Professional Stock Trading - Mark Conway & Aaron Behle

This is a technical book for those of you who believe in technical analysis (stocks, futures, options, etc.) and are looking for a book that will give you a good guidance and jumpstart.
Many code samples are included in the book, making it a real valued resource for those that are using the TradeStation platform and would like to make some shortcuts in understanding technical methods, technical analysis, programming and research aspects that will probably save you lot of time.
The book describes in details technical methods for designing a trading system using the TradeStation platform, including lot of snippest codes that helps to generate various signals on the analyzed stock.
The book should be used side-by-side with a trading platform, otherwise it will be too difficult to follow, interpret and to make a full use of it. A basic knowledge of EasyLanguage (TradeStation programming language) is also required for better understanding the samples and in order to be able to make them work for you, since the provided samples might require some adaptations to the latest version of TradeStation.
Although I have not made money from that book yet (still reading, sorry, and hey I'm calling it "yet" meaning I beliebe it will come) - I believe it to be a great resource for anyone who is going to use automatic trading.

Fishman: The Enigma - Arie Avneri

This is a biography about one of the most active business managers and owners in Israel - Eliezer Fishman. The book tells the stories of E.Fishman from a young boy and until 2005, how he started, the big failure during 1983 and the collapse of the stock exchange in Israel, the way he re-generate his success and leveraged his abilities by using connections, massive bank loans, lot of business sense and accounting capabilities and much more.
An interesting book for those who familiar with the Israeli business community.

The Little Book That Beats The Market - Joel Greenblatt

I recieved that book a week ago from a friend who trades for a living. The book deals with a strategy for a long term investment with an above average yield and this by using the suggested "Magic Formula" that described in it.
The book (actually a booklet) is written for non-professional investors (or investors to be) using an easy language that mixed rightly with cynical humor, making the reading a real fun.
At the end of the book (which comes very quickly) the characteristics of the "Magic Formula" are known and can be implemented by anyone who is willing to gain a yield of at least 15%+ a year in the next decade - looking forward to a wealthy pension.
In short, the "Magic Formula" gives a realistic method for selecting stocks for investments based on economical ratios that are well known for each one of the stocks by using regular and standard means. Each of such stock is than added to the portfolio for one year. The portfolio contains 30 stocks on average and the overall investment "system" was checked with real data by using the historical values of the last 17 years - Interesting.

The Art of Deception - Kevin Mitnick

Yesterday I read that Kevin Mitnick is coming to Israel on Feb-18 to give some lectures in a security forum meeting. Kevin Mitnick is famously known as the 1st computer hacker that has been captured and sentenced to jail. Kevin uses what is known now as social engineering for getting information from the most vulnerable part in the security chain - human - in order to recieve delicate information such as user names, passwords, entry codes, etc. In his book "The art of deception" Kevin describes his story from a young boy to a grown up information criminal. I believe that many stories are still missing due to the fact that Kevin is now free and go figure what else he knows and keep for himslef for a "rainy day".
I have read Kevin's book two years ago and labeled it as a must-read for anyone who deals with computer networks and willing to keep them out of reach for external users. The book also exposes a briliant manipulative and criminal mind, I must confess that in some way I feel guilty just for reading such a book, but don't worry - I'm from the good guys ;) and I don't know nor like hacking.

Get The Edge - Tony Robins

The 'Get The Edge' is an audio series that spans 7 days out of which you devote an hour a day for hearing. The series describes several aspects of life that should help anyone to get better chances and better fulfillment via better understanding and having more sensitivity to the actual needs in work, relationships, health, money management and in general.
Tony Robins claim to have more than 30 years of experience in lecturing on the subject. The series is well organized and Tony Robins well delivers. I know there are more audio series programs by Tony Robins and I will now look for them. I think it might be of interest for anyone who looks for change and need some guidance.

Leadership - Rudolph Giuliani

Lately I had a conversation about this book with a friend who happened to read it too not long ago. I found that I'm not the only one that like, and actually I'm not surprise since this is really an interesting book. I almost didn't leave it until I read it all. There are several issues that caught me in the book:
1. The high achievement standards demonstrated by RG.
2. The broken windows theory.
3. The self example.
4. The morning meetings that helped to move things up.

Well, actually there are lot more and these are only the labels of a much wider stories, however, I would like to concentrate today on the broken windows theory,
and this because I find it to be so useful to think at that way and I think everyone should be familiar with it in order to better understand how simple it might be to get to higher standards when you just follow the rules of consistency and showing an example.
The "broken windows" theory says in short that in places where the windows are broken, it might be common to assume that one more broken window will not be a disaster (on the contrary). This saw might be deduced to many fields such as:
[1] If you are shouting at me, it is ok to shout.
[2] If a politician is a liar, his surrounding might be built of lies (and is it ok?).
[3] If there is already a garbage on the floor, it is ok to drop some more garbage on that floor....
So, in short, the theory says - "fix the broken windows unless you want to see all the others broken too..."

Reminiscences of a stock operator

As part of getting back into investment, trading and technical analysis (see my new blog at http://trademachine.blogspot.com), I have read this book: Reminiscences of a stock operator by Edwin Lefevre. Although this book was initially printed in 1923, it is interesting to see that the psychology of stock traders have not changed much. Nice book with an interesting story. It tells the actual story of the writer which happened to be one of the geratest stock speculators who become a legend throughout his living and also known through the following nicknames: "Daring Kid", "Cotton King" and "The Big Bear". The basic principle of stock trading remains the same, along with the excitement that came with it.

46 Ideas To Make Your Business A Success

A small booklet (87 pages) that describes Business Success Ideas under the following categories:
[1] ARE YOU MAKING MONEY OR BUILDING A BUSINESS ?
[2] DOES YOUR COMPANY REALLY NEED A LOGO ?
[3] HOW TO ACHIEVE EXCELLENCE IN SALES
[4] HOW TO DEVELOP KILLER MONEY-MAKING IDEAS
[5] HOW TO GET FREE RADIO ADVERTISING
[6] HOW TO GET RICH GIVING AWAY SOMETHING FREE
[7] HOW TO GIVE AWAY CARDS AND MAKE EASY MONEY
[8] HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITHOUT LEAVING THE HOUSE
[9] THE NECESSITY OF FINANCIAL PLANNING
[10] HOW TO OBTAIN A MERCHANT'S CREDIT CARD ACCOUNT

Sort of deja-vu while comparing to other books that I read, but nice.