The Playbook: An Inside Look at How to Think Like a Professional Trader

When I started reading the book (the introduction), I thought I was reading a novel and was so captivated by the events that I started hoping for a happy ending. But that was real life -the author's personal life. It`s about resilience in the face of suffering and vicissitudes of life. The lesson is that you cannot control what life throws at you but you can control your reactions. Positive attitude and perseverance always prevail and the analogy with the market and trading is obvious. You cannot control the market but with hard work, determination, and persistence the trader can achieve positive outcomes. Most trading books give you "canned" methodologies. This book also give you a superb methodology to work with but it also opens the door wide open for creativity, urges the trader to keep an open mind and continually strive to hone one's trading skills in order to be able to adapt to new market conditions. Also, the book emphasizes that trading is not rocket science. It s all about doing one's homework, managing risk, and learning from one's mistakes by reviewing and scrutinizing one's trades daily. This is explained by giving real examples of real trades executed by real traders. On this basis, every trader has to create a "PlayBook" in order to "archive" the best patterns that work best, "internalize" them and make them his/her own. This creative mindset is the key to survival in the market. The following quote summarizes it: "Trading is a skill that must be learned and honed.. You must develop a PlayBook of trading patterns that make the most sense to you. To become great at these setups takes experience, practice, and a love for your game. Only then can you join First Team Wall Street." Pg 202 Moreover, the author stretches the importance of constant coaching because even the best traders need coaches. He gives the example of famous athletes who surround themselves with teams of coaches and traders are no exception, they need coaches too. Needless to say, the trader has to be always pro-active, perpetually thinking of ways to improve his/her game. In other words, mentors are important but nothing replaces hard work and the daily endeavor for self-improvement. The author writes: "understand what the masters have done and then incorporate what you've learned into your own style." Pg 44 One more thing I like in the book is the author's appreciation of the good work. He emphasizes the importance of reaching out to other traders, talking to them, inviting them for lunch. The interaction with other traders can play a vital role in the trader's development. The book refers to many resourceful works of other traders. I will mention only Dr Brett Steenbarger for whom the author has a special appreciation. It's important to note that this book is more than trading techniques and strategies. It's about the path to success and success is more about hard work and preparation than luck. The trader's focus should be on daily self-improvement and not the outcome or results. "Everyday is an opportunity for continuing education." Pg 360 With this mindset, the results will come naturally. The daily challenge is how good can you be? It's the path to self-actualization. It's a very inspiring and empowering book Finally, I liked the quotes mentioned by the author especially the Bruce Lee quote "Use whatever works, and take it from wherever you can find it." Pg 17 It's very relevant. Bruce lee studied hundreds of fighting styles but he came up with his own style -his own PlayBook- his own fighting method. This idea is the gist of "The PlayBook". Traders have to be open to all "trading styles" and work diligently to find the setups that work best for them. The author writes: "My hope for you is that this book gives you the tools to build your trading PlayBook. It will help you frame your own unique PlayBook that best utilizes your strengths." Pg 52 Bottom line, the book is an excellent read and worth your intellectual energy and time. It will push you to think out of the box when it comes to trading and inspire you to have a positive attitude towards life in general.

