Ruth Roosevelt, as the reader will quickly learn, is "one of us". She is a longtime trader and has put in her time in the "trenches", dealing with all the challenges involved in becoming a successful trader. Few trading books I have read (and I have read hundreds over the years) made me identify as closely with the author and her message as this one (and its companion volume, Overcoming 7 Deadly Sins of Trading).Roosevelt calls these two books the "good and the "bad", this one being the "good". Last month's column reviewed the other title.
Ruth postulates that, in order to become a consistently successful trader, you must develop a certain mindset of steadfastly held attitudes and beliefs. These mental and emotional "habits" and "attitudes" combine to form "habitudes", which must become a permanent and immutable part of your thinking.Each of the 12 "habitudes" is examined separately. However, they all interact with and reinforce each other. Simply seeing a listing of them does not even begin to convey the depth of understanding you will gain by reading this book.
Even though it's relatively brief (approximately 100 pages), I believe this book (and its companion volume mentioned earlier) should prove invaluable in contributing to an understanding of the psychological and emotional issues that must be dealt with and mastered as a very important, but often neglected, aspect of learning how to join the relatively thin ranks of exceptionally successful traders.
Ruth stresses a number of underlying themes throughout this book. One is that you must view trading as a wonderful opportunity, not to be feared as a "minefield" of dangers…and that there are, and will always be, an abundance of situations that offer profit potential. If you miss the "train", do not despair because there will be another one pulling into the station soon!
You must be detached from trading results and not take results personally…trading should be viewed as a numbers game in which participants never have the luxury of certainty, only probabilities, and you must become comfortable with uncertainty and realize that if you have a viable method or system, it will never be profitable on every trade.
If there were certainty, the "game" would cease to exist (as well as the attendant opportunities). Your ego must be divorced from the trading, which should be viewed as an ongoing process during which losses, as well as profits, are an integral part of the results. Losses should be viewed as nothing more than the cost of doing business, not as an affront to your self-esteem or worthiness.
You should think in terms of probabilities and realize that trading successfully is achieved by keeping probability on your side (just as with the "house" in a casino) while understanding that every trade ("bet") is but one of many, and no one trade, in and of itself, has any special significance. You should not "bet the farm" because you are "certain" that any one trade is bound to be a winner…a certain recipe for disaster.
You should not identify too closely with trading, and you should realize that it is simply a part of your life -- not your entire life (think "I trade for money", not "I am a trader").
By reading and studying this book closely, I believe you will come to have a much fuller understanding of yourself and the "habitudes" that you must develop and maintain to succeed in trading. I recommend it to traders of all degrees of experience and areas of interest. Review by
Edward Dobson, President
Traders Press, Inc.
Greenville, SC
Additional details are available on www.traderspress.com.
