Personality Type and Trading
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The path toward becoming a better trader is usually a path toward wholeness, and no two paths are identical. Each of us has to begin where we are in our own life situation. No matter what your path, you must first determine where you are. What are the patterns in your life that block you in your trading, in your relationships, in every aspect of your life? Those patterns can be available to you right now because they show up in your trading and in every other aspect of your life as well. Unfortunately, in most cases, people are not aware of these patterns. This, as Dr. Tharp observes, has an interesting consequence that the transformation journey often begins with a crisis. “It is only when an obvious crisis begins,” he explains, “that we wake up to the fact that something is wrong in our lives.”
The Trader Profiler is designed to help traders understand their individual differences or personalities to help them determine where they are. Jack Schwagger suggests, based on his experience interviewing “market wizards,” that the most important element of successful trading is having a trading system that fits your personality. “It is my belief that knowing your personality type is important,” says Dr. Tharp. “It will help find out where you are in your journey toward wholeness and what will work for you in your current situation. It will help you understand what qualities are important for your trading success and how you can develop those qualities.”
The importance of personality traits comes into play because these traits provide a quick mirror of where we are and the neglected parts of our personality that we must nourish to allow our trading success to take root. In the next lesson there is a profiling exercise that will help you identify some personality characteristics that will be useful for you. Interestingly all of the personality traits that the exercise examines will come in pairs. For example, if your personality tends to be extroverted, this simply means that you tend to focus your energy more externally than internally. So as a consequence, wholeness for you may mean moving more toward an internal focus (e.g., determining how you produce your results by your thinking). This will be different for someone who is introverted, but for you it may imply that you need to move a bit more toward an internal focus so as to establish a better balance between focusing on the internal and the external.
Think about these ideas as you take the mini profiler in the next lesson. Look for how you can find more balance personally. The profiler exercise takes about 4-5 minutes and is very revealing![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”flash_right_sidebar”][/vc_column][/vc_row]