I've been trying to find ways to use my personality as an edge for my trading. I back in HS I took a Meyer Briggs personality test to find out what my personality was so we could find out what jobs would match us based on who we were. I was an INTJ, which is A "visionary, architect of systems, builder"; who "works on ideas with ingenuity and logic"; who "learns by an impersonal and analytical process for personal mastery"; and who is acknowledged in organizations for contributing "strategies and analyses".
NT's -The Promethean Temperament. Comprises about 12% of the population and includes all of the NT personality types: INTP, ENTP, INTJ, and ENTJ. NT's must be competent at whatever they do. They look to skills, abilities and ingenuity to define self worth. NT's love intelligence and want to do well under a variety of circumstances. They are the most self-critical of all styles and tend to put high standards on themselves and others.
Judging by that, you can see why I love technical analyses so much and why I always plot out my plan before I trade, It's in my nature to do so.
I found an excerpt on my personal and how it relates to trading.
The Promethean Temperament: The Promethean Temperament comes into being when the qualities of intuition (N) and thinking (T) are dominant. The NT temperament (INTP, ENTP, INTJ, ENTJ) is only found on average in about 2% of the population. As a result, NT people must grow up in an environment full of people who are usually quite different from them. For example, about one family in 16 would have both parents as Ns and only one in a thousand would have both parents as NTs.
The NT personality is looking for power over nature: to be able to predict, control and explain realities. Thus, the NT trader would be one who wants to predict, control and explain the markets, much of which is the antithesis of good trading. However, since his ultimate goal is to be a good/great trader, the issue is simply how to get there. He has a strong drive to continually improve (as opposed to the SPs drive to simply act). As a result, I would generally expect this group to produce more good traders than any other. Our data suggests this to be the case! First, we have a lot of data on the NT personality types. Although they only constitute about 2% of the population, NTs constitute 45.2% of our sample population—a truly amazing statistic. Among our NT traders, about 10% show outstanding trading records—a higher percentage than any of the other temperaments.
The NT is very self-critical. He badgers himself about his own errors. He taxes himself with the resolve to improve. If his pushing is used as a learning process, then he is bound to improve. However, the NT can easily get caught up in the perfectionist trap, which can prevent him from getting anywhere. For example, if the NT's self-criticism is tied into his/her self esteem, then he can become frozen into inaction or into repeating the same task because he is not satisfied with the results. However, I have found that NTs show tremendous improvement when they go through my private consultation program.
The NT is likely to know that recreation is important to his health and overall well-being. However, his play has little spontaneity or fun. Instead, NT play is an exercise in conquest and being the best. He does not allow himself to make any mistakes, logical errors, and yet, paradoxically, requires that he have fun because that's what people are supposed to do when they're playing.
The trader who is an NT will live his work. If markets stay open 24 hours, he is likely to try to follow the market for 24-hours just because the market exists and missing something might be making a mistake. He wants to be the best possible trader, so he will do whatever he can to be successful. He is extremely vulnerable to the "all work, no play" syndrome and this kind of attitude can lead to a very out-of -balance lifestyle.
The NT wants to be the scientific trader. They are drawn to occupations that have a logical understanding, in which they can master some new concept about trading or design some great new trading system. He has an inquiring attitude and deals with others in a straightforward, albeit cold, approach.
The NT generally focuses on the future, trying to figure out what might happen next. And once he masters a challenge, he is very likely to move on to another one. Why? Because his goal is competency in every field. Thus, his goal might be to achieve greatness in trading, but as soon as he receives it or thinks he has it, he is likely to move on to something else.
To develop NT skills, spend at least one day a week reading everything you can about the markets. Make a list of 50 ways you can improve your trading and then work diligently to adopt each of those ways.
You can find out your personality types by going here and reading Van Tharps ideas on why it relates to trading. This was the same test I had to take in my English class in H.S. for our senior project. It's about 70 questions but it's very thorough and in depth. I think it took me about 45 minutes to an hour to finish. I took the test 3 months apart and they both came out as an INTJ, which is what I am.
I'll be spending a lot of the day today finding my weakness in my personality and how I can take advantage of that to benefit my trading.
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