Membership
Humbled Trader
Community Membership · $1,290/yr
Shay's day-trading community: live sessions, journaling, and a beginner path.
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Education
Learn the industry from first principles.
A free library for novice and experienced prop traders. The guides are shelved by job: getting started, passing an evaluation, risk, markets, and process. The books, channels, podcasts, and films are further down this page, in Watch, Listen & Read.
- 17
- guides
- ~35
- min total read
Featured picks
Where we'd start: the training and the two books we'd hand a new prop trader first.
All of Watch, Listen & Read ↓
Some links may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. How we earn.
Training
SMB Capital
SMB Training
Trader development from a working NYC prop desk.
Courses
Institute of Trading
Anton Kreil
Professional trading and portfolio management courses from an ex-Goldman trader.
Courses
Trader Dale
Volume profile
Volume profile and order-flow courses, including a funded-trader track.
Book
Trading in the Zone
Mark Douglas
The classic on probabilistic thinking. Reread once a year.
Book
Best Loser Wins
Tom Hougaard
A high-stakes index trader on mind management: why taking small losses well beats better analysis.
Start here
How to Pass Your First Prop Firm Evaluation
The front door. How a first evaluation actually works, which rules to copy down before you trade, and how to size to the drawdown. Built from the guides already in this library. Firm-neutral.
Read the guide →The library
Five shelves. Pick the job in front of you.
4 guides
Getting Started
Start here. What prop trading is, how firms work, the language of the industry.
Open shelf →
4 guides
Passing Evaluations
Tactical guides for passing challenges, choosing firms, and avoiding the traps.
Open shelf →
3 guides
Risk & Position Sizing
The math that decides whether you keep the account. Every funded trader rereads these.
Open shelf →
3 guides
Markets & Platforms
Asset class primers and order flow basics for traders levelling up.
Open shelf →
3 guides
Mindset & Process
Funded trading exposes every mental leak. These build the habits that compound.
Open shelf →
- Watch, Listen & Read ↓
Books, channels, podcasts, films
Watch, Listen & Read
The books, YouTube channels, podcasts, and documentaries working traders point beginners to. One page, picked for prop traders.
Some links may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. How we earn.
01 · Books
The best trading books for prop traders.
A short, deliberate reading list. Most professional traders have read all of these — many more than once.
- Trading in the ZoneMark DouglasThe classic on probabilistic thinking. Reread once a year.View on Amazon ↗
- Best Loser WinsTom HougaardA high-stakes index trader on mind management: why taking small losses well beats better analysis.View on Amazon ↗
- Reminiscences of a Stock OperatorEdwin LefèvreA century old. Every lesson still holds.View on Amazon ↗
- Market WizardsJack SchwagerInterviews with the best traders of an era, and the start of the series. Pattern recognition for the trader you want to become.View on Amazon ↗
- One Good TradeMike BellafioreInside a working NYC prop desk. The closest a book gets to apprenticeship.View on Amazon ↗
- The Daily Trading CoachBrett Steenbarger101 short lessons on trader psychology and self-coaching from a working performance coach.View on Amazon ↗
- Trading RiskKenneth GrantRisk management from a hedge fund risk officer. Dense, practical, undervalued.View on Amazon ↗
02 · YouTube channels
Trading YouTube channels actually worth your time.
Working traders, real screen recordings, no get-rich-quick. These are the channels professionals point beginners to.
Tom Hougaard — Trader Tom@TraderTomEquity-index day trading with brutally honest psychology lessons.- Humbled TraderShayDay-trading equities, journaling, and the long path from blow-up to consistency.
- SMB CapitalMike Bellafiore & teamOne of the most respected NYC prop desks. Free trader development content most firms would charge for.
Axia FuturesAxiaOrder flow, tape reading and screen recordings from working futures traders.- Trader DaleDaleVolume profile and footprint instruction with concrete setups.
- Anton Kreil — Institute of TradingAnton KreilEx-Goldman and Lehman trader on the realities of professional trading careers.
03 · Podcasts
The best trading podcasts.
Hundreds of hours of long-form conversations with working traders. If you commute, walk, or train, this is the highest-leverage education on the list.
Kevin Avery (founded by Aaron Fifield)Chat With Traders200+ long-form interviews with prop, hedge fund and independent traders. The single best starting library.Open ↗
Open Order Podcast (Traders Magazine)Terry Flanagan & Traders Magazine editorsInstitutional market structure, execution, and the buy-side perspective from Traders Magazine.
Top Traders UnpluggedNiels Kaastrup-LarsenSystematic and trend-following CTAs talking honestly about risk and drawdowns.
Flirting with ModelsCorey HoffsteinDeep dives on quantitative research, portfolio construction and the boundary between art and science.
The Acquirers PodcastTobias CarlisleValue, deep value and capital allocation — useful for any trader who holds beyond the close.
Trend Following with Michael CovelMichael CovelPioneers of trend following on rules-based discipline.
04 · Documentaries
Trading documentaries every trader should see.
Context for why modern markets look the way they do, and the people who built them.
- James Allen SmithFloored (2009)Chicago floor traders losing their world to the screens. Required viewing for context.
The Wall Street CodeVPRO DocumentaryFree, full length. The architecture of modern electronic markets explained by the people who built it.
Quants: The Alchemists of Wall StreetVPROHow models took over markets, and the limits the 2008 crisis exposed.- Charles FergusonInside Job (2010)Macro context on the incentives that shape financial markets.
Original research
Do any prop firms really have no consistency rule?
We reviewed the published rulebooks of 15 major prop firms — futures, FX, and multi-asset — and classified each one using primary sources only. A useful read before picking a program.
Read the full research →Reference
The prop trading glossary.
Every term, rule and acronym you'll encounter — drawdown types, payout mechanics, evaluation phases, consistency rules, scaling plans. Plain-English definitions cross-linked from every guide across the library.
Open the glossary →