The Problem With Trading Psychology Books

—by VP

I love reading trading psychology books because I exist in the behavioral finance space and I love to read. This puts me in a very small minority, however.

Most people purchase and read these types of books because they have recognized some of the behavioral issues in their own trading and want help. These traders really do have my heart, because it’s such a rare and wonderful thing to not only have the humility to realize our faults and our weaknesses exist, but to seek help and yearn to fix these problems makes for a very special type of trader. A type of trader I have always tried to help improve through my work.

Unfortunately, reading books on the matter does very little to help these traders out. There, I said it. These books, while a great read for behavioral finance nerds like me, are anywhere from marginally helpful, to downright useless for most traders.

Where Trading Psychology Books Fail

This pains me to write. The Denise Shulls and the late Mark Douglases of the world deserve better than this. Their contributions to the space are legendary. Other lesser known writers like John Coates and Brett Steenbarger probably deserve even more praise in my opinion, but authors like this are more known for enhancing the work of traders at the more institutional levels. Denise Shull for example, was the inspiration for Maggie Siff’s character Wendy Rhoades on the show Billions.