Book Review: Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas

December 15, 2022

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min read

Summary

Mark Douglas is an experienced coach with almost twenty years of experience, and this is evident in his masterpiece, "Trading in the Zone." The goal of this book is to help traders master the market with confidence, discipline, and a winning attitude. In fact, the entire book focuses on cultivating a winning mindset for trading in the Forex market. If you are struggling to have a winning attitude in your trading, it is highly recommended that you read this book. Douglas first wrote about the role of discipline and psychology in trading in his book "The Disciplined Trader," published in 1990. His later work, "Trading in the Zone," which was published in 2000, builds on the concepts introduced in his earlier book and is more relevant to today's financial markets. Overall, "Trading in the Zone" is an excellent resource for traders and is worth the time and money spent on it. While there may be some questionable content in the book, it is still worth reading. Additionally, the Kindle version of the book is of good quality and not a poor imitation of the paper version.

The Main Takeaway

The main purpose of "Trading in the Zone" is to help traders become consistently successful. According to Mark Douglas, many aspiring traders make the mistake of focusing on analyzing the market's behavior instead of examining their own mindset and traits. The book identifies five "fundamental truths" that form the basis of a successful trading mindset:

Anything can happen in the market, as it is made up of traders and no one can predict with certainty what others will do.

You don't need to know what will happen to make money, just that the overall outcomes will be in your favor.

The distribution of winning and losing trades is random and cannot be predicted.

An edge in a trading strategy only signifies a higher probability of a winning trade compared to a losing one.

Every moment in the market is unique and cannot be repeated.

By accepting these truths, traders can eliminate fear and euphoria from their trading process and enter a state of mind where they can trade intuitively and consistently succeed. This state of mind is referred to as "the zone."

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Pros

From a psychological standpoint, "Trading in the Zone" is written exceptionally well and may convince even skeptical readers to embrace its central idea.
The author delves deeply into the crucial role of attitude in trading.
The book is concise and easy to read, with personal anecdotes from the author's life included. It is not a difficult read like many other trading books.
The principles discussed in the book can be applied beyond just trading.
The Kindle edition of the book is affordably priced, which is unusual for older editions of trading books.

Cons

One major flaw in Douglas' work is the presence of a lot of pseudoscientific nonsense that does not add any value to the ideas being presented. Some readers may be swayed by this type of reasoning, but many traders will recognize it as baseless.
The book lacks evidence to support certain claims, such as the "ideal 3:1 risk-to-reward ratio."
Despite the insights provided in the book, traders still need to understand how the modern online Forex market works before trying to become consistently successful.
The included trading strategy example at the end of the book is simplistic and unrealistic. Given that the book focuses on psychology, this is not surprising.

Conclusion

Despite its flaws, "Trading in the Zone" by Mark Douglas is still a worthwhile read and you won't regret picking it up. If you have any thoughts or questions about the book, you can share them on our Forex forum. To stay up-to-date on the latest developments in Forex trading, including updates to our guides, you can sign up for our monthly newsletter.