Exceptional Trading
Exceptional Trading: The Mind Game is a trader’s manual for developing the necessary attitudes to trade consistently and to win. The book gives traders a personal winning edge and also outlines remarkable methods for developing internally the mental skills essential to high profit trading.
Not only does the book show you how to think and what to think. It shows you how to do it. It gives specific techniques for making the essential mind shifts that enable you to create a mental advantage. Trading is, after all, mind over markets, quick action, clear thinking, and an unclouded intent to win.
Ruth Barrons Roosevelt, a futures trader and international psychological trading coach, shows traders how to manage emotions, resolve conflicts, divorce ego, discover and change limiting beliefs, and execute a winning system with confidence.
Success leaves clues. Ruth interviews super traders Linda Bradford Rashke, Michael McCarthy, and Max Ansbacher. They talk extensively and openly about their experience and their own approach to trading.
The book is a good read, interesting from beginning to end. Here’s what her colleagues say about it:
Mark Douglas: True to its title, Ruth has done an exceptional job. Her explanations are clear and concise, but most of all I think some of her techniques are brilliant. Thanks for sharing, Ruth. This book is a real credit to the industry.
Adrienne Toghraie: An exceptional psychological handbook for traders to identify and resolve some of the major issues which sabotage their discipline and therefore their success.
Van K Tharp, Ph.D.: Commitment, Beliefs, Emotions, Conflict Resolution and the Environment are just a few of the many critical topics covered in Ruth Roosevelt’s interesting new book.
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Table of Contents
Chapter One
COMMITMENT TO TRADING EXCELLENCE
Trading as a business and profession that requires a serious commitment. A test to determine one’s own commitment to the trading endeavor. An exploration of one’s intentions with respect to successful trading. Building a commitment.
Chapter Two
WINNERS AND LOSERS: A PSYCHOLOGICAL PORTRAIT
A look at the attributes, attitudes, and mental strategies of winning traders. Secrets of success. A comparison of the mental approach of a winning trader with that of a losing or mediocre trader.
Chapter Three
THE RELENTLESS POWER OF BELIEFS
Beliefs that winning traders hold. Three essential beliefs to effective trading. Ways to discover one’s own beliefs. Steps for changing limiting beliefs and installing winning beliefs.
Chapter Four
EMOTIONS: THE WELLSPRING OF TRADING SUCCESS AND FAILURE
The vital importance of emotions. Emotions as valuable messengers. Ways to transform crippling emotions to empowering emotions. A new look at the fear and greed equation. A balancing act.
Chapter Five
CONFLICT RESOLUTION
How mixed messages mutilate profits. The importance of values. Getting things straight. Putting ideas into allignment. Discovering one’s own core outcomes.
Chapter Six
CLARITY OF VISION AND MARKET ASSESSMENT
Letting the market dictate the terms and turns. Becoming partners with the market. Wanting what the market wants. Releasing self-deception. The dangers of scenario trading. Gaining perspective.
Chapter Seven
IMAGINATION VERSUS WILLPOWER
Why will power isn’t enough. Learning to direct the imagination towards the probabilities. Imagining the success of a trade. Training the mind for optimism. Daydreams for the future. Building a vision.
Chapter Eight
UNCOUPLING YOUR EGO
Egoless trading. Building boundaries between oneself and ones trading. The difference between walls, no boundaries and healthy boundaries. Becoming more than the trading.
Chapter Nine
REPROGRAMING THE SOFTWARE OF THE MIND
Directing attention and focus. Using power questions. A new approach to affirmations. Positive worry. Taking control of self-talk. Rewriting your script. Using the trading trance for success. Self-hypnosis.
Chapter Ten
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EXCELLENCE
Physiology: the short cut to power trading. Posture. Breathing. Facial expression. Anchoring kinesthetically for calm and confidence. The quieting reflex. The relaxation response. The importance of exercise and nutrition.
Chapter Eleven
YOUR OFFICE
The importance of environment. Taking control. Power suggestions for floor traders. Cleaning out clutter. Setting up for success. Screen and phone placement. Electromagnetic considerations. Air cleansing. Lighting. Sounds. Feng Shui. Privacy.
Chapter Twelve
THE CONFIDENT TRADER
Trading in trust. Handling drawdowns. Turning failure into feedback. Using mistakes to grow. Developing consistency. Trading rules or guidelines. The evolution of better and better. Serenity Prayer.
BOOK REVIEW
Jaye Abbate, TRADER’S LIBRARY
The Book of Common Prayer includes a passage that many traders - even most traders - can relate to:
“That which I would not do, that I do.” How does this relate to trading?
Well, most traders know the most basic rules for trading success. They’re simple, understandable concepts such as: Buy low, Sell high - or buy high, but sell even higher. Cut your losses. Let your profits run. Act swiftly and decisively on exit and entry signals. Trade a proven system exactly as it was designed to be traded. Balance greed and fear.
Traders have heard these maxims a million times. But traders don’t always follow the rules. In fact, most consistently break these sacred rules for success. Traders are, after all, human - and they let human failings affect their discipline, which ultimately leads to their trading downfall.
The good news, though, is that there are trading coaches like author Ruth Roosevelt who have found extremely successful methods for keeping traders on the path to success. Now, after many years of perfecting her approach to the markets, this popular trading trainer has outlined her most successful techniques for developing a winning mind game and a winning edge.
The 12 comprehensive and very readable chapter comprise a true game plan for achieving long-term success as a trader, and cover …
- Winners & Losers: a psychological portrait
- Building a serious commitment to your trading endeavors
- Emotions: the wellspring of trading success - and failure
- Conflict resolution: don’t let mixed messages mutilate profits
- Clarity of vision and market assessment - letting the market dictate terms and becoming “partners” with the market
- And the most important aspects of setting up your trading “office” so that your environment works as a positive, contributing factor to your success, rather than a hindrance - and is designed in a way to maximize the software and other tools that are now an integral part of any trading strategy.
Roosevelt really knows her stuff. She definitely breaks some new ground in this new work, while also reinforcing many of the most important tried-and-true trading rules with real-world advice on how to apply those rules. And her clear, straightforward and “no holds barred” approach will be a refreshing departure for the many traders who are glued all day to their computer screens and quote monitors.
It is often said that winning eludes the vast majority of traders. Millions are spent every year on building and buying trading systems and obtaining immediate access to the most current quotes and market data, all in an effort to get a slightly better edge up in the market. And yet - traders still lose. With the odds this tough - most traders would do well to follow the game plan Roosevelt presents, and can benefit from the her excellent new book. It certainly will help many break from the pack so they can proudly say, “That which I would not do, I did NOT DO!.”
