For many Forex traders, the psychology of the big players is a mystery. So let’s shed some light on the matter. Why is this important? Because...

Imagine for a moment that you're a newly appointed trainee chef. Eager, excited and ready to get in the kitchen, the head chef unexpectedly throws you a curve ball. He asks that you begin preparations to cook five-star meals at their finest restaurant in town that evening. We'd be surprised if this didn't raise an eyebrow, or two! A trainee chef, especially one that's new to the industry, would surely need time to hone his/her skills before being let loose in a restaurant kitchen! Not knowing how to properly slice an onion or even read a recipe would, as you can imagine, likely end in a culinary catastrophe.

For the subject of this week's article, I thought that I would take the time to explore the thought process behind most trading decisions we make during our FX speculating. As you may already know if you have read previous articles written by myself or my colleagues, we all drive home the importance of formulating and then following a detailed and actionable written trade plan, so as to remove any underlying emotions from the decision making process and thus enforce ongoing discipline in our trading activities. The less the trade becomes about us and more about our rules and plan, the more we have steered ourselves towards achieving success in the markets on a consistent basis. The plan tells us what to do, as opposed to us looking at a chart and guessing what we should do.

I want to kick this segment off with an introduction to what I consider my top ten Trading Books that aren't related to trading strategies or set ups, but focused specifically on risk and psychology, as the defining moment in my trading career was moving from part time gambler to full time student of risk and psychology.