"The Way to Trade", by John Piper

I wote a post regarding books to read for people looking to stand the best chance of staying the distance when starting out trading THE WAY TO TRADE- JOHN PIPER
THE DISCIPLINED TRADER-MARK DOUGLAS

were the 2 books i put forward to give people a grounding in the psychology of trading both i consider should be aquired reading. and in my book by piper he offers a free 5 minute psychological profile of you by email. not sure if thats still the case as ive had my copy couple of years now.

but both of the titles are telling you its your own PSYCHOLOGICAL behaviour you have to master in order to stay long term at trading. pipers book does offer you a look at a few methods that he uses in the markets and there is a good chapter in which he talks about positive and negative development relating to price action in the markets. THE DISCIPLINED TRADER seems a deeper level psychological open up on yourself an excellent and very honest account from a trader who lost everything and realised that the PAIN wasn't so bad. DOUGLAS mentions traders often stay in a losing position until they reach a point he terms FORCED AWARENESS. an excellent must have book, in my opinion.

stick both on your chrimbo list and stay in this new year.

jd
 
I’ve been spread betting for about five months and this is the first time I’ve ever posted a message. Wish I’d read some of the posts on T2W as I could’ve saved myself much money. Well I would like to save some of you a little of your hard earned cash. I recently purchased ‘The Way to Trade’ and really don’t think it was worth the money. A lot of the usual advice like cut losses, run profits and trade with the trend. These nuggets along with other obscure drivel on charts and a fair bit on options. And there’s lots of advertising encouraging one to depart with more money as well! If you’ve been trading for more than a few months and checked out a few technical books and web sites then you should have no need for this. I have now promised myself to not purchase any more books on trading that infer the Holy Grail that we all seek. Might even ask for a refund!

Cheers

Robbie Roo
 
Hi robbie, i think the title of pipers book The way to trade, may imply hes offering trading methods that people should adopt, but its a lot more than that, the actual methods people employ in the markets are the least important, its your trading personality as piper phrases it, ie developing your psychological mindset, then use that to greatest advantage on whatever method you find fits in with your personality.

I dont believe that piper emplies its the holy grail for trading, if you look at his pyramid of developing people into traders the method that one adopts for him/herself is at number 8. 7 steps before you even consider technical trading etc. its a book that is trying to help you understand that YOU are the key to success is 80% more relevant than technical books, systems, methods. etc.

Dont bin keep on reading it. and dont forget the disciplined trader- mark douglas. but i'll warn you in that there isnt a chart in sight etc. its all about developing your mental mindset.

jd

and lastly if after 3-4 years you are still wondering how difficult it is to make gains, then remember the psychology, it can take years for it to sink in, but thats they way it is.....
 
RobbieRoo

I think I'm inclined to agree with you. I was tempted to buy this book off the net but didn't because I was unsure of the content. Then I was in a Bookers store the other day and they had a copy, so I had a skim through. I think if you are completely new to all this and don't know where to start it is probably worth it, but there are far better books our there.

My recommended book list is:

Technical Analysis for Financial Markets by Murphy

Trading for a Living and Welcome to My Trading Room by A Elder

The New Market Wizards by Scwager - A light read that helped me put a lot of thing's in perspective

Just working my way through Advanced Swing Trading by J Crane - turning out to be an interesting read and a slightly different slant on original T&A methods by other names.

Cheers

Lard
 
Sorry guys... but top of anyone's list has to be

"Reminescences of a stock operator" - now if only I could find who I lent my copy to....
 
I have a copy of John Pipers book which I keep on the same shelf as other publications such as "Sniper Trading", "The Master Swing Trader" "Trading Chaos" et al.

Now, John Piper was to my knowledge a very sucessful trader in the bull market period in the ninties with a personel benchmark stated in his book as "4% gain on the funds he was trading" and would "equate to 60% every year".

At that time in the late ninities John also sell limited trading systems such as overnight trader - he would restrict these to a limited number of traders in the order of 10 I seem to remember.

