The Brett Steenbarger thread

[alex keaton]

Anyone else out there follow Brett Steenbarger?

His blog which he updates very frequently is always full of gems.

Case in point

http://traderfeed.blogspot.com/2009/12/lessons-for-developing-traders-more-on.html

 

[Timmy]

Good thread Alex. I thought that specific Steenbarger article you provide the link to the best I have seen for a while. But, so much of his stuff is excellent.

 

[professor_frink]

surprised this thread hasn't received any attention. Love his books and his blog

He posted a few links for some New Year reading recently -

http://traderfeed.blogspot.com/2010/01/readings-to-start-new-year.html

The first link in the post goes to the Kirk report and gets into goal setting and making plans for the year ahead. Well worth a read IMO

Here's a link to a sample chapter of his latest book for anyone who hasn't seen it yet(it's been posted on the forums previously). That book is his best one IMO and is well worth a read for anyone that hasn't picked it up yet. The last 2 chapters where he interviews some professional traders and then starts showing the reader how to start finding their own edges are absolute gold and make the book worth buying even if you don't read anything else in it.

Cheers

 

[Trembling Hand]

Here's a good one,

The Reason I Don't Partner With Your Firm is Because You Are Cheap Wh0res

* You are a forex brokerage that lures small accounts with enticing promises of huge leverage;

* You are a "prop firm" that requires traders to pay big bucks to join, drastically limit the size that can be traded, charge ridiculous commissions to traders, and toss traders (or ask for more money) when you've milked them dry;

etc etc,

All of you have solicited my partnership and support in the past month.

Go f*** yourselves.

 

[Mr J]

That last quote alone is enough to get me to take a look.

 

[professor_frink]

Here's a good one,

a good one indeed

 

[Trembling Hand]

Heres is a good one on intraday trading.

http://traderfeed.blogspot.com/2010/01/why-intraday-trading-is-so-difficult.html

Imagine the market affected by two relatively independent vectors. One vector describes directionality: the "trendiness" of the market. The other vector describes volatility: the degree to which markets vary around a central price.

The first vector describes the degree to which market participants are reassessing value in the auction marketplace.

The second vector is closely connected to volume and reflects who is currently active in the marketplace.

Good work there.

 

[Kryzz]

I've read on a couple of other threads that the book "Enhancing Trader Performance: Proven Strategies From the Cutting Edge of Trading Psychology" by Steenbarger is a good read.

However is this simply another book with regards only to trader psychology, ala, trading in the zone etc. I would like to know if there is practical advice given with regards how to review trading performance etc.

cheers

 

[Trembling Hand]

I've read on a couple of other threads that the book "Enhancing Trader Performance: Proven Strategies From the Cutting Edge of Trading Psychology" by Steenbarger is a good read.

However is this simply another book with regards only to trader psychology, ala, trading in the zone etc. I would like to know if there is practical advice given with regards how to review trading performance etc.

cheers

What makes it such a good book, IMO, is that a lot of it is refuting the BS in other trader psychology books.

Its about proper skill development and the process to learning how to trade.

 

[professor_frink]

I've read on a couple of other threads that the book "Enhancing Trader Performance: Proven Strategies From the Cutting Edge of Trading Psychology" by Steenbarger is a good read.

However is this simply another book with regards only to trader psychology, ala, trading in the zone etc. I would like to know if there is practical advice given with regards how to review trading performance etc.

cheers

Whilst it's a great book, I think his latest book is better in regards to dishing out practical advice.

 

[Kryzz]

Whilst it's a great book, I think his latest book is better in regards to dishing out practical advice.

Could you elaborate more on what practical advice his newest book refers to Prof. Frink, or just practical advice on trading in general?

Cheers,

The reason i was looking at enhancing trader performance, as people alluded that it is good with regards to reviewing ones trading methods/performance, something which i probably do not pay enough attention too. Unless the book is catered to more seasoned traders, then it may not apply to me unfortunately

thanks

 

[ThingyMajiggy]

Ordered his latest one the other day. Looking forward to reading it, the Excel chapter towards the end was enough to get me to buy it.

Reading a lot over his blog lately, and he does have some good posts, even gives some ideas to try when you encounter the problems, something which is rare with the psychology side of things, they usually just point things out then don't provide a solution/guide to help overcome it, a few books I have read have been total confusing nonsense, in comparison to Dr. Brett.

 

[Trembling Hand]

Ordered his latest one the other day. Looking forward to reading it, the Excel chapter towards the end was enough to get me to buy it.

