APPENDIX: Resources For Traders

The links in each chapter represent resources that might be helpful to your exploration of trading and spirituality.  In this appendix are specific trading resources that I have found to be enlightening over the years.  The key is finding just a few sources of insight that complement your own market understandings, so that you are constantly refining and expanding your views.  There are many people doing wonderful work out there; I hope the following list provides you with a useful set of resources to navigate markets!

Please note that the writeups of each of the resources have been provided by the site owners in response to my request.  I have received no fees or promotional considerations for the listings.  I simply selected them from my own trading and blog-writing experience.

Resources From Brett

The Psychology of Trading - This book takes a look at trading in light of the common challenges we face in all aspects of life and introduced solution-focused thinking to trading:  identifying exceptions to our problem patterns and the strengths that underlie those.

Enhancing Trader Performance - In this book, I examined the learning/development process that traders go through and how we can improve and accelerate performance.  A major idea was that of deliberate practice and ways of structuring our learning to maximize performance.  

The Daily Trading Coach - In this book I sought to assemble a "cookbook" of psychological techniques to address the common challenges traders face.  Here are the major behavioral, cognitive, solution-focused, and other approaches that have been found to be useful in outcome research.

Trading Psychology 2.0 - This book drew upon my work with hedge funds and other trading organizations to address topics that are neglected in most discussions of trading psychology.  Those include techniques for improving idea generation and creativity; ways of adapting to changing market conditions; developing robust trading processes; and more.

The Art and Science of Brief Psychotherapies - This is not a trading book, but rather a comprehensive overview of short-term approaches to behavior change.  It is written for students in psychology and psychiatry and goes into detail about the how-to's of the change process.

TraderFeed - This is the blog I've written since 2006, with posts on everything from market psychology to trading psychology and performance.  The home page contains an index that will help you find posts on topics of interest.  A great way to look up information quickly is to Google "TraderFeed" the topic you're interested in.  Odds are good you'll see a few relevant posts!

Forbes Column - In the Forbes articles, I explore topics relevant to trading psychology, but with a broader emphasis on performance overall and trends in positive psychology. I've published multiple articles each month since 2015; here is an archive.  If you Google "Forbes Brett Steenbarger" and the name of a specific topic you're interested in, you can find posts of interest.

Sites I Use As Information Sources

Barchart - Price quotes across regions and asset classes, financial news, watchlists, screeners, and more.  In the stocks section, there are a number of indicators that I track, including new highs/lows on different time frames.

Index Indicators - Coverage of a range of indicators across multiple indexes.  Some of the unique data plotted include the percentage of stocks above various moving averages; new highs/lows; and much more.  There is also a simple backtest function and inexpensive historical data.

Investing.com - This is my go-to site if I need quick quotes while on the go or on the road.  News, economic and earnings calendars, charting, and more.

Stock Charts - Very flexible and affordable charting platform which allows you to quickly examine historical performance vis a vis a wide range of indicators and time frames.  Charts include relative performance, heatmaps, and much more.

StockTwits - A Twitter-like app for stock traders and a great way to see what people are discussing re: various stocks, indexes, etc.  They sponsor meetups and conferences and foster a sense of trading community.

Trading Resources

Abnormal Returns - Abnormal Returns has, since 2005, striven to highlight the best of the diverse, investment blogosphere to its readers. While the focus in on finance and investing the blog also covers issues like cryptocurrencies, startups, the economy, policy and society in general. The blog is edited by Tadas Viskanta who serves as the Director of Investor Education at Ritholtz Wealth Management. You can also access this changing lineup of content via our daily e-mail newsletter or follow us on Twitter (@abnormalreturns).

All Star Charts - JC Parets is the founder of All Star Charts and is one of the most widely followed Technical Analysts in the world. All Star Charts is a research platform for both professional and retail investors covering US and International stocks, interest rates, commodities and forex markets. In 2008, JC earned his Chartered Market Technician designation (CMT). His work has been featured regularly on Bloomberg, CNBC, Fox Business, ABC, CNN, Wall Street Journal and many other financial media outlets around the world. You will often see JC as a speaker at some of the top investing conferences and has also been invited to speak at Harvard, Duke, NYU, University of Chicago and Hong Kong Baptist University among other institutions about Technical Analysis and Behavioral Finance. JC specializes in finding the most opportunistic risk vs reward propositions while at the same time bringing a top/down approach to the marketplace whose wide spectrum is rivaled by few. In 2017, JC Launched Technical Analysis Radio, a podcast dedicated to Technical Analysis and the Technicians who practice it.

