Enhancing Trader Performance: Proven Strategies From the Cutting Edge of Trading Psychology 1st Edition

I would with out a doubt rank this book in the top ten most helpful trading books I have read. (I have read over 130 books on trading). This book is on trading psychology, written by a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences who also trades his own account. It is a look at the winning psychology of top performers in all fields, art, sports, business, chess, music, and others. He delves into the fascinating study conducted that shows that what separates competent performers from the best performers is time spent in focused practice with feedback that enables the performer to adjust to be more successful. Studies show that 10,000 hours of correct training with proper form and helpful feedback leads to mastery. Usually this takes ten years, very bad news for those that want to trade for a living next week. However, the book shows how it is possible to short cut this rule if you watch the market intensely every day, day trade a tremendous amount for experience (only if your style is day trading),or you can incorporate similar skills for trading that you may have from other fields.I like that the book explains that you must have a trading style that fits your personality and talents. He advises trying all styles to see which one clicks for you. If you grow bored with analyzing fundamentals and sitting on positions for months, then you may need to be a day trader or swing trader. If day trading stresses you out and you have trouble making quick decisions you may be a position trader in the wrong style.The author discusses how traders may traumatize themselves by trading before they are ready. Or trading with to big of a position, this can scar you whether you win or lose because of the level of stress you are under. The book discusses how markets are continually changing and traders must change with it. Whether keeping their trading style and finding a different trading vehicle or changing their style to match the overall market, it is psychologically tough for a successful experienced trader to become a beginner again and retool their trading methods.The book's best material is its dive into why discipline breaks down and a trader just starts trading crazy either trying to get back their losses or because of arrogance after many consecutive winning trades. This book really goes into the mind of the trader and where bad behaviors come from and what to do to change them. It also profiles hugely successful traders that make millions or six figure incomes. That was very informative seeing that the best are human just like us but have a consuming passion for trading and they rage to master their skills in the greatest game on earth. I highly recommend this is THE book on trading psychology and a must have for any serious trader, even the most experienced professionals.

First, to keep things totally above board, let me state for the record that Brett Steenbarger wrote the forward to my book, The Essentials of Trading. He and I became aquainted through my editorial work with Trade2Win. When my book was near completion, I asked Brett to give it a look knowing that he was involved in trader training and development. The forword followed from that.Brett's new book, Enhancing Trader Performance, is his second, following on the heels of his extremely successful and worthwhile initial release, The Psychology of Trading. I would not, though, call it a sequel. While the latter part of the new work does bring in major elements of what the first book covered, the majority of it has a quite different focusEnhancing Trader Performance is primarily about developing trading expertise. As someone who has spent his fair share of time teaching and coaching on a variety of levels and in different theaters of pursuit, some of which were extremely competitive and performance oriented, I was immediately grabbed by Brett's presentation. And it never let me go - literally pages of notes later.This book may not be for everyone. It clearly has a bias which leans more toward the full-time and/or short-term trader than someone who traders longer-term and/or on a more part-time basis. This is a natural function of Brett's work helping professional traders with their development and to overcome performance hurdles, along with his own personal efforts in the market, which are short-term in nature as well.That said, there is still a ton of extremely useful material for any trader, new or experienced. Enhancing Trader Performance provides a sort of roadmap toward developing trading expertise. This isn't about the mental part of actually making trades and managing positions. Rather it is more a discussion of how one becomes more than just a competent trader.Coaching is a major theme, with Brett clearly being a proponent of traders having coaches who can assist them in their development similar to the way they would an athlete. I personally tend to disagree with the way he uses "coach" and "mentor" interchangably as I consider the two to be different, but that does not detract from the overall message. Importantly, since it can be difficult for the individual trader to get in to a good coaching relationship, Brett shares plenty of tips and advice for how a trader can be their own coach.The one major carryover from The Psychology of Trading is the use of the stories of actual people - either real or composite. They really help to drive home the points Brett is making, and in a fashion easily relatable by the reader.In short, read this book if it is at all your objective to excel at trading. More than that, take your time and really absorb it. Read it once, then read it again. I know I will.

This is one of the best, if not the best, book on the psychology of trading I have ever read. I hope that the author, instead of trying to write a new book with a new approach, comes back to this book and revises (the writing could be improved upon) and republishes it at some point. This book is a classic for its subject. It covers the psychology of trading so well that no other book is necessary, in my experience, and I have read Steenbarger's other books, along with many books about trading and trading psychology. While I may be wrong in this opinion, I know that if you want to understand the psychological problems associated with trading, and their treatment, you should read this book. Chapters 8 and 9, the final chapters, say it best.

As a former professor of mathematics and futures trader for the past 25 years, I would strongly recommend this book to anyone considering trading on either a part-time or full-time basis. Most people assume that the way to make trading profitable is to find the right trading model. In my own experience, pyschology contributes 60 percent to the outcome, money management 20 percent, and one's approach or model 20 percent. Get any one of the three wrong and you will lose, but concentrate first on trading psychology. Brett Steenbarger does a masterful job of teaching the willing student much that is crucial to successful trading. I would rate this as one of the ten best books on trading for people with any level of experience.