The Mental Game of Trading

Tendler is a performance coach with a background in therapy, and has worked with both poker champions and institutional traders. His starting point differs from most trading psychology books: emotions aren't the problem, they're the signal that something deeper is unresolved underneath.

Tendler organises that 'something deeper' into a layered system that lets you tell whether the flaw is technical (you don't fully master the strategy), tactical (you know what to do but not when), or identity-based (you believe you don't deserve to win). Only once you identify the right layer does it make sense to work on it; treat the surface without reaching the root and the problem resurfaces in a different form.

His 'Inchworm' concept explains something most traders live through without being able to name it: your worst moment today can become tomorrow's baseline if you work the right layers, the same way your best session from a year ago would look mediocre to you now. It's a long book with self-diagnosis exercises, meant to be worked through slowly, not skimmed between trades.

It fits best once you already have a system you know works and still repeat the same mistakes — revenge trading, cutting winners too soon, freezing before a clear entry — because at that point the problem is no longer strategy. If you want something more introductory before this level of detail, Steenbarger's The Psychology of Trading, also in this catalogue, is a good place to start.