Rating: 
Summary: Don't let these reviewers fool you
Review: In case you didn't notice, these other reviews are from the author circuit. I believe the practice is called log rolling. You review mine, I'll review yours - what a cozy little circle j***. Are any of them successful traders? Apparently not. Part-time prognosticators who have something to sell. Don't think that some nitwit psychologist can help you with your trading. Successful traders come in all shapes and sizes, and no amount of counseling is going to help you.
Rating: 
Summary: You must and you can change
Review: In my quest to become a successful daytrader, I have spent thousands on books, seminars and services. From one highly acclaimed book I learned that in order to be able to enter 'The Zone' I need to unconditionally accept, even surrender to uncertainty and the inevitability of risk. However, how to do this was not revealed. I found there was a powerful pattern rooted deep within me that took me over, as if I were possessed by it, automatically enacting a long ago learned, now obsolete yet paralyzing coping mechanism. I felt thoroughly stuck yet I knew that I must and can break through this barrier. Dr. Steenbarger, a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, in his enlightening book 'The Psychology of Trading', goes far beyond the cliches of conventional wisdom. In case-study after case-study, Steenbarger reveals how people that are stuck can and do change. Every change begins with self-observation and the interruption of a pattern. The book provides many techniques and practical solutions to real trading problems, and provides intellectual and emotional ammunition to face oneself and transform one's approach to risk and reward. No easy answers are given, as there are none. Change is always uncomfortable! The Author draws on decades of clinical and personal experience, demonstrating how traders can identify, interrupt and change the problem patterns that interfere with successful trading. Kudos to Dr. Steenbarger for writing this brilliant book. It has helped me and will help countless others to transform themselves.
Rating:
Summary: Forget "Outside the Box"
Review: Now a very inside the box cliche. For a truly original book, a fascinating journey covering psychology, markets, and personal discovery, (the author's as well as windows into our own), this book is a treasure and a delight. For market players a wealth of ideas to consider and to test; for general readers, an entertaining and informative drive at a notably higher speed than most competitive market-how-to vehicles to destinations both on and off familiar roads.
Rating:
Summary: Author's Review
Review: Please excuse the immodesty of the 5 stars; I could not figure out how to produce a star-neutral author's review! In The Psychology of Trading, I have attempted to show how our behaviors become patterned, how this patterning affects the trading of financial markets, and how methods drawn from brief therapy and cognitive neuroscience can enable us to break old patterns and create new ones. My goal was to move beyond well-worn self-help techniques and offer practical strategies based on real cases drawn from trading and psychology. If, in some measure, the book enables traders to become their own therapists, it will have met this goal.A second objective of the book was to show that the patterns of the financial markets are similar to those of traders. I am continually surprised at how many intraday traders fail to track patterns in such data as the NYSE and Dow TICK, short-term new highs/new lows, and the minute-to-minute advance/decline balance among actively traded issues. These data reveal an ebb and flow of momentum in the market that is uncannily similar to the ebb and flow of moods in individuals--with markers at important points of transition. Recognizing and acting upon these markers is a crucial skill for psychotherapists--and for active traders. A recurring theme in The Psychology of Trading is that successful traders do *not* eliminate emotions from trading, but instead utilize their emotions as information. Not infrequently, this information illuminates the short-term movements of stocks and index futures. Learning to become an observer of one's experience, rather than lost within that experience, is a mark of mastery in many performance domains--a crucial ingredient in finding the trading "zone". Readers interested in previewing ideas from the book will find archived articles and a trading weblog linked at greatspeculations.com. An important theme in the articles and book is that proper trading psychology will never substitute for solid research and long hours of immersion in the markets. Indeed, The Psychology of Trading attempts to show how research and immersion can *produce* a superior trading mindset. The best traders, in the spirit of Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, seem to reach a point where working on the markets *is* working on the self--and vice versa. It is a noble path, and I am honored to travel it with readers.
Rating: 
Summary: Well researched and written, but not for the mass
Review: The author's M.D. counsellor-trader identity did help him making this an uncommon trading psychology book full of "highly trading relevant" counselling records from both trader and non trader patients. The catch is: if you are not interested in or equipped with an intermediate level of knowledge about psychology or counselling, I doubt very much whether you can finish reading this 300 page book till its end. To let you have a better grasp of my "worry" mentioned above, I would like to quote something from the last or conclusion chapter, which the author regarded them as 11 of the major themes explored in his book. 1. Behavior is patterned.
2. Your trading patterns reflect your emotion patterns.
3. Change begins with self observation
4. Problem patterns tend to be anchored to particular states. (When you enter a particular state thru emotional, physical, or cognitive activity, you tend to activate the behavioral patterns associated with that state.)
5. Our normal states of mind, which define most of our daily experience, lie within a restricted range of our possibilities. (Your immersion in daily routine keeps you locked in routine mind states)
6. Most trading occurs in a limited range of states, trapping traders in problem patterns. (Traders tend to place greater emphasis on the data they process than on the ways in which they process those data.)
7. People in general, and traders specifically, enact solutions as well as problem patterns.
8. Eliminating emotions is not necessarily the secret to improving trading. (Traders can utilize positive emotional experiences to identify constructive solution patterns and to create an anchoring of new, positive patterns.)
