1. Want to be a trader? The traits and characteristics of traders

2. #1. Needing and wanting money are good motivations to good trading?

3. NO! Money greedy traders tend to take on too much risk, make bad decisions and be impatient.

4. Traits of a successful trader What are the most important qualifications for a successful trader - high IQ, discipline, patience? Most common answer is: 1.Discipline 2.Patience ?. High IQ

5. #2. It generally pays off to double when your initial trade moves against you (average down)?

6. NO! Rule no. 1: Don’t EVER average your losses

7. #3. A high percentage of trades should make profit?

8. NO! Several strategies advocate that having more than 50% losing trades is perfectly fine. Most traders only hit few successful trades a year, but they make big money on them

9. Traits of a successful trader Neuroticism – Negative emotions: anger, anxiety or depression Openness to experiences – Sensation seeking and risk-taking Conscientiousness – Orientation towards duty, responsibility and dependability

10. Traits of a successful trader Neuroticism - LOW – Negative emotions: anger, anxiety or depression Openness to experiences - LOW – Sensation seeking and risk-taking Conscientiousness - HIGH – Orientation towards duty, responsibility and dependability

11. #4. You can never go broke taking profits?

12. YES! If you take many small profits, but let your losing trades run, you will eventually go broke

13. #5. Staying abreast of current news, reading FT and WSJ and studying investment bank’s research reports, improves your trading performance?

14. NO! News are always discounted into the prices of financial assets before you know it (unless you are an insider). News is therefore useless for short-term strategies. + For long-term strategies daily news does hardly ever effect the markets long-term trends

15. Don’t trust investment banks… April 2001: Credit Suisse was following 1328 stocks world wide S&P500: 1160 (down 24% from the top) How many sell recommendations did they have?

16. Don’t trust investment banks… April 2001: Credit Suisse was following 1328 stocks world wide S&P500: 1160 (down 24% from the top) How many sell recommendations did they have? – 11! (0.83% of all stocks on their watch-list)

17. Want to know more… Brett N. Steenbarger – Read The Psychology of Trading – brettsteenbarger.com