one of the best books ever written on stock markets?

Answer 1

The best I don't know, but I liked the following three a lot:
What works on Wall Street by James P. O'Shaughnessy.
The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham
The New Market Wizards by Jack Schwager

Answer 2

sorta like asking which is the best painting every painted? There's so many good ones. And some of the "best" books, may sound like Greek to you if you've never heard of Fibonacci, or Chaikou, or know what RSI and Stochastics are. Are you more interested in cycles or momentum or breakouts or bottom fishing or maybe a pattern trader?

What is your knowledge level?

What is your experience level?

Are you interested in investing or trading?

Day Trading?

Are you well funded?


"Which Is Better, Buy-and-Hold or Market Timing?"

"Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Market Timer

The Beginner's Bible in Technical Analysis is:
Edwards & McGee"Tech. Anal. Of Stock Trends"

Droke, ClifTechnical Analysis Simplified

Kahn, Michael N.Tech. Anal. Plain & Simple

Kamich, Bruce M.How Technical Analysis Works

Lefevre, EdwinReminiscences of a Stock Operator

Lofton, ToddGetting Started in Futures

Lowenstein, RogerBuffet (Warren)-The Making of a Capitalist

O'Neil, William J.How to Make Money in Stocks

Oz, TonyHow to Make Money From Wall Street

Take a look at charting and Technical Analysis for following trends in the markets. Why would you own a stock that is in an obvious decline, or a mutual fund that underperforms the idex it follows?

Realize right away there are two sides to the market, not just the upside. Not only can you short the weak ones while you go long the stronger ones, what goes up, eventually comes down at least part way. This is not a business of prediction, but rather knowing what to do if certain price points are reached, say at Support or Resistance levels, or Fibonacci retracement levels, or if a breakout to new highs or lows occurs.

Learn how to analyze risk, and make this your primary approach. We are not in the business of analyzing an unfounded theory of compounding profits and erroneously analyzing how much money you can make. For example, most traders don't make any money at all; more than 80% blow out.

Learn about money management techniques, and maybe you'll stick around awhile.

Develop a plan, then test your plan on a free simulator at Investopedia.com and when you start making "virtual" money, then you can risk your own.

http://simulator.investopedia.com/home.a...
http://investopedia.com
http://investing.sitesled.com/
http://futures.tradingcharts.com/learnin...

Blogs
http://winners-and-losers.com/

Training & classes
http://bettertrades.com
http://investedcentral.com

ETF news and analysis
http://ETF-World.Org/

Article: Trading is Timing
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/tra...

Stock Charts
Bigcharts.com
http://www.stockTA.com
http://www.stockcharts.com
http://www.incrediblecharts.co...
www.prophet.net
americanbulls.com

Answer 3

Try "A Random Walk Down Wall Street"