driven home when I lost two-thirds of my investment in 2007. Not wanting to repeat my costly mistakes, I earned degrees in business and finance, launched a business, and continuously educated myself on investing. The biggest thing I learned? Investing and wealth-building aren’t logical but emotional. I'm passionate about helping others achieve financial independence and live on their terms. My book empowers you to manage your emotions, build wealth, and enjoy life, regardless of the stock market's ups and downs.

Darius' book list on investing for beginner and intermediate investors

Darius Foroux Why did Darius love this book?

This is another book by a short-term trader. And it reads like a novel. It’s truly a fascinating book about making money in the stock market. Darvas is honest and talks about how lucky he has been on many occasions. What I love most is that this book is from 1960! It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme or whatever.

Darvas, who passed away in 1977, was actually a professional dancer who loved trading stocks. He didn’t try to sell his ideas. He simply wrote an honest account of how he made his money. Much of his knowledge on investing is self-learned, which is how most ordinary folks learn about the stock market. That’s why I highly recommend his book.

By Nicolas Darvas,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Nicolas Darvas was a world famous dancer and a self taught investor. He had never considered investing in the stock market until he was paid in stock for a performance. That stock shot up in value and he realize that there was a great deal of money to be made investing in stocks. Over the next few years he read widely about stocks and spent every free moment studying the market. In a very short amount of time he learned when to buy, when not to buy, and when to sell. This book spells out exactly how Nicolas Darvas made…


Book cover of Think & Trade Like a Champion: The Secrets, Rules & Blunt Truths of a Stock Market Wizard

Michael Lamothe Author Of The Trading Mindwheel: Eight Essential Skills for Trading Mastery

From my list on trading stocks part-time.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up poor. At 6 years old, I was homeless. My parents had a messy divorce, and I was bounced around a lot as a child. As a result, I grew up with many limiting beliefs; about myself and about money. By age 13, I heard about the stock market and the ability to turn a little into a lot. By the time I graduated high school, I had saved up some money and placed my first trade… I then struggled for more than a decade. After learning the hard way, I finally turned the corner in 2011. My dream is to help others do the same.

Michael's book list on trading stocks part-time

Michael Lamothe Why did Michael love this book?

Mark Minervini’s Think and Trade Like A Champion solidifies the lessons in Darvas, O’Neil, and Tharp and takes it to a whole other level! Mark is one of the big reasons why I was finally able to put everything together, find my own success, and do it all while still working the 9-5. This book changed my life.

In Think and Trade Like a Champion you’ll learn the finer details and nuances of chart patterns (what to look for and how to trade them) and what to avoid, the sizing and risk management strategies that helped Mark win multiple US Investing Championships including how to manage the reward to risk relationship, mindset, plus a whole lot more.

Mark has written several books and I recommend studying each of them. Think and Trade Like A Champion is my personal favorite.

Mark also wrote the Foreword to my book.

By Mark Minervini,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Think & Trade Like a Champion as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

THE MOST EAGERLY AWAITED INVESTMENT BOOK OF THE YEAR MORE THAN 80 CHART EXAMPLES INCLUDES BONUS PSYCHOLOGY CHAPTER – MARK MINERVINI WITH PERFORMANCE COACH JAIREK ROBBINS "Most traders and money managers would be delighted to have Minervini’s worst year as their best… he has run circles around most PhDs trying to design systems to beat the market." -- JACK SCHWAGER, bestselling author of Stock Market Wizards In Think & Trade Like a Champion, Mark will show you, step-by-step, how to use his time-tested principles to dramatically improve your performance and develop the confidence needed to achieve Superperformance. Mark reveals his…


Book cover of Wolf at the Door

W. L. Hawkin Author Of To Charm a Killer

From my list on mythic fiction exploring complex psychology.

Why am I passionate about this?

All of us bear the scars of emotional wounds, as complex psychology beats at the heart of all relationships. I’ve personally survived the betrayal of a parent, the loss of a child, emotional abuse, and life with an addict who could look me in the eye and lie. These themes resound in my stories. Literature is a safe place to explore and heal our own traumas through the dramatic interactions of our characters. My witch killer is not just “crazy” he’s unraveling a complex psychological past. In standing with our heroes as they meet and conquer evil, in its many guises, we find our way to healing our own trauma. 

W. L.'s book list on mythic fiction exploring complex psychology

W. L. Hawkin Why did W. L. love this book?

Once upon a time in the deep woods, a kind woman invited twelve family members and friends to Thanksgiving dinner. But not burning the turkey became the least of her worries. Wolf at the Door is a kick-ass nightmare, a ghoulish debut novella that will keep you sitting rigid in bed with your eyes and ears wide, long after its done. You may never walk in the woods again. How will our hero save her dinner guests from becoming the main course for two brutally vicious werewolves who just happen to be the neighbors? How well do you know the couple next door?

