Signature Strengths and Trading Success

Humility spurs practice; confidence spurs performance.  To have the confidence that you have what it takes to sustain good risk-adjusted returns *and* to retain the humility to know that you always need to practice to retain and renew your edge:  that's a rare and challenging combination.

But how do you practice if you don't know your best practices?  

Every very successful trader I've known has at least one signature strength:  some skill or talent distinctive to them.  That strength is not something specific to trading: it is something that defines who the person is across domains.  Super-disciplined people become super-disciplined traders; uniquely creative people approach markets in unique, creative ways:  success in markets comes from leveraging the best of who we are.

When you identify and enact your best practices in markets, you train yourself to become more of who you already are when you're at your best.

I am at my best as a parent when I'm emotionally intelligent, attuned to the communications of my children.  That is also when I'm best in markets and best as a psychologist.  No market research or chart study can help me if I'm so out of tune that I'm no longer attuned.

So some of my best practices are actions that I take that keep me open, responsive, and attuned.  Those will be different from your best practices.  Once you know your signature strengths, you have an opportunity to leverage them and consistently draw upon them.  That's what best practices accomplish for us.

Those best performances are guideposts, pointing you to who you are at your best.  Learn from your worst trades, but absorb the lessons of your best ones.  Inside those best trades is the best within you:  the signature strengths that will anchor your trading success.

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This Wednesday at 5 PM, I'll be doing a free webinar session hosted by SMB:  the topic will be best practices.  I look forward to building on this important topic.

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Further Reading:  Best Practices Submitted by TraderFeed Readers