The Facilitative Trader

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

This trader type would suggest an individual who has a quiet and serious demeanor, but yet who is very sociable and works well in facilitating others in a group or team situation.

Facilitative Trader Qualities

The Facilitative Trader generally sees potential in everyone and provides inspiring leadership qualities to people, thereby allowing them to fulfill their potential.  As a result, these traders often become leaders of other traders.

The Facilitative Trader has two of the three core qualities essential to becoming a great trader. These are:

1. The ability to see and understand the big picture, along with what connections and possibilities exist, and 
2. The ability to be orderly and decisive, and to do things in sequential order.

In addition, Facilitative Traders are generally well organized, which is a great asset for any trader.

Trading Strengths

The Facilitative Trader has the advantageous capacity to see the big picture and to make the mental connections necessary to identify and make profitable trades.

This type of trader will typically work better in groups or teams than by themselves, and they make natural leaders.

Trading Challenges

The Facilitative Trader’s impressive facility to work with others can also be a disadvantage when trading.

This can arise because of the solitary nature of trading, as well as the fact that traders usually seek to take advantage of pricing aberrations in the markets, thereby leaving fewer dollars to be split among more traders.

Also, the Facilitative Trader personality type tends to be more of a people person. This might make the relatively impersonal world of logic and ideas uncomfortable for them to deal with, and hence could make an objective trading plan harder for them to follow.

Facilitative Traders may also need outside confirmation in order to have confidence in their trading ideas.