Items Tagged With Brett Steenbarger

I just read the first 6 pages of Brett Steenbarger's new book titled, "Enhancing Trader Performance: Proven Strategies from the Cutting Edge of Trader Psychology."   The book was just released  on November 3rd. 

Brett easily hooked me in the first 6 pages with a profile in psychology of two real traders.  The first trader, Al never lost his cool and didn't violate his stop losses.  The second trader, Mick was kind of a hot head who violated his stops and took a loss personally. Mick after having a bad morning where he allowed his emotion to affect his trading decided to skip lunch to review his trading, figure out the market and also how to get back his money.  Al took his lunch and went back to trading with his cool and calm style after lunch.  Which one is the successful trader you ask?  Mick is the multi-million-dollar performer.  Al is no longer trading.  How has Mick been able to succeed despite his obvious violation of psychological principles?  Deliberate practice.  Mick is dedicated to the market and analyzes his every mistake.  This helped in preparing him for similarly frustrating trading scenarios and provided him with the confidence to get through it.

I have not bought the book yet but I might.  

http://astore.amazon.com/theforexproje-20/detail/0470038667/002-4343923-4611237

Brett Steenbarger, Psychologist and Trader, talks about the four overlooked qualities of successful traders today.  I wouldn't consider myself a successful trader yet but nevertheless, do you or I have these qualities?

1. Constant Desire to Improve -  I truly find trading rewarding and interesting therefore I have this desire to improve.  I want to be successful and I also want my financial well being to be in my hands, not some corporation.  I'm always reading and trying to find a new strategy that may give me an edge.  As long as I have this desire, I feel like my goals can be obtained.
   
2. The Ability to Press Their Advantage - Brett talks about the good traders being aggressive and never shying away from what they see as an advantage.  The lesser traders according to him are quick to take profits and are risk averse.  This ability is something that I am working on.  I feel like I've made some progress since I've developed a more mechanical, written trading plan.
3. Emotional Resilence - Brett states that the great traders have a great attitude about losing.  "They know it's going to happen."  I don't like to lose and I don't have a great attitude about losing yet.  I certainly have made inroads throughout the past year though.  When I first started trading, I lost so often that it totally consumed me.  Now that I can string together some wins, the losses don't seem as bad as before.  Losing doesn't affect me as much as it once did but the bottom line is that it still does affect me to a certain extent. 
   
4. Creativity - Find an edge in an unlikely place.  I feel that I'm creative in my trading but definitely not as much as I would like.  I think that once I can close the gap in knowledge between myself and experienced traders, I may have more time to be creative.