Zen in the Markets [Hardcover]

Edwards Allen Toppel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1992

A veteran trader takes a Zen approach to the stock market, applying fundamental principles of Zen Buddhism in place of traditional economic thought and encouraging investors to put egos aside and listen to the marketplace in a tested method for success.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 97 pages
• Publisher: Warner Books (January 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446518107
• ISBN-13: 978-0446518109
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #234,463 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Complete Insight Into Zen in the Markets, June 26, 2002

By 

Tradingmarkets.com (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Zen in the Markets (Hardcover)

Here's a book that gets to the point quickly. I read this book in less than an hour. But in that amount of time, it really packed a punch and I suspect that many traders will find its key points to be of immense help from the next opening bell.

Author Edward Allen Toppel is a trader with a background in the S&P Futures Pit of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He's been at it for 20 years. So he isn't your typical vendor just in it to sell you books, courses, and seminars.

His book is based on his experiences both as a winning and losing trader. His thesis is simply this:

To succeed as trader, you have to trade with the flow with the market.

As incredibly simplistic and mystical this sounds, Toppel gives powerful suggestions on how to accomplish this.

Here are three of my favorites:

1) A loss is a loss, whether or not it's unrealized. Many traders mistakenly think that if a position goes against them, they haven't lost any money until they sell the stock.

2) Buy high, sell higher. The odds of success are much better if you buy stocks that are trending higher, than if you try to bottom fish and buy a stock because it's cheap.

3) Keep your positions small enough that you ego does not get in the way of good judgment.

On that last point about keeping position sizes small, I want to expand a bit.

To me, that was the single most profound statement in the book. I've heard it hundreds of times before, but Toppel's discussion of position size was riveting and had me thinking deeply about my own performance as a trader. His thesis is this:

We all have some threshold of position size which, when exceeded, transforms us into complete morons.

Keep your position size below this threshold, and you'll likely make money over the long haul if you're any kind of decent trader. But exceed the threshold, and your ego will inevitably cloud your judgment when something unexpected happens on a trade.

Think about it.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply the Best Trading Book Ever!, January 18, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Zen in the Markets (Hardcover)

I've been a professional trader for 20+ years and this is simply the best book written on the art of trading. Trading is about all about overcoming the inner self which is driven to failure. This book, more than any other I've ever read, cuts to the heart of the matter and gives the reader real, tangible, and specific advice on how to approach the markets, him/herself, and how to deal with the daily pressures of trading. Those pressures are not only external, i.e. the markets, but also internal, i.e the mind. I've read all the other "Zen" books, I've read all the other books on the proper psychological mindset, and this one beats all the others hands down. If you buy no other trading book but this one, then you are already way ahead of the game. This is the single most valuable book in my trading library. I highly recommend its purchase.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It is the all-time 2nd best book for daytraders., December 20, 2006

By 

Jeff (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Zen in the Markets (Hardcover)

I train daytraders for a living, I make them read 2 books before they start: 'Reminiscences of a Stock Operator' and this book 'Zen in the Markets.' I quote it almost daily when instructing traders - Trade what you see, not what you think. It is a very quick read.

It is NOT for long-term stock investors, anyone reading it for those purposes will be disappointed and give it a negative review about how it downplays fundamentals, charts, technical patterns, and such. Short-term (like 1-2 minute in a trade) daytraders and pit traders are the ones who swear by this book, as I do. I traded on the floor of the exchange and still make my living in the quick in-and-out daytrading world, and for people like me this book is a must have.