A Traders Character

The foundation stones for a balanced success are
honesty, character, integrity, faith, love and loyalty. 
Zig Ziglar

What does it take to be a successful trader? Experience? A good "feel" for the market? Mastery of technical and fundamental analysis? While these elements are important, reaching the highest level of "facts and figures" expertise is not in itself sufficient. To achieve real success as a trader, no matter how you define it, you must have all the ingredients of a trader's psychology: good character, a certain personality type, and a particular way of thinking.

Analytical tools and the mental ability to apply them intelligently are absolutely essential to be a success in trading, but genuine success as a whole, takes more than a good brain. It takes Character!

Webster's dictionary defines character as "the complex of mental and ethical traits marking a person." Do you put your own interests and those of your family first? Or are you more concerned with the well being of others? Do you choose honesty over lying, integrity rather than hypocrisy, productiveness over idleness? Can you consistently weigh, based on an internal sense of right and

wrong, justice versus mercy, rationality versus emotional whim, pride versus humility? The process of making those choices and decisions may seem intuitive and hard to explain, but in all cases it begins with your own personal sense of morality and ethics - in other words, your character.

Your character is set by what you value, what you strive for. Your overall ethical structure - your values and your beliefs - determines character: it determines what you do.

For example, suppose two people both value money. That is, both want to make a lot of money. One has a healthy view toward money, seeing it as a means to many desirable ends. The other however holds the subconscious belief that "money is the root of all evil."

If both make a lot of money, the first would be more likely to enjoy it, spending it for a nice home or dream vacation. The other person however, may find it impossible to truly enjoy his money. He may feel a vague uneasiness when spending it, or may be guilt-ridden when booking that dream vacation. If that second person made his money trading the markets, in all probability, his guilt will force his subconscious to lose most if not all of it.

Are your character traits suitable for trading? Definitely worth thinking about!