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.
However I believe that there are a few characteristics missing from the list, like being flexible (although it could be regarded as the same thing as open-minded) and having a strong mathematical knowledge. And for sports traders I would also add two more essential characteristics: strong passion for the sport(s) you are trading and fully understanding the sport you are trading and knowing exactly what gives you an edge in the markets.
Over the next couple of months, I’ll be writing more posts and give examples of how these characteristics play a part when trading the sports markets.
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