Book Review: How I made 2 million in the stock market by Nicolas Darvas

How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market by Nicolas Darvas

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I have always wanted to read a good stock market book by a self-made individual. Failure stories are all the more attractive because I can learn a lot from those. I didn’t expect this book also to contain so many of the author’s failures. The book had an interesting flow just like a suspense novel and at times when the chapter ends on a cliff-hanger, only here, it was true and not fiction.

His story made me gasp at several places and be in awe at others.

Salient points from my view –
1. The author was probably in his 30s when he is interested in stock market.
2. He seemed to have been a famous dancer, because I cannot fathom the amount of money he invested for the starting of his gambling period. Three grand during the 1952 made me choke a little.
3. His vision was unblurred because of the income being constantly generated one side and market was blossoming to be his passion flower.
4. So, he can focus on his career as well as this side hustle.
5. He had given unbelievable levels of dedication to this hustle during his world tour, living only with cables and a weekly magazine. Now, that’s impressive.
6. I love how he documented every single thing. The important trades during his journey of some 7 years. I can’t remember the trade I took three years back which wiped out my account, but I remember the mistakes I did.
7. The selection of stocks based on pure price action. Use of his box theory. Strict use of stop losses and importantly trailing the stops when your stock goes higher instead of randomly exiting a position.
8. Taking full advantage of everything the market, the exchange, the brokerage offers that could increase your position size without much spending like margin, discounts, stock split, right issue, etc.
9. Once confident with your theory and the right stock, we need to add considerable position (the risk) to reap in considerable rewards at the end. Stops can help you minimize losses.
10. He chose stocks that were active and high priced. So, when you are confident with the setup, don’t bargain like a beggar, buy and add position during rise. This directly clashes with the normal mindset of adding to your losses or averaging the losses – which may not turn out good.

A good book overall and I gained a lot of insights. I need to now sit and jot down the points that I think would need refinements for this modern era trading and investing, but his core belief and confident approach need not be changed!



View all my reviews

Book review: Price Action Trading T.A by Sunil Gurjar

Price Action Trading Technical Analysis by Sunil Gurjar

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I simply bought this book because I had a book coupon on Amazon but it turned out to be a rather interesting choice.

As per many people’s reviews, this book offers beginner’s understanding and ways to tackle market during different trends and conditions.

I personally loved and learnt a lot from the stop losses strategies, trade positioning, various market patters and how to ride them as per our analysis.

All the theories apart, the case studies at the end (nearly 50) were more enlightening where the author had explained entry, target, stop-loss and exit for multiple case scenarios and different scripts as well.



View all my reviews