One-Way Pockets: The Book of Books on Wall Street Speculation is one of the classic stock market books that has stood the test of time. (Click here to read why the classics are the best.)

In 1915, a stock broker named Don Guyon began to study the accounts of his clients. Guyon discovered patterns of trading that are still repeated to this day. He also learned that fewer than 5% of the clients of his firm made money in the market. The crowd stills buys at the top and sells at the bottom just as it did 100 years ago.

Guyon describes a trading method that will help you rise above the crowd and follow the natural cycle of the market. It may be hard to believe, but every single method he describes in this book is still perfectly valid today. You only need to make a few minor adjustments. For example, when he writes about “pools” you just need to translate that into “hedge funds”, etc.

Here is my favorite quote from the book (p. 33):

“…the followers of charts…are fooled persistently by the large operators, who “work” the chart readers and their following at every available opportunity.”

That’s right. The big dogs have been painting the charts to fool us for 100 years!

This is a small, succinct book. Short and sweat, and only $10 or so. Highly recommended.