By Joel McKay,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Wolf at the Door as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

All Charlotte Deerborn wanted was a nice Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends. Too bad for her no one else wanted to be there. By the time the turkey is carved, old grievances, bad behavior and crass remarks have transformed her dinner party into a disaster. And then a werewolf shows up to do some carving of its own.

Wolf at the Door, winner of the 2022 Global Book Award gold medal for horror, is a fast-paced, absurdist take on modern creature horror, levering humor and action to highlight how one family comes to grips with what really matters in…


Book cover of Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation

Adam Ockelford Author Of Comparing Notes: How We Make Sense of Music

From my list on explaining how music works.

Why am I passionate about this?

My interest in how music makes sense was first piqued when, as a music student at the Royal Academy of Music in London, I met a blind child who, despite having learning difficulties, could reproduce the most complex music on the piano just by listening. Put simply, he had a better musical ear than I did, as a prize-winning student at a top conservatoire. Since that early experience, I have devoted my life to exploring just how music works (without the need for conceptual understanding) and how teachers can use the universality of music to promote social inclusion.

Adam's book list on explaining how music works

Adam Ockelford Why did Adam love this book?

This is one of those rare textbooks that will make you smile with its delightful anecdotes that lighten what could so easily have become a dense academic treatise.

Huron writes in a warm, engaging way, producing an eminently readable book. He effortlessly shows how academic research findings affect the musical experience of ordinary listeners.

Sweet Anticipation serves as a great introduction to this important topic of how music makes sense and continues to move us, even after many repeated hearings of the same piece.

By David Huron,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The psychological theory of expectation that David Huron proposes in Sweet Anticipation grew out of the author's experimental efforts to understand how music evokes emotions. These efforts evolved into a general theory of expectation that will prove informative to readers interested in cognitive science and evolutionary psychology as well as those interested in music. The book describes a set of psychological mechanisms and illustrates how these mechanisms work in the case of music. All examples of notated music can be heard on the Web.

Huron proposes that emotions evoked by expectation involve five functionally distinct response systems: reaction responses (which…


Book cover of Black Skin, White Masks

Ilan Kapoor Author Of Global Libidinal Economy

From my list on psychoanalysis and politics.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a scholar of global politics, and I am drawn to psychoanalysis because it studies the unseen in politics, or rather, those things that are often in plain sight but remain unacknowledged. For example, why is it that, especially in this information economy, we are well aware of the inequality and environmental destruction that our current capitalist system is based on, but we still continue to invest in it (through shopping, taking out loans, using credit cards, etc.)? Psychoanalysis says that it's because we are unconsciously seduced by capitalism—we love shopping despite knowing about the socioeconomic and environmental dangers of doing it. I’m fascinated by that process of disavowal.

Ilan's book list on psychoanalysis and politics

Ilan Kapoor Why did Ilan love this book?

This is one of the first books that “blew my mind” when I was a young university student: it remains the one I constantly return to because it seeks to understand the psychoanalytic foundations of racism under French colonialism.

Fanon was only 27 when his book was first published in 1952, but his reflections provide a stunningly passionate and layered view on how anti-Black racism (de)forms the subjectivity of both white and Black people, locking them into constructions of whiteness/blackness that require constant questioning.

His arguments on the psychoanalytic and political underpinnings of racism remain as relevant today as they were in his time.

By Frantz Fanon, Richard Philcox (translator),

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Black Skin, White Masks as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Few modern voices have had as profound an impact on the black identity and critical race theory as Frantz Fanon, and Black Skin, White Masks  represents some of his most important work. Fanon’s masterwork is now available in a new translation that updates its language for a new generation of readers.
A major influence on civil rights, anti-colonial, and black consciousness movements around the world, Black Skin, White Masks is the unsurpassed study of the black psyche in a white world. Hailed for its scientific analysis and poetic grace when it was first published in 1952, the book remains a…


Book cover of Re-Visioning Psychology

Alan Flurry Author Of Cansville

From my list on help unlock your creativity.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am committed to creative work. All of my adult life has been shaped by that commitment. And while I don’t directly recommend it (unconventional routes are unpaved, and, of course, there be dragons), I know it is the route to beauty and making the most out of the world as we live it. We’re lucky to make music, show love, and hand it down to our kids, but we need to tell stories, and we must have stories to tell. All of this arises from your creative power. I know a lot more than I can say with words, but the languages of sharing emerge from venturing into the unknown. 

Alan's book list on help unlock your creativity

Alan Flurry Why did Alan love this book?

