Dear Reader

Trading and investing in the stock market not only means you need to have a thorough understanding of Fundamental Analysis, Technical Analysis, Trading Strategy, Portfolio Management and Risk Management. You also need to be able to understand yourself, or more importantly understand how you react to certain situations.

Here we have a list of personality traits that are akin to people we all know, and in fact we all have a little of all of them in us. Here we detail the positive personality traits. 

Captain Contrarian

“A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.” Warren Buffet.

When the news is as bad as it could possible get, when brokers are losing their shirts, their jobs and their Porsches, when apparently sane people are moving to the country to live off the land because of economic meltdown, THAT IS THE TIME TO BUY, and BUY BIG. That is where the biggest profits are.

Sir Right Royal Run for the Hills

All successful traders incorporate the gentry into their trading style.

Be ready to change your opinion, quickly When the trade goes bad, get out! Pride = Pain in the stock market.  

Corporal Commitment

Not a role usually associated with young males, however when you commit to a trade commit.

The most successful investors, when they have made a decision commit with everything they have. George Soros broke the Bank of England through his commitment to his belief. If he had gone into the commitment half heartedly, he would have lost everything.

Even if you commit everything be prepared to back out quickly, the size of your commitment, should not hinder your ability to change course in rough seas.  

Sir Houdini

Always have an escape plan, know the criteria by which you will get out. Be it a bad earnings report, a loss of 5%, or a potential global financial crisis.    

The Saint

My mother is a living example of this as she has the Patience of a Saint. Unfortunately I did not inherit this trait naturally, and have had to learn this the hard way. Profits, like a fine Italian Bardolino wine, take time to develop, but when they have developed taste so much better.  

Private Timeout

You do not always need to be in stocks, give yourself a rest stay in cash until the coast is clear.  

The Runner

Do not cut your profits short. Never say “when I make 15% I will sell”. I made this mistake with Smith & Wesson Holding Corp (SWHC). I bought this stock end of March 2009, for $ 3.25, when it broke through a 4 month resistance line. I sold on 10th March 2009, for $ 4.25 (30% gain in 10 days. A healthly gain.´ the stock went on to a heady proce of $ 6.61 over 100% gain. Ouch. Most important is of course make a profit. But if you can learn to control your emotions, and let it run, it big wins are there.  

Brigadier Big Win

It is OK to loose, chances are you will lose 50% of the time, ensure you lose small and win bigger. We will learn more about stop loss strategies in future articles.   I hope this section helps you to learn more about positive mental attributes required to help improve both the numbers of winning trades and the size of the wins.

Summary.

I hope this section helps you to learn more about positive mental attributes required to help improve both the numbers of winning trades and the size of the wins.

Related Positive Mindset Articles

Dear Reader,

Trading and investing in the stock market not only means you need to have a thorough understanding of Fundamental Analysis, Technical Analysis, Trading Strategy, Portfolio Management and Risk Management. You also need to be able to understand yourself, or more importantly understand how you react to certain situations.

Here we have a list of personality traits that are akin to people we all know, and in fact we all have a little of all of them in us. Here we detail the positive personality traits.

The Philosopher

“The wise man knows that he knows nothing” Socrates

One way to gain confidence in your trades is always be a student, always look to learn, improve, and better your understanding. But do not kid yourself; you can never be 100% confident. If you are a true Philosopher you will also know what you do not know. Always understand that you cannot know everything, crowds make strange decisions, buying patterns fluctuate almost like organized chaos.

The Student

Learn, Learn, Learn and most importantly understand. This website is dedicated to this cause. Learn what the indicators mean, learn how to read a balance sheet, learn how earning affect stock price, learn about yourself.

Take a Jung Typology Test (10 minutes)

The Jung-Myers-Briggs evaluates personality type and preference based on the four Jungian psychological types:

extroversion (E) or introversion (I)

sensing (S) or intuition (N)

thinking (T) or feeling (F)

judging (J) or perceiving (P)

It is incredibly accurate and thought provoking.

The Good Shepherd

Understand that the market does not always move logically the market is emotional. Crowds are really emotional, the crowd is akin to sheep but amongst the sheep there are wolves in sheep’s clothing (negative earnings reports / bad news) and when the wolves unveil themselves the sheep tend to panic and scatter. Do not let the occasional wolf throw you off course.

The Believer

Having Self belief in the market place is vital and possibly the hardest of all emotions to develop, first you must become a philosopher, then a student, and only then can you start to believe.

 Do not rely on anyone else to sell you the secret of success. If they had it they would not need to sell it to you because they would already be rich.

The Realist

Read the Section  This will demonstrate to you, that in the real world, you will not become a millionaire overnight, in one year or ten years. However, given enough time, consistent profits and compounding, it is possible.

Stocks regularly move up and down 1-10% in a day. Sealing in a 10% gain in a day or week is an excellent result. Do not expect to double your money in a week, month or year, this is very rare, and this is the bait used to sell you trading robots, stock newsletters or secret trading strategies, it is all FOLLY.

“People who pay for automatic trading systems are like medieval knights who paid Alchemists for the secret of turning base metal into gold” Dr Alexander Elder – Trading for a Living p15.   Joy of Winning Joy of Winning is a beautiful women, and to be in her presence is intoxicatingly good.

Winning is a way of life. But not always in the stock market, every day can mark us a winner or a loser. The true winners, have more money at the end that they started with. Winning can be addictive, but do not let it cloud your vision.

Joy of losing.

 Believe it or not, there can be a great joy in loosing. I have had many times where I have bought a stock and instantly it turned strongly against me.   How could I possible enjoy that?   Easy! I get out of the stock quick. SELL.   When I sell, and then the stock plummets, I get a deep satisfaction about how much money I saved by being nimble, flexible and most of all decisive.

 Summary.

I hope this section helps you to learn more about positive mental attributes required to help improve both the numbers of winning trades and the size of the wins.

More Positive Mindset Articles