I'm not sure if John is so sucessful in a bear market/going sideways situation since I think spiky action probably does work better in a consistently upwards moving market as was the case a few years ago.

The book "The Way To Trade" is [IMHO] an uncomplicated read with the main strategies for practical trading based on "spikes"
and reference to use of a Trading Coach and his "Trading Pyramid".

Also John's opinion of technical analysis is pretty low preferring instead Market Profile with its particular language such as "price acceptance" "price rejection" "failed break" "failed retest" etc.

I like it, preferring it to The other books mentioned....but a word of caution..............no book on trading is the holy grail and the best way to learn this business is to "get something" from every book you read.

If you can your hands on this book it will I'm sure be worth while.....however the recent over-hyped selling of this book on the net had me reaching for the sick bag...........
 
CityTrader said:
Sorry guys... but top of anyone's list has to be

"Reminescences of a stock operator" - now if only I could find who I lent my copy to....
Click to expand...

yeah its a good read and some of the content has a few nice sayings, and its even more outstanding in the fact that its fictional and the guy who wrote it had absolutely no trading experience, damn fine research for the late 1920's if only Jesse had existed....

jd.
 
Heh! I have been getting this pop-up today

---------------------------
CONGRATULATIONS!
You've been chosen to receive a $10 discount off "The Way To Trade".
As part of a special marketing test, you'll save $10.00, if you order within the next 10 minutes.

Click Below Now To Take Advantage
of This Special Discount

This offer will NOT appear again
---------------------------------------------
Strangely it is the 3rd time it has appeared today :D
 
Hi

I emailed the author and asked what the average monthly returns were if I followed his methods

Reply 5-8%, can't afford to copy this performance
 
i purchased the book, read through it twice, but it didn't suit me. true to the guarantee, my money was refunded by paul handforth as soon as i contacted him.
 
adrian

Not sure what you mean about 10% margin.

I calculate my monthly gains dividng the monthly gain by the amount on deposit at the begining of the month.

This works out on average 49.6% via spread betting
 
Just spotted this thread.

I ordered The Way To Trade a couple of months back and found it to be an excellent read.

Be careful though, the main site here:
http://www.the-way-to-trade.com

...is for the ebook version. I ordered the hardback version here:
http://www.the-way-to-trade.com/hardback.php

...it arrived next day with a dinky little leather bookmark!!

I've had 2 successive winning months since I read it, compared to huge losses nearly every month beforehand.

xx
Shell
 
Shell- sounds like uncle John ( piper) has done u favours then- LOLL

I read the book over 2 yrs ago...... from what i remeber about it, he had some good points mentioned-

Are u using his options methods or ??

cheers
Al
 
juanbyte, You must have started only recently as the figure original quoted appears to be net of leverage. Yours is without by the look of it. I could turn 1000% a month with enough leverage but the risk would be huge!!
 
Scripophilist

Please can you give me an example of what you mean.


If my total investment capital at the begining of the month is 10k
and then at the end of that month I have 15K I have made 50%

My bank pays interest this way, my pension works out at 0.53% per month. Credit cards charge a % per month.

I am at a loss to what leverage has to do with anything.

It is the net% gain that matters, this is the cash in my pocket.

I trade the Dow mostly so if you are talking about gain on stakes this would be about 12,500%, this means nothing.

I really would love to know what you mean.
 
juanbyte said:
If my total investment capital at the begining of the month is 10k and then at the end of that month I have 15K I have made 50%
Click to expand...

Apart from issues of leverage, have you really made 50%?

If you have 10k trading capital and you risk 1k per trade and you turn X trades in any one month, don't you need to consider your 5k profit as a percentage of the total amount risked i.e. Xk rather than your starting capital?

For instance, if you have 10k trading capital and you use 1k on every trade and you turn 25 trades in any month, you've effectively traded 25k and made a 5k gain (to use your example data). That's a 50% gain on your starting capital, but only a 20% gain on capital actually traded.

You get to trade 'the same' 1k many times each time period...

Does this make sense?
 
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