9. Success in the markets often comes from doing what doesnt come naturally.
10. The intensity and the repetition of change efforts are directly responsible for their utlimate success.
11. Trading success is a function of possessing a statistical edge in the markets and being able to exploit this edge with regularity. In short, if you can appreciate or at least have a slight idea of what the above 11 points try to preach, this book suits you well. Otherwise, please give it a pass.
Rating:
Summary: Well researched and written, but not for the mass
Review: The author's M.D. counsellor-trader identity did help him making this an uncommon trading psychology book full of "highly trading relevant" counselling records from both trader and non trader patients. The catch is: if you are not interested in or equipped with an intermediate level of knowledge about psychology or counselling, I doubt very much whether you can finish reading this 300 page book till its end. To let you have a better grasp of my "worry" mentioned above, I would like to quote something from the last or conclusion chapter, which the author regarded them as 11 of the major themes explored in his book. 1. Behavior is patterned.
2. Your trading patterns reflect your emotion patterns.
3. Change begins with self observation
4. Problem patterns tend to be anchored to particular states. (When you enter a particular state thru emotional, physical, or cognitive activity, you tend to activate the behavioral patterns associated with that state.)
5. Our normal states of mind, which define most of our daily experience, lie within a restricted range of our possibilities. (Your immersion in daily routine keeps you locked in routine mind states)
6. Most trading occurs in a limited range of states, trapping traders in problem patterns. (Traders tend to place greater emphasis on the data they process than on the ways in which they process those data.)
7. People in general, and traders specifically, enact solutions as well as problem patterns.
8. Eliminating emotions is not necessarily the secret to improving trading. (Traders can utilize positive emotional experiences to identify constructive solution patterns and to create an anchoring of new, positive patterns.)
9. Success in the markets often comes from doing what doesnt come naturally.
10. The intensity and the repetition of change efforts are directly responsible for their utlimate success.
11. Trading success is a function of possessing a statistical edge in the markets and being able to exploit this edge with regularity. In short, if you can appreciate or at least have a slight idea of what the above 11 points try to preach, this book suits you well. Otherwise, please give it a pass.
Rating:
Summary: a fascinating trip that will help you in all areas of life
Review: The Psychology of Trading is one of those books where you will make a lot of discoveries about yourself and about your life, if you are paying attention, that all tie into trading.
Steebarger is a psychologist specializing in "brief therapy" and also an active trader. The book has chapters that discuss an in-depth story of a patient, and draw lessons from that story about life, cognition, and trading.
It is an awesome book. I have read Douglas and I have Ari Kiev's book which I will read one of these days, but I can't see how it can top Steenbarger's.
Steenbarger says that we have many personalities, and he shows you how you can identify which personality is doing what, and trigger the "Observer" in you, a part of you that is watching and that can see the truth of what you are doing and why you are doing it. This isn't as Zen as it sounds. And Steenbarger has technique after technique in each chapter, so it isn't a bunch of generalizations and observations.
The first technique (which I have done for some months now and read that Larry Connors and Linda Raschke also do and you probably do too) is to keep a detailed trading journal with your thoughts, feelings, what is happening, why you are taking a trade, etc.
The second technique is to excercise in the morning (he does stretching and some calisthenics) and then talk out loud and explain each of your trading plans. Something about talking out loud and explaining your plans lets your brain process differently and he says you can identify what is really good, find holes and see potential traps or things you haven't thought through.
I am on the fourth chapter and I just love this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Multi-faceted Journey
Review: The Pyschology of Trading is a multi-faceted journey through the worlds of trading and psychology. On one level it gave me the insights and tools to overcome some of the purely mental hurdles I've confronted in breaking my trading out of a performance plateau. On the next level it provides fascinating insights into the world of Psychology and on still another level I gained insights into myself and some of my more quirky personal behaviors.
A good read, a wonderful set of tools and a box full of insight.
Rating:
Summary: Trader: Know Thyself
Review: This is a simple statement but profoundly accurate. Mr.Steenbarger time and time again uses his book to emphasize just this point. His approach to futures is very much similar to many eastern philosophies. In his own examples he discusses the Zen mentality and how best to apply it to every day trading. This could have just as easily been entitled "The Zen of Trading". Mr.Steenbarger sincerely wants you to succeed. He gives you mental exercises and tools to incorporate your personality fully into your trading. I have been involved with futures trading for 11 years. I have been an investor a broker... I would recommend this book to my clients... Investing is no longer about the tools, practically everyone has them. Successful investing is about the attitude and practically everyone has the wrong one. Get the right attitude, success oriented and this book will help you.
Rating:
Summary: Manual for Games of Chance and Skill
Review: Trading is a mixed game of skill and chance, which is why it is so hard: tools which are appropriate for use in one set of problems - such as probability theory for evaluating data series - are completely useless for others, such as evaluating the intentions of an adversary. As Pogo would say, the enemy we meet is often us. Finally we have an author who has deep experiential and theoretical knowledge in both types of problems, and is expert in the use of both types of tools. And he is not just talking his book: Dr. Steenbarger takes wins and losses in both arenas, financial and interpersonal. I cannot think of a better book on the application of scientific methods to human problems, or the application of human methods to scientific ones. The author's willingness to disclose his own dilemmas in both spheres is generous and enlightening; that his narrative should contain so much useful insight is a boon to any reader. Load up on this one.
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