Mark Douglas – All About The Correct Trading Strategy Mindset

Last Updated on July 17, 2022

Mark Douglas is a renowned American trader known for his trading psychology books and seminars. He wrote “the Disciplined Trader: Developing Winning Attitudes”, which was published in 1990 and regarded as one of the early books in investment to focus on the concept of trading psychology.

We are big fans of Mark Douglas and his book was among the first we bought back in the 1990s. In this article, we look at Douglas’ life and trading career. We end the article by listing a few of the trading lessons and quotes from Mark Douglas.

Mark Douglas’ early life and career:

He was a trading coach and has organized seminars and training programs for the investment industry on trading psychology, not restricted to individual traders as well. Mark has spoken at different events and workshops worldwide, teaching investors and traders how to be consistently successful.

He started coaching traders and investors in 1982, gathering extensive knowledge and experience in teaching them how to develop the right mindset to trading.

The experience he gained in coaching was crucial to his books; he understands what traders want to hear, what they think, and their concerns. Mark’s first book was based on the assumption that traders wanted an income they could rely on without the fear of going broke.

The book also is for traders who know and understand that trading is a process and not an avenue to get rich overnight or a replacement for a savings account.

The Disciplined Trader, which was his first book, published in 1990, gave him average attention and success, but he became popular after writing and publishing Trading in the Zone in 2000.

He founded Trading Behavior Dynamics, Inc., which helps to enlighten traders and inspire them to become better traders. In his famous book, “Trading in The Zone”, we learned it is not about how you perfectly predict the market but how well you understand yourself while trading. Mark is regarded as the master who taught traders how to develop and grow discipline, confidence, and the right state of mind in trading.

Mark has helped countless traders to learn to look at themselves honestly in the mirror and see themselves in a new reflection of which they never knew existed. He talked about how necessary it is not to be too focused on avoiding the pain one may feel from losing or the fantasy of winning and how both can affect a trader from their purpose.

“Ninety-five percent of the trading errors you are likely to make—causing the money to just evaporate before your eyes—will stem from your attitudes about being wrong, losing money, missing out, and leaving money on the table.”

Mark described true purpose as having a belief that you’re a consistently successful trader. He also outlined the mental framework holding you back from being successful.

“If there is such a thing as a secret to the nature of trading, this is it: At the very core of one’s ability 1) to trade without fear or overconfidence, 2) perceive what the market is offering from its perspective, 3) stay completely focused in the “now moment opportunity flow,” and 4) spontaneously enter the “zone,” it is a strong virtually unshakeable belief in an uncertain outcome with an edge in your favor.”

His work has earned him several awards, most especially in finance-related publications.

Sadly, Mark died at the age of 67 in 2015.

Other famous traders and their trading strategies

Trading strategy quotes from Mark Douglas

We strongly advise buying Douglas’ book. To give a taste of what he has written, we provide you with some quotes from his book The Disciplined Trader:

Most people like to think of themselves as risk takers, but what they really want is a guaranteed outcome with some momentary suspense to make them feel as if the outcome had been in doubt.

If your goal is to trade like a professional and be a consistent winner, then you must start from the premise that the solutions are in your mind and not in the market.

When you genuinely accept the risks, you will be at peace with any outcome.

When you really believe that trading is simply a probability game, concepts like right or wrong or win or lose no longer have the same significance.

The consistency you seek is in your mind, not in the markets.

If you asked me to distill trading down to its simplest form, I would say that it is a pattern recognition numbers game. We use market analysis to identify patterns, define the risk, and determine when to take profits. The trade either works or it doesn’t.

Why do casinos make consistent money on an event that has a random outcome? Because they know that over a series of events, the odds are in their favor. They also know that to realize the benefits of the favorable odds, they have to participate in every event.

The hard, cold reality of trading is that every trade has an uncertain outcome.

No man ever reached to excellence in any one art or profession without having passed through the slow and painful process of study and preparation.

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