Trader psychology is a very important topic, and sadly one that gets ignored often. After the initial excitement of setting up your software, jumping in the market, learning the different products and seeing your first winning trade, you’ll want to spend some time on learning trader psychology. This goes for any type of trader regardless of products.
I have to admit I spent most of my adult life not really reading books. Sitting quietly and reading just didn’t appeal to me. Attention span not long enough to get past maybe 2 pages at most. Then I realized rather than make excuses for not reading, solve the problem. Audiobooks! So while below is my suggestions on the best trader psychology books out there, how you consume them is up to you.
Trading In The Zone by Mark Douglas
Mark Douglas is pure genius in my opinion. The book may be decades old at this point, but don’t hold it against it. The wisdom in it is very direct and very applicable to trading. It’s a no nonsense approach to thinking about your trading and mentality around it.
I also encourage you took up Mark Douglas on YouTube. There are videos out there of some of his live seminars. I don’t want to link to them directly since sometimes they’ll be pulled down and put up by someone else. Just search around, worth the find.
One Good Trade by Mike Bellafiore
Mike Bellafiore is one of the principles of a prop firm based out of New York. He’s written several books, check out The Playbook as well by him. Personally I prefer One Good Trade. The gist of it is focus on taking only A+ set ups, execute the trade best of your abilities, and once it’s done, move onto the next good trade. There will be losers, there will be winners. As long as you stick to your plan and best set ups, you are always looking for One Good Trade.
The book is full of tales of traders he’s worked with and examples of good and bad trader psychology.
Mindset by Carol Dwyck
Now we move into not trading specific videos, but highly recommended. You don’t have to venture far in the trading world to hear about this book Mindset being recommended. Several top trading coaches use it to this day. It’s a bit more heavy and like I said isn’t trading specific, but if you really want to get your mind straight for day trading, this is a great book.
Atomic Habits by James Clear
I love this book personally. You’ll be 5 pages in and hooked I guarantee. The gist of it is you change habits over time, and James gives you a road map to putting into effect the change you need to make those habits. Sounds easy in theory, but I still recommend reading the book for sure. This isn’t just a must read, it’s a must re-read every few years.
Breaking The Habit of Being You
This book is great in that it’s not just psychology but improving your life in all aspects. Take the things you don’t like about yourself, or things you don’t think are problems but probably are, and fix them. The book gives you a road map plan on how to break those bad habits, the ones you know about and the ones you don’t, and become a better person.
Obviously as traders we all have bad habits we can work on fixing.
Conclusion
Now you have some trading specific books and also some general psychology books to dive into. I encourage you to pick just one and give it a try. You’ll be amazed at how much your day trading can improve by taking the time to learn some new skills outside of the technical trading skills. Get your mind right and become a successful day trader!
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