I read a lot of books about trading/investing. In fact, I came to a point where I thought I had gotten through all of the quality books out there and began to scrape the bottom of the barrel with many of these low-priced DIY Kindle Books (I'm not denigrating self-publishing as a whole, but you definitely get some fluff put together just to make a few bucks). As I've traded more and more over the past few years and read all of these books, my timeframe has decreased to the point where I'm now holding positions usually 1-3 days with the occasional intraday trade. Surprisingly though, I've noticed there really is a dearth of quality books on intraday trading out there, which is why I was so excited to see Mike Bellafiore put out The PlayBook since I enjoyed One Good Trade: Inside the Highly Competitive World of Proprietary Trading (Wiley Trading) so much. While OGT focused more on proprietary trading as a whole, The PlayBook gets more into the nuts and bolts of trading, detailing trade set-ups and trade management, with a heavy emphasis on trade review and structure. The goal appears to be to help short-term traders develop their own set of plays, just like a football or basketball team uses, to focus only on those trades that are most comfortable and rewarding to the trader. Essentially, it reinforces the old maxim of "do more of what works and less of what doesn't." This book will help teach readers exactly what it says in its title: how to think like a professional trader. Its purpose is not to give you all the trade set-ups that will make you successful, so please do not buy the book with the intention of learning some secret technical pattern or indicator that will make you rich. While it does give several examples of trades and trade set-ups, it focuses more on the work involved and the mindset needed to succeed. It is up to each individual to develop a system that works for him or her, and the author even says that trying to copy some guru or a consistently profitable trader is not the path to follow. Overall, I think it's a good book on trading and one I'll likely read again. PROS: 1. Written in an easy-to-follow style by an author who has succeeded in trading (it sounds like he doesn't trade as much as he used to, but that's understandable given he's running a business). 2. Gives a realistic look at how difficult trading professionally is and the work involved. Many books make it sound like everyone should just quit their jobs and trade for a living. 3. Discusses the ins and outs of trading more than One Good Trade did, while also providing templates for trade setups and reviews. CONS: 1. While I didn't mind it, I know some people had issues with One Good Trade being too anecdotal and there's definitely many stories and responses to email questions in The PlayBook. This is not a textbook, but if these informal stories and examples bother you then you'll probably have a problem with this book. 2. The price. Once again, I didn't mind paying ~$30 for the book since I think I got a lot out of it, but in this day and age of <$10 Kindle Books, many people expect a full trading system with anything more than $20. This book is not a trading system or a full course about intraday trading. Go in with the right expectations.

After studying several other books on the subject such as Trading for Living (Elder), Come into my trading room (Elder), Trading in the Zone (Douglas), Beginner's guide to day trading online (Turner), I consider that The Playbook is one of the Jewels of the crown that you need to read in order to take your trading to a professional level. Mr. Bellafiore does an excellent narrative on how several individual traders from his desk evolved from "non-profitable" to "very profitable" in a process that requires work, dedication, planning and working on your playbook. The main philosophy on this book is build a collection of your best trades (more profitable) and then keep them as your book of best trades and study them and make them even better, so when you see in the market these setups, you can play them with confidence and precise execution, although you can find with each trader described on the book some setups that you can clone at the end of each chapter, the important thing is something more like the old saying, "give a man a fish and he will eat today, teach him fishing and he'll eat every day", you need to emulate the way these traders work in order to become a good trader, and Bellafiore is very honest when he disclose that you have to make a journey from losing a lot money, losing less money, going flat, being lightly profitable, being constantly profitable and very profitable (with your playbook) as the only path to succeed, no short cuts no magic indicators, only work and dedication (the good thing is that if you are willing to simulate for a while like if you were using real money, you can avoid losing really big money) I know some traders would not find this book good to learn technical analysis, indicators, etc and I have read some other reviews complaining about this from this book, if you are starting with trading I would recommend start with some other books like Elder's, Turner's or somebody else, but when you are ready to approach your trading as a profession (as it should be) then many of the histories in this book would be really good to auto impose some of the things that SMB does to their traders, i.e. Overtrading problems... go to the simulator, violating your daily limit to often...go back to the simulator, want more money but still not profitable with your size ? No more money until you show that you are not losing money or reduce your size until you are back again.... (you get the idea)...I have applied some of these strategies to myself, and believe me, trading with your own money this rules protects you from blowing up your account. And for some skeptical about what is valuable on this book (more than the stories) I have the following things that have improved really my trading: Reasons to Exit a trade (Finally get the emotion out of the equation!) Importance of reading the tape (for improving entries and exits) Plan Trades2Hold (these are more profitable to me now!) and Trades to Move (Scalping) Record your trade execution with something as Camtasia to review them (your brain does not differentiate if this is a real trade or you are repeating it and reviewing it over and over, so with time you become better trader) Document your better trades (playbook..again your brain doesn't....bla bla) Techniques as using multiple tiers for risk management (selling or covering a portion of your shares to reduce your risk or giving you more confidence to wait for the big move) Learning where to add more size when your trade works being responsible (improving your trade and profit with appropriate risk management, even to generate sometimes cash flow meanwhile the trade moves from a consolidation area..wow!) Psychology and advice about being couched to improve Know that all traders have their bad streaks and that this is normal (everything will pass...good to know for me, know those darkest hours are less dark knowing I am not alone...) And more... So in the end I really recommend to get this book if you are planning to day trade for living or professionally, I am starting to re-read again and well I am in the flat to being lightly profitable stage...but hopefully as many traders with hard work, dedication, such good advice and inspiration I can be better tomorrow than I am today...

