Many traders simply buy e-books from people with no trading experience however for just 20 bucks you can learn from a trader who has walked the walk and made millions - Pit Bull by Marty Shwartz is simply essential reading...

The above title refers to one of the classic investment books of all time -The Disciplined Trader: Developing Winning Attitudes by Mark Douglas. If you have not heard of this book, then you should get it - it's simply one book every trader should own.

"Emotions kill successful trading."

Think about this fact:

Anyone can learn to trade - it's a totally learned skill yet. 95% of traders lose their money. This ratio is the same today as it was 100 years ago.

You would have thought the win ratio would have improved, with the quicker delivery of news in both quantity and quality, the power of personal computers and advances in software - but it hasn't.

Why?

Because traders will always be emotional creatures and their emotions destroy their trading plan and their equity.

You perhaps really have to read this book, to understand how important and how difficult it is to become a disciplined trader. The book rammed it home to me 25 years ago, after wiping myself out I read it and it never did that again!

This book was one of a few that really helped me understand myself and more importantly, how to keep my emotions in check.

Why Trading Success is So Elusive?

The above is the theme that runs through the book. 95% of traders lose, not because they can't win - but because they cannot control their emotions.

In The Disciplined Trader, Mark Douglas, shows why most traders are simply unprepared for the different-often alien-strategies which they need to apply for success in the trading environment.

The skills needed to survive and profit are actually ones that are hard for most individuals to do. Douglas demonstrates why the beliefs learned to function effectively in society are psychological barriers in trading.

Why Trading is so Hard an Example

Just one example - In normal everyday life, we all want to fit in and be accepted. We try and fit in with the crowd, of course in the markets this is fatal, as the crowd lose but you try and step away from the herd - it's hard.

The above and many other barriers are discussed by Douglas and the moral and use of the book is:

Make Your Trading Less Stressful and Profitable

To trade successfully you need a method but if you cannot apply your method with discipline - you have no method at all and will lose The Disciplined Trader helps you join the elite 5% who have learned to control themselves by developing a systematic, step-by-step approach for winning by applying their methods with total discipline.

My only criticism of the book is - it's a bit long but that's minor. If you think you can't turn your trading into a fun profitable activity rather than a stressful losing one get this book. The disciplined trader should be any traders library.