I don't know anything about equities or futures. I've been trading forex for a few months now and that's the only market I know how to trade.
"Trading in the Zone" is a must. It is the gearbox so to speak. After that nothing else is important. Why read more and more books? No need to throw sand into the gearbox.
I wouldn't say nothing else is important, but TinZ is the Bible of psychology and trading. I've got van Tharp's Financial Freedom and I also have Trading for a Living by another author, and their good books, but they really just pinpoint the key element of successful trading and that's following your plan and taking emotions out of the game. I'd also recommend Mania's, Panics, and Crashes, and Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds, both excellent titles that, once again, focus on the aspects of psychology and the markets.
Ok, everybody seems to think psychology is so important, but for me it's not. I have no feelings when it comes to trading it's like playing solitaire for fake money. I just finished "trade your way to financial freedom" and "trading in the zone". They seemed like basic comon sense to me. What i'm looking for now is a reliable book on technical analisys to put together a kickass system for intraday trading. As for the psychological aspect, that's not a factor for me.
Haha... this guy is gonna blow out his account. Funny how i thought the SAME exact thing back when I had only 100 or so posts on ET So you just looking for someone to hand you a "kickass" system? Your not making much sense my friend. If you are so good at trading, why don't you develop a system yourself. Unless you are looking for books on automated, then why are you even bother posting?
If you can place a BUY order for 5 lots of the EUR/JPY pair, place a stop at say, oh, 25-30 pips (which gives you room for bull/bear wiggle on a 30 minute chart), and then subsequently watch it get stopped out for an $1100 loss and do that five or six times in a row, and you are emotionless during the drawdown, then you, my friend, have made it to professional status. Because that means that you completely trust your plan and you have mastered your emotions.
I didn't say I'm good at trading, in fact I'm saying right now that i'm not good, what I am good at tho, is controling my feelings, I have psichological training so that's not a problem for me. No, I don't want a system from anybody. I have my own strategies. What I want is some training in improving systems, that's why I made the thread and that's why I want to read some good books on this subject.
Mark Douglas is crap. Read what a great forex speculator writes (including his trading diary): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/04...ref=sr_1_4/104-0281607-0111955?_encoding=UTF8