Having read many books on the markets and trading, for me, maybe 5% of books make 80% of the difference. Personally I count this book and its predecessor (One good trade) among the 5%. For the record I have been trading/investing in the markets actively for about 9 years now. Overall I am consistently profitable (Although I could do better) There are several powerful points I took from this book that I had not seen from any other book. Probably the most powerful (for me) was the point about how there had never been recorded evidence of an elite performer (of any endeavor) ever getting to that status without some form of regular critical feedback from an elite coach. This was a very exciting realization for me. After thinking about it, I realized the accuracy of this statement. Warren Buffet had Benjamin Graham (Among many others), Paul Tudor Jones had Eli Tullis (Among many others) etc.... The Author even mentions Pro Golfer Phil Mickelson and details 6 of his coaches. Another uniquely powerful point made in the book was that of the trader GMAN. He was profiled in the first book "One good trade" after having a rough start GMAN became very successful trading for SMB capital, became head trader then a partner in the firm. What stood out was that after being placed on Wall Street's top traders under 30 list. GMAN got so burned out he wasn't trading very well, he was ready to leave SMB capital and move out west. However GMAN began working with various coaches to get him back on track and into the proper mindset again. Today he is back to high performance and doing well again. I rarely read stories like this about highly successful traders going through slumps, though I do see this in sports often. Something else that stood out to me was an email the author received from a trader who had been trying to succeed at trading for 8 years (Pg. 352). The email was of this trader throwing in the towel, after losing approximately $40,000 over that 8 year period. This was hard to read, but this trader I give props to for being so honest with himself and sharing his story with the author. What was particularly interesting is the trader knew exactly what he was doing wrong but psychologically couldn't execute the proper solutions to the problem. The Author shares his response to the trader which is an interesting lesson in and of itself. The author made a point of the lack of proper collegiate training for traders. Which is something I agree with completely. The book is structured somewhat similar to the author's first book, One Good Trade. In that individual traders are profiled as examples of lessons the author is teaching. I enjoyed this because in many ways I identified with the various aspects of each trader profiled. For those who are looking for methodologies to approach the market, the author does give a methodology that his firm uses in order to setup trade ideas. It breaks into 5 parts: 1)The Big Picture 2)Intraday Fundamentals 3)Technical Analysis (Long and short term) 4) Reading the Tap 5) Intuition (to be used only after much experience in the markets). In addition exits are discussed in a section on Reasons2exit or Reasons2sell(Cover). As well as discussions on position sizing. As I stated before, I think this book is very good.

