Successful trader Mark Whistler draws from the fields of psychology, spirituality, and philosophy to emphasize how self-honesty, self-esteem, emotional balance, and confidence form the foundation of successful trading. He demonstrates how adherence to a small number of core principles vastly improves chances of success, and shares interviews from top traders to exemplify his point that even the most successful traders have had to overcome setbacks.
Introduction:
Everyone knows that trading is a dirty, cutthroat business. It brings out our dark side. People do it for one reason only: to make money. But this book breaks the myth that trading is a soul-less act. The key to a being a successful trader is not how hungry you are, or how much you know about the markets, or even how much of an edge you have over the other guy. The key, as you’ll see, is forged from personal strength and emotional intelligence. The key to being an incredible trader comes from a well-rounded sense of psychology and spirituality. It emerges from a quality of being from within. It’s a concept that you won’t find in most trading or investing books.
Life is tough, and trading is too… there’s no doubt about it. But regardless of the difficulties we face, any of our dreams can come to fruition, no matter how old we are, or where we’re at in our lives. We simply have to dig within ourselves to find all the answers, because they’re already in there. I’m going to take you on a journey of self-discovery and inspiration. Think of it as a psychological boot camp that will hone your skills as a trader.
- You’ll read interviews with incredible traders, a professional athlete, two doctors, and two men who have overcome amazing adversity, all showing that you have the same core abilities that they had to become successful.
- You’ll learn the importance of understanding stress and how to work with it, affirmations, and visualizations, and you’ll learn how to relax.
- You’ll learn about fear, how to recognize it, and how to defeat it as well. What’s more, we’ll develop direct understanding of your trading future through a trading plan and risk plan designed to help you value the most important person of all: you!
- Finally, we’re going to uncover the inevitable market truth of change and the veracity of intuition, all the while finding a sense of gratitude that will enable you to be the best you can possibly be. Without this honed psychological tool bag, you can only be mediocre trader at best.
Contents:
- Finding Your Purpose-Center
- The Time Is Now
- Self-Honesty and Self-Esteem
- The Balance of Humbleness
- Be Courageous, Be Forgiving
- An Investigation of Fear
- Overcoming Adversity and Anxiety
- Cause and Effect
- Emotional Intelligence:The Intuition Wild Card
- Developing Intuition
- Expressing Gratitude
- Confronting and Defeating Stress
- A Medical Evaluation of Stress
- The Necessity of Relaxation
- Affirmation and Visualization
- Avoiding Self-Destructive Behavior
- Creating a Trading Plan
- Understanding Risk
- Change Is Constant
Trade With Passion and Purpose: Spiritual, Psychological, and Philosophical Keys to Becoming a Top Trader By Mark Whistler pdf
Layton Preston (verified owner) –
Great Book on Life and Trading
Kaleb Donovan (verified owner) –
I really only write very few recessions – and then only about books that have helped me move forward. This is one of them.
Mark Whistler has created a masterpiece.
Before you read on: if you are a fan of Jim Cramer (which is supposed to exist) or of riot trading, you can stop.
But if you want to learn more about trading off charts (like in Van Tharp’s “Trading beyond the Matrix” or Mark Douglas’s “The Complete Trader”), then this book is sugar for you – and a huge step for your trading.
I often nodded while reading because Whistler deals with the very problems that will sooner or later haunt you. He writes relentlessly about his own mistakes, builds bridges to psychology and philosophy.
Before you spend useless hours in any trading chat, voice your opinion (or worse, listen to others), invest a little money and time in this book.
It’s worth it!
Alfredo Petersen (verified owner) –
There are lots of tips and techniques not seen in other books. It covers everything you need to know.
This book along with Trade Mindfully by Gary Dayton are the only trading psychology books you need.
I’ve read them all, Van Tharp, Elder, Douglas.
This is more comprehensive and useful than all of them. You will have to read it a few times.
Christopher Charles (verified owner) –
This deeply researched and eloquently presented piece will serve everyone that is seriously engaged in the markets. If you have capital at risk, money to invest, or simply want to better understand your place in the economy, don’t just read this book; take it to heart and find your purpose!
Faith Humphrey (verified owner) –
What an incredible and unique book covering the psychology of investing!!! Mr. Whistler’s writing style is concise yet very approachable. It really is applicable to everyone from a trader to a novice investor and I have personally recommended it to my friends and coworkers!!!! 5 stars!!
Gerardo Hopkins (verified owner) –
As described and fast. Thanks
Remy Cameron (verified owner) –
Very interesting, being quite a technical trader myself this book opened up the subject of psychology in trading. Quite spiritual also which i found enjoyable, ties in well with trading and getting the mindset right.
Gabriela Campbell (verified owner) –
This book will undoubtedly put you in the right frame of mind,in your tradeing and in moving forward in life.
When you are in doubt,and freeze up, when the markets move against you,Mark will teach you how to get centered and put it back into perspective and be decisive.
This is a book you will want to read again,because of how positively it makes you feel about yourself and your future! very nice work,thankyou!!!
Krew Perry (verified owner) –
This is my first review on Sacred Traders, and I felt I needed to voice my opinion of this book, since it has helped me immensely. I’ve been a full-time equities trader now for over 5 years. After a large drawdown in the first week in January, I was searching for something to help me get back on track as well as expand my knowledge about the realm of trading. While reading this book, I felt a shift in my perspective about what trading really means to me. By practicing and applying the concepts discussed in this book, I immediately noticed a difference in my trading. Mark also shares his own personal insights and experiences, many of which I really relate to.
