Investment Psychology Explained: Classic Strategies to Beat the Markets

I knew him through IFTA annual conferences in the last two year. Mr. Pring is gentleman with great passion to share his long experience and knowledge with others in setting during breaks and after conference hours. Passion that makes you feels like you are listening to a music concert you do not want it ever to end. So you can imagine what his books content would be. I have read his books on 1) Technical Analysis Explained and, 2) Introduction to Technical Analysis: A CD-ROM Seminar and Workbook and keep them handy references all the time. A lot of books written for financial markets' technical analysis have great contents, but most are difficult to grasp by beginners. What set Mr. Pring in the top of others is not just the contents, but the beauty of his writting simplicity which makes his books easy to understand by beginners in the financial markets. In his book Investment Psychology Explained start with the following short paragraph that get you hooked to read the rest of the book, and I will: "For most of us, the task of beating the market is not difficult; it is the job of beating ourselves that proves to be overwhelming", etc.

Many people, including me, discovered the psychology is the most important part for good trading. This book pointed out many commone mistakes traders often made and many pitfalls to avoid. I found some materials in this book were quite similar to the Elder's Trading for a living. Because I read Elder's book before this one so I found it was less informative than I expected. But if you didn't read any other books about investment psychology, you could still learn a lot from this one. The price is cheap and Pring's style is lucid. A good choice!

This book provides an excellent starting point for anyone interested in investing from a market psychology point of view. The author describes the impact of company announcements, mergers and world events on the market and how an investor can take advantage of these situations. The author also informs the reader how to evaluate his own psychology and design a winning investment strategy based on his own needs.

For the impatient get-rich-quickly or lazy "investor" this book seems to have a lot of story-telling and no "miraculous" strategies. However if someone wants to become a real investor/trader (without quotes) they have to be able to control themselves before they can create a consistent and reliable winning strategy. This books not only teaches a lot but also puts you in the right frame of mind and so I consider it a must-read for anyone who wants to eventually master the markets.

I learned a lot about myself by reading this book. Who would have thought it--the stock market as guru. Perhaps samsara and nirvana aren't so different after all.