I am a developing trader with just over 18 months of full time trading experience. Dr. Steenbarger defines traders who are covering the cost of trading and sustain modest profits as competent. In an attempt to provide context for this review, I would be described as a competent intra-day trader with Consistently Profitable Trader (CPT) as the next evolution in my trading career. Having read One Good Trade previously, I was familiar with the way Bella uses stories and real life interactions to explain the fundamental lessons he wishes to express. Very different from many trading books that discuss how to make profits, The PlayBook is a great resource in developing a process to guide trading knowing that if the process is correct, the profits will take care of themselves. If you have not read One Good Trade I would start there before reading The PlayBook but it is not a prerequisite to understanding the concepts in The PlayBook. Even after reading The PlayBook shortly after it's release I find myself going back to specific stories or the detailed PlayBook reviews to see how my personal developing PlayBook relates in the language, structure and thought process I am using in my descriptions (Am I writing and thinking through plays like an amateur or like a pro trader?). Each section has been beneficial at different times as the examples and stories in The PlayBook help direct my thought process and can act as a much needed source of inspiration and guidance. I have found The PlayBook to be one of the key resources to my trading and would highly recommend this book to those who have the passion and desire to make a living in one of, if not the, most challenging performance based activities in the world.

'The Playbook' is exactly what amateur and professional day traders alike should be looking for. While Mike's previous book, 'One Good Trade' gives a look into the world of proprietary trading and what it takes to get involved in the business, 'The Playbook' goes a step further and assumes you already know a few things about the market. The book is exactly as it is advertised: a playbook, one trade at a time, from professionals who have survived in the business for decades, who are STILL actively trading the CURRENT market. The negative reviews I've read of this book give off the same layman impression that they're still searching for the "holy grail" in their trading, as if they expect to pick up a trading book and magically understand how to take money out of the market for the rest of eternity and become filthy rich with "one weird trick", or some other silly fantasy. Don't kid yourself and act surprised that some form of technical analysis (whether it be tape reading, charting, volume profiling, etc.) is how certain very successful traders trade. The price of the book is too much? Give me a break. I can't imagine someone saying with a straight face that paying under $100 to mitigate their risk of losing money is too much. You'll probably pay more than that in commissions next week, think about it. There is the most unfortunate of fates for those searching for that kind of book: good traders working to adapt will continue taking your money. As I said previously, this book also covers the adaptation to high frequency trading and the changes that you must make to your strategies in an ever-changing market. Unlike many other "how-to trading books", 'The Playbook' gets very specific using concrete examples of what works for successful traders, and does not just give you the impression that this is something that will always work. Along with these examples, it includes in-depth interviews with the traders who made the trades themselves, giving you the feeling you're in a training room yourself. These are setups from traders such as Gilbert Mendez, a former partner at SMB Capital who went on to start a hedge fund based on his strategies. While it does give specific setups that you can add to your arsenal, it also gives you a blueprint for the thought process itself that goes into these setups, therefore teaching you how to fish instead of taking you out for one meal. I've experienced a lot of educational material in my trading, and there's not much else out there that is THIS relevant and THIS cheap that can continue to pay dividends to your trading education outside of this book. That is why 'The Playbook' is a necessity for your trading library, because it contains the knowledge and experience to help you adapt these strategies long after the setups within it have been outdated by the market.

Its been a while since I've read a book on trading since I feel many just rehash the works of those who have gone before them. As my intraday trading has developed, I have found myself gaining a lot more traction by learning from full time traders in live chat rooms as the trading books gather dust on my bookshelf. Then came The PlayBook: An Inside Look at How to Think Like a Professional Trader . This book really is something different. Unlike most trading books, I found it hard to put down. As the founding partner of successful proprietary trading and trader education firm, Mike Bellafiore has seen countless traders begin the journey to becoming a `Consistently Profitable Trader'. The Playbook chronicles some of the best and the worst traders that have made the cut at SMB Capital, their struggles, the highs and lows and the hard work put in to achieve their goals. What I liked most about The Playbook is that the author is brutally honest about what it takes to succeed as a professional trader. Mike likens professional trading to an elite performance sport, where success is a result of hard work, and a repetitive trade review process whereby your best trades can be complied in your own Playbook. The Playbook approach to trade review enables a trader to filter for the very best setups, develop an intuition to recognize those setups, scale up to a big position with the confidence of have mentally walked through the trade/risk management process countless times before. If you have struggled to keep a trade journal before, this book sets out the road map for you to develop your Playbook and make it your own. In saying all that, this is a not a check box system that will make money for you in the markets. The book is really just a road map, you'll need to do the driving yourself - as Mike suggests, every trader should find a trading style and the trade setups that are best suited to their own personality. The Playbook details a number of `A+' technical trade setups which can be put into practice, as well as tape reading, risk management and trader psychology. The book is well laid out, enabling the reader to easily refer back as he/she goes through the process of developing their own Playbook. While the book is a little expensive, I feel it really is a valuable resource for a developing trader. At the end of the book you'll find you are eligible for a free 10 part series webinar which covers the A+ trade setups in further detail which I found most helpful. All in all, I highly recommend this book I have just purchased Mike's earlier book One Good Trade: Inside the Highly Competitive World of Proprietary Trading (Wiley Trading) , hoping to pick up for few more valuable nuggets.

