My personal interest in trading and investing goes back to the early 1960s, and during that decade, I read virtually every book I could find relating to the subject. At that time, very few titles were available, and I was ignorant of out-of-print books written many years earlier by such authors as Gartley, Schabacker, Tubbs, and the like.

My deep interest in both trading and market-related literature doubtless led to my lifelong involvement in both areas. Some of the books I read during that early period in my career are still among my favorites and are included here.

During the 1990s and since, books on trading have been produced at almost a mind-boggling rate. Today, there are hundreds of books on virtually every aspect of trading that one can imagine. Narrowing the choice for this column down to a mere 10 was difficult. I've listed here some of my favorites, those I feel will be of interest and value to any serious trader.

Many other books are equally deserving of a spot on this list; the ones included were among the first to come to mind when I undertook to write this column, and as listed, are not in any particular order

1) Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefevre is a perennial favorite and perhaps the most highly recommended title ever published. It is a 1923 fictionalized biography of the most colorful and flamboyant speculator of all times, Jesse Livermore. This timeless classic imparts valuable insights into market psychology and behavior.

2) Market Wizards by Jack Schwager features in-depth interviews with great traders, showing how they overcame the obstacles all traders encounter and, yet, still went on to become highly successful in a field where many try but few succeed. Highly interesting and easy to read, this will be one of your all-time favorites as it is mine.

3) Trading for a Living by Alexander Elder accomplishes a difficult task: It entertains while it educates. It is organized around the author's "3 M's": Method, Money and Mind. It covers trading systems, money management, personal trading psychology and a wide variety of other useful and practical information needed to become a successful trader.

4) Technical Analysis and Stock Market Profits by Richard Schabacker is, in my opinion, the finest book ever written on the principles of charting, the most important element in technical analysis (also my opinion). Written in 1936, it is better crafted and far more readable than the much more well known and frequently recommended Technical Analysis of Stock Trends by Edwards and Magee.

5) How I Made $2 Million in the Stock Market by Nicholas Darvas is one of my old favorites, which I first discovered and delighted in circa 1964. It describes the author's "box system", which essentially consists of learning to recognize congestion areas and breakouts from them, recognition of which often leads to rapid price gains or declines and significant, tradable price moves..

6) Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets by my old friend John Murphy is perhaps the most comprehensive single title covering the area of technical analysis. It is widely used as a standard text in trading courses and should be considered essential reading for anyone aspiring to be a serious trader. It is rivaled in my mind only by Jack Schwager's monumental Technical Analysis, which is unique for its 200-page section of real-world trading examples.

7) Secrets for Profiting in Bull and Bear Markets by Stan Weinstein is not as well known as most of the other titles listed here…call it a "sleeper" if you will. The author's "stage analysis" is a valuable way of viewing and understanding the cycles through which most stocks travel. A knowledge of this approach will help the reader recognize opportunities for both long and short positions at highly opportune times, as well as help in avoiding the catastrophe that results from executing an entry at the wrong time.

8) Exceptional Trading: The Mind Game by Ruth Roosevelt, herself a highly experienced trader, provides excellent guidance in how to deal with the psychological aspect of trading, an area all too often neglected by traders who feel that their major area of emphasis should be on the method of trading rather than on their own emotional limitations and pitfalls. This book shows how to develop the attitudes and make the essential mind shifts necessary to trading consistently and winning.

9) How to Make Money in Stocks by William O'Neill, founder of Investors Business Daily. This book outlines the investing beliefs of a great investor. As a body, these beliefs are often referred to as CANSLIM, a unique approach that combines a blend of fundamental and technical analysis for selecting stocks with the characteristics of other great winners of the past before they made major price advances.

10) Precision Trading with Stevenson Price and Time Targets by J. R. Stevenson, a seasoned technical trader with decades of experience as a trader and a professional technical analyst with major Wall Street brokerage firms. Here, Stevenson shares one of his pet techniques, which may be used in any actively traded market in virtually any time frame to project, well in advance, price and time targets. This technique often proves uncannily accurate and is quite simple. An added advantage is that it can be implemented on most technical analysis software packages.