Discovering Your Intelligences and More Ideas on a Thursday

* Finding Strengths Among the Intelligences - I recently posted on the topic of assessing your personal strengths and using these to enhance trading. Finding a market to trade and a trading methodology that draws on your strengths are important elements in finding a trading niche. Here's a different approach to strengths that draws upon the research on multiple intelligences: the questionnaire and scoring are anonymous and free of charge. My top three strengths were logic/math; self (having good sense of self, liking to spend time by myself); and social (learning from others, using social skills and intelligence). Makes sense that I'm a trading psychologist who studies and trades historical patterns! I strongly suspect that many traders do not succeed simply because they fail to find a niche that makes maximum use of their strengths.

* Acorns of Trading Insight - Charles Kirk finds more than a few in his links, including a comparison between the Shanghai index and the runup in the NASDAQ in 2000. See also the interesting perspective on why dividends matter.

* More Fine Links - Trader Mike updates his links, including a view of the damage done by the credit crunch. Abnormal Returns offers more great ideas, including a look at the yield curve and its forecasting of recessions.

* Risk/Reward - The market's current risk/reward characteristics are looking pretty good to Henry Carstens.

* All About Energy - Interesting information on the American Petroleum Institute site, including industry statistics, such as where U.S. oil is coming from. See also this video site devoted to energy policy.

* Squeeze Plays - StockPickr tracks 10 short squeeze candidates with high short ratios and reasonable P/E and PEG ratios.