Monolune

Books about prop trading

Books about proprietary trading experiences are rather rare. People are busy making money using secret methods, rather than sharing their experiences with the world. There are only a few I am aware of:

  • One Good Trade by Mike Bellafiore.

    One Good Trade: Inside the Highly Competitive World of Proprietary Trading was published by Wiley.in 2010. Still in print as of 2020.

  • The Prop Trader's Chronicles by Francis James Chan.

    The Prop Trader's Chronicles: Short-Term Proprietary Trading Strategies for Both Bull and Bear Markets was published by Wiley in 2013. It is out of print.

    The book is written like a memoir that explains that author's experiences at two prop trading firms: one in Toronto and the other in New York. At the prop trading firms, the author used short-term scalping strategies involving only Level 2 quotes and the Time and Sales. It is a day trading technique that exploits ECN rebates to reduce downside. It is interesting that no charts or technical analysis are used in such trading. "Trading without charts" is intriguing, and as far as I am aware, this is one of the few books that explain this method of day trading. This is the book that inspired me to read more about ECNs and market structure in general. It opened my eyes to the inner workings of the stock market that I could not have easily learned on my own as a retail buy-and-hold investor. If you're interested, here's a list of resources I used for learning about market microstructure: Books about market microstructure.