Trader characteristics

K

knowledgebone

What are the innate characteristics that all good traders should have? Obviously this is a fairly broad question but I definately cannot answer this myself with confidence. Anything you have to say would be helpful.
 
Surfer makes a good point about the ability to disassociate one's self from the individual trade. If you can successfully do that a multitude of problems will go away, including lack of discipline, separating your ego needs from making money and being able to accept a loss etc etc.

However this is all an academic exercise, knowing the characteristics of successful traders and putting them into practice are two different things.
 
The people who I have seen succeed have the ability to stick to something, a lot of perserveriance. They are also very good at learning from mistakes, ultimatly thats your best learning tool.

Brandon
 
Quote from knowledgebone:

What are the innate characteristics that all good traders should have? Obviously this is a fairly broad question but I definately cannot answer this myself with confidence. Anything you have to say would be helpful.
More...

This book should answer most or all of your questions about characteristics of winning and losing traders.

(Exceptional Trading The Mind Game by Ruth Barrons Roosevelt)

Highly recommended because trading psychology is the most underestimated aspect of trading and arguably the most common reasons for a continuous cycle of trading failure.

Thus, in my opinion...the most common reason why most traders fail is because they never took the time to understand how they themselves interact with the markets...

most traders concentrate on trying to find profitable solutions via indicators, price patterns, cheaper commissions, top notch trading platforms and so on...

while forgetting The Mind.

P.S. There are lots of other threads here along with book recommendations here at ET on this particular subject...

you'll have to use ET's search menu to find those past posts.

NihabaAshi
 
Quote from knowledgebone:

What are the innate characteristics that all good traders should have? Obviously this is a fairly broad question but I definitely cannot answer this myself with confidence. Anything you have to say would be helpful.
More...

IMHO:

1. Keep emotion under control, especially greed and fear.
2. Patience, discipline, persistence, detachment and adaptability.
3. Able to learn from mistakes, and then seek victories from defeats.

:p :p :p
:D :D :D
 
To add to the growing list…the ability to be in the moment; the here and now and open minded to what the market is saying.

Kermit
 
Enjoy The Game.

I do and teach martial arts at a semi-professional level. When people first join the dojo they want to be turned into the badest ninja/Jet Lee/Jackie Chan/ Seagal that they can be. They quickly figure out that there is a lot of pain on the road to improvement. The ones who stick it out are the ones that enjoy the training and enjoy the mental challenges that it offers.

Trading is no different. Everyone starts out trading because they want to be rich/free/happy - whatever. But the ones who suffer through the pain are the ones who enjoy trading. For most people, the money just isn't worth it.

You gotta love the game.
 
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