All about getting you back to the basics and some fundamental core truths of successful trading

An eye-opener that helped me to understand why I usually ended up taking profits too early which meant smaller profits than I deserved. This was due to lack of proper methodology in my trading. There is no panacea for successful trading. The book will reinforce the point that trading will require more work than ever thought imaginable. The heartening news is that the basic principles are applicable to every trader, in any market and in any timeframe. Even though Brent is humble enough to call himself 'not (an) expert', the teaching gems have come from over 25 years of hardcore trading experience. The book is not for someone looking for new entry/stop exit techniques. The shift in my approach was that Brent is a mechanical trader who does not spend time watching markets tick by tick, but rather spends most of his time on researching and thinking up new ideas.

Most of the people will think the USP of the book is Brent's "Just one piece of advice" section that has rare interviews from a diverse group of 15 successful traders from across the world who have generously agreed to offer the reader one powerful piece of advice to help him towards his trading goals. For me, the USP of the book was the 70 plus pages of "Methodology". The caveat here is that Brent wants every reader to do his own independent validation. In his words, be a sponge and soak up all the ideas you can on trading, but as you do so, please remember to remain a sceptic and be prepared to do your own work to validate the idea independently. What doesn't work for you is as important as knowing what does! At the end of the day, you have to find what works for you to identify potential support and resistance level consistently. A good support level will not only exist in an uptrend; it should also confirm the uptrend. A good resistance level will not only exist in a downtrend; it should also confirm the downtrend. Brent puts high importance to both entries and exits. He totally disagrees with anyone favouring importance of exits over entries. His analysis of the highly-promoted Gann & Fibonacci methodologies may surprise those who use or support it.

The book details six universal principles of successful trading that outline the process of trading: Preparation, Enlightenment, Trading style, Markets, Trading and the three pillars of Money Management, Methodology, and Psychology. Brent does spend good amount of emphasis on Money Management that he considers even more important than Methodology. Psychology is important once you commence trading and it is the glue that holds Money Management and Methodology together.

Today is both the best and worst of times for traders. They never had it so good with no barriers to entry, multiple discount brokers, electronic trading platforms, automatic trading programs, inexpensive live real-time data, charting programs, indicators, fundamental & technical trading theories, trading coaches, newsletters, etc. Yet, more than 90% of active traders continue to lose. Hard choices are needed over studying, learning, and implementing the ideas in the book. The only real secret of trading is: the best loser is the long-term winner.