Below is an excerpt from Investing and the Irrational Mind, where the author highlights a list of words that best characterize a successful trader/investor.
The following is a list of words generated in my work with hundreds of major fund manager as well as proprietary and independent traders. I asked them to write down the three words that best characterized “market wizards”, and the words that appeared most often were: confident, disciplined, analytical, self-reliant, motivated, competent, self-aware, optimistic, intuitive, strategic, patient, hard-working, high-achieving, energetic, objective, proactive, organized, goal-oriented, self-contained, knowledgeable, open-minded, determined, enjoys investing and risk-managing, focused, independent, ambitious, committed.
I want to point out the fact that the book is mostly about the psychology of investing and trading in the financial markets,yet I believe that most sports traders can identify with such characteristics, and if asked to write down three words to define a successful sports trader, they would probably make up a similar list. This reinforces the fact that the principles of successful trading are the same, no matter what you are trading.
