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134 of 137 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Complete Insight Into The Disciplined Trader, March 27, 2003
This review is from: The Disciplined Trader: Developing Winning Attitudes (Hardcover)
The number one reason that I like The Disciplined Trader is that Mark Douglas has no formal training in psychology. Rather, Douglas was trained in the only classroom that matters-the battlefield of actual trading. Even though this book was published in 1990 and there have been a plethora of trading-psychology books published since then, Douglas' material stands out has an innovative classic. He just uses his own gift for seeing the mental shortcomings of the losing trader and spells out his own fresh insights on what we, as traders, need to do to experience real success in trading. Douglas starts the book out from a perspective that many traders can identify with-crushing defeat. Humbling himself to the higher power that the market is and analyzing the formula for defeat, Douglas shows how he was able to reverse-engineer it to find the formula for success that many of the book's readers over the years have found useful in exorcising their own psychological demons. Central to Douglas' thesis is that the elements of character that produce success in most of life's endeavors are completely different from those that will make you successful as a trader. To thrive in business or some professional career, you have to work hard to develop the skills that will allow you to be in control of your environment. To build a business empire, you have to be a great leader of people. To become a heart surgeon, you have to learn how to control your scalpel. To be a good mother, you have to know how to discipline your children. But successful trading, says Douglas, is the process of yielding to the market and being in control only of yourself and the way you respond to changing market conditions. When the idea of being in control of yourself sinks in, you realize that you as a trader get exactly what you deserve from the markets. If you consistently get poor results, you deserve this. If you consistently get great results, you deserve that. The market doesn't care, one way or the other. As with any book filled with original and profound ideas, The Disciplined Trader isn't always an easy read, particularly as it slogs through the painful process of pummeling away at our self-destructive mechanisms. Fortunately, as with life, the journey provides a reward and Douglas spends the final chapters of the book explaining practical techniques that will help you to "get it together" as a trader.
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87 of 89 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pearls of wisdom - encrypted over and over, August 27, 2006
This review is from: The Disciplined Trader: Developing Winning Attitudes (Hardcover)
First off let me assure you that Mark Douglas deserves all the generally positive reviews he's received for this book and for "Trading in the Zone." What Douglas has to share is essential, extremely valuable information for both aspiring and veteran traders alike. That said, stand warned that Mr. Douglas has quite a tedious writing style. He suffers (and thereby, so does the reader) from a particularly diffuse, circular, and repetitive style. He gives redundant a bad name. Here's a sample, you be the judge:
"Our committed expectations about the future will act as a force on our perception of market information to control its flow into our mental system in such a way as to avoid a confrontation with anything that doesn't conform with what we already believe is possible." Got that? Then this book is for you.
You don't have to worry about picking between The Disciplined Trader, and Trading in the Zone - Mr. Douglas is so repetitive that he essentially wrote the same book twice. Material from each book is either reprinted verbatim or repeated in a slightly different way in the other.
In fairness, Douglas is struggling to convey some very complex psychological concepts which don't easily distill down to catchy one-liners. Still, for all of his good things to say, Mr. Douglas would only benefit from a good editor.
Stick with it though - the keys to success are buried within. And then re-encrypted over and over.
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57 of 59 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
rating this book, October 12, 2000
This review is from: The Disciplined Trader: Developing Winning Attitudes (Hardcover)
As I read the reviews on this book, it seemed that there were two groups of reviewers: the group that just loved the book and the (small) group that hated it. After reading it, I found that the solution to this phenomenon was the following: to truly understand the book, you need: 1) To understand, that this book is not going to present you a clear trading plan or any technical knowledge whatsoever. It's about the mental aspects of trading. 2) A certain level of intellect (not that it is very hard to read, but I'm sure it is too difficult to understand for some). 3) (a lot of) trading experience. You can only appreciate and understand the book, if you can relate to the mental processes and experiences that are presented in this book. Once these three conditions are satisfied, I'm sure you'll just LOVE this one.
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