10 Essential Characteristics of Wining Stock Market Traders

Although the following characteristics won’t guarantee success, they do illustrate the attributes of many successful stock traders.

1. Wisdom

Great traders often see the attainment of wisdom as life’s highest value. They are constantly seeking to gain new understandings of reality. They love to solve difficult puzzles and develop new solutions for pressing problems. They have an insatiable desire to acquire more and more knowledge.

2. Fighting unhelpful natural instincts

Successful stock traders are able to go against their natural instincts when those instincts prove to sabotage their goals. It is only natural to want to hunker down when the stock market is crashing, but in fact that is the moment of greatest opportunity. You may feel a sense of euphoria when the market reaches all-time highs and want to stay at the party, but this is a point of maximum risk. The ability to overcome nature and only use the power of one’s mind is probably one of the most satisfying accomplishments for traders.

3. Discipline

Discipline is at the top of any success ladder. Doing extensive research, identifying opportunities, setting up the right trade, forming and sticking to a strategy, setting up goals, and forming an exit strategy are all part of the discipline necessary for successful trading.

4. Humility

Humility rather than stubbornness when investing is better. Another big mistake a trader can make is to be stubborn. Being able to admit you’re wrong is vital. Being wrong happens. Staying wrong is a choice.  If the evidence changes, or if the market is acting differently from what you had envisioned, then get out, or if necessary, reverse your position. Do not indulge your own ego. It`s not about being right. It`s about making money. Many investors have ruined their portfolios because they stuck to bad positions.

5. Patience

Patience is necessary for successful trading. Patient investors are willing to wait for the market to provide the right opportunity, rather than trying to make a big win on every market movement. You will often see traders sitting idle and just watching the market, waiting for the perfect timing to enter or exit a trade. The same is not the case with amateur traders. They are impatient, unable to control their emotions, and they will be quick to enter and exit trades.

6. Consistency

The best at anything are the best because of consistency. Michael Jordan isn’t considered the best basketball player ever because he scored 30 points once in a game. It’s because he averaged 30 points per game over his entire career. That’s what made him great.

7. Staying Calm

Another important characteristic is the ability to stay calm under pressure. Trading is often fast paced, and there can be large sums of money at stake, so it’s not for the faint-hearted. When breaking news hits the airways, it is imperative to maintain your composure and analyze its effects on the markets. As with anything, the more you know and the more information you have readily available, the calmer you’re likely to feel.

8. Proactive

Honing the skill of being proactive and not re-active contributes to being a successful trader. Every successful trader knows how dangerous it can be to overreact and make quick decisions without thinking. The ability to become a better decision maker will arise from experience gained in trading. Don’t just react to the market.

9. Self-Confidence

Develop self-confidence through hard work. Over confidence and lack of confidence can destroy a trader because often a trader's most important decisions will come down to the ability to be bold but not reckless and emotional, all under great pressure, while dealing with uncertainty. No profession requires more hard work, intelligence, patience, and mental discipline than successful speculation.

10. Detachment

Be aware of what’s going on, but successful trading requires a high level of detachment. In order to invest successfully, you must “not care”. That is very difficult for most traders. At times, being human gets in the way of success by throwing emotional roadblocks in your path. Geopolitical events, unfair press releases, changes in management. These emotional roadblocks cloud judgment and inhibit success. A good analogy is how the medical profession prohibits a surgeon from operating on a family member or someone they are emotionally involved with. The level of emotion can easily cloud judgment. It’s not that the surgeon doesn’t care if the patient dies; it’s just different when it’s their family member. The same holds true for stock investing

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