I learned fundamentals from Tonys books! Later I've became a professional thanks to other things, but I own Tony a lot! Chuck
A plan for daily living by air kiev. It is 1000% times better than his trading books. I actually read it back before I was trading and it's wonderful if you apply it. Brandon
Interesting thread. I'm facing the same issue with some close friends and the problem is, as BSAM stated, Experience is the teacher. However the one book that covers the psychologic part of trading and that I find useful is Trading in the Zone. I wish I had read it earlier, my learning curve would probably have been shorter. I strongly suggest it to anyone having issues with trading. Ludovic
It happened so many times to so many friends that I find it very difficult to point to a single solution. Say, telling a guy to read a book, cut a loss, or just reevaluate a position, many take that as an insult as you are implying that you know more than they do. Much later, I find out the reason why my words or recommendations are not taken, and treated as insult - thats because I was not as "authorative" as some gurus they read about every day/week/month on newspapers, magazines, TV, etc. What I know in trading are simply discounted to "luck" or a "gambler's opinion". So, my sincere advice to you is to stop making any recommendation. If the person(s) is very dear to you, then find the authorative figure(s) that this person(s) will listen to and convince them instead to make the recommendation. It works like magic
The answer to that question mostly depends on the person in question and what exactly he's stuck on. All I can share is a little personal experience. I started early 2000 and lost a lot of money in the dotcom bust. For many years I never quite figured out what the mistakes were, until I read the market wizard books and ROSO. For me they were very enlightening, and brought into sharp focus my mistakes over the years. Without the painful experiences to reflect on, the books' messages would not be nearly as powerful. Without the books' focusing effect I might have figured out everything eventually, just a bit slower.
Good points everyone and some good recommendations. In one case it's my Dad who will just not stop doubling up after a loss and he always cuts his winners way to soon. These are classic trading errors that we all must overcome, I just don't want him to do it the hard way because of his age and account size. I was hoping that someone could suggest some exercises or something. He won't listen and to what I keep telling him and to just paper trade till he gets profitable and he is to old to listen to someone half his age.
While it is unlikely that reading a book(in and of itself) will instill the necessary self control/discipline required for consistent profitable trading, it shouldn't hurt to give these a gander. "Zen in the Markets" - Edward Allen Toppel "Habitudes of Highly Successful Traders" - Ruth Barrons Roosevelt "Overcoming Seven Deadly Sins of Trading" - Ruth Barrons Roosevelt These 3 are relatively short and shouldn't require too much of a long attention span in order to get the conveyed messages. Best that I can remember they didn't cost much and I bought them from traderspress.com Amazon and others probably have them as well. Good luck and best wishe$.
Sounds like he doesn't believe what he did were classic trading errors. So it's not a matter of how, but why. How about making a deal of some sort (so you get to do something he wants you to too), to make him start keeping a good journal? If his trading timeframe is not too long he can learn from his own mistakes. No way you can teach anyone anything they haven't learned themselves already, let alone your dad LOL.