( For those of you who do not want to read the whole blog post, you can download the book here FOR FREE “Principals and Psychology of Day Trading” no signup or anything )

YOU CAN ALWAYS LEARN SOMETHING AND SOME OF THE BEST THINGS ARE FREE

I was on a board discussing account minimums and people trading small accounts. I think a lot of people have really bad information on trading with a small account. Trading with a small account means trading with ‘scared money’ until you figure out what you are doing. All of us started out as ‘newbies’ and learned along the way.

There are some good educators and mentors out there , but there are more scam artists BY FAR out there preying on ‘newbies’ promising a lot with a small account.

I know one ‘educator’ that does not trade actual money ( I am not saying the educators name, but you know who you are ) says things like ‘We made $900 and only needed $1,500 of margin’. Yeah, right. A three contract trade needs more like $6,000 to $15,000 and that is still pushing it.

Anyway, my thoughts can be summarized as :

I guess what I am saying is being under capitalized is bad, not knowing how to trade is worse.

It is quite true. If you are trading a small account , you probably will not make enough to live on and you really , really , really need to understand risk management ,the psychology of trading and have realistic expectations.

Anyway, it lead me to think that there are some free resources that can help others learn how to trade without have to send money to an ‘educator’. Not that all educators are bad, but there are things that can help traders in general. There is also free education on trading on most of the exchanges websites that will get you started.

I have learned a lot about trading from free or close to free sources. From the exchanges, from other traders and by reading a lot. ( I have more formal training in finance, but that really doesn’t apply to trading. )  So here are a couple of free ebooks for everyone and especially for those starting out with small accounts.

A GREAT BOOK YOU HAVE PROBABLY NEVER HEARD ABOUT

Well, this guy gives the book away on his website. “Principals and Psychology of Day Trading” no signup or anything. No need to give your email address or anything else.

I don’t have any connection with George or his site, I just enjoyed his book. It does not read like a traditional manual, but more like a series of lessons learned via experience about day trading in the pit and on the screen.

Now, I don’t agree with every thing he writes, but I do agree with a lot of it. His methods are pretty old school, which is to be expected coming from a person who started trading well before electronic trading was ever a factor.

It looks like the guy started to write a book to sell , but in the end just gave it a away. Who knows? Any way , it is free so go grab a copy.

Now on to the second free book…

REMINISCENCES OF A STOCK OPERATOR

I always keep reading when I have the time ( which is really rare ) and I encourage everyone else to do so also. I have read Reminiscences of a Stock Operator a few times and every time I find myself learning something.

I must admit, the first time I did not read the book all the way through a few years ago. But every time after that I learned something new and read further. Did I mention that the book is in the public domain now? So it is free.

You can always learn something new and some of the best things are free.

PIMPING MY NEWSLETTER

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Photo By John Picken It is a picture of three Chicago exchanges all in one picture.