Saturday, June 14, 2008

New Features for a New Book

As I write the upcoming book on becoming your own trading coach, many new elements are falling into place. I've already mentioned that the book will include fresh trading psychology material, including a primer on identifying historical patterns in markets using Excel and new self-help methods drawn from recent research in psychology. Other new features will include:

1) A Hybrid Structure - The new trading book will be both a print text and an electronic resource (e-book). The book will include links to a variety of Web-based resources, many of which will be on this site, so that readers can go into depth on topics of their choice. These links will be updated regularly, so that the book will always be up to date. Many of the links will be to audio, video, and graphic features, so that the book will facilitate multimedia learning without being burdened with the expense of color graphics, an included DVD, etc.

2) Interactive Features - Readers of the book will be able to share questions, comments, and ideas through this website, so that we can readily learn from one another. In addition, I will be setting up an email account specifically reserved for use by book readers, so that they can ask me questions about the book and ways to apply the ideas to their own trading. The links will be built into the text, so that online readers can simply click and interact with each other and with me.

3) Trader-Friendly Reading Format - Many traders don't have time to read lengthy books; this is one reason blogs have become so popular. The new book is written as 101 short lessons, each with a specific focus and concrete techniques and resources to use for particular trading challenges. These lessons are several pages each, with a very practical focus. They can be read in order or used as a reference work, so that when problems arise, you can turn to the appropriate lesson and begin work on the issue immediately.

I am very confident that the book will contain more information--and more concrete-usable skills and ideas--than any of the high-priced seminars and services currently offered by the self-anointed gurus. It will link with ever-expanding multimedia content, and it will facilitate communication with the author and with other readers. And the price will be reasonable, very reasonable--well within the budgets of beginning traders.

I'm betting that traders can go much further than most people realize toward learning how to become their own psychologists. With the integration of online, multimedia resources into traditional books, publishing is entering a new era--an exciting period in which ideas and skills can now be illustrated and demonstrated, not just described. The book will no longer be a one-way communication from author to reader, but a starting point for ongoing conversations and education. With enhanced content, books can actually teach, not just inform.

There are so many problems and concerns in the world these days: economic, political, ecological--you name it. Amidst those problems, there are exciting things happening all around us that make this a fantastic time to be alive. New technologies promise to extend the mind's grasp and accelerate learning. My hope is to take a small step toward this vision. I look forward to taking that step together.
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5 comments:

Jorge said...

Dear Dr. Steenbarger,

Not only it sounds promising, I am confident you will deliver. This is certainly the way to go in education/training.

May I suggest that you try to look for a (commercial) software partner to further and facilitate applied learning. Say NinjaTrader, MarketDelta (you name it), or whatever other software provider that has a simulator (and by the by, it would be great to have a simulator that could play in slow motion - in Ninja, for instance, you can replay the market action at x1, x2, x4, etc. but not at x1/2, etc.).

Best trading (for your sake) and writing (for our sake),

Jorge

Jay said...

Dr. Steebarger your ideas for the new book are fantastic and look to blow your previous excellent books out of the water. Your work truly is phenomenal.

Regards,

Jay

WL said...

Dr. Steebarger,

Looks forward to see your new book that can help newbie like me.

RV said...

Hi Dr. Brett, Your post not only looks very promising but also increased my hope of becoming a successful trader. Look forward to see your new book.

Raj

Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D. said...

Thanks for the comments. At this juncture, I'm not looking for commercial partners, as the book's focus really is on the psychology end and not so much on trading methodology. I'd love to do something on the latter, and then it would be helpful to partner with quality vendors who offer great products/services.

Brett