What type of people make the best trader?

[TheHoneyMonster]

I think there are a lot of similarities between trading and being a musician. Timing, improvisation, problem-solution-reaction, thinking quickly on your feet, processing intricate data and responding appropriately.

Any musicians out there think that this helped them to adapt to trading?

Sportsmen/women - again, people with eye-brain-hand co-ordination. People used to registering and processing information quickly b4 responding in a calculated form.

Of course, everyone has these skills to a certain extent, whether they are developed or not.

Never forget the maths whiz kid obviously.

And the video game addict.

Musician seems the most apt to me though.

 

[Technically Fundamental]

Statistically speaking, white males.

 

[NetTecture]

Well, ignoring the talent, you need a special psychological profile. The willingness to take and accept risks, as well as to mentally being able to deal properly with statistics and the draw down period that ARE coming. Not from the money management side, but one needs to be sure enough to trade, even when you have some bad days.

The risk is a lot bigger than on most examples you gave, TheHoneyMonster, and I think the balance between "not getting too arrogant" and "being stable enough to just go on" is the hardest part of it. That is, as you will IMHO find out when asking around, where most traders fail at one point.

 

[KillPhil08]

Gamers. You play a game for long enough you know;

Player habits/Predictablity
Repetition
When your going to win
When your going to die
Reaction times (important for scalping)
Used to scoring system...
Risk of killing/death of player
When to wait
List goes on!

But to be honest, if you want to make it the number one thing you should do is this:

Be Sensible!

I agree, creativity is very useful and important to trading. (Supposedly if you have music in your life [instument playing] then your more likely to be good at maths, that always helps too).

 

[Technically Fundamental]

you trade for a living killphil or just extra income?

also i think maths whizz

 

[vinicius]

The opposite as Vini!

 

[TheHoneyMonster]

Statistically speaking, white males.

Your reputation seems to go b4 you.

You strike me as being like a man with a fork in a world full of soup.

 

[jmarkham]

I dont think any of these will help you. I think that it is how much you put into it, e.g reading up and constant research. If you have a good mentor then that would be the main component

 

[jmarkham]

Gamers. You play a game for long enough you know;

Player habits/Predictablity
Repetition
When your going to win
When your going to die
Reaction times (important for scalping)
Used to scoring system...
Risk of killing/death of player
When to wait
List goes on!

But to be honest, if you want to make it the number one thing you should do is this:

Be Sensible!

I agree, creativity is very useful and important to trading. (Supposedly if you have music in your life [instument playing] then your more likely to be good at maths, that always helps too).

A game is a game. There won't be that much dedication going into it, if you die then it doesn't really matter.
But when your trading its for money which makes it a completely different kettle of fish

 

[Technically Fundamental]

Seeing how I'm not allowed to trade for a while I might as well p*ss you lot off.

 

[KillPhil08]

A game is a game. There won't be that much dedication going into it, if you die then it doesn't really matter.
But when your trading its for money which makes it a completely different kettle of fish

Depends how seriously you take the game innit. If it's a game like counter strike you get one life per round.

Also there's a game [forgotten the name], you buy in with dollars for the ammo, but each time you hit someone you get money. There are people who take this very seriously and hit and miss could be a lot of money. Obviously the better you are the higher stakes you play at, much like poker or trading.

 

[Bloodhound]

I played lead guitar for a number of years and I think there are some similarities in the discipline required to learn to trade and learn to play an instrument.

In order to be a good musician you have to practice - in my case, even once I could play well I still practiced a minimum of 4 hours a day and maximum of 10-12 hours a day, which is roughly the amount of time I am now spending in front of a screen. Coupled to that, when you decide to learn an instrument you have:

a) No idea if you'll like it
b) No idea if you'll be any good
c) No idea if there's any point, save for personal gratification

The only way you'll get any better is to practice and even though you'll end up loving your instrument, you'll spend a lot of time hating it, wishing you'd never taken it up etc. etc.,

Sound familiar? It certainly does to me!!

The key to becoming good at a musical instrument is determination to overcome some massive barriers that music throws up along the way - not that much different to my experiences of trading so far!!