AlphaMind - The AlphaMind project is a joint venture and collaboration between Steven Goldstein and Mark Randall, two market veterans with over 7 decades of market experience between them.  The aim of the project is to help people from across the Financial Markets to develop a mindset for success in their work as traders and investment professionals.  Alpha is the term used to define the excess returns taken from risk-taking activities in the financial markets relative to the degree of risk taken. People who are deemed to succeed in financial markets, are considered to have created Alpha. They have used systems, methods, approaches and tools which have enabled them to find value, manage their risks and monetize the opportunities they have identified. A vital component of this is ‘Mindset’. The mental, psychological and behavioural components allied to belief systems, attitudes and values, which help them to deliver on the tangible aspects of their work. The AlphaMind project seeks to raise awareness, provide education, and create resources which help people develop the mindset aspects of trading and investing:  an Alpha Mindset.  Project resources include a blog, a podcast, and Twitter feed. 

Alphatrends - Founded by Brian Shannon, CMT, Alphatrends is a reasonably priced subscription service which is focused on swing trading.  Each day Brian provides subscribers with daily videos which break down market action and key levels to watch for major ETFs and then another video with swing trade stock ideas.  The video format allows for a concise explanation of the logic for a trade idea, alternative stop levels for traders of a different timeframe and there is always an emphasis on education.  In addition to the videos, members have access to a private message board for their questions and a bi-monthly subscriber webinar.  Brian is also well known for his book Technical Analysis Using Multiple Timeframes and can be followed on Twitter. 

Bear Bull Traders - Bear Bull Traders is a diverse community of serious traders from all around the world who share an interest in trading mid to large float U.S. listed stocks on the NYSE and Nasdaq. Founded in 2016 by Dr. Andrew Aziz, author of the best-selling book, “How to Day Trade for a Living”, the Bear Bull Traders community emphasizes the essential aspects of successful trading, such as proper preparation, correct execution, as well as the psychology behind the trade. Their educational program consists of an extensive online library of content as well as a daily live chatroom. In addition, they offer their members access to proprietary scanners for finding stocks in play and trading alerts. 

Bookmap - Bookmap is an innovative trading platform that displays the entire market liquidity and order flow. It provides a clear visualization of the past and present state of the order book utilizing an adjustable heatmap. Bookmap provides full transparency of the actions and intentions of market participants. Traders view the liquidity in the market as an HD video with no delay or aggregation.

Boss Trading - Video streaming nine hours a day, the Boss Trading live trading room walks attendees through pre-trading scenario building and real-time trade execution drawn from synthesising numerous order flow measures (tape reading, VWAP, volume profiles, foot print, etc) and tracking differences in "agreement" across time zones.  Boss Trading one-on-one training is delivered over four months. For the entire period, observe and model idea generation, trade hypotheses and real-time execution in the live trading room plus attend weekly 100-minute one-on-one sessions conducted via phone and remote viewing software. The first four to six weeks focus on developing hypotheses and identifying opportunities from multiple data points. Then it’s time to transition to trading. Each week we go over your trades looking for the one or two most significant areas that require modification while also addressing all your questions.

Chat With Traders - Chat With Traders podcast is your key to the minds of trading's elite performers. Start listening to learn how a diverse mix of market participants have gone from zero to hero, including how they successfully trade today, their best tips and pointers for profitable performance, plus much more.  

The Crosshairs Trader - David Blair has been a full time trader for close to 15 years.  He has been helping others navigate the markets for over 10 years via his website.   David provides a premium membership service via Crosshairs Trading University (CTU) where he specializes in teaching a specific type of strategy in conjunction with an emphasis on trading psychology.  In addition to the CTU membership, David offers a more intensive live Crosshairs Trading Mentorship Program (CTMP) for those who wish to be more engaged in the markets on a daily basis. 

Dash of Insight -  Jeff Miller's mission is to help traders and investors benefit from expertise.  Identifying the best sources and methods requires skill.  So much published work has attractive charts based upon flawed methods; it is easy to be led astray.  After finding great sources of market and economic data from leading analysts, Jeff helps to explain and interpret their work.  He explains, "In a sense I am combining my former work as a college professor with my later career as an investment manager."

Edge Trading Group - This community amplifies a running discussion about various experiences.   At times, a single word or phrase from someone else will cause others to examine something they were unaware of, or had previously glossed over. Members feel like they have taken a giant leap, when they joined the Edge Trading Group. For many, it’s the first time they have created awareness of how to read price action in real time. Because “like people attract like people,” the members in this community are terrific in helping each other become successful. Anthony talks about his fathers advice to him and his brothers growing up - "if you know how you'll have a job, but if you know WHY you'll be the boss." This education and community is the WHY! Edge Trading  Group is unique in that it educates, and then provides a community which furthers the education in real-time. As one trader put it, "The Edge program's gift is the ability to verbalize a vocabulary of what is actually happening on the screen in real time."