Reading a lot over his blog lately, and he does have some good posts, even gives some ideas to try when you encounter the problems, something which is rare with the psychology side of things, they usually just point things out then don't provide a solution/guide to help overcome it, a few books I have read have been total confusing nonsense, in comparison to Dr. Brett.

Sam you may want to read trader performance as well as the concepts are discussed in more depth. Then the last one has lots of steps to deal with things.

What do ya reckon Frink?

 

[ThingyMajiggy]

Sam you may want to read trader performance as well as the concepts are discussed in more depth. Then the last one has lots of steps to deal with things.

What do ya reckon Frink?

Yeah I thought about it, you think its worth it? I have Trading in the Zone by Douglas, although from reading that and reading Dr.Brett's blog, I definitely like the way Brett goes about things more than Douglas, I got confused and for me, Douglas went too in depth.

 

[Trembling Hand]

Yeah I thought about it, you think its worth it? I have Trading in the Zone by Douglas, although from reading that and reading Dr.Brett's blog, I definitely like the way Brett goes about things more than Douglas, I got confused and for me, Douglas went too in depth.

I actually think his stuff is rubbish .Thats a big fullstop

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

Has anyone ever done a study on the number of trades put on, versus the number of chapters read on horse**** books on Psychology of Trading, by traders.

The reason I ask is that I know some traders who are forever reading books on Psychology/Trading and never get around to having the guts to trade.

The rest just keep fit emotionally, trade with a plan, and use stops and money management.

These books seem to be the Stickbooks of Trading imho.

gg

 

[ThingyMajiggy]

I actually think his stuff is rubbish .Thats a big fullstop

Douglas?

It didn't really help me much, he went way in depth about all sorts of things, that doesn't really help the trader in any way, more just noting facts about psychology.

Whereas, I think Brett always brings it back to trading, gives the parallel and then the solution.

 

[professor_frink]

Could you elaborate more on what practical advice his newest book refers to Prof. Frink, or just practical advice on trading in general?

Cheers,

The reason i was looking at enhancing trader performance, as people alluded that it is good with regards to reviewing ones trading methods/performance, something which i probably do not pay enough attention too. Unless the book is catered to more seasoned traders, then it may not apply to me unfortunately

thanks

The book is basically set up so that you can build up a set of processes to help you review and improve your trading. There are 101 lessons in the book, with the general format being to identify a trading related challenge and some ideas on ways to work through the issue.

For an example, here's some of lesson 6, "find the right mirrors"

It's basically a step that you can take that will help you to expand on your trading journal so that it can become more than just a record of all the things you've done wrong

Your goals should set yourself up for success and a building of confidence

So here is your assignment: Each day this week your trading journal should include a specific goal for work that particular trading session, concrete actions that you will take to achieve that goal, and a self evaluation at the end of trading to gauge your success in reaching that goal. The goal should be a trading process that you wish to improve( i.e, something you have control over), not a profit target(which you ultimately don't control). For example, your goal might be to increase your trading size incrementally, to implement a strategy for for exiting in stages, or to limit trades to setups that align with the larger market trend. At the end of the day, you will give yourself a report card based solely on how well you achieved the goals you set for the day.

The big nugget of gold for me in this book was chapter 9 where he interviews some rather good traders to get their perspective on coaching and the review process.

The chapter after that is also quite good, it goes into using excel so you can begin to test out ideas and look for edges. This is absolute gold for most newer traders and is worth the price of the book many times over for anyone who hasn't seen this type of analysis before.

Hope this helps a bit

 

[professor_frink]

Yeah I thought about it, you think its worth it? I have Trading in the Zone by Douglas, although from reading that and reading Dr.Brett's blog, I definitely like the way Brett goes about things more than Douglas, I got confused and for me, Douglas went too in depth.

yeah I reckon it's definitely worth getting both as TH mentioned. If you were only to get one, then the new one IMO is a little more useful on the practical side of things. Having said that, Enhancing Trader performance sort of sets the scene, and gets the reader in the right frame of mind for getting as much as possible out of his new book(if that makes sense).

 

[professor_frink]

Has anyone ever done a study on the number of trades put on, versus the number of chapters read on horse**** books on Psychology of Trading, by traders.

The reason I ask is that I know some traders who are forever reading books on Psychology/Trading and never get around to having the guts to trade.

The rest just keep fit emotionally, trade with a plan, and use stops and money management.

These books seem to be the Stickbooks of Trading imho.

gg

The real stickbooks of trading IMO are the ones with stories of massive wins and losses by the greats- market wizards, pit bull, etc.

The Dr Brett books are the ones that help people like me suck just that little bit less