A few weeks ago I communicated via e-mail with Dr. Alex Elder. His "Trading For a Living" was one of the important books on trading that I stumbled across in the first couple of years of trying to find that "secret" that would make me money in the markets. (By the time I found that book I had already surmised that there would be not secret to be found and was on the lookout for books with a certain generality about them. That is hard to explain, but at the time the sources that I searched for were somehow recognizable to me by the tone of the delivery. Low key and serious is about the best way to describe them.) When Dr. Elder offered to send me a copy of his "Come Into My Trading Room" I accepted eagerly. I recieved that book a few days ago and finished reading it a few minutes ago.
I must say that it is even better that the original. I have fifteen years more experience now and CIMTR is definitely a complete book on trading. The overall theme of this book, as of the original, is of the three M's. Mind, Method, and Money.
Mind refers to the psychological aspects of trading. In the end I think this is the most important of all three.
Method refers to being able to find a method that agrees with the mind of the trader. To each his own. In the beginning somewhere I heard of the hedgehog principle. That being the importance of knowing what you were good at and sticking to it. I had also heard of identifying your edge. If you couldn't identify your edge you didn't have one!
Money refers to sound money management. Knowing how much to bet on every idea. And most of all knowing how much you could afford to lose. And not exceeding that!
All three of these ideas are interrelated and Dr. Elder, with his background in psychology does a masterful job of pointing out the pitfalls that EVERY trader falls prey to in all of these areas.
This book is one that would need to be read many times over as one learns to trade. Much as I did with "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator". And I have no problem mentioning them both in the same sentence.
In the future I will refer to CIMTR as I continue to learn from every winning trade and more importantly from every losing trade. A highly recommended book for everyone who is seriously looking for trading improvement.
Thank you again Dr. Elder.
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