Rating: 
Summary: Picks up where every other book leaves off
Review: Â Â Â Â Â If you are like most people, after your first few losing trades you set about to learn better market analysis. After your next string of losers you learned about risk management. But there's still one more challenge to conquer; yourself.
     That is the major premise of this book. If it sounds like wishy-washy psycho-babble to you, I'll only say that I would have agreed -- four months ago, before I quit my 20-year technology career, obtained a Series/7 license and joined a professional day-trading firm. I now believe most people would lose money if you gave them 50/50 odds on whether or not it was going to rain tomorrow.
     In other words, successfully forecasting the market is not enough. Why not? Well, this book explains why not. It has to do with one's sense of self-worth, one's moral judgment of money, one's work-ethic, one's tendency to focus on good news while ignoring bad, and other things.
     "Zone" was recommended to a friend of mine by a professional floor trader who told him, "I wish I had read it before starting two years ago. Don't place another trade until you do." Well said. Does this apply to investors as well as traders? Oh, absolutely! If you have ever said to yourself, "I'm not selling that stock while it's down, I'll wait until I have a profit in it," then for the love of money, read this book.
     Finally, read "Zone" before Douglas' earlier work. If you still want more then read "Disciplined Trader" for a general review plus a deeper exploration into the author's philosophical and meta-physical theories.
Rating:
Summary: Covered an important area in Trading - that is yourself.
Review: Can be more condensed, overall a great book.
My favorite takeaway from the book: "Be rigid with your trading rules but flexible in your expectations."
Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Focus on trading in the "Now" moment
Review: Good traders dispassionately address opportunity as it presents itself. How do you arrive at this "destination state"? The author tells us that learning more about the market is a wasted effort if you first do not know about yourself. If you assume that each trade is independent of the other trades you have taken and view them as a probable outcome based on your "edge" then you are miles ahead of other traders.You will need to find another book to generate trading ideas (your edge). This tome does a great job of discussing the "trading attitude". Douglas uses some odd imagery to describe how dearly a belief is held. He says that it has "energy" and then describes how physics states that energy cannot be destroyed. He lost me on that analogy, but the point he made is that we have unproductive beliefs that have to be neutralized by adopting productive beliefs and emphasizing them over those unproductive beliefs. There are seven principles of consistency and five fundamental truths in trading presented here that are helpful to any trader review on an ongoing basis. If you are already successful then you may note that you have these beliefs already internalized. If you are new to trading these are invaluable because it can help you avoid the pitfalls that await you.
Rating:
Summary: Focus on trading in the "Now" moment
Review: Good traders dispassionately address opportunity as it presents itself. How do you arrive at this "destination state"? The author tells us that learning more about the market is a wasted effort if you first do not know about yourself. If you assume that each trade is independent of the other trades you have taken and view them as a probable outcome based on your "edge" then you are miles ahead of other traders. You will need to find another book to generate trading ideas (your edge). This tome does a great job of discussing the "trading attitude". Douglas uses some odd imagery to describe how dearly a belief is held. He says that it has "energy" and then describes how physics states that energy cannot be destroyed. He lost me on that analogy, but the point he made is that we have unproductive beliefs that have to be neutralized by adopting productive beliefs and emphasizing them over those unproductive beliefs. There are seven principles of consistency and five fundamental truths in trading presented here that are helpful to any trader review on an ongoing basis. If you are already successful then you may note that you have these beliefs already internalized. If you are new to trading these are invaluable because it can help you avoid the pitfalls that await you.
Rating:
Summary: excellent book
Review: I think every trader or wannabe trader should read this book. I took a few things away from it.
1. You cannot control your trading if you cannot control yourself.
2. You must have unbreakable rules if you want to stay in the game.
3. Any system will make you money as long as you cut your losers fast and let your winners ride.
Rating:
Summary: Emotions Kill In Trading
Review: I thought this was a well written book by Douglas. He constantly hammers the point of getting your emotions in check before trading. He says this in every single chapter in one form or another. Learn through repetition. Wished I had read this book first many, many years ago before I lost bucoo $$$$, but now I've learned the hard way. The book is also easy to read and hits home on many things regarding one's emotions. They do NOT belong in trading (unless you want to lose money). Found that greed and fear were my 2 biggest enemies. I don't have specific examples to give you of what he talks about since I read the book awhile back, but this book is definitely worth reading again and again, just to remind yourself the market plays no favorites and doesn't care who you are. Learning to get your emotions under control as a stock trader or investor is of greatest importance, if you want to make money.
