How To Build A Career In Trading

 

9/17/2026 - So where do we begin if we want to build a career in trading?  One of the most powerful observations that came from my review of the Market Wizards books--and books by the Wizards--is that success came from deep, prolonged immersion in markets.  The Wizards spent long hours each day following markets closely--and then spent more hours reviewing performance and reviewing and previewing markets.  This is training in pattern recognition, as the immersed trader sees more things more times and eventually internalizes those patterns.

Among books that illustrate patterns to look for in markets is The Trader's Handbook mentioned in yesterday's post; Mark Minervini's Trade Like a Stock Market Wizard; The Logical Trader by Mark Fisher; and The Lifecycle Trade by Eve Boboch, Kathy Donnelly, Eric Krull, and Kurt Daill.  It is quite unusual for a hedge fund manager to write a newsletter for traders outlining what to trade and how to trade it, but The Roppel Report by Jim Roppel is precisely that.  A great collection of videos from experienced market participants can be found on the SMB Capital YouTube channel, many of which detail trading patterns from different perspectives.

What will happen when you immerse yourself in the patterns described in these sources is that you'll discover ways of thinking about markets that make unique sense to you and--most important of all--you'll pull these patterns together in ways that make unique sense to you.  In other words, your trading style will be an integration of what you learn from your mentors.

A trader develops confidence, not just through positive thinking, but through cultivating his or her unique ways of viewing markets that ground their decision making.

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9/16/2026 - Right now, we have more resources to guide our trading success than ever before.  Books have been written about great traders and by great traders.  Yes, there is more distraction than ever before from tweets, videos, and courses from gurus.  But the landscape is rich with quality mentoring from traders with proven track records.  

I am currently writing an updated version of my Trading Psychology 2.0 book.  An important part of the update is a review of the major works of great traders over the past decade or so.  Over the past month I have immersed myself in all the Market Wizards books, as well as books written by such Wizards as Linda Raschke and Mark Minervini.  When I encounter an important insight, I bookmark the text.  When I finish the book, I review all the bookmarked passages.

Day after day, reading the greats and about the greats, we begin to internalize their lessons.  The first step in building a career in trading is surrounding yourself with trading greatness.  That could be in a legit trading community, and it could be by immersing ourselves in the works of successful traders.  Once we learn about their psychology and approaches to trading, we can begin to emulate their best practices.  A great place to start that phase of our development is The Trader's Handbook: Winning Habits and Routines of Successful Traders by Richard Moglen, Nick Schmidt, Ross Haber, and Ameet Rai.  It includes a discussion of "the trader's journey" and details steps in successful trading, from "entry tactics and trade execution" to "sell rules and position management" to "post analysis and trading rules".  

Great trading begins with great mentoring.  There is an amazing set of resources out there.  The first challenge is to establish your curriculum and draw upon the passion and drive of the best traders to find the best within you.