The trading books that actually changed how I trade
Six books that survived contact with a live account — what each one is actually for, and the order I'd read them in.
Read →Notes from the desk
Book summaries, technicals, fundamentals and the odd market story — written by someone who trades every day rather than writes about it.
Mark Minervini's SEPA, summarised for people who trade Indian markets
The trend template, the volatility contraction pattern and the risk rules — and which parts survive the move to Indian markets.
Read →CANSLIM in plain English: William O'Neil's checklist
What each letter means, why the fundamental half matters more than the chart, and where the method struggles.
Read →Stan Weinstein's four stages: the only chart framework I'd teach first
Basing, advancing, topping, declining — and why the 30-week average does most of the work.
Read →Darvas boxes: what a dancer taught traders about trailing stops
The box theory, the losses that preceded it, and why the method matters more than the money.
Read →Economic moats: Pat Dorsey's four sources of durable advantage
Intangibles, switching costs, network effects and cost advantages — and how to tell a moat from a good year.
Read →Bulls, Bears and Other Beasts: why Indian traders should read our own history
Santosh Nair's history of Indian markets — badla, Harshad Mehta, the arrival of NSE — and why it explains today's rulebook.
Read →What AI actually does for a discretionary trader
Where models genuinely help, where they quietly hurt, and why backtest-shaped confidence is the real risk.
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