 

[N Rothschild]

A game is a game. There won't be that much dedication going into it, if you die then it doesn't really matter.
But when your trading its for money which makes it a completely different kettle of fish

would tend to disagree when there is half million $ prizes up for grabs in some gaming competitions

 

[montmorencyt2w]

I played lead guitar for a number of years and I think there are some similarities in the discipline required to learn to trade and learn to play an instrument.

In order to be a good musician you have to practice - in my case, even once I could play well I still practiced a minimum of 4 hours a day and maximum of 10-12 hours a day, which is roughly the amount of time I am now spending in front of a screen. Coupled to that, when you decide to learn an instrument you have:

a) No idea if you'll like it
b) No idea if you'll be any good
c) No idea if there's any point, save for personal gratification

The only way you'll get any better is to practice and even though you'll end up loving your instrument, you'll spend a lot of time hating it, wishing you'd never taken it up etc. etc.,

Sound familiar? It certainly does to me!!

The key to becoming good at a musical instrument is determination to overcome some massive barriers that music throws up along the way - not that much different to my experiences of trading so far!!

I was going to agree with the "musician" theme posted earlier, and was going to add, perhaps "jazz musician" since it's all about improv and timing. But what you have said above really does tie in with the slog of learning trading, as far as I can see.


Someone else has likened the timing of good comedians to the timing needed to trade ... it's no good being right at the wrong time.

Comedians also take risks every time they go out on stage, and they learn their craft by "dying" a few times, or a few hundred times, which is also what newbie traders have to do. It's the ones who can survive this who go on to be winners, although I am sure that comedians, like traders, can sometimes do exactly the right thing, but still the audience (the trade) goes against them. That's show business.

 

[bkbigfish]

I think good poker players would make the best traders.

Trading success is mostly psychological. I suggest that the "trading mind" can be summed up in the words "patient aggressivity."

You need to be able to sit there and monitor the market, depending on your time frame, for hours, days, or weeks at a time, then, when when it's time, jump in. Then, you also have to maintain the same composure whether betting $1, $100, or $1,000,000.

You have to stick with your system, believing in it, even after 2,3, or 4 hopefully small losses, still ready as ever to take the next signal, because that is likely the one that will make you whole again, and possibly make you rich.

On a more practical level, you probably have to be willing to sit in front of a computer for hours at a time, basically bored - until the signal forms, then you are suddenly under unbearable tension, either to cut your loss short, or be willing to hold onto a profit hoping for an even bigger profit.

I see a lot of parallels between this and poker. I'd suggest that anyone interested in trading try to master poker first. The skills, the psychology, are transferable. If you can't master poker, you probably can't master the market. "If you don't know who are you, the market is an expensive place to find out."

I've also read an analysis that suggests that military leaders would also make good traders. War is 90% boredom and 10% intense action. It also requires enormous discipline, sudden and violent action, courage under fire, the ability to make life-and-death decisions with incomplete information, and an unshakable belief in the correctness of what one decides.

 

[trendie]

I always had the inkling that salespeople would make great traders.

They understand that they have to go and give X presentations a week and know that not all will end up as sales. They know that Z% of potential calls end in sales. So, they are used to the idea that not all situations result in a positive outcome.

They know that if they stick to their sales pitch, and repeat it, they will get a hit. And the hit will compensate for the losing pitches.

Those on commissions are already used to the idea that income can fluctuate. (as opposed to those salaried types who feel they are entitled to something just because they turned up at the office, and try to force the market to pay them.)

Downside is that they may feel they can "talk" their way into a sale, ie, they may have a misguided belief they can influence the outcome, rather than react to it.

 

[GammaJammer]

psychologists - or at least anyone with a sound grasp of crowd dynamics plus a decent, self aware, introspective streak. The former to get a handle on what the market is doing, the latter to rein in their own natural biases.

 

[Technically Fundamental]

The ones who were qualified to get jobs

 

[GammaJammer]

not really Aaron. And that has more than a whiff of sour grapes about it mate. You not get your mid morning nap today?

 

[Technically Fundamental]

Sour grapes? Why? Makes sense in my world. Who's beter prepared for a trading job, someone who spent years learning and about economics and the markets etc and getting qualified or someone with a guitar?

edit: Not to say people cant be successful but IMO there will be few exception to he rule. Must be that way otherwise there'd be traders everywhere.