How Does Your Personality Work with Trading?

Personality factors often play a great role in how effective or ineffective we may be when it comes to our chosen profession or career path. Since everyone has personality strengths and weaknesses, it makes sense to examine how some of those may impact on our ability to effectively trade on a daily basis. There will be a percentage of individuals who get into trading this year who also get into something else because their personality just isn't a good fit for the job. It happens about 30% of the time. Liking money is only one requirement of a good trader.

When you describe yourself, do you feel that you are a good fit for being a day trader? Are you self disciplined enough to make sure you actually work beyond setting up an account somewhere? Some people like the idea of working at home, trading online, and calling their own shots. However, once they start the process they suddenly realize that they are not capable of working at home without the basic structure that an office job gives them. They can then either work around it by dressing for work in the morning even when that are only traveling down the hallway and setting a non-negotiable work schedule or they can return to their office job. Social butterflies have a hard time with the basic isolation that working at home trading all day provides.

On the other hand, some seriously disciplined individuals realize that they are so motivated and so strict with their work habits that three weeks have snuck by and they haven't been anywhere outside of the home except the grocery store. Sometimes the personality that seems most disciplined finds that they lack the ability to excuse themselves in the late afternoon to go find a friend to play with.

Every personality has certain elements that can make them a very strong day trader and every personality has traits that can make them a very weak day trader. The trick is finding a middle ground, determining which parts of your personality need to be adjusted during your work hours (you have set them by now, haven't you?) and which traits should be heavily leaned upon in order to provide yourself with the best possible chance of success.

Discipline is of course, a key factor in succeeding. So is self motivation and self education. While it might surprise you to find out, those who appear to be having "more fun than the rest of us" often make great day traders. Since they don't rely on outside sources to be really happy, they have a great deal of stamina when it comes to handling solo work days. Because they have fun almost anywhere, they can have fun even during the trading doldrums.

When you evaluate your personality and your strengths and weaknesses, determining which traits are a really great trait to have might not be as straight forward as it seems. Sometimes it is easier to write down the areas that you struggle with and then compare those issues with some of the more prominent traits you believe contribute to the situation. From there, you can decide whether your own feedback system will work out or not.

Don't get discouraged. No one is "perfectly suited" for day trading. But understanding your personality and how they either help you toward success or how they tend to trip you up makes it easier to make appropriate adjustments in order to get it as together as possible. Some traders plug into their Ipod all day and do their thing while others demand as much silence as possible. There is no right way to go about it provided that you are, in fact, going about it.

If you feel as though you are in completely over your head or you are just getting started and you are feeling miserable and ready to quit, find a mentor to talk to who can help you through that decision making process. Day trading isn't for everyone. But on the flip side, everyone struggles in the beginning as well. Remember why you opted to do this in the first place. Ask yourself some honest, tough questions, and get to the heart of the matter.

Sometimes, especially those who came out of an office environment and moved into a home office, there is a normal adjustment period where a little loneliness sets in and potentially successful traders pack it in. Give it a little time. If you are still lonely in a month, then consider moving out of the house or back into a different career. Until then keep track of how your personality traits affect your work day and how you can implement changes to be more successful.

Risk factors are different for everyone. Not everyone is as comfortable as they thought they would be as they watch the figure in their account dwindle while they are learning the process. Risking their own money, at first, seemed like something they could handle. Once the money hit the account, their nerves of steel turned to jelly. This is worth exploring before you start trading. You don't need to complete the transition if you are truly not okay with it, but again, given a small adjustment period your personality traits may be adjusted.

Sometimes it just depends on how much you really wanted to do this. Sometimes the idea is appealing and sometimes the actual hands on is highly appealing. Be honest with yourself, look carefully at those personality traits that might be tripping you up, and give yourself a little time and encouragement. Just like any change, getting to know yourself better, learning what you can and can't tolerate, and devoting yourself is all part of a universal growing process.

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