Mastering The Trade: Proven Techniques for Profiting from Intraday and Swing Trading Setups 2nd Edition

I've never heard of John Carter or Mastering the Trade, but based on the reviews here on Amazon I decided to give it a shot. Turns out that that was a good decision. The book, the 2nd Edition, helps fill in the blanks where other books and educational materials fall short. For Example..Why you might want to consider trading the futures markets over the equities markets.Why you will want to use larger stops (and the math that proves this point).Psychology--did you know about Type C personality and how, even if you are a Type A, it will affect your trading?How can you tell that the open of the markets will be choppy?On which days should you ignore short setups?On which days should you ignore long setups?On which days should you focus on setups that do well in choppy markets?On which days should you focus on setups that do well in trending markets?What is the best setup ever for a beginner?Are you trading the best market for your personality?Are you asking too much from the market you are trading?The book is littered with nuggets that will require you to highlight them, and commit them to memory. Most of them, I've noticed, are not to be found anywhere else, and one will want to pay attention to the information on the top of page 54 regarding winning traders vs. losing traders. This information, and this information alone, could make you turn the corner as a trader to consistent profitability.The book did have a critical psychology section in the beginning, and I thought this was good, as it wasn't just thrown in as an afterthought. Mastering the Trade also has a diet section, which I thought was interesting (you are going to want to know about heavy caffeine use and blood pH levels, something that I've struggled with).While I was surprised to read about the diet section in the book, I was really shocked that there wasn't any mention about self-hypnosis or meditation, something that has really helped a lot of traders. One can find pretty good self-hypnosis videos on YouTube to help calm a trader down and keep them objective, making them trade like they would be trading in their paper account.Also to be found in this book, and not other trading books, is information about a detailed trading plan and business plan, plus humor about a scary Arowana fish, a llama, and Mr. Carter's terrible fear of his 3 year old daughter taking a dump in his car.A lot of information not to be found anywhere else makes this a great purchase!

It took me almost three weeks of persistent nightly (extended hours) and weekend intense reading to complete this book. Why? Because I read it three times, it was that instructive and thorough. Mr Carter's writing style is absolutely fantastic, balancing wit and humor with big, important teachable moments. This book is full of real-time actual trading set ups and examples of simple (but not easy) methodologies for technical analysis entries and exits in the e-minis, futures and simple stock options.What separates "Mastering the Trade" from the rest of the trading books in the vast literary ocean (and I have recently read at least 30 different books on everything trading), is Mr. Carter's ability to encourage the reader to think so far beyond the specific setups. There are many books on setups that are boring and provoke no further thought than the technical execution of the trade. "Mastering the Trade" is the PERFECT title for this book, and this is why I read it three times, I did not want to miss critical information, and spent valuable time recreating many of the tracking and maintenance systems presented.Mr. Carter makes clear that, although his setups are excellent and time-tested, any trader can still blow-out his/her account without understanding and utilizing all of the other pillars supporting a complete trading business plan (excellent examples also included). This book is by far a book that I will return to continuously to keep focused and on the path to successful trading. If you follow the strict guidelines in this book, you will greatly increase your chances of becoming more successful in your trading.I am a real trader (amateur, but improving rapidly) that recognized many of the bad traits of the unsuccessful trader in myself (being brutally honest), and discovered actual measurable means to track and overcome these bad traits. Before stating some actual winning trades as a result of this book, I want to state that the BIGGEST win was not a winning trade at all. It was the recognition of my over trading and other faults, and the realization that sometimes the best trade is the trade not taken! Read this book carefully and I promise you will find fault in your trading, if you are honest with yourself. From this realization your trading will improve.Regarding my trading, I have cut my trade frequency to about half of the velocity traded prior to reading this book, yet my ROI is now higher. I take my losing trades with a better attitude and feel much less stress during any trade. On one specific trade that benefited from the knowledge gained from this book, I tweaked my option strategy based on the simple call or put buying based on the "internals" and other indicators fully explained in the book. I recently purchased 20 ITM, -70 delta put contracts at $2.20 based on a specific setup from the book. As of today, the puts are marked at $6.20 and are at a -88 delta, and have about 50 days of extrinsic value remaining. You do the math...prior to this book I likely would have purchased the OTM puts and would be lamenting my poor return or loss.This book is highly recommended...