Trading to win: the psychology of mastering the markets

The product of a five-year collaboration between Dr. Ari Kiev, a leading psychiatrist renowned for his success with Olympic athletes, and top equities trader Steve Cohen, Trading to Win gives you the essential tools to overcome outmoded, self-limiting beliefs and mindsets that may be keeping you from a higher level of success. Illustrated with real market scenarios and applications, this powerful program will help psych you into a less stressful, more self-possessed mastery of the trading game and help you reach goals you may never have thought possible.

"The strategies in this book will unleash the hidden trader in you, and can substantially increase your trading profits." —Jay G. Goldman, Hedge Fund Manager.

"Ari Kiev has written a wonderful guide for money managers, traders, brokers, and investors alike. Sharing his thoughts with us regarding our behavior patterns enables us to take a step back and look at ourselves more objectively." —Seymour W. Zises, President and CEO, Family Management Corp.

The trading arena has produced its share of select "super-traders," market practitioners who set themselves apart from the rest of the field with one distinct advantage: mental and emotional toughness. Like outstanding athletes who stay focused, remain calm, and stick to their game plan, these master traders in this highly risky, highly competitive arena possess an edge that keeps them from being distracted by fear, self-doubt, greed, and other emotional components that can cause major losses and prevent gains from soaring to new highs.

Trading to Win presents a step-by-step, goal-oriented program for building the mental and emotional stamina not only to win, but to win on an unprecedented level. Created by a leading psychiatrist for a top trading firm, this proven approach spotlights a set of philosophical and behavioral principles designed to assist you in implementing proactive trading strategies, as well as developing the mindset needed to trade effectively in the realm of uncertainty. Delving into your underlying thought processes when you trade, Trading to Win enables you to understand what is motivating you, whether it is consistent with your game plan, and whether you are in any way sabotaging yourself.

Fully supplemented with real market trading scenarios, Trading to Win shows you how to apply key concepts where it counts—in actual trading room situations. For both professional traders and sophisticated investors, this remarkable program offers a rare opportunity for both personal and financial gain.

Amazon.com Review Buy low, sell high. Sounds simple? Hardly. As most traders will tell you, finding the right entry and exit points in a market is too often a stressful and even gut-wrenching experience. Ari Kiev, author of Trading to Win, wants to change all that. Kiev spent five years with a group of professional traders at SAC Capital Management, a $500 million hedge fund, studying the psychological and emotional aspects of what makes for a successful trader. Kiev found that what hinders many traders is ego, fear, emotion, and "false beliefs about yourself and the markets." Gaining mastery as a trader means seeing "the market as it is, not as a reference point for your own existence." Kiev advocates a disciplined, Zen-like approach to the markets that begins with articulating a specific goal then committing oneself to attaining that goal in the most objective way possible, overcoming the emotional baggage that too often leads to poor decision-making. Trading to Win is for professional and amateur traders of every stripe who are looking for insight into their own behavior and approach to the markets. --Harry C. Edwards