This is the first book I’ve read from Mark, and it definitely won’t be the last. It has helped me on my path, both in life and trading. This will be one of the few trading books that I will reread a couple times every year. Worth it’s weight in gold, it is one I highly recommend.
Azariah Pineda (verified owner) –
This is a fantastic book. Many thanks Mark, you have done an excellent masterpiece. At the end Trading is like the Olympism, it is the discovery of oneself through an activity that force us to express all our potential.
This book will bring the reader into an intimate journey inside his soul and spirit. Thanks again Mark.
Jenna Huynh (verified owner) –
This book is great. After reading Trading in the Zone of Mark Douglas, I was still having problems pulling the trigger in my trading and this one made it.
Apart of all the good things other reviews mention, It made me sit and write ‘everything I know’ about the markets and that made me come with a trading plan with the best ideas that I had tested on the markets. Actually it made me organize myself and discard the less important aspects and be able to confront the market with the objectivity I needed.
Somehow I knew I had many good ideas and that my study had been intense, but I was not able to discern which were the best of the concepts that I had in my mind…. so I was reluctant to enter the market.
Now I know that I can not expect to win all the time and that I only have to worry if I have not prepared myself enough… and 4 years studying and paper trading is enough to let you know what works and what doesn’t.
So now, after 11 trading days with real money, I have been able to increase 20% of my trading account, going for just 1 point per day in ES emini. I know I am bragging, but I am so happy…please understand me.
The book is great, it won`t teach you how to trade, but it will put you in a position to use what you know well….. without a doubt.
Julie Lawrence (verified owner) –
Whistler does a great job covering issues that many new traders may think are unimportant to trading, but ultimately they are the most important because they have to do with psychology. Trading has its ups and downs, and handling them is the most important thing a trader can learn how to do (at least in my humble opinion after about 2 years). The most encouraging thing for me were those parts where Whistler talks about his own mistakes. I don’t know anything about Whistler’s trading career or success, but I assume that he’s more successful than me at trading, so when he talks about making many mistakes, some of them costly and some of them more than once, I took heart, since I have made and continue to make mistakes. Eventually, with books like this one, one can learn to become an excellent trader, but it definitely takes a lot of work and emotional turmoil.
My one gripe with the book is the lack of copyediting. I’ll give two examples. First, at the top of p. 155, where Whistler is talking about the importance of gratitude and having an attitude of gratefulness, he says this: “I can assure one thing: Because of the constant emotional struggle trading brings forward, a sincere lack of ungratefulness only expedites one to burn out or blow up.” Obviously, this should say “lack of gratefulness” not “lack of ungratefulness.” A copyeditor should have caught this. The second example comes on the very next page: “At this level we are losing the ability to recognize that we have erred and forgive ourselves in a healthy manor.” Obviously, the last word should be “manner.” These may seem like trivial complaints, but there must be at least one per page of such typos, and after a while it gets distracting. (Besides, I’m a copyeditor myself and want to show that my profession has at least some value!)
All in all, though, this is an excellent book. The two-star review makes some good points, but the fact that Whistler raises these issues in the first place is important enough for a fairly high rating.
Indie Stafford (verified owner) –
This book fills in the huge gap that most other trading and investing books completely miss:YOU. You are the most important element in trading. If you are not mentally tough, disciplined, have a good work ethic, and able to deal with stress, NO trading system or plan will work for you. If you are all of the above mentioned things you will be successful at almost any system that gives you an advantage over the market.
This book asks you to write down the purpose behind your trading. Why are you trading? This defined purpose will keep you on track. It asks you to have confidence in your abilities after you have done the necessary work to be a trader. Successful traders must have healthy self esteem and be honest with themselves.”People with egos want to look good,self esteem comes from being good”.
The book really focuses on how to think correctly as a trader. Trade in the present, leave emotional baggage behind in your trading just keep the lessons. You will learn ways to manage your fear. You will read about ways to manage anxiety and stress while trading. One of the underlying themes in the book is cause and effect. You must take responsibility for trading decisions, it is not the markets fault or “them”, you made the decision to buy or sell and you must accept the outcome of your decisions as your own. This book is all about managing your emotions, stress, and thoughts while trading. This book is all about you and me, the most important element in any trading plan. I highly recommend reading this book to become a better trader, no matter where you are on your journey to success in the markets.
Beckett Murray (verified owner) –
This book should be read by every market trader. It brings the investor to look within himself to find the path to success. When is the right time to pull the trigger and buy or sell that stock? Is fear driving us to make bad decisions? Like the mythological Greek figure Sisyphus, are we destined to repetitively pushing a boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down for eternity? Whistler explains that the boulder and the hill won’t change. Only you can change yourself and figure out how to make that boulder stay at the top of the hill.
The book first lays the groundwork to looking within to determine your goals and then to find the answers. It explains Eastern philosophies of Morita therapy and dogma, and overlays that with Western psychology, all in an easy to read and easy to comprehend style that is applicable right now to both trading or everyday life.
Self honesty, self esteem, emotional intelligence, ego, humility, pride, courage, fear, and greed clearly have everything to do with success in the markets, and Whistler helps the reader come to grips with himself. This is the edge any trader needs to maneuver through the markets against predators successfully.
This is the third book I have read by Mark Whistler and it amounts to his best work yet. It is very easy to read and I find myself inspired from every single page. Typically technical books don’t have me yearning to read the next page, but Whistler has the unique ability to make it feel as if I am reading my own story. He’s been through it all and isn’t afraid to admit his failures. This book is the best investment for anybody that is fighting their way back once they realize that fear is already influencing their decisions negatively. I know I am a better trader after reading this book and look forward to the next in his arsenal.