Customer Reviews

The Mind of a Trader: Lessons in Trading Strategy from the World's Leading Traders

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This book should be called "The Basic Tips of a Trader" because there's almost nothing about the psychology behind their trading tactics nor a psychological insight into what makes the markets behave as they do. Supposing that the word "Mind" in the title isn't meant to be taken too literally then one may still find the tips somewhat superficial. If you're a novice to trading then you might be interested to hear comments like "take your losses like a man" or "pick a trading style suited to your personality", but if you are a novice then you probably don't want to be confused or bored by drawn out messages. The essence of this book is worth a chapter in a good general book on trading but wasn't worth the time sifting the mostly common-knowledge or common-sense tips from a well padded book.

I am surprised that this book has so many excellent customer reviews (ignoring those of the big traders themselves). The title may sound interesting and useful but I found nothing profound or enlightening. A few of the tips can be applied to generally being successful at anything, not only trading. It would be useful to know the psychology behind the market-makers and big traders but if this book expresses all that they think then be assured that most semi-intelligent people with a fair education have little to learn from this book. As one trader said, you don't fight the markets, i.e. go with the flow. Useful. They may have a knack for making money but this is probably more to do with intuition than anything they have been able to consciously identify and translate into words that may be of some use to us mortals.

Patel's later book, "Net-Trading", covers many of the more interesting points of this book in a book which is worth a read for beginners or those wanting to use the Internet as an info source and need good pointers through the proliferation of cyber-confusion. He puts the best points from "The Mind of a Trader" into better context and without the padding.

Nice idea for a book for traders, but in my opinion it doesn't hit the spot.

This book pretends to be the real thing but it isn't.Not nearly as good as Schwager,Douglas,Koppel or Elder.

If you are looking for specific trading strategies this book is not for you. If you are interested in listening to successful people talking about their lives, where they worked and what kind of hours they put in, this book is for you. I was disappointed that none of the people interviewed gave any specific trading strategies. The best advice in there was to limit your losses. Other than that it seemed like they were all just reminiscing to me.

I have been a profitable, professional Wall Street trader for over 14 years. A friend of mine, who is one the best traders around, showed me this book because a "broker" we know is written up in one of the chapters. I read the chapter and I have to say I have never been so embarrassed in my life at how a simple "filling" broker was lavishly praised as being legendary and God's gift to trading. As far as we can tell he has never really traded risk and should never be mentioned in the same sentence or paragraph or book with a Tom Baldwin, a true legendary trader. The lathering decription he receives in this book is truly a joke. It's like a friend of mine writing a book on professional wind surfing and interviewing me about it. About all I know is you need a body of water to try it. More importantly, I can tell you the broker interviewed in one of the chapters knows nothing about actually taking trading risk and certainly has no right to give out vague advice about how to succeed at it. Why would I comment so strongly on this book? Because, as a professional trader, I find it embarrassing that the author didn't take the time to verify who he was interviewing and whether he was a real trader or not. Common sense dictates if a broker really did know who to trade he would,and not choose to "fill" the orders of real traders for a small commission. Always remember, "Those Who Can Do and Those Who Can't Teach"

I bought this book largely on the basis of others' reviews of it. After reading it I have to say that the book is somewhat dissapointing. There is nothing in this book that most do not already know. It is not that the author's points are not good, but rather that many of the same points are repeated over and over again. Unfortunately, much of these points are observations most people know, such as...cut your losses, use stop losses, don't risk so much that you can't trade tomorrow, etc, etc. I would highly recommend that others save their money and purchase something else.

I was somewhat disappointed in this book in that it separated me from the traders interviewed. Many times the author tried to provide a summary of the trading psychology. However, I was left wondering if the author really knew what he was doing. On this topic, I would look to other books.

I was reading the reviews of The Electronic Day Trader by Marc Friedfertig, George West and George Piecznik and found several pitches for this book. There were also several pitches for The Mind of a Trader, repeated at regular time intervals. Curiously, they are both by Patel.

There are gems buried in the typos, maladroit sentence structure, and confusing punctuation. It is often unclear where the author's comments end and the interviewee's begin. Financial Times is surely capable of better editorial work.

That said, the book contains useful guidelines, not only for the challenges of securities trading, but for any endeavor demanding focus, risk-taking, and self-confidence. The book offer no trading strategies, but it provides a useful introduction to the discipline by describing the mind-set and personal habit patterns that lead to success or failure. Again, good editorial work would have pruned much that is repetitive. On the other hand, one could argue that it doesn't hurt to emphasize cricital skills by repetition.

This book might be ok for those who are looking for a history lesson, but not much more. I found little, if anything, in the first several chapters that will make any difference in my approach to the market.

If you go through the reviews, you might notice that the opinion of many readers had been much influenced by the "title" or even "background" of the traders interviewed in the book. A self claimed successful trader and reviewer just gave only "one" star to the book because he found one of the interviewees a liar and that the author had failed to verify the history of his interviewees.

Discounting the above, and taking in account that the book focused on the minds of options and futures traders (vs the all walks of life type in Market Wizards I&II), the primary objective had been delivered. In short, discipline, cut loss short, let profit run had been quoted in all the interviews, though in different styles and wordings. The book is well written by the ex barrister author, who intelligently and vividly merged his opinion with those of the interviewees, without going through the common Q&A format.

You may like or dislike the book after reading it. But for sure you will remember its strong emphasis on discipline for quite a while. In this respect, it's worth the time and the price.