EMiniPlayer - The E-mini S&P 500 is the preferred market for professional futures traders due to the massive profit potential it provides, but it requires a high level of preparation in order to consistently extract profits. That's where the EMiniPlayer Daily Analysis can be a game-changer. EMiniPlayer is run by Awais Bokhari, a professional futures trader.  Every morning ahead of the market open, he provides members an actionable Trade Plan Video that explains the strategy for the day, along with accurate Key Support/Resistance Zones (high probability areas to enter and exit trades). After the close, members get an educational Recap Video which teaches the best trade setups of the day based on the morning Trade Plan. It's an excellent way to model a professional trading approach. The EMiniPlayer Archive contains over 1,300 educational Recap Video Lessons and Trade Plans dating back to 2010.  Awais can be followed on Twitter @eminiplayer

The Factor Service - The Factor Service shares real experiences from Peter Brandt's decades of profitable trading. Focusing on the important factors that lead to trading success, The Factor Service is dedicated to the best of classical charting principles and committed to aggressive risk management and capital preservation--all while highlighting the emotional struggles that traders face in their daily lives.

Futures.io -  futures io is a trading community where more than 100k members worldwide discuss market news, trading charts, platforms, strategies and more.  The community was started in 2009 by Mike Boulter, a trader of more than 25 years at the time of this publication.  Mike describes his reason for starting the community as a simple one: prior to 2009, he felt discouraged when searching for a trading community to call home and connect with fellow traders – as he only found sites full of what could affectionately be called “trolls.”  The community was originally known as “Big Mike Trading”, but, as growth of the site exploded, it was renamed to “futures io” in 2015.  The community includes hundreds of educational webinars to watch, thousands of indicators and chart tools to download and apply to your trading, and hundreds of thousands of posts on every topic.  Mike encourages traders to journal and focus on their trading psychology, and gives real advice on how hard trading truly is.  Resources from futures.io can be found on YouTube and Twitter.

Futures Radio Show - Futures Radio Show is a weekly Podcast hosted by 20-year futures veteran and CME member Anthony Crudele, an ex-pit trader and one of the first to trade the E-Mini S&P. Each week Anthony talks with traders, CEOs, and other proven market participants about relevant trading and investing information.  Anthony is a trader, not a journalist.  The shows are focused on teaching people how to think, not telling them what to think.  We focus on trading process, trade execution, and the mental side of trading. Past shows can be accessed via YouTube and iTunes.

Investors Underground - Investors Underground is an online trading community that is home to some of the best traders in the world. The company was founded over 10 years ago with the belief that traders can maximize their potential they work together. Every day, traders collaborate in the Investors Underground chat room to share real-time trading ideas, lessons, and insights. Members have access to over 1000 educational resources as well as direct lines of contact with experienced traders. Investors Underground serves as a trading support system that aims to elevate traders through education, mentoring, and daily guidance.

Jigsaw Trading - There are two major resources within the Jigsaw family.  The first is Jigsaw Journalytix, an integrated trader support system that includes - Real Time Audio Market News Feed, Economic Release Warnings & Announcements, Revolutionary Advanced Trade Analytics and Trade Journaling with Real-Time Trade Data Collection. Journalytix gives traders what they need to keep their finger on the pulse of the market while they trade and the tools to make long-term decisions about the direction of their trading by making it crystal clear which trading behaviors are beneficial to them and which are causing losses. The second is Jigsaw daytradr, the gold standard in depth of market trading. Jigsaw brings professional grade trade execution capabilities to the home trader. Jigsaw maintains relationships with proprietary trading firms across the globe, so alongside the tools, you also get education to help you understand and implement the techniques employed in discretionary proprietary trading firms across the globe. Jigsaw customers benefit from the software, three different levels of education, and an online community that meets each day to discuss what's going on in the markets.

Jim Dalton Trading - At Jim Dalton Trading, our goal is to make you a self-sufficient trader, free from the noise and clutter that creates decision paralysis. We’ll help you develop a deep understanding of market-generated information, so you learn to feel who your competitors are by observing the behaviors of market participants. We provide tools and guidance to help you hone your intuition and develop self-understanding.  Once you discover how you make decisions, you can counter the onslaught of superfluous information with a daily regimen of careful preparation. Our educational services begin with a foundation online eCourse or a live intensive seminar conducted during market hours to provide real-time insight into the forces that move markets. Using objective tools like the Market Profile, you will learn to identify odds-based trade opportunities and recognize when over-exuberance in momentum trading can yield trades with less risk. We’re here to advance your understanding of how human behavior drives market activity and how market activity influences your behavior. 

