In writing The Daily Trading Coach:  101 Lessons for Becoming Your Own Trading Psychologist it was the author’s stated intention to “. . . give you the tools to become your own coach, so that you can guide your own professional and personal growth.”  And, I would have to say that I think he did a quite good job of that.  The tools for just about any situation are in there.

Will they all fit psychological trading challenge of yours or mine?  Probably not all, because that simply is not possible, but he does provide enough general principles and specific recommendations for personal exploration and action that it will at least be a good starting point.

If nothing else, it would be worth reading the book just to understand Dr. Steenbarger’s observation that if you were going to set up a learning situation in a laboratory specifically to make an animal anxious and ineffective, it would look much like the stimulus-reward relationships that occur in the financial markets.  Of course, his suggested “work-arounds” for the markets’ “crazy-making” rewards, punishments, apparent patterns, unpredictablility, changeability, and chaos are invaluable for those who travel these waters.  But, still, sometimes it is helpful just to get some validation that, yes, this is a strange place indeed.

Who is the book for?

The book is appropriate for anyone who is involved with the financial markets, whether personally or professionally.

It was written by a psychologist who has consulted to trading firms and coached active traders for many years as well as trading himself.  His examples and language reflect this experience, as they should.

Given that, if you view yourself as an investor, rather than a trader, you may conclude that this book is not for you.  From my perspective,  this would be a mistake since whether we buy something with the idea of holding it for a minute, a day, or a decade, our intention is to eventually sell it for more than we paid for it.  We are all traders.  It is just our time frames that differ.

What’s in it?

The book consists of 10 chapters, each with 10 lessons, with lesson #101 being in the conclusion.  They are

1.   Change: The Process and the Practice

2.   Stress and Distress: Creative Coping for Traders

3.   Psychological Well-Being: Enhancing Trading Experience

4.   Steps Toward Self-Improvement: The Coaching Process

5.   Breaking Old Patterns:  Psychodynamic Frameworks for Self-Coaching

6.   Remapping the Mind:  Cognitive Approaches to Self-Coaching

7.   Learning New Action Patterns: Behavioral Approaches to Self-Coaching

8.   Coaching Your Trading Business

9.   Lessons from Trading Professionals:  Resources and Perspectives on Self-Coaching

10.  Looking for the Edge: Finding Historical Pattern in Markets

What might be a challenge in getting the most out of it?

Probably, first on the list would be that there is so much information in this book that it can feel overwhelming.  True, the author says up front that it is not necessary, nor is it intended, to sit down and read it straight through.  Rather, it can be used as a reference book, working on whatever chapter and lesson seems to apply to you at the moment.  ( Obviously, you can’t do this if you are going to write a book review, so perhaps my view is a bit skewed in this regard. )

The book often seems to have been written for mental health professionals or at least someone who is familiar with the lingo of psychology, therapy, and coaching.  This is not a huge limitation, but sometimes if the reader is not at all familiar with a concept or term, a quick trip to Wikipedia or some other source could be a good idea.

And, finally, when it comes to approaches to dealing with problems that come up, the ones that he describes are not the only ways or necessarily the best ways to go for each individual.  This is one of those places where I do think Dr. Steenbarger has done an excellent job at getting the reader started, even where it may not provide a complete solution.

Overall Opinion?

This is an excellent book that accomplishes most of what it set out to do.  The most basic challenge to the self-coach, even armed with a resource like The Daily Trading Coach, is to set the goals and stick with the program.  What else is new?

Disclosure: The publisher of this book provided me with a copy to read for doing this review.  I did read the whole book, but did not do the exercises.

Tags: book review, Brett Steenbarger, The Daily Trading Coach, trading coach, trading psychology

This is a simple, well written book on financial statements.  From the best I can tell as a non-accountant, it’s got most everything you need to know to do a good, workmanlike analysis of a financial statement including references for  those cases where you need more.

Tags: book review, financial statements, Financial Statements DeMystified

Whoever chose Hot Trading Secrets as the title for J. Christoph Amberger’s 2006 book definitely knows how to write a title.

Whose interest is not piqued by the offer to be let in on secrets?

When they added that it would tell How to Get In and Out of the Market with Huge Gains in Any Climate I knew that I was going to have to read it, even though I concluded long ago that the reasons many people make much more money than I do has very little to do with secrets.

I have read that a belief that other people achieve what they do and have what they have because they hold secrets, they have connections, they started with money, or they have whatever other unfair advantage you can think of , is often held by people who are depressed.

These beliefs aren’t simply excuses, but have been described as going along with an inability or unwillingness to map out a series of small steps that are most likely to lead on to a particular goal. Help these people not think in blocks, but rather in “bite-sized” pieces, and they are very likely to feel better and become more effective.

So, . . . I vowed to look for the tools, the skills, and the knowledge that Mr. Amberger was going to tell me that I would have to have or gain to be more successful, if he indeed knew.

What I found as I read along was that taken that way he did indeed have some very helpful perspectives and specific tools that I will be able to apply to my own situation; some right away and some over time.

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Given that this is an Agora publication, I knew from the outset that there was going to be lots of good stuff in it, perhaps secrets even, but that it was going to be woven into a great story and a subtle, but powerful, “sell” for something.   And, this turned out to be true.  (I suspect that this book might be at least as valuable for an aspiring copywriter as it is for an aspiring trader, but that need be neither here nor there.)

I found it to be well written, engaging, and quite effective at telling the story of how various component teams and services of the Taipan Group come to many of the trade recommendations that they make to their readers as well a how profitable the best ones have been.   There are a couple of references to “proprietory methods”, but for the most part they seem to have put it all out there.

There are links to Taipan websites and e-letters in the sidebar of each chapter, but the author truly has given enough information that you can do it yourself, or you can subscribe to one or several of the services that use the systems described.

There was enough valuable specific information to justify reading and re-reading this book for me, but probably the most valuable gift was a look into how effective systems are built and developed starting from specific observations about how the markets work.

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Given the focus of this site on spin-off stocks,  I find myself with a better understanding of how important it is to remember  that the observation that spin off companies and their parent companies tend to outperform the general market and their sectors is good,  but that that is only a start.

Now I am looking at finding better ways to decide which spin-offs to enter, when, how, and when to get out.

I have not signed up for any newsletters or services  mentined in the book . . . . yet.

Tags: Agora Publishing, Amberger, book review, Hot Trading Secrets, spin-off stocks, trading, trading plan