Mark Minervini crushed markets with a 33,554% return over 5 years. Here are the select books out of the 4,000 in his library he says most fueled his success.

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• Mark Minervini, stock trading legend and author of "Mindset Secrets for Winning," learned the art of investing by studying the market wizards that came before him.
• Although he's studied thousands of books, Minervini was able to garner unprecedented returns by adopting the strategies and philosophies laid out in just a few select ones.
• He also notes that his investment/trading strategy is more growth-oriented and that his recommendations wouldn't be suitable for a value investor.
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In any field, those that push the envelope forward generally attribute their success to the strategies and philosophies of those who came before them.

Investing is no different.

Mark Minervini, stock trading legend and author of "Mindset Secrets for Winning," attributes his prosperity in the stock market to his unprecedented quest for knowledge, and the ability to borrow ideas from the greats.

"I learned virtually everything that I know through reading books over the years, and from real-life experience and application," he said in an exclusive interview with Business Insider. "I have over 4,000 books in my library and I've read them all. I've read some 100 times."

Minervini honed his trading strategy around a few concepts: Buy stocks in strong uptrends that are coming out of consolidations, and sell losers ASAP.

Even so, Minervini didn't pull this approach out of thin air. He scoured through the writings of history's best traders and investors until he found an approach that was congruent with his own market philosophy.

The result? A compounded total return of 33,554% from 1994 to 1999, which equates to roughly 220% a year. A true market-conquering spectacle.

Before we get into his recommendations, it's important to note that these books are catered towards a certain investment and trading style. Minervini is a growth investor who trades breakouts. If this approach isn't congruent with your own personal investment thesis, it likely won't make sense to employ. He makes this notion explicitly clear.

"You got to find a style that makes sense to you, and you got to stick with it and you have to master it," he said. "You're just not going to be able to do it all."

These are the books that resonated most with him.

Minervini's recommendations

1. "How To Trade In Stocks" by Jesse Livermore.

"I studied Jesse Livermore in-depth," he said. "If you go back and look at what he was doing in the 1930s, you could apply it today. It's timeless."

He continued: "It's one of my favorite books."

Livermore is arguably one of the most famous stock traders to ever live. He earned and subsequently lost fortunes on multiple occasions throughout his career - and many have heralded him as the best to ever do it. His story is chronicled in the investment classic "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" by Edwin Lefevre.

2. "Superperformance Stocks" by Richard Love.

Love scans over 100 years of market history to provide investors with powerful stock-picking strategies and attractive technical analysis chart setups in this investment classic.

Minervini notes that Love's book may be hard to get a copy of today since it's out of print.

In additon to Livermore and Love, Minervini also suggests reading William O'Neil's books, which include "How to Make Money in Stocks," and "24 Essential Lessons for Investment Success."

"Love was sort of the first O'Neil," he said. "O'Neil's work is a derivative of Love's."

"With my books and O'Neil's books, you pretty much have everything you need right there for a growth strategy," he concluded. "If you're trading value or something, that's a whole different story."

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