Barry Ritholtz, Columnist

Brett Steenbarger, Trading Coach Psychologist

Applying psychology to trading.

January 17, 2017 at 4:01 PM UTC

Barry Ritholtz is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is chairman and chief investment officer of Ritholtz Wealth Management, and was previously chief market strategist at Maxim Group. He is the author of “Bailout Nation.”

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This week on Masters in Business, we speak with Brett Steenbarger, a clinical psychologist who has published numerous articles and books on trading. He is a clinical associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and works as a trading coach with such storied firms as Tudor Investment Corp. He blogs at TraderFeed.

Steenbarger describes some of the simple steps traders can take to improve their performance and consistency over time. He emphasizes the importance of trading returns relative to assumed risk. One of the major themes he describes is the importance of Abraham Maslow and Martin Seligman’s “positive psychology” as applied to the trading discipline. It emphasizes strengths and competencies versus the usual focus on psychological disorders.