I first started studying traders while working at London Business School in the early 1990s. This was the start of a lifelong fascination with traders and the psychology of financial behavior. Why do traders talk so much about their emotions? Why does so much of what they do fit so poorly with how economists think markets work? How do financial firms fail to notice rogue traders and other massive risks? And recently, why do investment banks and police forces both seem so good at avoiding uncomfortable knowledge? These are all questions that have fascinated me and which I have been lucky to be paid to research and advise on.
I love Brett Steenberger’s books. He is a psychologist and coach but also a successful trader. He combines his insights from each of these roles to help traders understand how to develop themselves and their processes. Like the Oracle of Delphi, Steenberger believes that to succeed, you first need to ‘know yourself’ and shows how to go about developing self-honesty and insight.
I particularly like the attention he pays to the need to adapt to changing market conditions, including changes in technology and trading automation. I really like the insights he offers on the difficulties of noticing and accepting when your old processes no longer work and you need to build new processes based on your understanding of how to fit your strengths to new market conditions.
Practical trading psychology insight that can be put to work today
Trading Psychology 2.0 is a comprehensive guide to applying the science of psychology to the art of trading. Veteran trading psychologist and bestselling author Brett Steenbarger offers critical advice and proven techniques to help interested traders better understand the markets, with practical takeaways that can be implemented immediately. Academic research is presented in an accessible, understandable, engaging way that makes it relevant for practical traders, and examples, illustrations, and case studies bring the ideas and techniques to life. Interactive features keep readers engaged and involved, including a blog offering…
This book is an amusing, honest, and insightful account of the ways technology has changed financial trading from someone who has lived through enormous changes in the ways financial markets and investment banks operate.
I love the way in which this very readable book raises big questions about the evolution of financial markets and trading whilst bringing the arguments to life with personal stories. It's a lot of fun to read, but along the way, you will learn a great deal about investment banks and the creative and sometimes destructive uses technological advances are put to in our rapidly changing world.
'Eloquent, entertaining and accessible.' FT Adviser
When Kevin Rodgers embarked on his career in finance, dealing rooms were filled with clamouring traders and gesticulating salesmen. Nearly three decades later, the bustle has gone and the loudest noise you're likely to hear is the gentle tapping of keyboards.
Why Aren't They Shouting? is one banker's chronicle of this silent revolution, taking us from an age of shouted phone calls and alpha males right up to today's world of computer geeks and complex derivatives. Along the way, Rodgers offers a masterclass in how modern banking actually works, exploring the seismic changes to…
This classic book on trading has stood the test of time. Markets have changed, but the insights in this book about trader psychology remain important. Knowledge and analysis really matter in trading, but as the authors argue, you can’t master trading without ‘winning the inner game.’
Drawing on insights from sports coaching, psychology, and interviews with traders, the authors explore what it means to win the inner game and stop sabotaging yourself.
Putting money at risk in the markets exposes every trader to fear, greed and a host of other destructive emotions. For the first time ever in paperback, The Inner Game of Trading shows the reader how to master the psychological skills that are essential to successful trading. It is an insightful, colourful book that reflects the collective wisdom of the best traders in the business.
This is the inside story of the collapse of Lehman Brothers. What I particularly value about this book is the insights it offers into how easily investment banks and the traders and managers who inhabit them can become trapped in self-deception and the motivated ignorance of uncomfortable knowledge.
It provides a window into events at the heart of the 2007/8 financial crisis. Above all, it illustrates how smart people can come to make really stupid decisions. Of course, the author makes much of his own prescience. However, this does not detract from the lessons we can all learn about the dangers of becoming trapped in a single story of the world and discounting signals that we may be wrong.
One of the biggest questions of the financial crisis has not been answered until now: What happened at Lehman Brothers and why was it allowed to fail, with aftershocks that rocked the global economy? In this news-making, often astonishing book, a former Lehman Brothers Vice President gives us the straight answers—right from the belly of the beast.
In A Colossal Failure of Common Sense, Larry McDonald, a Wall Street insider, reveals, the culture and unspoken rules of the game like no book has ever done. The book is couched in the very human story of Larry McDonald’s Horatio Alger-like rise…
Why a book about investment in a list about trading? Many experience unaffordable losses trying to become day traders. Anyone thinking about becoming a trader should first understand the fundamentals of investment and whether they might be a better investor than a trader.
First, written in 1949, the advice in this classic work has stood the test of time. This edition has an introduction from one of the most successful investors of our times (Warren Buffet) and a commentary bringing it up to date from Wall Street journalist Jason Zweig.
Above all, I love this book because it avoids flashy but misleading get-rich-quick narratives and focuses on how to invest in the creation of value. And if you do decide to be a trader, this book will teach you a great deal too.
The classic bestseller by Benjamin Graham, "The Intelligent Investor" has taught and inspired hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. Since its original publication in 1949, Benjamin Graham's book has remained the most respected guide to investing, due to his timeless philosophy of "value investing", which helps protect investors against the areas of possible substantial error and teaches them to develop long-term strategies with which they will be comfortable down the road. Over the years, market developments have borne out the wisdom of Graham's basic policies, and in today's volatile market, "The Intelligent Investor" is the most important book you will…
This is a book about traders in financial markets: what they do, the kind of people they are, how they perceive the world they inhabit, and how they make decisions and take risks. It draws on research from psychology, sociology, and economics to understand how traders make (and lose) money, how they gain advantage, and the mistakes they are prone to.
This is also a book about how traders are managed—the best and the worst examples—and about the institutions they inhabit: firms, markets, cultures, and theories of how the world works. How these institutions function, how traders are managed, and how traders view the world all have profound effects on the wider financial environment.