Once you’ve opened yourself up, gotten a few instructions and are reminded that nothing is holding you back, you’re ready to connect with your own internal mechanisms. Hillman re-positions psychology in the context of soul-making, where it makes most sense and is most useful for us.

We get hung up on so many things, and Hillman fearlessly wades into every one of them with great intention. I think Hillman is one of the smartest, most perceptively radical writers not named Jung, and this book grapples with the uneasy humility that is creative work: your own soul-making.

By James Hillman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Re-Visioning Psychology as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This groundbreaking classic explores the necessity of connections between our life and soul and developing the main lines of the soul-making process.


Book cover of The Principles of Psychology, Vol. 1

Gloria Mark Author Of Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity

From my list on attention and why it is the ultimate currency.

Why am I passionate about this?

In 2000, I entered the University of California, Irvine as an assistant professor. Suddenly faced with multiple research projects, courses, committees, grant-writing, and student mentoring, I found myself switching screens and tasks like crazy. But I was also glued to my computer. I began to wonder if this was normal? Trained as a psychologist, I decided to study empirically what was happening to our attention. I began research over two decades on attention and discovered how our attention spans have shrunk over time (to a mere average of 47 seconds). Fast forward, I've continued to study our relationships with our technology, uncovering different types of attention and busting myths associated with focus and productivity. 

Gloria's book list on attention and why it is the ultimate currency

Gloria Mark Why did Gloria love this book?

There is no better place to start learning about attention than from The Principles of Psychology.

I have always been captivated by the writings and deep insight of William James, known as the father of psychology. This is not a pop science book by any means—it was written in the 19th century, and you’ll see how gorgeous the language is. If you don’t want to plough through all 720 pages, I suggest you start with Chapter VIII on Attention. As James says, “Everyone knows what attention is.” But do we really? You will find some amazing gems in it.

It is available for free by Project Gutenberg.

By William James,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Principles of Psychology, Vol. 1 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"For the psychologist, standard reading, to all readers, a classic of interpretation." — Psychiatric Quarterly
This is the first inexpensive edition of the complete Long Course in Principles of Psychology, one of the great classics of modern Western literature and science and the source of the ripest thoughts of America’s most important philosopher. As such, it should not be confused with the many abridgements that omit key sections.
The book presents lucid descriptions of human mental activity, with detailed considerations of the stream of thought, consciousness, time perception, memory, imagination, emotions, reason, abnormal phenomena, and similar topics. In its course…


Book cover of The Principles Of Psychology

Allan Combs Author Of Consciousness Explained Better: Towards an Integral Understanding of the Multifaceted Nature of Consciousness

From my list on consciousness beyond the brain.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a teacher and professor of psychology and consciousness studies. I have been fascinated by the enigma of consciousness my entire adult life. Over the years I have written and taught in a number of different fields including biology, psychology, history, art, and philosophy, always looking to the nature of consciousness, and always exploring its spiritual dimensions. My writings include the present selection, Consciousness Explained Better, described by Ken Wilber as “the finest book on consciousness in modern times, bar none” and The Radiance of Being, that shared a book of the year award with Nobel laureate Roger Penrose’s book, The Emperor’s New Mind. 

Allan's book list on consciousness beyond the brain

Allan Combs Why did Allan love this book?

In my view, this is the finest book on consciousness ever written. William James was one of the leading minds of late 19th and early 20th century America. His book, published in 1890, was written as a textbook for his psychology class at Harvard. At that time “psychology” was understood to be the study of consciousness. Here James introduces consciousness as a “stream of thought,” an idea that later influenced many 20th century thinkers, including American philosopher Alfred North Whitehead and early quantum physicist Niels Bohr. It is written with an elegance and clarity of style to match that of his brother, the writer Henry James.

James’ broad interests in consciousness, seen in this book, is consistent with the fact that he was an original co-founder of The American Society for Psychical Research, and was deeply interested in mediumship and questions regarding mind beyond the brain.

By William James,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Principles Of Psychology as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This edition of William James' masterwork, The Principles of Psychology, contains his original notes, illustrations, tables and charts which clarify the theory described and arguments made.


Appearing in 1890, The Principles of Psychology was a landmark text which established psychology as a serious scientific discipline. William James' compiled a convincing, lengthy and broad thesis, devoting detail and vigorous analysis in every chapter. The text's comprehensiveness and superb presentation played a pivotal role in bringing the science of mental health closer toward the scholarly mainstream.


The entire book is set out intuitively: there are two volumes, each of which has a…


Book cover of Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
Book cover of How to Make Money in Stocks: A Winning System in Good Times and Bad
Book cover of How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market

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