The Small Stock Trader

The Small Stock Trader is an interesting and accessible monograph on trading philosophy by Mika. Released in 2014, it's 94 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free. 

This is more of a philosophical look at both life and the desire/necessity/possibilities of monetizing a hobby, specifically small scale stock trading. The author spends a fair bit of time explaining the personal traits which are beneficial to learning how to use the stock market (time, commitment, practice, etc), and the second half of the book veers off into some Eastern philosophy and psychology. It's an odd, quirky, and ultimately appealing mixture. 

The author does manage to do a surprisingly good job of explaining short selling (remember Gamestop a couple years ago?), and there are some other interesting takeaways scattered here and there. This is emphatically *NOT* a book with a lot of practical application for most readers to actually use to buy/sell stocks in any meaningful way. The conclusion states, baldly, that there are no fast answers. Buy low, sell high, is the general advice. There are no illustrations in the text, no annotations, no index, and no references. 

Three stars. Interesting philosophy, little practical information.Recommended for KU subscribers.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.