I feel a bit bad writing a negative review of this book, because it is entertaining at times, but I continually found myself asking, "why am I reading this book?". It lacks substance, even with the driving concept of the book. There are perhaps three main points that the author makes: 1) document your trades in order to find what works, 2) do more of what works with greater size, and 3) hard work is the key to success/you have to work hard to be successful. Yes, it is that high level. The ironic thing is that the author doesn't even get into describing in detail what a Playbook (document of trades) should incorporate, other than to say it should be unique to each trader. The author will show screen shots of his firm's traders' Playbook enteries, but he dosn't describe the specifics, other than to note that if the reader doesn't understand the terminology, he shouldn't be concerned. Positives: 1) The author has an engaging writing style, and has a "feel good" message that most people can become profitable traders so long as their work ethic is strong. (...maybe this is the reason for all the 5 star reviews?? I can't think of any other reason why, aside from having his traders review the book) 2) It shows the inside conversations that take place at a prop desk, which further makes the world of being an elite trader seem accessible. (...as an aside, I fully expect the author's firm will be flooded with resumes as a result of this book) Negatives: 1) The book is foremost a recruiting tool for the author's firm, SMB Capital. Example after example are given about the firm's culture, work expectations, why traders fail, etc. 2) The book lacks substantive definitions of key terminology and the trade strategies that his firm's traders make. For instance, he will have one of his traders review a trade (usually an intraday trade), and walk through the general thought process, but the strategy itself is never discussed...so you get something like, "this was a 'trend trend hold' trade...a large buyer was hitting the bid, and I wanted to ride the trade up to yesterday's high, an important technical level"...okay, fine. But wouldn't it have been great for the reader to get into the specifics of what a 'trend trend hold' trade is, it what situations it's particularly useful, and so on. I suppose the author's critique of my criticism would be that defining these strategies wouldn't be doing the reader any service, as he needs to find out the trades that work best for him specifically. ...okay, well, that may be true to an extent, but again, it would be even more helpful to have exposure to the variety of strategies the firm uses to enable the reader to make his own decisions. 2.5) The publisher claims that the book offers a "unique approach [that] is the closest thing to signing up for a "trader boot camp". That's not true. There is no approach in this book, unless that is referring to documenting trades. Also, the publisher claims "using concrete, actionable setups drawn from his extensive trading and training experience, Bellafiore walks through an extraordinary array of trades, showing readers how to maximize profits and avoid disastrous hidden pitfalls". Again, not so. No concrete details are provided about setups. At best, this contention is misleading. 3) The book, while many pages, is light on content. Wide margins are used on most pages, particularly when quoting a conversation that was had with a trader, an email, blog post, etc. On that note, I would say a majority of the page count are emails and blog posts from the author and traders at his firm, which the author uses to illustrate the attitudes of winning traders, his trader's work ethics, and so on. 4) The book focuses on intraday trading, which isn't negative by itself, but it wasn't obvious to me when I ordered it, and I think that is material information to disclose. All that said, SMB does seem like a decent place to develop trading skills! If you are thinking about applying to SMB, this seems like a no-brainer to purchase. For everyone else, I highly recommend you save yourself the money, time and frustration.