56 Books Like How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market

Why a book about investment in a list about trading? Many experience unaffordable losses trying to become day traders. Anyone thinking about becoming a trader should first understand the fundamentals of investment and whether they might be a better investor than a trader.

First, written in 1949, the advice in this classic work has stood the test of time. This edition has an introduction from one of the most successful investors of our times (Warren Buffet) and a commentary bringing it up to date from Wall Street journalist Jason Zweig.

Above all, I love this book because it avoids flashy but misleading get-rich-quick narratives and focuses on how to invest in the creation of value. And if you do decide to be a trader, this book will teach you a great deal too.

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… show more.

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.

As mentioned, I’m a big fan of Buffett’s investing strategy. That’s because it can be applied by anyone, even those who don’t work in finance–while yielding a good profit. Since I don’t want to be stressing over the markets daily, the best fit is a passive investing strategy.

This book gathers 50 years of Warren Buffett’s letters to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, a great way to better understand the man’s thinking process. Buffett doesn’t only talks about how investing really works, he also shares his philosophy for life. 

Risk is the invisible force that shapes our world, yet few books capture its history and significance as brilliantly as this one. When I first read this book, I was struck by how Bernstein connects probability theory, human psychology, and investing into one seamless narrative. It made me realize that mastering risk isn’t just about crunching numbers—it’s about understanding human nature.

From Pascal and Gauss to modern finance, this book reveals how we’ve learned to tame uncertainty. As an investor, it reinforced my belief that risk isn’t something to fear but to understand and use wisely.

Van Tharp’s Super Trader is the book that changed my perspective on trading.

After reading it I began thinking of trading like a business (O’Neil touches on this as well) that works best with well-designed systems and processes.

Tharp goes deep into psychology and belief systems. He says “We don’t actually trade the market. We trade our beliefs about the market.” If this is the case, we better gain as much awareness of our beliefs as we can! He was a huge inspiration in this department and was one of my biggest inspirations in the realm of trading psychology.

Tharp also introduces position sizing concepts in this book that reveal “how much we bet” has far more to do with our overall success in trading than most anything else. Even more so than where we enter and exit. 

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.

I find the 20th-century legendary trader Jesse Livermore to be very relatable. Livermore made and lost great fortunes during his time as a Wall Street trader in the 1920s. And after reading about the ups and downs of his life, I am inspired by his resilience and ingenuity.

This book drew me in with its great writing style and Livermore’s trading advice. While Livermore was a short-term stock market trader, his insight into managing emotions is important for a good long-term investor. 

For creatives, this book is the move. Many writers who find themselves in reading lulls, also find themselves in writing lulls. Over the last two decades, writing professor Susan Shapiro has taught more than 25,000 students of all ages and backgrounds at NYU, Columbia, Temple, The New School, and Harvard University. And now the content from her wildly popular course “Instant Gratification Takes Too Long” is in this book for everyone who wants to get published fast, and with all the best secrets of the trade.

Byline Bible is full of advice for writers on how to break into publishing, but also includes tons of essays and pieces published by Susan Shapiro’s students, which make for great reading in and of themselves. 

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.