Product Description

Maximizing the trader’s state of mind is the key to successful results. Conflicts, contradictions and paradoxes in thinking can spell disaster for even a highly motivated, astute and well grounded trader. Mark Douglas, a trader, personal trading coach, and industry consultant since 1982, sends the message that "thinking strategy" will profoundly influence a trader’s success rate. Douglas addresses five very specific issues to give traders the insight and understanding about themselves that will make them consistent winners in the market.

Trading In The Zone offers specific solutions to the “people factor” of commodity price movement. It uncovers the true culprit for lack of consistency when it comes to stock picking: lack of focus and self-confidence. Through simple exercises, traders will learn how to think in terms of probabilities, and adopt the specific beliefs necessary to developing a winner’s mindset. Along the way, they’ll gain valuable insights into their own entrenched misconceptions about the market.

Backed by compelling examples, Trading In The Zone adds a new dimension to getting an edge on the market. Through a better understanding of themselves, as well as of Wall Street’s realities, traders will come to leverage the power of their psyche for unprecedented profitability.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1383 in Books
• Published on: 2000-04-01
• Released on: 2001-01-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Douglas, president of the seminar firm Trading Behavior Dynamics, focuses on the psychology of successful traders. Instead of offering specific strategies, he advises readers, "The first step on the road...is to understand and completely accept the psychological realities of trading." It may be too abstract for some, but given trading's risks, this book could assist experienced investors willing to engage in self-reflection. (Jan.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Mark Douglas is the author of NYIF's The Disciplined Trader. He is president of Trading Behavior Dynamics, which develops seminars on trading psychology for brokerage houses, clearing firms, and banks, among a wide range of professional organizations. He lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Thom Hartle wrote the foreward for Trading in the Zone. He is vice president of Wizard on Wall Street, Inc., publishers of professional level study courses for traders, and editor of eCharts.com, an educational website for traders and investors interested in technical analysis. For nine years, he was the editor of Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities.

Customer Reviews

Great book
I've been trading for over a year with mixed success - wildly successful trades followed by crashing defeats and back again. This book helped me to finally understand why - inconsistency in my trading habits - and better yet, what to do about it. I recommend it for anyone, novice or expert, who wants to understand how the mind works and how our thoughts, beliefs and attitudes affect our success in trading and in life.

Trading in the Zone
A few times I thought about buying this book, but after reading the negative reviews I said I wouldn't buy it. I actually read alot of the reviews and wavered back and forth. Well I'm happy to say I bought and now have read this book and could not put it down. I have to say this book puts the whole trading process in a nutshell. I've taken expensive courses that still didn't help my trading ability. This book has successfully told me why and I now know what needs to be done. I recommend this book whole heartedly to any one who has traded and lost much money as it will and does explain why and what one needs to do to to change the whole losing process.

Well worth it
By the very fact that you are looking into this book you likely already know the critical elements to successful trading include (among others):

1. Defining and edge - technical / fundamental analysis - the fun stuff
2. Money management - define the amount you will spend to determine if your edge is working and if not cut your losses early
3. Record keeping - not just to help with taxes and to verify the broker's records, but to act as a journal to learn from your successes and failures to constantly improve your edge and state of mind
4. State of mind - what is so fully presented in Trading in the Zone

And of those elements listed above, it is easy to recognize that your state of mind is the one that is most often overlooked.

What I loved about this book is that it stayed true to its intent and did not stray off the subject. What I didn't like is that because of the depth that he goes into, I sometime found myself wondering if this is a book for traders or for psych students. But overall what I got from this book far outweighs any negative and I highly recommend it.