Preface

When Mind Over Markets was first published in 1990, the Market Profile was relatively new. I was fascinated by the utility because it provided a new way to structure information, a new way to look at the market through a time-sensitive, evolving database that records the market's continuous two-way auction process.

I had long been skeptical about analysis that treated all prices as equal. After years studying market behavior—with membership on the Chicago Board of Trade and as a founding member of the Chicago Board Options Exchange—I came to the conclusion that fundamental analysis is generally too long term, often appearing out of touch with the market. Auction market theory, on the other hand, seemed to offer the most objective means of allocating the constant flow of bids and offers.

I embraced the idea that auctions are mechanisms for price discovery.

Mind Over Markets is a practical handbook for developing an understanding of market behavior that will help you trade with the odds in your favor. And in the 20 years since it was first published (and translated into Chinese and French), my co-authors and I have continued to delve deeper into the application of auction theory to trading and investment decisions.

In the first printing, we talked about “buying and selling tails” in Profile structure. We'll get into the mechanics of this concept later in the book, but we mention them here, in this new introduction, because they represent an example of how our understanding ...

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