Enhancing Trader Performance: Proven Strategies From the Cutting Edge of Trading Psychology (Wiley Trading)

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 focus Enhancing 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.

I have been in finance for 25 years, including being a stockbroker. This book is written in very easy language that gives simple solutions to the common pitfalls of trading. I am very very glad I read it. It takes away the fantasies about trading and gives the hard reality of trading. I like his breathing technique for calming the nerves. It really works! This book, along with Rande Howell's book from tradersstateofmind.com are the best books I have ever read about the psychology of trading, and I have read many.

If you read the bullet points above, you have a good idea of what this book covers. Note that you must take these bullets LITERALLY! Where it says discusses, explores, and introduces ... don't expect anything more. My grouse with this tome is that I have almost finished it and still have not learned how to coach myself "with practical cognitive and behavioral techniques that rapidly change problem patterns and build new, positive ways of thinking and behaving". If time is money, then the value of this book goes down because it is unnecessarily long winded. As such I can only give this 3 stars.

This book is written in an engaging style, with many case studies and ideas, all directly applicable to performance in trading. But it has one major flaw. At one point it says "competence precedes confidence: winning mind-sets result from mastery, not the reverse." I will quote Albert Bandura: "When experience contradicts firmly held beliefs of weak efficacy, people resist changing their views of themselves if they can find grounds to discount the diagnostic value of the success experience. In such instances, producing enduring, generalized changes in personal efficacy requires powerful confirmatory experiences in which people successfully manage, under diverse conditions, task demands that far exceed those commonly encountered in their daily lives. (...) As they gain increasing ability to predict and manage potential threats, they develop a robust sense of efficacy that serves them well in mastering new challenges." Does it sound similar or richer? One is surprised to see how the author completely ignores the remarkable and mainstream research on human performance set by Professor Albert Bandura of Stanford University, in special his self-efficacy theory. In a book dedicated to enhancing human performance, this is a great void. The book, its theories and ideas, would enormously benefit from the very active and solid research done on bandura's self-efficacy, a vast body of research that has in itself defined a new field in human performance research. It is an irony, but you can find Bandura in so many places in this book, yet Bandura's work is never acknowledged! The author does not seem to be entirely familiar with the current research in human performance and competency, despite the fact that he is (or was) an academic. From the point of view of self-efficacy theory, some ideas in the book actually show a weak side and a certain distored view of human performance achievements: contrary to what is stated above, very often perceived self-efficacy precedes competence! Albert Bandura's excellent book "Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control" is highly recommended. Bandura's book is supported by the citation of 47 pages of references, a large body of research and study on human performance under different situations. It is certainly a shame. Add Bandura's theory to this book and all the ingredients could be there: you might have an outstanding book destined to become a classic. To write a book on human performance and to ignore Bandura's work is somewhat similar to write a book on quantum mechanics and to ignore Bohr's or Heisenberg's work. Or to write a book on the stock market and to ignore Wall Street. Enactive mastery experience, sources of discordance between efficacy judgment and action, multidimensionality of self-efficacy belief systems, self-affirmation versus self-deception. Bandura's work is a major achievement that readers of this book can't benefit from. Hopefully the author will bring a revised edition with the due changes. Until then, this book suffers from major flaws and you should read Bandura's work for a better understanding of human, including trading, performance. This difference can cost you a whole lot of money.

Great for beginner and advanced traders. Deals with the the MOST important aspect of trading...YOU! Successful trading is not just about indicators and systems. It's really about you being the captain of the ship. You control all the moves. You make all of the decisions. You make all of the money. You lose all of the money. This book deals with the psychology of trading- your psychology and how it applies to trading. It doesn't deal with the "markets" psychology. It's all about YOU. When it comes to making money, isn't this the MOST important factor anyway?

I wont repeat what others have already said.. but what you really need to know is that it is nothing short or bewildering, why other books on trading that dont deal with these issues of Psychology and self sell more. This is where the rubber meets the road and glory isnt found in some indicator or quickly cobbled strategy with little edge, those well lorded strategies DONT WORK, following others DOESNT WORK. UNDERSTANDING YOURSELF FIRST DOES WORK!. This is good for us who believe in this material because the others who dont are in serious trouble. If youre reading this and you agree, let me tell you with persistence and will, and diligence understanding yourself and implementing these principles to the highest standards you are most likely than not going to make it compared to those who wont bother with this material. Good luck Traders. stay focused... glory and freedom come quicker than expected when you focus on this subject matter.

Great book. Very helpful.

A great book but the pages were coming off but Amazon dealt with matter swiftly. Amazing service.

Éste es uno de los mejores libros que he leído nunca sobre negociación. Nadie debería aventurarse en el mundo de las finanzas sin tener los conocimientos que esta gran obra proporciona.

It is exactly what I was looking for. A serious step by step approach of how to become an expert in trading field. Trading will be a great journey.