This past weekend, I spent several hours perusing some older trading texts and noticed that there were several chapters that applied more today than when they were written decades ago.
Those were the chapters dealing with the psychology of trading and the traits make one successful.
Successful trading hinges on your psychology and the bottom line is that if you don’t know who you are, nobody else does either.
The chances of you becoming a successful trader are pretty remote.
Trading is an occupation where you must be a realist.
Dreamers need not apply.
The list of traits that make up a successful trader isn’t very long but it is complete.
Think about the traders you know.
Which ones are successful? Which ones aren’t? The traits that make up successful traders are:

1. Theyare rugged individualists.
   I’m not talking about Grizzly Adams here.
   WhatI’m talking about here the type of person who stands on their own 2 feet.
   They don’t need a support group behind them giving their self-esteem aboost.
   
2. Theyare determined.
   Successful traders have a strong will.
   Trading is adifficult business and has a lot of ups and downs.
   People who lack thewill to succeed won’t.
   You must stick it out through the good and theinevitable bad times.
   
3. Theyare loners.
   What I mean by this is that the successful trader doesn’t askfor a lot, especially favors.
   Quiet contemplation is a key to success.
   Theyhave a job to do and they get it done.
   Not a lot of fanfare – that type ofstuff.
   
4. Successfultraders are avid readers (to a fault).
   They read everything that they canget their hands on related to trading, investing and current affairs.
   Itdoesn’t stop there – they also read in a lot of unrelated fields as well.
   
5. Successfultraders are adept analysts.
   Not in the fundamental or technical sense.
   They have the ability to step back and analyze their actions.
   What’s goingright and wrong? How can I improve? This kind of thinking allows a traderto be pro-active instead of re-active.
   
6. In thesame vein, successful traders are meticulous record keepers.
   The keepdaily trade sheets, daily journals and post trade books.
   The ability tostudy past trades (both good and bad) can’t be overstated.
   
7. Successfultraders aren’t bashful about asking others for their opinions.
   Gatheringinformation from other sources allows you see the other side of the coin.
   Perspective matters.
   In the end, the only opinion that matters is the onebelonging to our trader.
   The decision to make the trade (or not) rests withthem and only them.
   
8. Whenit comes to talking about trading, successful traders are pretty tightlipped.
   If they talk about it at all, it’s to gain insight into what wentwrong and how to fix the problem.
   I like to pick the brains of othertraders.
   What’s working for them? Have they ever encountered what I didwrong and if so, how did they fix it?
9. Thefinal trait that all successful traders have is that the buck stops withthem.
   They accept total responsibility for everything that they do andthey never make excuses.
   

In my lifetime, I’ve never met a natural born trader.
I have met natural born gamblers, but that’s a topic for another day.
All of the traits that a trader needs to be successful can be learned and acquired with a little effort.
In the end, successful trading is about knowing yourself, pursuing the truth and expecting the best.