There is a popular misconception amongst many traders that they would be better off if they could just somehow shed their emotions and become emotionless androids. Whilst of course this is unfeasible, this sentiment is ignorant of the fact that emotions lie at the very core of our ability to make good decisions. In this book, Denise Shull contends that if one could learn to observe their emotions and develop their ability to read them, then they could learn to use them constructively to the huge benefit of their trading performance.
'Market Mind Games’ is a superb addition to the ever increasing body of work on the psychological aspects of trading and investing: Denise is brilliantly able to bring in aspects of psychology, finance, neuroscience and philosophy and combine them into a coherent set of observations and theories, whilst intertwining these with real insights from Denise’s own experiences from her many years at the cutting edge of trading.
The central theme running through the book regarding emotions is based on the concept that actions and behaviours stem from thoughts and cognitions, and that the inputs for these come from one’s emotions and feelings. The book also delves beyond this and explores how people reproduce self-similar patterns of behaviour in their psyche from earlier periods of their lives, and how these patterns can reappear when trading, often to wreak havoc on their trading performance. Throughout the book Denise is able to intertwine her theories with a fictional sub-plot which helps draw out and crystallize aspects of her theory in a trading context, she also provides some useful trading insights from her own past.
The book makes some bold attempt to introduce some concepts and ideas which are rarely touched upon in the trading literature. Many people have written about the psychological aspects of trading and investing, however few have made what I consider a worthwhile effort to get to the nub of the issues. Previously, only Mark Douglas and Brett Steenbarger have, in my humble opinion, really made a telling contribution to the subject of trading psychology at the personal level. And only Steenbarger has actually tackled the inner-mind aspects of trading in any meaningful way. I believe this book is a worthy addition to the works of Douglas and Steenbarger, and segues well with some of Steenbarger’s excellent work.
I am particularly drawn to the element of the book where Denise talks about self-similar patterns in the psyche, which she terms, rather controversially as it would seem, ‘Fractal’. As a former trader, now working with traders as a coach, I often see similarities between people’s trading behaviours and experiences from previous periods of their life and past relationships. The legendary trader Ed Seykota was famously quoted in Jack Schwager’s Market Wizards as saying “Everybody gets what they want out of the market”, a comment which has been argued and debated about for many years. In ‘Market Mind Games’ I believe Denise implicitly goes some way to exploring why this may be.
In summary this book is both original and bold; Denise brings some new ideas to the table, some of which have not been without controversy. Denise herself terms her ideas as radical, and it is hard to argue against that. If I was to have any concerns about the book I think at times it veers between appealing to the broader trader community the narrower academic audience, and thus at times can be a challenging read, requiring a second or even a third examination of certain sections. These are however small criticisms in what is a very worthwhile effort which I believe makes a valuable contribution to the subject of trading and investment psychology.
'Market Mind Games’ is a superb addition to the ever increasing body of work on the psychological aspects of trading and investing: Denise is brilliantly able to bring in aspects of psychology, finance, neuroscience and philosophy and combine them into a coherent set of observations and theories, whilst intertwining these with real insights from Denise’s own experiences from her many years at the cutting edge of trading.
The central theme running through the book regarding emotions is based on the concept that actions and behaviours stem from thoughts and cognitions, and that the inputs for these come from one’s emotions and feelings. The book also delves beyond this and explores how people reproduce self-similar patterns of behaviour in their psyche from earlier periods of their lives, and how these patterns can reappear when trading, often to wreak havoc on their trading performance. Throughout the book Denise is able to intertwine her theories with a fictional sub-plot which helps draw out and crystallize aspects of her theory in a trading context, she also provides some useful trading insights from her own past.
The book makes some bold attempt to introduce some concepts and ideas which are rarely touched upon in the trading literature. Many people have written about the psychological aspects of trading and investing, however few have made what I consider a worthwhile effort to get to the nub of the issues. Previously, only Mark Douglas and Brett Steenbarger have, in my humble opinion, really made a telling contribution to the subject of trading psychology at the personal level. And only Steenbarger has actually tackled the inner-mind aspects of trading in any meaningful way. I believe this book is a worthy addition to the works of Douglas and Steenbarger, and segues well with some of Steenbarger’s excellent work.
I am particularly drawn to the element of the book where Denise talks about self-similar patterns in the psyche, which she terms, rather controversially as it would seem, ‘Fractal’. As a former trader, now working with traders as a coach, I often see similarities between people’s trading behaviours and experiences from previous periods of their life and past relationships. The legendary trader Ed Seykota was famously quoted in Jack Schwager’s Market Wizards as saying “Everybody gets what they want out of the market”, a comment which has been argued and debated about for many years. In ‘Market Mind Games’ I believe Denise implicitly goes some way to exploring why this may be.
In summary this book is both original and bold; Denise brings some new ideas to the table, some of which have not been without controversy. Denise herself terms her ideas as radical, and it is hard to argue against that. If I was to have any concerns about the book I think at times it veers between appealing to the broader trader community the narrower academic audience, and thus at times can be a challenging read, requiring a second or even a third examination of certain sections. These are however small criticisms in what is a very worthwhile effort which I believe makes a valuable contribution to the subject of trading and investment psychology.
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Denise's book is a much needed addition to the trading psychology literature. As a psychologist who is an active trader myself and who has worked with professional traders since 1995, I've been using similar ideas - essentially most of what we do is the result of subconscious forces - and to become a more "disciplined" ( I actually don't like the word as it is really over used in trading and misunderstood)trader means we must bring into consciousness what was previously subconscious, otherwise we will continue to make the same mistakes.
ReplyDeleteAndrew Menaker, PhD
www.andrewmenaker.com
Andrew - Totally agree. - As an ex-trader myself, and now a coach, I feel the Trading literature is often poorly served. - My approach to coaching shares many similarities to Denise's theory, based largely on trying to understand where people implicit triggers are to their explicit actions, etc. - - As a psychologist I am sure you understand that far better than me. - BTW I just checked out your excellent blog. - You may want to join our Linkedin Group - 'Trader, Trading & Risk Psychology'.
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