Books : Enhancing Trader Performance: Proven Strategies From the Cutting Edge of Trading Psychology (Wiley Trading)
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- For professional trading trainers and traineesI gave a high rating to the author's first book "Psychology of Trading" with a review title "Well researched and written, but not for the mass" in that it suits perfectly those with medium or above knowledge of psychology. It's hardly a coincidence, that the second book of the author is also targeted at the professionals, or, to be specific, professional traders who can enjoy systemized training/mentoring offered by their institutions. For traders like me who dont have such priviledges, nearly half of it became quite irrelevant and remote. Definitely worth a read, especially the part elaborating the linkage between practice and expertise, but not as useful nor insightful as fans of his first book might expect.
p.s. Below please find some of my favorite passages for your reference.
Competence precedes confidence: Winning mindsets result from mastery, not the reverse pg 4
When you have found your niche, you dont need discipline to do the right things; you wont want to do anything else. pg 29
Markets, like people, have their personalities; our relationships with markets will profit to the extent that there is compatibility. pg 35
Evolution occurs when we are so taxed that we must make fresh adaptive efforts. The expert is one who continually adapts to extraordinary performance demands. pg 119
How to trade and what to trade are subordinate to when to trade. pg151
Amateur traders turn into professional traders once they stop looking for the next great technical indicator and start controlling their risk on each trade. - John Carter pg 156
Rating:
- great bookall of the above positive reviews are applicable.
You can not start day/swing/option trading without understanding yourself, fear and greed.
Dr Brett will move you into action to become move familiar with yourself
Rating:
- Un Tour de ForceOnce in a while a book will appear which identifies problems so precisely that the reader begins to take ever-increasing delight at the insights afforded. The first reading, but certainly not the last, will conclude with such laudatory comments as, outstanding, empowering, top 10 or even top 5, and a must-read.
Such a book is Brett Steenbarger's "Enhancing Trader Performance". It carries my highest recommendation and since I'm not unknown in trading circles this may carry some weight. It should be read by anyone contemplating trading for a living and by all those short-term traders presently dissatisfied with their performance.
Dr. Brett's book cannot fail to benefit those in other disciplines that are performance related, such as golf, chess, wrestling, baseball or as a member of a NASCAR pit crew. The interdisciplinary approach is discussed in some detail and to everyone's advantage. It is a remarkable book with numerous outstanding insights, so that rather than attempt an overview, I will offer a single injunction, BUY IT.
Rating:
- Very good bookI appreciate the work of Brett and I think he is an honest man that brings us his knowledge and his experience.
Well done
Rating:
- Where is Bandura?! The key differenceThis 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.
