Which Type of Trader Are You?

Scalper, Day Trader, Swing Trader, or Position Trader. What are you?

Each Trader is Unique

There are over 8 billion people in the world (including space aliens disguised as humans) and not one person is exactly the same as another. Even identical twins will have different fingerprints.

Everyone has their own look, personality, talents, and pizza topping preferences (we like pepperoni and potato chips). We all like different things and are unique in our own way.

Trading is the same way. Our unique personalities will lead us to trade differently from one another. Some may be aggressive, "type A" personality traders while others may be more relax, "type B" personality traders. Some may like taking small wins all the time, while others don't mind losing a bit in order to make those huge gains when they do win.

The point is that no two traders are alike. Even if a group of people were to trade the same system rules, each person's end results would most likely be different from everyone else.

Is that a bad thing? Not at all!

Our uniqueness is what makes the world go round, so it's important to know your lifestyle and personality to help identify trading strengths and weaknesses. Trying to force a trade that doesn't match your personality will result in frustration and can hinder you from making consistent profits.

Time is Money

A common mistake by many new traders is that they think they can make money... fast! While it's true you can make money in a short amount of time, it doesn't mean you will end up profitable in the long run.

A typical scenario is that a new trader reads a little bit about trading forex, finds a system online that claims to make money quickly, and then jumps right into trading because he feels like he's got enough of a background to make millions of dollars.

Unfortunately after the "honeymoon" period is over and the excitement settles down, this new trader now realizes that trading isn't as easy as he thought. The system doesn't seem to be working like it claimed it would and he has no idea why the market is doing what it's doing.

The most important thing you can invest in as a trader is your TIME! Every single trading day is a learning experience and if you stop learning, then you will never become a truly successful trader.

Take into account how much time it will take you to learn the basics. Then consider how much time it will take in your daily routine to read charts, news reports, record your trades, and be in the markets.

For someone who can dedicate a "full-time" job mentality to trading, then this is no problem. However, if you're like most people, you may have a job, school work, tuba lessons, World of Warcraft dailies, so you cannot exactly dedicate your entire day to trading.

This doesn't mean that you can't trade, but it should give you some realistic expectations when it comes to determining your trading style. You probably can't be a scalper or day trader, but maybe longer term trades will work better for your schedule.

Each day requires your time to analyze the market. Because news makes the market move, it's important to consider the economic developments going on around the world and to make it part of your daily routine.