general

Ari Kiev's book Trading to Win might seem like just psycho-babble to some traders. That is odd, given that some of these same critics are devout followers of technical analysis, which premises that psychology factors firmly into market movements. Why then is it such heresy to believe that you can improve the performance of a trader by working on his psychology?

It is not a strange concept to Steve Cohen, who hired Ari Kiev as a "trading coach" for his hedge fund S.A.C. Kiev, who was profiled in Jack Schwager's Stock Market Wizards , teaches that traders need to stretch themselves in the goals they set. They also need to eliminate the negative thinking that prevents them from reaching those goals. Much of Trading to Win is thus actually "common sense" (as is most psychology, it seems), but sometimes it is useful to hear someone reiterate sound principles.

One principle for which critics have taken Kiev to task is his suggestion that traders should set or raise their profit goals, which seems like a veritable "no no" from a risk management perspective. The criticism misses the fact, however, that Kiev is really saying that raising your performance goals means raising your work ethic. What are you going to do to raise your game? Squeezing out extra percentage points of return requires getting onto the trading floor hours earlier (or hours later) than you normally would-and researching companies more assiduously on paper or by working the phones harder. Moreover, Kiev actually recommends stricter risk management through such time-tested techniques as understanding your reasons for each trade, as well as the setting of target entry and exit prices. He also wants you to figure out if fears and doubts are keeping you from cutting your losses and riding your winners.

This book is clearly not for everyone; it is easily too "touchy feely" for traders concerned solely with the quantitative or more tangible aspects of trading. Kiev also tends to float heavily from topic to topic, often without a clear path. But for those traders who wonder how "fixing their heads" might result in greater success, Trading to Win is definitely worth a read.

If you've read any books on zen or books like the The Inner Game of Tennis and came away with a little something extra then this book will fit perfectly into your library of READ books. For me, it was really a book about trusting your yourself, your gut, trusting your feal and not getting sidetracked by the conscious brain, anxiety, down days, trusting the work you've put into something, understanding your anxiety, not running from your fears, but rather coddling them, and not letting them run your decision making process. Yes, it's a 'how to' for trading, but its also something a little more intelligent (useful for the real world too). By reading this book, you put your faith in Ari and his successful devotees such as Steve Cohen (forward) who have been incredibly successful in trusting their feal and you learn to trust yourself. Yes, some people have better feal than others. But, what trade to win tries to impress that will help you get closer to victory is that its the trusting yourself (not getting sidetracked), visualizing, taking calculated positions-not gambling, setting realistic/yet stretch goals that help you steadily build up your success rate (applicable really to anything, not just trading). Put it this way, I found so much of value in this book on trading, analysis, and life, that the book is totally marked up and I'm probably going to HAVE to buy another copy. Really worth while for amateur traders, pro traders, non-traders, portfolio managers and analysts alike, and anybody for that matter.

I am a professional day and swing trader. I didn't find this book to be particularly helpful because of the disorganized way in which it was written. Also it offers so many rules and guidelines that it is confusing to one as to which is more importnant. The author also tries to impress one with the profit size of his "students", throwing around figures like $20,000 to $30,000 in profits a day that his students or clients generate. I agree with another reviewer that these for the most part is meaningless as one needs to figure return on assets to really judge how well one is doing. I have read a much better book on trading psychology and this one really analyses why we make the mistakes so common in trading. Getting to the root of the problem has helped me to improve my trading. I am now in my third year in this business and hope to be in it for a lifetime.