I was at dinner last night with a highly successful manager. She had just landed the top account at her multi-billiondollar financial firm. Over fettuccine noodles and chicken Pad Thai she continued that the firm contemporaneously placed her into a special training program for their star performers. Her boss warned that the program would be difficult, expose her weaknesses and uncover uncomfortable things about herself. Things like the underlying reason why she was a poor public speaker but off-the-charts likable one-on-one? This star manager, a former scholarship athlete- used to criticism, replied, “Sounds awesome!”
Today on twitter I posed this question:
What do you need to fix about yourself before you can become a better trader?
Some humorous replies included:
Rewind a few years and I sat in my office talking with a super talented trader who subsisted on candy and trading. He struggled with patience. He was searching some advice.
I asked, “How can you improve your patience as a trader?”
Wise beyond his young twenty-something years Candyman replied, “Become more patient as a person.”
Candyman went on to consider some activities, like long walks (no snickering here please), that might improve his personal patience.
So I ask you: What do you need to fix first about yourself before you can become a better trader?
Mike Bellafiore
Author, One Good Trade
2 Comments on “What do you need to fix first about yourself before you can become a better trader?”
Overconfidence is one of my personality weaknesses, in general. I don’t care what it is, I believe I can do it better than anyone else given time and training. I’m not sure how that shows up in my trading, though, because I need to trade more to find my weaknesses. Right now I don’t know what to fix about myself until I fix my problem of not being able to trade actively.
I think one of my major barriers is that, growing up, I learned that working (sweating, callused hands, bosses and troops, etc) was the “proper” way to earn a living. My time in the military as a maintainer re-enforced that I think. I find myself thinking from time to time that I want to get a “real” job while I learn how to trade (I’m living off my savings right now) even though I know it would be counter productive to my efforts in learning how to become a consistent trader. I think I even sabotage myself sometimes. I think I need to work on my definition of work ethic and what it means to be a provider for myself and my family.