Book Review of Mastering Trading Stress by Ari Kiev

[Rob C 824]

 

Book Review of Mastering Trading Stress by Ari Kiev

Trading in the Zone discussed very well what state of mind one needs to trade without stress. The Daily Trading Coach explains how to practice to get into that state. But what do you do with the stress while you are working toward that state, which may take years? I was hoping this book would help during that interim. For me it didn’t.

The way the book was written is about half of it was case studies. He would discuss a concept than have multiple examples (interviews with traders) to show how they are handling that situation. So if you learn by example after example than this is the book for you. But it didn’t work well or me.

 

Here are some of the memorable quotes from the book. But, I don’t consider them very new if you already read Trading in the Zone.

When traders fail to acknowledge and learn from their negative emotions they begin to make decisions based not just on what they think or know but also how they feel. They forget discipline and trade according to momentary, spontaneous impulses that they later regret.

Once again let me state the rule of behavioral economics that stems from Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman’s studies as well as others: Most people are willing to accept risks in order to avoid losses but have a built-in tendency to avoid risks when seeking gains.

To succeed, you must probe the reasoning behind why you are trading at your current size. In order to maximize your risk-taking ability you have to get bigger, and to do this you need to determine exactly what is getting in the way of your current risk taking.

After a stressful trade you need to permit yourself to experience the full range of natural emotions.

They recognize the negative impact of emotional blockage and are willing to struggle through the impasse to improve their trading.

When you experience anxious thoughts, it is possible to identify them and choose how you are going to react to them.

Whenever you notice that you are thinking old repetitive patterns, project your focus onto the future.

One of the most powerful and effective ways to master the symptoms of stress is to choose an objective and then start trading in the terms of the objective.