Mastering Trading Stress: Strategies for Maximizing Performance »

Ari Kiev is a psychiatrist who specializes in organizational psychology, stress management, and performance enhancement. He is President of the Social Psychiatry Research Institute and is recognized worldwide for his pioneering work in transcultural psychiatry, suicidology, and psychopharmacology. Kiev is the author of four trading books: Trading to Win, Trading in the Zone, The Psychology of Risk, and Hedge Fund Masters. In recent years, he has developed The Trading To Win training programs for dealing with trading stress, portfolio management, risk control, and leadership as they relate to peak performance in the trading arena.

For more information, visit www.arikiev.com

The daily grind of the trader is always full of excitement, energy, adventure—and stress. While many live for the thrill of the trade, most also feel the emotional, psychological, and physical impact of the constant changes; riding the roller coaster of the financial markets for eight hours a day, five days a week, forty-eight weeks out of the year.

But while some traders just seem naturally better equipped to deal with the emotional turmoil of trading, others seem to "fall apart" under much less dire circumstances. While eliminating stress is not realistic—or an entirely desired approach—reducing stress is. And traders can best cope with stress, says Ari Kiev, by being proactive and taking steps to reduce it. With this book, Kiev shows you how to do this—beginning with developing an appropriate understanding of stress and how it physically affects us, and leading all the way to specific exercises that can help traders manage their daily stress.

The author, a psychiatrist who specializes in stress management and performance enhancement, has worked extensively with traders over many years. In Mastering Trading Stress, he draws on his vast experience to offer examples, transcripts of conversations, and personality profiles of real-life traders that illustrate how stress robs them of their ability to perform at their best. He points out that the stressors for all of these traders were different and, accordingly, asserts that aspiring traders need to identify their own particular stress points and learn to deal with them in order to succeed.?Kiev describes a variety of practical techniques that can be used to handle destructive emotions and out-of-control feelings, including his "Most Basic" stress busters, and tells what to do if a breakdown does occur.

There is no way to take the stress out of trading. But stress does not have to make you emotionally, mentally, or physically ill, and it does not have to hinder your trading game. With this book as your guide, you can learn to reduce stress, cope with the stresses that are inevitable, and even use stress to your own benefit.

Preface     xi
Acknowledgments     xiii
Introduction     xv
The Nature of Stress: What Is Stress and Why Is It a Problem?     1
The Fight-or-Flight Alarm     2
Differences in Stress Responses     5
Personality Factors     7
The Stages of Stress     8
Taking It Step-by-Step     10
The Emotions of Stress: What Negative Emotions Are Experienced as a Result of Stress?     13
Fear and Greed     14
Guilt     21
Worry     23
Anger     24
Euphoria     27
The Dangers of Trading under Stress: How Do Attempts to Handle Stress Create Problems for the Trader?     29
Trading Despite Stress     30
Avoiding the Stress     34
Creating a Social Persona     39
Competing to Win     44
Being Indecisive     51
How Fear Inhibits Mastery: Can You Learn to Lessen the Central Emotion of Fear?     53
Responding to Fear     54
Disciplining for Success     55
Relinquishing the Need to Be Perfect     57
Maintaining Psychological Energy     59
Starting with a Clean Slate     62
The Consequences of Negative Emotions     63
Greed and Risk Management Errors     64
The Difference between Confidence and Arrogance     70
Mistakes of Insecurity     71
Why Not to Avoid Negative Feelings     78
How Negative Emotions Lead to Impulsive Behavior     30
Personalities and Stress     87
List Makers (Analytical Thinkers)     89
Intuitive Thinkers     92
Optimist/Pessimist/Realist     94
Are You Confident or Insecure?     96
Make the Most of Your Personality     97
A Winning Personality     98
Ego and Obstinacy     101
A Stubborn Nature     102
Refusal to Accept Commands     105
Difficulty with Management     106
Fear and Failure     111
Afraid to Win     112
Failing to Commit     115
Moving Forward     119
Perfectionism and Paralysis     123
The Problem     124
Finding a Solution     124
What about You?     128
Failing to Manage Risk     131
Risk Management for a Vision     132
The Psychology of Risk     136
The Importance of Self-Analysis     137
Asking the Right Questions     139
Assessing Your Attitude toward Risk     140
Looking for the Positive     142
Relaxation and Risk     143
Taking Responsibility     144
Failure to Dig Deeper     147
Discerning the Importance of Data Analysis     149
Too Much or Not Enough?     151
Gathering the Information     152
Reducing Stress     155
Failures in Shorting     159
Reluctance to Short Stocks     160
Stress and the Short Squeeze     162
Steps of a Good Short Seller     164
Learning to Live with Stress     171
Learning to Observe     172
Creating New Life Principles     178
Reframing Negative Thoughts     179
Choosing an Objective     182
Defining New Priorities     183
Exercises and Practical Applications     185
The Most Basic Stress Busters     187
What to Do When You Have a Breakdown     188
Importance of Commitment     196
Index     199