Rating:
Summary: Emotions Kill In Trading
Review: I thought this was a well written book by Douglas. He constantly hammers the point of getting your emotions in check before trading. He says this in every single chapter in one form or another. Learn through repetition. Wished I had read this book first many, many years ago before I lost bucoo $$$$, but now I've learned the hard way. The book is also easy to read and hits home on many things regarding one's emotions. They do NOT belong in trading (unless you want to lose money). Found that greed and fear were my 2 biggest enemies. I don't have specific examples to give you of what he talks about since I read the book awhile back, but this book is definitely worth reading again and again, just to remind yourself the market plays no favorites and doesn't care who you are. Learning to get your emotions under control as a stock trader or investor is of greatest importance, if you want to make money.
Rating: 
Summary: Set up your mind before trading
Review: If you want to fulfill your expectations of a perfect trading system this is not your book. This book is about you and the market; is about how to set up your mind to become a consistent winner.
Chapter 1 describes the necessary mental framework for trading properly.
Chapter 2 shows the psychological challenges a trader must face up to.
Chapters 3 to 5 define the mental framework for trading and what will happen if you lack it.
Chapters 6 and 7 tell us how to get that mental framework from a personal point of view ( opportunity flow and thinking in probabilities).
Chapters 8 to 10 describe how to achieve that mental framework from the market's point of view.
Chapter 11 is an exercise to put it all together.
Although Mr. Douglas knows what he's talking about, his book requires more market examples. Furthermore he loses the thread of his arguments at times and request to be reviewed several times to make the most of it.
In spite of this shortcomings it is correct a approach and worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Essential to Becoming a Successful Trader
Review: The zone is a fearless, flexible and probabilistic state of mind that is consistently focused in what Douglas calls the "now moment opportunity flow" of the market based on objectively-identified edges. According to Douglas, the "now moment" means that "there is no potential to associate an opportunity to get into, get out of, add too, or detract from a trade with a past experience that already exists in your mental environment" (pg. 130). Consistently successful trading requires a high degree of mental flexibility, based on certain fearless attitudes and a probabilistic mind-set, to flow in and out of trades based on what the market is saying about the possibilities from its perspective. One must have a trading system that eliminates one's susceptibility to typical trading errors (as listed on page 186) and duplicates how a casino operates. Like the casinos, the consistently successful traders know that over a series of events (or trades), the odds are in their favor, but in order to realize the benefits of the favorable odds, they have to participate in every event (or trade). In other words, they know they won't be successful on every single trade at the micro level, but on the macro level the outcomes over a series of trades will produce consistently successful results provided that the following is true: 1) one has an edge that genuinely puts the odds of success in your favor; 2) you can think about trading in the appropriate manner, and 3) you can do everything you need to do over a series of trades. Regarding the first, you must know what defines an edge which requires you to be well educated in market/technical analysis. Douglas assumes that most of the people reading his book have this education. Regarding the second, Douglas provides five fundamental truths that must be mentally absorbed to approach trading successfully. Regarding the third, Douglas provides a trading exercise in the last chapter that requires your trading system to fit within seven specifications (from trade entry to accepting the risk). The purpose of the exercise is to help integrate the five fundamental truths into your mind (belief system).
In addition to the five fundamental truths, Douglas also provides in the last chapter seven complementary principles of consistency which he calls "sub-beliefs" to, or reasons for, the primary objective of believing one is a consistent winner at trading. He also introduces and explains the trader's three stages of development: the mechanical, the subjective, and the intuitive. The first ten chapters of the book contain a lot of general information related to beliefs and expectations that is beneficial to self-understanding outside of trading but is specifically applied to trading as preparation for the essential and culminating last chapter, Thinking Like a Trader, which includes the trading exercise. For experienced traders, I recommend completing the survey at the beginning of the book and then, after one has studied the text, complete it again to see how the book's content impacted one's trading beliefs and practice. As a novice to the field of trading, I consider this book essential reading for both newcomers and professionals although the latter will probably appreciate it more.
Rating:
Summary: Essential information, but not fun to read
Review: This book has been recommended by everyone that I respect as a successful trader. However, I believe the recommendations have far more to do with the essence of Douglas' points, than the manner in which he lays them out in prose. The book is highly repetitive and contains almost silly explanations of psychological processes, most of which are totally unnecessary.
At times, he manages to explain emotions or situations that you may have already experienced as a trader. These are helpful in terms of gaining your trust in what he has to say, and also help you to re-examine some of your own past emotions and mistakes. Some of the stories and anecdotes are very interesting and will stick with you. However to get the most efficient use out of this book, try to skip quickly over the psychological portions of the book, unless you need to be thoroughly convinced of how your own thought processes work to change your thinking, and have the need to change your thinking after reading it.
When I picked up the book, I already had a clear understanding of his main points, but what really helped me was knowing that most trading errors are due to a lack of consistency, and that understanding the probabilistic nature of the markets is not sufficient... as a person, you need to remain consistent. In many ways, this book is an argument in favor of automated trading systems! Only computers can be as consistent as is required to fully maintain an "edge" on the market.
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