Does personality have anything to do with trading success? This is a question that a great many of us have asked, and it’s not readily answered. I spent over five years failing in trading before I was able to see what had hindered my success for so long.
Seminars and gurus dominated my life for years. I paid several thousands of dollars a shot just to spend a weekend with numerous other hopeful future traders, eager to learn the magic secret of trading systems. After that, of course, I would be residing on an exotic island, drinking cocktails. This is despite the fact that I’m really not much of a drinker! My laptop would be all I needed on the beach to make executive trades and obtain a six figure income, allowing me to quit my full-time job, and it would take me only one hour a day! This was my dream for a decade.
Let’s be honest. Many of us have been there, so you certainly wouldn’t be alone! Have you ever had a dream like this?
I wasted time looking for a magic secret or “holy grail” that would provide me with ‘automated profits’ that would involve my working less than one hour per day, allowing me freedom from my full-time, secure corporate banking job.
Please don’t assume that I hated my job. I didn’t. I enjoyed many aspects of it, but I wanted to get more out of life than four weeks of vacation a year could allow me. I discovered trading, and saw it as a way to accomplish my goal.
It took another full decade before I actually started to reach a position in which I could quit my job and make trading my only moneymaking occupation. This took lots of hard work, and meant I had to learn lots of hard lessons. My determination brought me through the first very difficult five years of trading, and for years I lost whatever I made, even more than I made. My experiences afforded me valuable lessons which I am very aware I would never have learned otherwise.
Would I keep on making mistakes as I continued my investment and trading practice? Yes, absolutely! But these lessons were useful, and they became easier and easier to handle. Eventually, I was able to become a full-time trader, and eventually a hedge fund manager, actually handling other people’s investments!
After pursuing active day trading for a few years, I realized that this wasn’t my true passion. I came to understand that what I really enjoyed was long-term value investing, as well as medium “slower” trading. These pursuits allow me to put my patience and observational skills to flourish.
Another way of saying this is that I moulded my trading style to my personality. Years of trying to practice a trading style suitable for other personalities different than mine finally ended when I embraced my own aptitudes and gifts. Over the years, I have come up with a number of different systems of investing and trading that let me take full advantage of position trading, and all different time frames.
Once you recognize what trading style is best for you and you put it into practice, your trading career will take off! When you are able to do what you love on a daily basis and earn a living from it, your work is no longer really “work”.
Today, I find that my trading work is quite effortless. This is because my trading system is a sound match for my personality, and my work is in tune with what I want from my life. And because I enjoy what I do so much, I hardly even notice if I go over my initial “hour a day” dream. I am able to learn each and every day.
I hope that you achieve exactly what I have. You deserve to find a trading system that is an appropriate fit for your personality. When your work becomes effortless, you exist in “Flow,” as famous psychologist Carl Jung described. Once that happens, you will find that trading success is sure to become yours.
For more information about how you can trade your way to financial freedom, please click here.
Blog Link;
http://www.thefreedomtrader.com/blog/