My Investing Club - MyInvestingClub (MIC) was founded by consistently profitable traders who have been trading for over 20 years. They have been through the many years of anxiety and errors of learning on their own. MIC wants to help traders speed up their learning curve so that they don't have to go through what everyone else goes through to learn alone. MIC is unique in that we DO NOT alert & pump plays to members. Instead we guide them to become self sufficient and stop being sheep by chasing other's alerts. We teach PROCESS and risk management, something we do not see others talk about much (through a proprietary system of technical analysis with proven long and short strategies). Our community is interactive, creating an innovative learning environment. We created the TAB Program (Trading Accountability Buddy) where members network with other members to become their own trading/support/education team. Members help other members learn and become responsible for their TAB's progress. Our moderators and founders are in the room 24/7 and members are worldwide.  MIC's focus is on educating members to learn the proper foundation for trading so they can become consistently profitable and self sufficient. MIC offers over 300 free educational trading videos for traders.  

NewTraderU - NewTraderU is the new traders source for practical, easy to follow training that will help them learn how to trade profitably in the markets. We offer best-selling books on Amazon and have eCourses available at NewTraderUniversity.com. We are dedicated to helping new traders achieve success with less stress.  Courses include:  New Trader 101: The principles of profitable trading; Moving Averages 101: Technical trading with moving average as a guide; Price Action Trading 101: How to trade using price action for entries and exits; Backtesting 101: An introduction to how to backtest your trading signals; Real Trading Examples: A review 20 of my past trades; Options 101: How to trade with option contracts.

OpenTrader - The OpenTrader methodology is based on over 20 years of combined experience day trading the U.S. futures markets. The result is a discretionary approach based on market structure, volume profile and analyzing the markets through the lens of market participants. OpenTrader offers comprehensive training programs suitable for beginners and pros alike. What makes the OpenTrader method so powerful and unique is that it teaches traders how to analyze and trade the markets "contextually." Trade setups don't exist in a vacuum; they must be assessed based on the market environment. This contextual approach allows traders to rapidly adapt to the ever-changing market conditions. Even though the methodology is discretionary, it is also extremely systematic and rules-based.  That allows OpenTrader students to internalize the concepts and put the methodology into practice in their trading. More information can be found on the OpenTrader Blog. 

Seven Points Capital - Seven Points Capital is a Broker Dealer operating as a multi-strategy proprietary trading firm. Headquartered in New York City with satellite offices in NewJersey, Florida, San Diego and Toronto, we seek the best and brightest traders that are willing to put in the hard work to perform at their full potential. As a trading firm built by traders, we understand the importance of balancing risk vs. reward, as well as the value of challenging each other to become better traders.

SMB Capital - SMB Capital is proprietary trading firm that sits in NYC and shares trading lessons in equities, options, futures, and automated trading with the trading community.  Often proprietary trading desks keep their work secret, but SMB shares how and why their top traders are succeeding. They produce educational trading videos on their SMB Capital YouTube channel.  Also, they share trading best practices to help traders improve at SMB Blog.  Co-Founder, Steve Spencer, tweets actively during trading sessions on important levels in stocks and ETFs.  And Co-Founder, Mike Bellafiore, has written two books One Good Trade and The PlayBook filled with trading insights to help traders succeed. 

Trade Ideas - In addition to best-in-class fully customizable alerting, watch list, and strategy-building and backtesting tools, Trade Ideas LLC produces A.I. generated, actionable market intelligence for institutions, fund managers, wealth management advisors, and self-directed investors to mitigate risk and capture alpha. Our mission for our clients is simple: enable better, consistently informed decisions in the markets. As a SaaS Fintech innovator for over 15 years, Trade-Ideas' award-winning technology leverages algorithms derived from recursive machine learning and artificial intelligence to develop trade plans and produce statistically optimized performance results. 

Traders4ACause - Traders4ACause was founded with a mission to promote a culture of caring and altruism within the trading community. The charity seeks to strengthen the trading community while simultaneously supporting less fortunate communities around the world. Traders4ACause hosts annual conferences and meet-ups that provide great opportunities to learn, network, and support worthy causes. To date, the charity has raised over $925,000 and is on track to exceed $1,000,000 by the end of 2019.

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