The Accurate Trader

The first psychological profile in Van K. Tharp’s series on trader personality types is the Accurate Trader.

This trader personality type would suggest an individual who keeps careful records of all of their trading activities and meticulously analyzes each trade they take.

Characteristics of the Accurate Trader

As the name implies, the Accurate Trader tends to maintain accurate records of their trading activities and so would be well disposed to keeping a good trading journal from which they could obtain useful feedback to help refine their trading activities further.

In addition, while they tend to take the time necessary to analyze each trade thoroughly, the Accurate Trader personality type has a tendency to spend more effort analyzing the markets than in actually trading them.

Trading Strengths

The Accurate Trader’s strengths lie in their ability to keep good records and analyze potential trading opportunities in detail. They tend to perform optimally when they can operate with a proven trading plan.

For optimal success, such a trading plan would have clear parameters for the trader to use to initiate and liquidate positions. It should also allow the Accurate Trader to take action quickly without any further time taken to analyze or think about what they need to do.

Trading Challenges

This type of trader will generally be easily distracted by the reasons behind their trading activities. As a result, the Accurate Trader will tend to hesitate when taking on new trades or when closing out positions.

This characteristic can effectively limit the effectiveness of the Accurate Trader’s detailed research by preventing them from being able to pull the trigger on a new trade or by causing them to wait too long to get out of an existing position.